Contradictions in The Gospels

Contradictions in The Gospels

Part 3- All of the inconsistencies

Disclaimer: If you’re an Evangelical it’s important to remember that the Bible is inerrant while reading this list of contradictions is somehow not real. If you choose to continue reading I’m sure your eyes will glaze over and you’ll begin to hear some type of hymn or your favorite Christian-Pop praise song in your head rather than comprehending anything you read.

Afterwards you will likely post a comment in attempt to save the author’s soul while not learning anything.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to it…for an inerrant book there sure is a lot of error prone ground to cover here.

When did the Last Supper and Crucifixion take place?

According to the synoptic gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover meal. (Mark 14:12–16, Matthew 26:17–19, and Luke 22:7–15)

In the Gospel of John, however, it seems to say that Jesus was crucified on the day of Preparation for the Passover. (John 19:14, 31)

When did Jesus Clean House at the Temple?

In the synoptic gospels, this takes place near the end of his ministry. (Mark 11:15–19, Matthew 21:12–17, and Luke 19:45–48)

Then in The Gospel of John, it seems to take place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. (John 2:13–16)

When and where did Jesus get his first recruits?

In Mark and Matthew Jesus strolls up to the Sea of Galilee and both Simon and Andrew just drop their nets and went with him, then immediately after he recruits James and John in a similar fashion. (Mark 1:16–20, Matthew 4:18–22)

In the Gospel of John though the narrative goes completely differently. Jesus is walking near where John the Baptist is baptizing people, and John notices him and says “Behold the lamb of God”, which piques the interests of some that are gathered there, including Simon and Andrew who then follow after Jesus. (John 1:35–51)

Jesus’ Trials

The synoptic gospels only mention Jesus being taken straight to Caiaphas and the council. (Mark 14:53, Matthew 26:57)

Meanwhile, The Gospel of John describes Jesus being taken first to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas the high priest, before being sent to Caiaphas. (John 18:12–24)

Jesus’ Genealogy

Matthew and Luke provide differing genealogies of Jesus, both in terms of people and length of the list. Meanwhile, Mark and John don’t include these at all. These of course are important for his fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy, which was especially important to Jewish folk who had converted, many seeing this as just a continuation of their faith. (Luke 3:23–38)

In Matthew Jesus’ lineage is traced from Abraham to Jesus, highlighting Jesus’s Jewish lineage. This path also follows a line through David’s son Solomon, a royal lineage, emphasizing Jesus’ role as the Messiah. (Matthew 1:1–17)

In Luke his genealogy is traced from Jesus all the way back to Adam, emphasizing his importance for all of mankind, rather than just his eligibility to fulfill the Messianic prophecy. This path traces his lineage through David’s son Nathan, leaving out any royal line, but still a “Davidic” line, maybe to make him seem more approachable for all people. (Luke 3:23–38)

Both of these lineages are traced through Joseph, Jesus’ adopted father, not Mary his biological mother. In Jewish tradition lineage is traced through the man, so Jesus as the legal son of Joseph would still be eligible to fulfill the Messianic prophecies, technically speaking. Although to me this feels more like a technicality than a fulfilled prophecy.

Then we get to those oh so common mental gymnastics, with some scholars claiming that Mary was of Davidic descent even without any mention of her lineage in the New Testament, we know how little interests this divinely inspired book had in showing any respect for women.

They use a line from Luke 1:5 where it is mentioned that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth is a descendant of Aaron the brother of Moses. So by her cousin being in the lineage of a prominent ancient Jewish figure they just guess that Mary must have as well, possibly David!….This seems like a huge stretch in my book, but belief in all of this is based on “faith” not facts, logic, or rational thought, especially to be taken literally.

The Birth of Jesus

The Gospel of Matthew implies that Joseph and Mary were living in Bethlehem, moving to Nazareth after returning from Egypt. (Matthew 2:1–23) However, the Gospel of Luke instead describes them as living in Nazareth and traveling to Bethlehem for the census. (Luke 2:1–39)

In the Bible, it talks about King Herod trying to kill the baby Jesus, which takes place after the census under Quirinius, but Herod died in 4BC, and the census took place in 6 AD…so…that’s not mathing right.

Women at the Tomb

In The Gospel of Mark it mentions Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome being at the tomb. (Mark 16:1).

In The Gospel of Matthew however it mentions Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary”, which we could assume was the mother of James, but there is no mention of Salome. (Matthew 28:1)

The Gospel of Luke mentions Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and “other women”. So we build up a bit of a crowd here. maybe Salome wasn’t as important to Luke?. (Luke 24:10)

Then in The Gospel of John it only mentions Mary Magdalene’s experience at the tomb, darn John, always having to be the odd ball. (John 20:1)

So out of four gospels, we can only really get a consensus that Mary Magdalene was there.

Jesus’ Anointing

In The Gospels of Matthew and Mark we get a story about an unnamed woman anointing Jesus at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. The woman seems unknown to Jesus or the disciples and pours an expensive oil/perfume from an alabaster vial on Jesus’ head, which pissed off all of the disciples because they said she could’ve sold it to give the money to the poor, in the Mark version specifically mentioning the value being three hundred denarii. Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples that the woman has done a good thing by anointing him with the oil/perfume for his burial, foreshadowing what was to come. (Matthew 26:6–13) (Mark 14:3–9)

In The Gospel of Luke however a similar story is told, but the location is a Pharisee’s house rather than Simon the leper, and the woman who comes up to anoint Jesus is a “sinner” who comes in and begins cleaning Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair, then anoints his feet with an expensive oil/perfume from an alabaster vial. The crew with Jesus then gets upset over the fact that Jesus is allowing this type of woman to do this, rather than the expensiveness of the oil/perfume. The lesson changes here with Jesus telling a story about a man forgiving two people of their debts, one with a small, and one with a large debt. He poses the question of who will love him more for it, which the disciples answer the one who got forgiven of the larger debt. He then draws the comparison to the sinful woman loving him more for forgiving her sins. (Luke 7:36–50)

In The Gospel of John it goes back to saying the event occurred in Bethany from the Matthew and Mark versions but changes the location to Martha and Lazarus’ house, the same Lazarus who had been resurrected by Jesus. This version then retains the concept of his feet being cleaned with the woman’s hair and anointed with expensive oil/perfume rather than his head which aligns with the Luke version of the story, but rather than a sinful woman we switch her out with Mary a sister of Martha and Lazarus.

The cause for the ill feelings here is again the waste of money rather than the person performing the act, and the only person getting pissed off this time is Judas, who again mentions it could’ve been sold for three hundred denarii, the same amount mentioned in the Mark version of the story.

This version also bothers to mention how Judas wasn’t interested in actually helping the poor, that he was planning on stealing the money from the box anyways. This shows as even more evidence of the later writing of The Gospel of John, as the character arc of Judas had developed into this villain for the early church, whereas in some other non-canonical books he’s not seen in as bad of a light having played a necessary role in the scenario that was pre-destined to happen.

Peter’s Denial of Jesus

All four of the gospels agree that Peter denied Jesus three times, but the location he was at and who confronted him about knowing Jesus differ in each.

In The Gospel of Matthew, he was sitting outside the courtyard, in The Gospel of Mark he was beneath the courtyard closer to where everything goes down, and in The Gospel of Luke he was following at a distance before entering the courtyard of the high priest.

In all three of these, the first person to confront him was a servant girl, but the people after that differ from it being the same girl again, or a man, or a different girl etc. None of the three line up with who the subsequent people were. (Matthew 26:69–75) (Mark 14:66–72) (Mark 14:66–72)

In the Gospel of John however it’s much different. Peter enters the courtyard with Jesus thanks to another disciple who knows the high priest. Then the people who confront Peter are the woman who had let him in initially at the door, some people around a fire, and then a relative of the man Peter had cut the ear off of. (John 18:15–18, 25–27)

Perhaps John existed in a parallel version of Earth for all of this?

The Inscription on the Cross

In The Gospel of Matthew, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
(Matthew 27:37)

The Gospel of Mark, “The King of the Jews.”
(Mark 15:26)

The Gospel of Luke, “This is the King of the Jews.”
(Luke 23:38)

The Gospel of John, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
(John 19:19)

While this may seem like nitpicking, I point it out for those who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. If these books that were deemed to be good enough to be in the canon, and were divinely inspired, then shouldn’t these details align?

The Resurrection Appearances

There are variations between all four gospels’ accounts of who arrived at the tomb as we mentioned above, and what they saw whether it be one man, one angel, two men, or two angels. Plus there are discrepancies on who witnessed these men or angels, as well as who Jesus first appeared to.
(Matthew 28:1–20)(Mark 16:1–8, 16:9–20)(Luke 24:1–53)(John 20:1–21:25)

The Death of Judas

In The Gospel of Matthew it says that Judas hanged himself after returning the thirty piece of silver, meanwhile in Acts it says that he threw himself down to his death and that his guts burst out, I’d say that’s more than just a slight variation in cause of death.
(Matthew 27:3–10)(Acts 1:18–19)

Jesus Cursing a Fig Tree

On the way to the temple to throw out the various merchants that were operating there Jesus saw a fig tree and decided to see if it had fruit, for some reason rather than just magically make it produce fruit when he saw none were on it he instead cursed it…for being out of season, something he designed correct?

In the account of this in Mark it isn’t until the next morning that the disciples see the tree has withered up, but in Matthew they see it happen instantaneously in that moment.
(Mark 11:12–21) (Matthew 21:18–22)

The Sermon on the Mount or Plain?

In The Gospel of Matthew we get the Sermon on the Mount, but we get a very similar story about Christ’s teachings in The Gospel of Luke from the Sermon on the Plain…so were these two separate events with extremely similar teachings, or did the author of The Gospel of Luke just change up the location? (Matthew 5–7) (Luke 6:17–49)

Jesus’ Ascension

So in The Gospel of Luke, it describes Jesus ascending to heaven from Bethany, and that it occurs on the same day that he resurrected. However, in Acts it describes him ascending to heaven at the Mount of Olives 40 days after his resurrection. What makes this discrepancy even more odd is that both of these books are attributed to the same author… (Luke 24:50–53) (Acts 1:3, 9–12)

Jesus Healing Blind Men of Jericho

In The Gospel of Matthew, the story says that Jesus healed two blind men as he left Jericho, but in The Gospels of Mark and Luke it only mentions one blind man, and these two differ on whether he was entering the city or leaving it. (Matthew 20:29–34) (Mark 10:46–52) (Luke 18:35–43)

The Great Commission

In The Gospel of Matthew Jesus instructs the disciples to go out to all nations, baptize them and teach them to obey his commands. This gospel places this event happening in Galilee. Then in Mark, in the longer ending which is considered to have been a later addition, we get a shorter account of Jesus emphasizing belief and baptism. Then in Luke and Acts it states that the ascension and commissioning of the disciples was near Jerusalem, with a focus on the disciples preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, starting with Jerusalem.

(Matthew 28:16–20) (Mark 16:14–18) (Luke 24:44–49) (Acts 1:4–8)

The Parables of Jesus

Each of the gospels includes parables unique to that gospel, which showcases who the gospel was meant for. For instance the Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan only exist in The Gospel of Luke, a gospel more geared towards gentiles.
(Luke 15:11–32) (Luke 10:25–37)

The Length of Jesus’ Ministry

The Gospel of John makes mention of multiple Passovers, implying that Jesus’ ministry went on for several years, however in The Synoptic Gospels there is only mention of the one, which has made many believe his ministry only lasted for one year.(John 2:13, 6:4, 11:55)