Why did Jesus appear the third time to his disciples?

Answer 1

A:

In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus only appeared once to his disciples, at a mountain in Galilee, sending them to all parts of the world to teach his gospel.

In Mark's Gospel, as originally written, the risen Jesus never appeared to any of the disciples, as it ended at verse 16:8 with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they fled in terror, telling no one. The 'Long Ending' (verses 16:9-20) was added much later and says that Jesus appeared once to the disciples and was taken up into heaven.

In Luke's Gospel, the risen Jesus appeared only once to the eleven disciples, whom he then took out on the road to Bethany, where he was taken up into heaven.

It is in John's Gospel that Jesus appeared three times to the disciples. His first appearance was based on that in Luke, but was to only ten of the disciples, so as to exclude Thomas, who thereby did not receive the Holy Spirit from Jesus (John 20:2). The second appearance, also at a meal in the same room eight days later, allowed Thomas to be portrayed as 'doubting'. Elaine Pagels has described a strong theme of anti-Thomas sentiment in John's Gospel, and believes this reflects rivalry between Christian communities when John was being written in the early part of the second century. The third appearance was at the Sea of Galilee. This was probably written as a later appendix to the gospel, which seems formerly to have finished at verse 20:31. A further theme found in the Gospel of John is the comparison between Peter and the unknown 'disciple whom Jesus loved', and this ending allows further comparisons to be made, all to the detriment of Peter.