The Resurrection
The disciples went to see Jesus in the tomb but when they got there he was gone and there were 2 guys in dazzling apparel. They asked why they were looking for the living among the dead, he is risen. They reminded the disciples that Jesus said he would have to be delivered into the hands of sinful men.
On the Road to Emmaus
Two disciples were walking to Emmaus and were talking to each other. On the way Jesus came up to them, but his identity was hidden from their eyes. He asked what was wrong and they told him all about what happened with Jesus. When they got to Emmaus they asked Jesus to come stay with them as the day was almost over. As they were eating their eyes were open and they could see he was Jesus then he disappeared.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
Jesus appears to his guys and tells them he has fulfilled prophecy.
The Ascension
He led them to Bethany and lifted his hands and blessed them.While he did this he was carried up into heaven.
Previously, you made a really good comment about comparing the differences major and minor. Some weren't really worth pointing out from an argumentative standpoint, but I think I'll point them out anyway. =P
ReplyDeleteThe Resurrection. A bunch of the women come and find the stone rolled away from the tomb. They enter the tomb and see two men standing in dazzling clothing... They returned from the tomb and returned and reported what they saw. (You might try to explain this as two accounts of the same thing I guess....
On the Road to Emmaus . Two of them that very day to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. (This one is a bit harder to tell, since they seem to be very different stories.)... He first appears to the Cleopas and someone else... Mary Magdeline isn't visited by Jesus, but a bunch of angels to let her know what's up.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples. Jesus appears to Eleven disciples in a room in Jerusalem. They beleive that Jesus was risen.
The Ascension. At one point, Jesus has them touch his wounds. He states that him suffering and death were a fulfillment of prophecy. I don't think there is such a prophecy in the OT. I would be very much interested if a Christian can find where it says that in the bible... He tells his disciples to go to Jerusalem. Also, whats interesting, is that verse 51 seems to have been added later. “While He was blessing them, He parted from them as was carried up to heaven.” It is not present in early manuscripts. For more information, check out Bart Ehrman's book, Misquoting Jesus. According to my footnote, its noted on page 169.
I apologize if I made a mess of things. I didn't reread all of my cited verses from previous readings. When it comes to all the details of the ends of the gospels, it gets a bit mind numbing to read them again. But there shouldn't be any problem. :)
"comparing the differences major and minor. Some weren't really worth pointing out from an argumentative standpoint"
ReplyDeleteThat is a really interesting point. I think it highly depends on the situation and who you are talking to as to whether it is worth bringing up and digging into it or not. On the one hand, it is a good idea to stick to the bigger contradictions when in a debate maybe, or if someone says the bible is inerrant it is nice to pick the most impactful contradiction possible. On the other hand, sometimes the small details are the first thing that might get someone thinking where a big one might be too big and ignored, that is the way it was for me.
Thanks for organizing all of those links. Some of the things seem relatively easy to reconcile while others really don't. Different people probably see which is which differently as well. For example, I would find it pretty hard to reconcile "they told everyone" with "they were afraid and told no one".
I'm trying to determine how I would have responded to all of this when I was still a Christian. It is hard to know for sure as I never really read the bible back then. I imagine I would have recoiled at first but it probably would have drilled into my brain a bit. I would probably have rationalized away as much as I could and figure that bible scholars would be able to rationalize the rest, but it probably also would have stuck in the back of my mind and bugged me.
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe example you gave about having trouble reconciling, I've heard "explained" by “well, at first they were afraid, then they went out and preached. Therefore, no contradiction.” It's these horrible “explanations” that have gotten me out of the habit of even looking for explanations to the contradictions. I'll just make up an example off of the top of my head. If I said “I went to the park with Joe, Sue and Steve.” Then later I say “I went to the park with Steve, Mark, and George.” You might say “I thought you went with Joe, Sue and Steve. Doesn't that contradict what you said earlier?” In this metaphor for a biblical story, I would respond as a Christian by saying, “oh yeah. I totally did. But I also went with the other two. Therefore no contradiction.” I think this could work, but you'd probably be hesitant to believe me, especially if when recalling my afternoon on two different occasions, I had a lot of differences recalling the two stories.
I don't really think the metaphor works too well, because your source doesn't claim to be “divinely inspired” nor is it two accounts from supposedly different people.
The concept of “divinely inspired” used to not baffle me when I was a practicing Catholic because how else would you know stories like what Jesus did when he was tempted in the desert, or when he was praying in the garden while all the apostles were sleeping? But as I got older and started to actually read the bible, I wonder how something could be divinely inspired yet be so different on a lot of minor, and sometimes major details. This is, if correct, the most important thing to ever happen in the Earth's entire history from our human standpoint.
I do like thinking about how people would try to answer the contradiction. It can be interesting to try to think about how I would solve the apparent contradiction and then determine if I think the explanation is reasonable. Your example of "they first were afraid but then later told people anyway" is a good one. It is probably the best you could come up with given the source material, but to me it just doesn't work. If they were afraid at first but then later told everyone, would the writer simply say they were afraid? I would say that is a stretch at best.
ReplyDeleteYour example about the 2 different groups of people going to the park is the kind of thing that could be reasonable. And the explanation that he could have gone to the park twice could make sense. That contradiction I might be willing to let go, but what if it was slightly different? What if in the second story he said "I went to the park with Steve, Mark, and George. I also didn't talk to Joe that whole week." This is something that would be much harder to explain.
The idea that they use divine inspiration to explain away contradictions is baffling to me. I would say it makes the little differences more significant. Different story-tellers can get details wrong, but if they are all being told what to write by a God they should be more in sync.