The Resurrection
Mary Magdalene and 'the other Mary' went to the tomb and an angel came down, caused and earthquake, and moved the boulder from the entrance to the tomb. The guards were scared. The angel said Jesus has risen and shows them the empty tomb. They went to tell the disciples about it, and on the way they ran into Jesus. He was like "hey, hows it going". They worshiped him.
The Report of the Guard
The guards went to the city and told the chief priests what happened. They gave the guards some money and told them to tell everybody that the disciples came by night and stole the body.
These priests are terrible
The Great Commission
The disciples went to meet Jesus and he said that all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him. So the disciples can now go to all nations, baptize people, and repeat Jesus' teachings. "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age"
The last line is interesting, what does 'end of the age' mean? I suppose it is vague enough that people can interpret it to include now.
As far as the content goes, I don't really have any notes. However, my whole page here is littered with differences. I will stick to the bigger ones.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning, we have the two Marys heading there. In John (20:1) there is one person, Mark (16:1) there are three, and Luke (24:1) there are at least four.
I'm not really sure if this is a discrepancy or not, but in John's account, it was still dark. Here it was the beginning of dawn. I guess it could still be considered dark though.
When it comes to who they saw, I've heard some weird “justifications” for the differences. Here, in verse two, there is an angel waiting for them. In Mark (16:5) it is a young man (if it is an angel, it would probably be an important detail I'd think). In Luke (24:4) its two men and in John (20:12) he says it's two angels.
Matthews account completely differs from the other three gospels in two areas. This is one of the places where three of the four agree with one another. In this account, the tomb was closed when they arrived, but the other three accounts say it was open when they got there. Also, Matthew says that the angles were on the outside, but in the other three accounts the angels or men were on the inside.
In verse 9, Jesus makes his first post resurrection appearance. The other gospels have his first appearance to other people. In Mark (16:9) and John (20:11-14) its to Mary Magdalene, in Luke (24:13-31) its to Cleopas, and in 1 Corinthians (15:4-5), its to Cleopas and another. Here, Matthew says that “they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped him.” John (20:17), unless he is talking metaphorically when he says “don't cling to me” sounds like he is saying not to touch him before the resurrection.
Skipping down a bit, the eleven diciples (verse 16) head down to Galiee. In 1 Corinthians (15:5) says there were twelve, and in John (20:24) he says ten. Also, Luke says Jerusalem, which is pretty far away (60-100 miles?). http://www.bible-history.com/maps/palestine_nt_times.html I don't believe that they had quick transportation and the time to walk makes it further apart than today, relatively speaking.
Lastly, something that interests me, while minor and can probably be discounted, is the part where he says “Go therefore and make disiples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (verse 19; my NSB translation.) I remember the preists ending mass this way and I think baptisms are done this way to this day. I don't know if it's a difference in translation, but in Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5 these direct words aren't quite used by the disciples. http://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/acts/passage.aspx?q=acts+2:38;acts+8:16;acts+10:48;acts+19:5 I figure even though Jesus commanded them to do it a certain way, the spirit was there (no pun intended).
While I'm not saying this stuff didn't happen, there are too many places where the story doesn't match up. Some places, you could do some “mental gymnastics” and try to get around things, but if these guys had these separate testimonies in court, I don't think they would hold up. At the very least, I'd be hesitant to think that this was divinely inspired. I think over time, we tend to forget stuff and misremember things as it's normal human psychology, but I would think that something this important would be something you'd probably remember pretty vividly. My personal conclusion is that these accounts are man written.
Thanks for posting the discrepancies. Some seem like a bigger deal that others, but even if you don't think about how important each one is, the sheer number of them says something.
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