The gospels with respect to the resurrection.

[Opti]

Does it bother anyone that the gospels with respect to the resurrection differ so wildly?
Is it enough that they all agree that Jesus was risen but differ in how the stone covering the tomb was moved, who was preesent and whether there were angels present and how many etc.?

 

[ebia]

Does it bother anyone that the gospels with respect to the resurrection differ so wildly?
Is it enough that they all agree that Jesus was risen but differ in how the stone covering the tomb was moved, who was preesent and whether there were angels present and how many etc.?

If they did not differ we would be sure that they did not represent 4 independent accounts.

If they really are independent accounts compiled indepently from various eyewitness testimonies and told in different ways to make clear different points then we would expect divergence in the detail.

If you get four eyewitness accounts of an event they will differ by about this much.

And, the stories are not straight eye-witness accounts but are stories told for particular purposes. Mark (assuming the short ending) is trying to leave everything open to invite us into the story. To leave open the question "they ran away under pressure and told noone, what will you do?"
John has only Mary Magdalene there because he wants to highlight that this the New Exodus, so he has only her there, and when Jesus calls her by name he calls her not Maria (as elsewhere) but Miriam.

The gospel resurrection narratives are not there to give us the precise factual chronology, but to make clear what happened and what its various implications are.

 

[Stinker]

Does it bother anyone that the gospels with respect to the resurrection differ so wildly?
Is it enough that they all agree that Jesus was risen but differ in how the stone covering the tomb was moved, who was preesent and whether there were angels present and how many etc.?

It didn't used to bother me. I was taught that they differed because God wanted the account written in a harmonious way. In studying Apologetics, I have found these differing accounts very toublesome. Found that neither Matthew, Mark, or Luke, were written by persons who were with Jesus during His ministry. Some scholars doubt that John's Gospel is actually written by Him. I myself believe it is the actual John the Apostle whom Jesus loved that wrote it.

 

[The LORD's Minstrel]

Book of Matthew-Written to the Jews.
Book of Mark- Written to the Romans
Book of Luke-Written Greeks (aka Gentiles)
Book of John- Written to the Church

Book of matthew and John ,those two were of the first 12 Disciples.

Book of Mark->This mark is the same mark mentioned in Acts12:12/Barnabas was marks cousin Col 4:10/and close friend and possibly a convert through the apostle Peter,
1 Peter 5:13/Also there was an incindent in the book of acts where Paul refused to take Mark with him during Pauls second missionary Journey,so Mark went with Barnabas to Cyprus(Acts 15:38-40) about a dozen years later Mark ended up back with Paul.
Also 2 Timonthy 4:11 Mention Mark also,but guess what? it mentions Luke too.Now to Luke.Mark was not one of the original twelve Disciples.

Book of Luke - Now luke is with Paul alot and I mean alot.Luke was imprisoned with Paul at times also. We also know Luke was not an original 12 disciples.So Luke had a wonderful time getting a direct hands on experience with Paul.

Overview is we as Christians know that all in all God has designed every word in the Bible for everyone.And even in the Bible it states that there were still many other wonders and miracles Jesus did that werent written down.Remembering the Books of the Gospels where written to specific people during that time,and God annointed the gospels and designed each one of them for exactly who needed to hear them.Then afterwards We today get everything,which has been specificly designed by God for us who need it.
So there was a gap of time from the original twelve Disciple up to Acts where Luke and John are mention.So im sure alot of people were writng as much down as they can get.And not everyone was with the 12 Disciples after Christ rose from the grave.So people wrote down WHATEVER they heard from anyone who had been with Jesus or anyone who saw Jesus and anyone who saw Jesus after he rose from the grave.Im sure Luke and Paul were two well educated men buckled down for a bit and did some serious searching in letters and eye witnesses accounts ,and most assurdly whatever information of any account that anyone mentioned about Jesus was taken into consideration and thouroughly examined by Paul and Luke.

Hoped some of this information helped .

 

[Stinker]

The gospels with respect to the resurrection.

Does it bother anyone that the gospels with respect to the resurrection differ so wildly?
Is it enough that they all agree that Jesus was risen but differ in how the stone covering the tomb was moved, who was preesent and whether there were angels present and how many etc.?

The they being the women that first came to the tomb on that morning. They, are the achilles heel (In my opinion) of the resurrection morning and may be the reason for there existing differing accounts. That these women could not tell their story straight.

Matthew's- Mary Magdalene and the otherwomen told the other disciples that an angel told them Christ had been resurrected and to go tell the others.

Mark's- Mary Magdalene and the other women (this writer finds out) were told by a young man in a long white garment that Jesus had been resurrected and to go tell Peter and the other disciples to go meet Jesus in Galilee. Instead, the women went into shock and didn't tell anyone about this. Later that morning, Mary Magdalene tells the other disciples that the resurrected Christ appeared to her. They did not believe her.

Luke's- Mary Magdalene and the other women, tell that they went into the tomb and found His body missing and were very perplexed. Then 2 angels appeared and told them that He did say that He would be crucified and rise again on the third day. They suddenly rembered being told that, and then went and told the other disciples. The disciples told them that their story sounded like idle tales. Peter did go to check out their story, and when he found the tomb empty, still wondered about the women's story.

John's- Mary Magdalene says that she discovered the stone rolled away, ran and told Peter and John that the body of Jesus had been taken out of the tomb and (we?) don't know where they laid Him. John and Peter run to the tomb and investigate, then returned home. Mary Magdalene followed them to the tomb and remained, crying. She says that while there she saw 2 angels and then the Lord Himself. She says that the Lord told her to tell them that He is to ascend to the Father.


Perhaps it is not so as important that Mary Magdalene and the other women be consistent with their story, as the Lord's body being gone from the tomb on the 3rd day.

 

[ebia]

Inspired by, not dictated by. And no. The purpose of those stories is to tell us the important truths and meanings of the resurrection, not to enable us to recreate the precise factual chronology of easter morning. The bible was not written just for a modern western audience obsessed by fact over meaning.

The divergences in the five (at least) New Testament accounts of Easter morning point indicate that those accounts are actually independent - if they did not diverge we would be certain that they had been at least reconciled at some point.

 

[AV1611VET]

Does it bother anyone that the gospels with respect to the resurrection differ so wildly?

Not at all --- we can merge the accounts into one coherent scenario --- as follows:

From the Scofield Reference Bible:

• The order of events, combining the four narratives, is as follows: Three women, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, start for the sepulchre, followed by other women bearing spices. The three find the stone rolled away, and Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples (Lk. 23:55; 24:9; John 20:1,2). Mary, the mother of James and Joses, draws nearer the tomb and sees the angel of the Lord (Mt. 28:2). She goes back to meet the other women following with the spices. Meanwhile Peter and John, warned by Mary Magdalene, arrive, look in,and go away (John 20:3-10). Mary Magdalene returns weeping, sees the two angels and then Jesus (John 20:11-18), and goes as He bade her to tell the disciples. Mary (mother of James and Joses), meanwhile, has met the women with the spices and, returning with them, they see the two angels (Lk. 24:4,5; Mk. 16:5). They also receive the angelic message, and, going to seek the disciples, are met by Jesus (Mt. 28:8-10).

 

[ebia]

Is that a problem?

 

[Stinker]

Not at all --- we can merge the accounts into one coherent scenario --- as follows:


From the Scofield Reference Bible:

• The order of events, combining the four narratives, is as follows: Three women, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, start for the sepulchre, followed by other women bearing spices. The three find the stone rolled away, and Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples (Lk. 23:55; 24:9; John 20:1,2). Mary, the mother of James and Joses, draws nearer the tomb and sees the angel of the Lord (Mt. 28:2). She goes back to meet the other women following with the spices. Meanwhile Peter and John, warned by Mary Magdalene, arrive, look in,and go away (John 20:3-10). Mary Magdalene returns weeping, sees the two angels and then Jesus (John 20:11-18), and goes as He bade her to tell the disciples. Mary (mother of James and Joses), meanwhile, has met the women with the spices and, returning with them, they see the two angels (Lk. 24:4,5; Mk. 16:5). They also receive the angelic message, and, going to seek the disciples, are met by Jesus (Mt. 28:8-10).

Here is just one problem (of many) with the above:



Luke 23:54-56 (King James Version)

54And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
55And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
56And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.



John 19:39-42 (King James Version)

39And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
42There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.