Matthew, Mark & Luke

[newbeliever02072005]

Hello Everyone!

I was reading some scriptures

Mark 16:5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

Matthew 28:2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and , going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

Luke 24: 3-4 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

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Ok, I am a bit confused. There doesn't seem to be a consistent account of what happened this day. Mark and Luke are saying that a "man or two men" were in the tomb. Mark saying the young man was sitting on the right side. Right side of what? Where the body laid? Then Luke says that the two men stood beside them. Assuming "them" is the ladies. Now we get to Matthew and he doesn't mention them as men but as an angel. An angel that rolled back the stone and sat on the it (stone).

Why would there be such a different descriptions of what happened if this was such a spectacular event. Something that made the ladies speechless and in a hurry to find the disciples wouldn't you think it made such a big impact that the stories wouldn't vary like they seem to.

I am hoping someone can explain this to me, so I can understand better.

Thank you so much! and God Bless!!
newbeliever

 

[ZiSunka]

Neither Matthew, Mark or Luke saw any of the events first hand, they were all relying on descriptions of what happened as told by other people. The people Mark got his information from saw and heard something different than the people Luke got his information from and so on. Some people saw one angel, some saw two, some saw the ones sitting down and some saw the one sitting down.

 

[newbeliever02072005]

Thank you for sharing with me!

I do have one question. Why wouldn't God make sure that the stories lined up more accurately? Whether they came from others or from the authors themselves.

God Bless!
newbeliever

 

[daveleau]

I tend to disagree with the response above, because I believe the Word is an inspired text that goes further than simply eye witness problems. I do not believe the fact that they did not see this contributes to errors, as God guided their writing. Moses did not witness Creation, yet I do not think he got things mixed up. The same goes for John regarding Revelation. John saw these things through God's direction.

First, the Matthew account describes the Angel coming down and rolling back the stone. Then it moves to when the women came. In the other accounts, it says that the stone had already been rolled away. It appears that Matt is a little less descriptive of the approach of the women, but more descriptive of how the stone was moved, whereas the other passages do not mention how the stone was rolled away.

Regarding the issue with 1 or 2 angels, this could be a problem with the texts and a scribe miscopy. We do not have the original copies of Scripture, so it could be that the scribes messed this up in their copying. A look at the original texts used to translate these into English would be the only way to tell.