Do the gospel accounts contradict one another?

Answer 1

A:Yes. The gospel accounts do quite frequently contradict each others. Theologians try to harmonise these differences or, in other cases, explain them as the different recollections of different eyewitnesses. Yet scholars now realise that three of the New Testament gospels are based, directly or indirectly, on Mark's Gospel, the first gospel to be written. So, whenever the other gospels rely on material in Mark's Gospel, the differences are usually more nuanced rather than actual contradictions. Where Mark did not provide a clear guide, the different authors had to write their own stories, which therefore could contradict.

From the very beginning of the life of Jesus, we find biblical contradiction. In the Gospel of Matthew, Bethlehem was the home town of Mary and Joseph, who fled from Bethlehem to Egypt for fear of King Herod, beginning to return to their home in Bethlehem after Herod's death but, being warned in a dream, turned aside and travelled to Nazareth instead. In Luke's Gospel, Nazareth was their home town and the family returned peacefully from Bethlehem to Nazareth just forty days afterthe birth of Jesus.

Athe the very end of the gospel story, after the resurrection of Jesus, we find biblical contradiction. This occurs because Mark originally ended at verse 16:8, with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they fled in terror telling no one. It also occurs because each subsequent author was not satisfield with Mark's simple account of a young man telling the women that Jesus was risen. Resurrection appearances were needed but, with no guidance from Mark, the authors of Matthew and Luke wrote quite different accounts. The account in John begins as an elaboration of Luke's account, on which it was based. Much later, the 'Long Ending' (verses 16:9-20) was added to Mark, to provide it with resurrection appearances. The redactor of Mark's Long Ending was familiar with the other gospel accounts of the resurrection, and made a good effort to harmonise his account with parts of the other gospel accounts.