The Harmony of the Gospels

This paper is focused on one of the three so-called “Garima Gospels,” and specifically on the paratextual material contained in its first quire. Like late antique gospels books in other manuscript traditions, Garima III includes a version of the Eusebian canon tables, set within elaborately decorated frames. In contrast to the care taken with the frames, the enumeration of parallel passages in the four gospels is so inaccurate as to be useless for its originally intended purpose as a cross-referencing tool enabling the user to compare the different versions of the same material. In this presentation, the canon table grids and the surrounding frames instead serve an icon-like function, inviting the viewer to contemplate the intricate beauty of four texts held to be in total agreement with one another. The key to this interpretation is found in the Preface “On the Agreement of the Four Holy Gospels” that opened the codex and in the portrait of Eusebius that immediately followed it. Closely related portraits of each of the four evangelists preface their respective gospels, and the role of the Eusebius portrait and canon tables is to persuade the viewer of their total harmony with one another

Antique · Beauty · Canon · Gospel · Portrait · African history and culture analysis · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies