Loraine Boettner was following in his tradition when, in the early 1900s, he created his own diatessaron for classroom use at Pikeville College, Kentucky, where he was a professor. This book used the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV), which Boettner preferred over the King James, and was published by Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing as A Harmony of the Gospels.

The Gospel of Jesus: The Four Gospels in a Single Complete Narrative by Loraine Boettner.
Editor’s Note
In the mid-100s, Tatian the Syrian arranged the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John into a single narrative and called it the Diatessaron, a Greek term meaning “Out of Four.” His innovation proved inspiring to others through the centuries. Reformed theologian and author Loraine Boettner was following in his tradition when, in the early 1900s, he created his own diatessaron for classroom use at Pikeville College, Kentucky, where he was a professor. This book used the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV), which Boettner preferred over the King James, and was published by Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing as A Harmony of the Gospels.
This new edition of Boettner’s diatessaron differs in several ways from the original, yet the bones are the same. Although the ASV has much to commend it, we have used the Christian Standard Bible for its clear, familiar vocabulary and ease of reading. We have updated, revised, and added to Boettner’s headings and adjusted dates he provided to better reflect contemporary scholarly consensus.1
In formatting the new edition, we have walked a careful line between providing as much information as possible and promoting a user-friendly reading experience. Full Scripture references for all the New Testament texts are given in the margins, where the eye can easily find or look past them as desired. In cases where more than one gospel writer recorded the same event or teaching, we have printed the account that gives it most fully and have inserted additional distinct material from parallel gospel accounts in [brackets] at the appropriate places; some punctuation and paragraph breaks have also been inserted as clarity required. Bolded text indicates a quotation from, or reference to, an Old Testament passage, and an index on page 213 provides further details. Italicized text indicates a non-English word or, when applied to English text, an editorial insertion or substitution. Scripture references are marked with asterisks (*) when they are for passages that do not appear in all the earliest manuscripts of Scripture. (Not all these passages are included in this book.) The abbreviations found in the margins signify the following New Testament books:
Mt        MatthewMk       MarkLk        LukeJn        John1 Cor   1 Corinthians
This book is no substitute for a Bible. It is no substitute for reading the gospels individually: each gospel is inspired and offers a distinct perspective on Christ. And yet we hope you will find The Gospel of Jesus to be a helpful resource for Bible study. This harmony is not intended to flatten out the distinctive voices of the gospel writers but to direct you back to their individual gospels with fresh understanding and appreciation.
Amanda MartinEditorial DirectorP&R Publishing2023

For the timeline that guided our adjustments, see CSB Study Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1494–95, 1662–63.

Here is an example of the Temptation narrative:
WILDERNESS OF JUDEA
The Temptation
Lk 4:1-2          Then Jesus left the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in
     the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by the devil.
Mk 1:13           He was with the wild animals.
Mt 4:2-11        After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Then the
    tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these
    stones to become bread.”
    He answered, “It is written: “Man must not live on bread alone but on every
    word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Lk 4:9              Then the devil took him to the holy city [Jerusalem], had him stand on the
      pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw
      yourself down. For it is written:
Lk 4:10            “He will give his angels orders concerning you, [to protect you,]
    and they will support you with their hand so that you will not strike your foot
    against a stone.”
    Jesus told him, “It is also written: ”Do not test the Lord your God.”
Lk 4:5              Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the
     kingdoms of the world [in a moment of time] and their splendor.
    And he said to him, “I will give you all these
Lk 4:6-7          things if you will fall down and worship me [because it has been given
    over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If you, then, will worship me, all
    will be yours].”
    Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your
    God, and serve only him.”
Lk 4:13            Then the devil left him [for a time], and angels came and began to serve him.

Related Posts:

Paul’s books were his companions in the closing stages of his earthly pilgrimage. They had been his best friends in his life and ministry along the way and he knew they would not fail him at the end. For those who struggle to understand why books matter to pastors (and why it is so important to have Christian publishing companies that are faithful to Scripture), think again about the priority Paul gives to his books even as he prepares for heaven.

It is often the case that a minister only begins to really appreciate the value of his books when the time comes for him to part with them. Sometimes it happens when he runs out of space on his shelves and he is forced to thin them out. Or it may be when it comes to his retirement and he is downsizing his house and there simply isn’t the same amount of space in his new accommodation. Either way, he finds himself struggling to decide which ones to keep and which to let go. It begins to dawn on him that these volumes mean more to him than he may have previously realised.
I well remember an occasion when the value of Christian books came home to me in a way I had never experienced before. It was in relation to a Bible College in South Africa that our church had been able to help. I had met its founder and Principal on a visit to the country a year previously and he had spoken of his desire to build up a decent theological library for the college, but in the same breath said they lacked the finance to do so. It so happened that my church in London at that time was quite close to a Christian charity that specialised in good Christian books and they had a section in their warehouse that was dedicated to theological works. So, I told my friend that the next time he was in London he could come and choose a thousand volumes and our deacons would arrange to have them shipped out.
About a year later I was back in South Africa and the Principal asked if I would come and deliver a guest lecture at his little institution. When I arrived at the college, I was immediately struck by the extreme poverty that surrounded it and just how primitive its facilities were. But the students were overflowing with warmth in the welcome they gave me. It was clear that there was one room they wanted to show me and it was their library. When I saw what these books meant to them, it dawned on me as never before just how valuable such books really are.
Read More

Written by R. Scott Clark |
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Recovering the distinction between sacred and secular will not solve all our problems but, like its analogue, the nature/grace distinction (not dualism), the sacred/secular distinction is an important tool as we continue to learn how to navigate a post-Christian culture.

A significant part of the process of recovering and applying classical Reformed theology to our contemporary situation (sometimes called ressourcement, a French word which refers to getting back to original sources) is recovering the distinctions that we lost in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are a number of these, e.g., the archetypal/ectypal distinction, which, in Recovering the Reformed Confession, I called the categorical distinction; the distinction between law and gospel, which, in the classical period of Reformed theology (i.e., the 16th and 17th), was received as basic. Another lost distinction is that between the sacred and the secular. This is a distinction that our classical writers employed regularly but one that is regarded with suspicion today. In this discussion, sacred refers to that which is devoted to God. Think of the way Leviticus speaks of that which is dedicated to God or holy. Secular, in this context, refers to that which is common to Christians and pagans alike, which is not dedicated to God or holy in that sense. It does not mean “unclean” or defiled but simply not specially set apart. Think of the difference between the loaf of bread in your kitchen and the bread that has been consecrated for use in the Lord’s Supper. We often say during the administration of the Supper, “this sacred meal.” That there are secular meals is necessarily implied. Your family dinner is such a meal but it is not dirty or corrupt.
Recovering the Distinction Between Sacred and Secular
The traditional Christian (and Reformed) distinction is regarded with suspicion by some because it is unfamiliar. It is also, as a recent correspondent wrote to me, regarded by some as a Roman Catholic distinction. Some have been taught that the sacred belongs to God and the secular belongs to the Devil. That would be Manichaeism (i.e., the theology behind the Star Wars films). Others have been taught (directly or indirectly) by the followers of Abraham Kuyper that any distinction between the sacred and the secular somehow removes the sovereignty of God.
Neither of these was true in the classical period of Reformed theology and they are not true now. The Protestants saw the secular and the sacred as two distinct spheres over which and through which God exercises his sovereign providence.
Calvin used “secular” as a category without prejudice regularly. E.g. in Institutes 1.8.2, he contrasted the different styles between the human authors of sacred Scripture and “secular” writers. We see the same usage in 1.8.6. Calvin regularly wrote of secular judges, secular philosophers, secular work. E.g. in 4.7.22 he contrasted the properly sacred work of ministry with Gregory I’s complaint that he was forced to be too occupied with “secular affairs.” This way of thinking, speaking, and writing was universal among the magisterial Protestant Reformers and the Protestant orthodox.
We should not confuse the category secular with the use of “secular humanism” and “secularism” as pejoratives. Just as there is a difference between science and scientism so there is a proper distinction between things that are secular and a philosophy of secularism.
One way to think about the distinction between the sacred and the secular is to consider the restriction that the Apostle Paul placed on us in 1 Corinthians 10:14–21. The problem facing the Corinthian church was what to do about sharing meals with pagans.
Read More
Related Posts: