Why are the gospel accounts of the crucifixion all different?

Answer 1

A:

The stories of the crucifixion are reasonably similar in the synoptic gospels, although in John's Gospel they quite different in some important aspect. The stories of the empty tomb and of the resurrection are all completely different.

The reasons for all these differences are explained by the history of the gospel development. The gospels were originally anonymous until attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John later in the second century. Those attributions were merely speculative and modern New Testament scholars say that none of the gospels could have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed, thus certainly ruling out Mathew and John as authors. But even if the gospels had been written by disciples of Jesus, there is no suggestion, at least in the synoptic gospels, that any of them was at the crucifixion and could report on the crucifixion reliably.

Mark's Gospel was the first to be written, approximately 70 CE. The author of Matthew's Gospel based a new gospel on Mark in the eighties of the first century, using some 90 per cent of the verses in Mark. Luke's Gospel follows, around the end of the century, once again based on Mark. Both Matthew and Luke also contain sayings material from the hypothetical 'Q' document, but unaware of the existence of Matthew's Gospel. John's Gospel was loosely based on Luke, with some material taken direct from Mark. So, when the gospels agree on events, it is because Mark provided the lead, which was followed by the other gospels.

Mark's Gospel provides a very ordered account of the last day in the life of Jesus, breaking the twenty four hours into eight periods of just 3 hours each. So, the Last Supper begins at 6 pm on Thursday evening, they go to the Garden of Gethsemene at 9 pm and Jesus goes to pray alone, returning three times, each time asking, "Could ye not watch one hour," the betrayal occurs at midnight, the trial before the Sanhedrin begins at 3 am and that before Pontius Pilate at 6 am, as soon as it was morning. Jesus is placed on the cross at 9am, the third hour, and a great darkness falls over the world at midday, reflecting the betrayal at midnight, and Jesus dies at 3 pm, with the last words, "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1)" At the moment of Jesus' death, the temple veil is rent from top to bottom, although no one could have been aware of both events, one on desecrated land outside the city, the other inside the city and the Temple complex. His burial takes place in the three hours before 6 pm and the beginning of the Sabbath.

The author of Mark had scarcely mentioned the two others crucified with Jesus, but Matthew makes the crucifixion more humiliating by having them both curse Jesus. The author is described as being overly fond of dramatic, supernatural events. He added the account of an earthquake which opened the graves and the bodies of the dead arose and walked into Jerusalem, where they were seen by many.

Unaware of what was written in Matthew, the author of Luke had one of the two others repent, and Jesus said that he would see him in heaven.

The author of John's Gospel wanted to portray Jesus symbolically as the sacrificial lamb for the Passover, so had Jesus crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover. This meant that Jesus and the disciples did not celebrate the Passover feast the previous evening. Without a ritual Last Supper, they had a simple meal and Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. Because, for John, Jesus was divine and pre-existing, fully aware of his destiny, there was no prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene, asking that, if possible, the hour of crucifixion be removed. Instead, Jesus said a triumphant prayer before reaching the Garden.

The stories of the empty tomb are dramatically different, with different participants in each case, different messengers and different outcomes. The discrepancies prompted Archbishop Peter Carnley to write:

"The presence of discrepancies might be a sign of historicity if we had four clearly independent but slightly different versions of the story, if only for the reason that four witnesses are better than one. But, of course, it is now impossible to argue that what we have in the four gospel accounts of the empty tomb are four contemporaneous but independent accounts of the one event. Modern redactional studies of the traditions account for the discrepancies as literary developments at the hand of later redactors of what was originally one report of the empty tomb...

There is no suggestion that the tomb was discovered by different witnesses on four different occasions, so it is in fact impossible to argue that the discrepancies were introduced by different witnesses of the one event; rather, they can be explained as four different redactions for apologetic and kerygmatic reasons of a single story originating from one source."

The stories of the appearances of the risen Jesus differ so greatly because Mark provided no guidance to the other evangelists. Mark's Gospel originally ended at verse 16:8, with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they fled, telling no one, and therefore with no resurrection appearance of Jesus. Mark 16:9-25 form what is now known as the "Long Ending" (there was also, at one stage, a "Short Ending") and were added to the Gospel at a later stage, to provide two brief resurrection appearances. The authors of Matthew and Luke had complete freedom as to what they wrote, while the author of John simply expanded on what he found in Luke.