Talk:Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)
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A word of advice
I want to advise anyone who wants to undertake the task of producing a Harmony of the Gospels that it entails more effort than you could possibly anticipate or expect. Other than saying this, I can do no better than to point you to the following texts, and pray that God will be merciful to you. It does not matter if they are considered to be inspired or not, what they say is true.
While bringing this finished work at last to a definitive conclusion has been deeply satisfying, the experience of arranging and completing it in accordance with high scholastic and academic standards of accuracy and honest integrity, and conservative Christian belief, and rooting out and directly confronting illogical inconsistencies and glaring defects of outright dishonesty in doctrinal and historical interpretations, and highlighting liberal rejections of the truth of the inspired biblical revelation of God to man, has proven to be unpleasant, profoundly frustrating and exhausting work, beset by constant interruptions, even direct opposition from well-meaning friends, colleagues and family who thought this was an "unhealthy obsession". Be warned. A devout motivation to witness to Jesus Christ in defense of the truth of the Gospel and the Bible is highly commendable, but it is not enough. If you have not the stamina and mental and emotional stability to undertake this task to the almost certain exclusion of other things in your life, do not attempt it. You could permanently ruin your health. If on careful consideration you perceive that you have not the personal physical and mental resource or ability for such an endeavor, then leave the task to others, and fervently pray that the Lord send more laborers into his field. You will have done your part for the advancement of the Gospel.
I wish you well. Pax vobis. Semper fidelis —Michael Paul Heart
--Dataclarifier (talk) 11:51, 30 September 2017 (EDT)
The final revision was done 30 October
--Dataclarifier (talk) 12:12, 30 October 2017 (EDT)
After sitting down to simply enjoy reading the shorter form of the text, I discovered some remaining inadvertent defects that needed correction or minor improvement, usually overlooked spelling and typo errors, and in some places some needed clarification, so I did another review of the text. I have just completed ten days of careful proofreading and revision from the Main Article through the last chapter of the text, 1 - 10 November 2017. (The last Chapter Fifty-six took all night 23:15 through 07:50 this morning. no interruptions!) Some necessary marginal notes have been added to some of the chapters. Some existing portions of the text were moved and re-positioned to more strictly correspond with the historical chronological sequence of narrative material and statements of fact. I understand why some authors issue revised editions of their work, even after the initial final proofreading by editors and publishers. I intend to dedicate this feature as finally completed on the Solemnity of Christ the King, 26 November.
--Dataclarifier (talk) 09:36, 10 November 2017 (EST)
Finished--Dataclarifier (talk) 01:17, 2 December 2018 (EST)
I thought I was finished until I started simply reading the material again as a relaxed course of study. It's not the same as compiling and editing and composing notes and providing external links. As I began reading it that way I began to notice that some revision still needed to be done to improve the text, and some additional notes for clarification would be useful. At the end this finally included some minor revision of the display note at the top of each page of the longer and shorter forms accessing the Index and indicating that the Introduction was to the Main page. I revised the Index pages to specify link to the Main Index in the Main article. That said, I can now say Finished. (Pentecost Sunday) --Dataclarifier (talk) 06:11, 31 May 2020 (EDT)
Proposal: emphasize "the Lord", and make an audio-compatible "read aloud" of the text
I have been listening to the "shorter version" with a "Read aloud" tool on Windows 10. I would really like to go through both forms of this Harmony beginning to end and make "Lord" and "the Lord" in every instance boldfaced, since Jesus is Lord and God (John 20:28). That would correspond to the Greek text Kyrios. After that, I would like to do a third edit form of this Harmony to stand alone, connected by link to the main article. It would simply be a minor punctuation edit, a version of the "shorter form" of the redacted text, just the text alone, without the marginal listings of the Bible texts at every chapter, for continuous listening, each chapter, without interruption. I have already listened to 2 of the pages, 1-7 and 8-14, and found this Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version) really helpful. I already have several complete audio Bibles, but the automated "Read aloud" function of Windows 10 stumbles over some of the punctuation here. If you like, I could copy and edit the text alone (a third "audio edition - Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)") so that "Read aloud" reads it more naturally as a kind of "radio narrative" for people with bad vision or who are blind. I used to help as a volunteer at my state's Commission for the Blind, and I think this would be a good thing for them on Conservapedia. --IndependentSkeptic (talk) 14:08, 23 February 2020 (EST)
There seems to be no objection. I'll happily go ahead with my first suggestion, and simply go through and edit a boldface emphasis of all occurrences of "the Lord" and "Lord" corresponding to Kyrios in New Testament to emphasize that Jesus is Lord and God as testified in John 20:21. --IndependentSkeptic (talk) 20:34, 25 February 2020 (EST)
- Looking at what's been done already, I think this is a great idea! May God bless it! --Dataclarifier (talk) 06:16, 31 May 2020 (EDT)
