Harmonious

Introduction and definitions

The word harmonious has come to be used polemically in discussing Biblical interpretations, especially of Genesis. The claim is made that interpretations of Scripture must be false if they can be shown to put two passages of Scripture — or interpretations of them — into some form of contradiction. If this claim is accepted, contradictions can sometimes be found to rule out proposed interpretations of Scripture that would otherwise be easily reconciled with the discoveries of modern science.

In this sense, the meaning of harmony has strayed somewhat from its musical meaning and been reduced to euphony — harmony in music involves the management of discord, including its resolution into concord. In that sense we can appreciate harmony in the Bible too.

Lexico.com (formerly "Ask Oxford") gives the following definition and examples for harmonious:

1. Tuneful; not discordant.
 ‘harmonious music’

1.1 Forming a pleasing or consistent whole.
 ‘the decor is a harmonious blend of traditional and modern’

1.2 Free from disagreement or dissent.
 ‘harmonious relationships’

Derivation

Lexico.com gives the origin of harmony as coming from Late Middle English via Old French from Latin harmonia ‘joining, concord’, from Greek, from harmos ‘joint’.
It also mentions a literary use of the term, with this example: An arrangement of the four Gospels, or of any parallel narratives, which presents a single continuous narrative text.

Relevance to our task

1. Bro Peter Heavyside has published a book called "Genesis 1-2: a harmonised and historical reading" in which he questions the scholarly assumption that Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 and Genesis 2:4-3:24 are two juxtaposed texts. This book has been cited in our discussions, and the word "harmonious" has been used for an approach that discounts any differences between the two texts in order to interpret each by reference to the other.
2. Many differences in content, language, tone and purpose between the two texts have been identified, especially by Hebrew readers. Requiring them to be "harmonious" begs the question of how (un)important these differences are, and obscures the question of what may have been God's purpose in giving us the book of Genesis as it actually is. Where Scripture gives us differences, we need good reasons to decide that they are insignificant.
3. Many serious interpretations of Genesis explore the contrasts between the two texts, and their unity in other respects. See Comparing the two accounts of the Creation in Genesis for an outline of various Christadelphian and other beliefs in this respect.
4. Putting "and historical" beside "harmonious" or "harmonised" begs the question of whether the texts are "history". Western "History" dates from Herodotus and Thucydides in the 5th Century BC; the Bible has "Chronicles". In any case "historical" is usually used in debates about Genesis to mean that something mentioned in the text actually happened. For example: literal 24 hour days of creation; and "trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it" on the same day, whether they were in season or not on the Third Day.

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