




                                    An

                       Examination of the Testimony

                                  of the

                            Four Evangelists,

                  by the Rules of Evidence Administered

                                    in

                            Courts of Justice.

                  With an Account of the Trial of Jesus.

                        By Simon Greenleaf, LL.D.

               Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University

                              Second Edition

                   Revised and Corrected by the Author.

                                 London:

             A. Maxwell & Son, 32, Bell Yard, Lincoln's Inn;

                       W. Smith, 113, Fleet Street;

            Hodges & Smith, Dublin; T. & J. Clark, Edinburgh.

                                   1847





CONTENTS


Contents And Synopsis Of The Harmony.
Advertisement To This Edition.
An Examination, Etc.
Harmony Of The Gospels.
   Part I. Events Connected With The Birth And Childhood Of Jesus.
   Part II. Announcement And Introduction Of Our Lord's Public Ministry.
   Part III. Our Lord's First Passover, And The Subsequent Transactions
   Until The Second.
   Part IV. Our Lord's Second Passover, And The Subsequent Transactions
   Until The Third.
   Part V. From Our Lord's Third Passover, Until His Final Departure From
   Galilee, At The Festival Of Tabernacles.
   Part VI. The Festival Of Tabernacles And The Subsequent Transactions,
   Until Our Lord's Arrival At Bethany, Six Days Before The Fourth
   Passover.
   Part VII. Our Lord's Public Entry Into Jerusalem, And The Subsequent
   Transactions Before The Fourth Passover.
   Part VIII. The Fourth Passover; Our Lord's Passion; And The
   Accompanying Events Until The End Of The Jewish Sabbath.
   Part IX. Our Lord's Resurrection, His Subsequent Appearances, And His
   Ascension.
Note On The Resurrection.
An Account Of The Trial Of Jesus.
The Jewish Account Of The Trial Of Jesus. By Mr. Salvador.
The Trial Of Jesus Before Caiaphas And Pilate.
   Preface.
   Analysis Of The Chapter Of Mr. Salvador, Entitled "The Administration
   Of Justice" Among The Jews.
   Trial Of Jesus.
Footnotes






ADVERTISEMENT.


In introducing to the notice of the British Public, Mr. Professor
GREENLEAF'S Harmony of the Four Gospels, the publishers have much
satisfaction in announcing, that it has become a Standard Work in the
United States of America: and its intrinsic value has induced them to make
it known, in the hope of promoting its circulation, in this country.

The spirit of infidelity is far more restless and active on the other side
of the Atlantic, than, happily, it has been in our highly-favoured land:
and, in consequence, it has called forth some of the most able and
powerful minds to correct and subdue it. Among these advocates of Divine
Revelation, the profound lawyer, Professor Greenleaf, holds a most
honourable and distinguished place; and his work may justly be regarded as
combining sound and practical knowledge with well-directed zeal and piety.
Its character has been very fairly appreciated in two leading North
American journals, from which the following extracts are made, as
indicative of its contents, and also of the high estimation in which its
learned author is deservedly held in his own country.


    EXTRACT OF A NOTICE OF PROFESSOR GREENLEAF ON THE FOUR GOSPELS,
    OCTOBER 24, 1846, IN "THE NEW YORK OBSERVER."

    The Author is a lawyer, very learned in his profession, acute,
    critical and used to raising and meeting practical doubts. Author
    of a treatise on the law of evidence, which has already become a
    classic in the hands of the profession which he adorns, and
    teaches in one of the Law Seminaries which do honour to our
    country in the eyes of Europe, he brings rare qualifications for
    the task he assumes. That he should, with the understanding and
    from the heart, accept the Gospel as the truth, avow it as his
    Hope, and seek to discharge a duty to his fellow-men by laying
    before them the grounds on which he founds this acceptance and
    this hope, are cheering circumstances to the Christian, and
    present strong appeals to the indifferent.

    To his profession, to the lawyers of the country, however, this
    work makes a strong appeal. They are a very secular profession.
    Their business is almost wholly conversant with material
    interests. Their time is absorbed in controversies, of passion, or
    of interest. Acute, critical, and disputatious, they apparently
    present a field unpropitious for the acceptance of a religion,
    spiritual, disinterested, and insisting on perfect holiness.
    Still, they necessarily need to know and must enforce the rules of
    finding truth and justice; the principles for ascertaining truth
    and dispensing justice are the great subjects of all their
    discussions, so far as they are discussions of any general
    principle. From this cause it is, that this profession has
    numbered among its members, in every age, Christians of great
    eminence, and in our own day and country, we cannot turn to the
    eminent men of this profession in any large community, without the
    satisfaction of finding our Faith embraced by those whose habits
    of practical as well as speculative investigation render them
    evidently the best able to appreciate its claims and to detect any
    imperfections in its proof.

    So we trust it always may be; and we are assured that the best
    models of the mode of investigating matters of legal controversy
    as the proof of facts, are writings on the evidences. Paley's
    treatise and that of Chalmers, on the oral testimony in favour of
    Christ's mission, Paley's examination of the writings of the
    apostle Paul, are, we are assured, the best models extant for
    forming the habit of examining oral and documentary evidence.
    These are subjects on which it is of vital importance, in a
    secular view, that a lawyer's habits should be right: in a
    spiritual view the importance is unspeakable. Mr. Greenleaf has
    doubtless felt this truth, and has also felt that his position
    would give to his labours some authority with his brethren and
    with the public. He has given himself honourably to the labour,
    and spread its results before the world.

    It is long since Infidelity has found its advocates among the
    truly learned. Among the guesses and speculations of a small
    portion of unsanctified medical men, she still finds now and then
    a champion. Historians and philosophers have long since discussed
    her pretensions. And now from the Jurists and Lawyers, the
    practical masters of this kind of investigation, works are
    appearing, whereby not only an earnest reception of the Gospel is
    manifested, but the mode and means of action and of credit by
    which all