Why Are There Conflicts In the Gospels?
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- Parts of the Gospels look like they don't line up. Why are these apparent contradictions there, and what do you do with them?
Here's the podcast episode about Matthew's Nazarene prophecy: thetenminutebiblehourpodcast.l...
Here's the previous Nuts and Bolts video that gets deeper into this stuff: • Why Are There Four Gos...
If you like what's going on here, you'll probably love the new Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast because it's like this, but shorter and without my face! Click this to check it out: thetenminutebiblehourpodcast.l...
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My favourite thing about TTMBH is when you say you don't know. Accepting my doubts is part of what led me back to Christianity.
This was very well presented. As a former detective in a country where there are also many official languages, I totally agree with Matt. In fact, if eye witnesses testify and agree on 100% of everything, there are then more doubt to their credibility as witnesses. Almost always it turns out that they conspired to tell a specific story before hand. In court, when a skilled prosecutor questions them, they usually always fold as being deceptive. The 4 gospels is exactly what is expected from four different honest eye witnesses.
But discrepancies are not to be expected if they were really writing down words inspired by a perfect God
@@NelemNaru The discrepancies are to be expected if you believe in the majority Christian claim that although God inspired the writers of the Christian gospels he did not dictate how/what to write in them.
@@islamicdefender8100 I used to believe that. I also believed God was perfect and all-powerful. That caused cognitive dissonance. A perfect God couldn't inspire contradictions and mistakes. An all-powerful God could work in a way to prevent any corruption to his word. (The gospels weren't even written by the eyewitnesses. They were written decades later.)
@@NelemNaru And you mean to say that people who were eyewitnesses couldn't be alive decades later to write what they saw? A good book to read that addresses your concerns is the case for christ by Lee Strobel. If you're still not convinced after reading it then we can talk. God bless.
@@yabesira7351 I did read Case for Christ. That's what started me down the deconversion path. It made me realize I didn't know much about the origins of the Bible. These were things not taught in church. So I researched more on my own. A good book that explains more is _Misquoting Jesus_ by Bart Ehrman. If you're wanting to talk, it would be good to read that first.
Laughed out loud when she said “Fruity Pebbles”! 😂
Me too. 😜
Thanks for this video. I appreciate your sincerity and your honesty. All too often in my faith journey (I’m 54, raised in church ... practically lived there as a kid), the hard questions were glossed over and the questioner condemned. Your earnestness in seeking the truth is helping me as I’ve found myself struggling in faith. Sometimes you can OD on church and church people and become jaded. I appreciate you so much. Please continue doing what you’re doing.
You'd be the perfect person to listen to Zeal, an album by Kings Kaleidoscope about jadedness.
Me too Todd, I find these videos really refreshing and gives me great encouragement to study the Bible more
"Fruity Pebbles" 😂 Let the children do the intro for every video or we riot!
Found you through the “A Protestant visits an Eastern Orthodox Church” video, being Orthodox I was interested, and wanted to hear something of your own to get a feel.
I enjoyed this very much, especially the intro, not because it was cute (though it was), but because you were able to illuminate your point before you even made it, and in a very clear and engaging way.
I’m going out on a limb, but I think you are already Orthodox in more ways than you might know.
You're getting real good at this, bro.
What, making stuff up?
@@andrewholdaway813 I was thinking working through tough questions transparently and communicating in an even-handed, accessible way. Seems like he lays out his logic pretty well and I don't see much of anything being "made up." Happy Sunday, friend.
@@andy8041
Nope, he's toeing the party line, his analogy with his kids is well, not analogous - the gospels are not eye witness accounts; 'Mathew' and 'Luke' clearly lifted the majority of their writings from 'Mark', with their own 'twists' to suit their desired narratives. 'John' didn't plagiarise so blatantly but clearly had access, if a wildly different narrative.
Please refrain from the passive aggressive, you'll be praying for me next.
@@andrewholdaway813 Idk, man. Your liberal use of "clearly" throws me off. People with different goals speaking to different audiences for different reasons will say things differently. There will be a lot of competing 'truths' about when and by whom the gospels were written. I think the best thing we can do is try to understand the validity of any given argument someone is making and speaking to the inconsistency therein, approaching people from their side of the bench and giving them as much benefit of the doubt as possible. Coming into a room with an attitude of "I'm right, you're wrong" never convinces anyone of anything, it just feeds a personal sense of self-righteousness.
@@andy8041
No, there may be different ideas and opinions - but there is only one truth, one which we likely will never know; but we can be sure that none of the gospels in the bible are direct eyewitness accounts making the analogy not analogous.
I don't take the I'm right you are wrong approach any more than others do.
This is a really interesting video for me, as I just today finished reading through the gospels thoroughly for the first time, and was thinking about some of these inconsistencies when the notification popped up.
I hope you sense God's care for you in it! I know, this could be overly 'mystical' in how it feels, but I believe that sometimes God orchestrates events like this as little, reassuring gifts to let you know He's with you.
@@MrBradLee we should not be afraid of the mystics. God is mystical
@@kodingkrusader2765 I regret that I didn't read what I typed before posting it. I meant that what I'm saying could feel to some people like I'm assigning meaning or cause to things falsely, based on my desire for it to be true. I believe this does occur, quite often actually, and perhaps I have done it too. Still, I believe that sometimes God does orchestrate circumstances to strengthen our faith and bless us with little gifts of assurance of His presence and attentiveness.
@@MrBradLee i figured you werent trying to discourage others from mytics my statement was for those that are worried all mystics automatically equal demonic.
I was more trying to reassure others that may read what you say and be on fence of the mystical nature of our existence.
Life is a mystery. Nothing is a bigger mystery than God.
And you are correct many times we attribute to God what wasnt directly God but we must remember from the grace of God i breath and from the grace of God ill stop breathing. Life is because of God. He orchestrated it all for us. So we may experience a physical incarnation. We shouod remember we are very special so special angels who knew God fell because we have this gift.
So in the end its all bc of God :)
But yes. We do forget God doesnt sit there and pull our strings. We create our own reality through our actions and if we stray hes always there to pick us up he knows what we all need most. He shows us just enough to believe ;) and sometimes he knows we need help with something or we need a faith proof. We dont know we need it but he does sorry i could go on and on about how awesome God is lol
Don't ever stop using that disco music
Count on it.
These conflicts or difficulties with the Scriptures are often what drive me to look more to God for answers. I found tremendous peace in finally being able to accept that I'm not going to figure it all out in this life, but God will lead me to people like Matt that will help me get some of this sorted out.
Brilliant illustration. You are gifted with explaining God's truth in layman's terms. Thank you for your work.
He's like the four Gospels.
One thing that helped me reconcile the "conflicts" in the Gospels: John and Matthew were the only eye witnesses. Luke and Mark were written from other's testimonies, which I presume were mostly second hand. Between John and Matthew, John's account is from his heart, like the video suggests, the youngest child's lens. Matthew, the former tax collector, was more systematic, not necessarily linear, but organized how his brain processes the information.
What evidence do you have to show that Matthew was an eye witness and that he was the writer of the gospel of Matthew?
Also, if you compare Mark with Luke and Matthew, you will see that Luke and Matthew most likely copied Mark (the earliest gospel).
I thought it was commonly accepted that none of the gospels were 1st hand eye witnesses, and they were all 2nd hand accountings.
Really appreciated. This was very thoughtful - and helpful. You seem to have a gift for what you do. And you are always so gracious to people who may think otherwise. It is rare today to see such intellectual honesty.
Thanks Malcolm.
I've seen that verse in Matthew before but never thought about the "relationship" with Matthew as being trustworthy. It's so easy to think of historical authors as being these ethereal beings with lots of one liners that can be picked apart separate from one another. I love this perspective of thinking about the larger picture and credibility of historical authors.
The more I watch this channel Matt, the more that I get sucked in! Every video is so insightful and entertaining at the same time!
I like how you compared your kids trying to remember an important event in their life to the 4 gospel authors also remembering an important event to them aswell. Very unique, smart & well put together. I noticed you've used similar comparisons in some of your other videos, i also like to use the same method of comparison in my messages, I appreciate the time you take in producing these awesome videos i pretty much enjoy thanks.
This is one of the topics that has been sitting with me for longest time. Thank you for touching base with this one.
I really REALLY like the analogy to start the video. Helps me wrap my head around the whole big idea. Thanks so much for making this series, you're doing incredible work!
Thank you so much for this. You made my Bible studies easier to understand and make sense. God Bless you. Please keep me in prayer as I try and understand and retain scripture.
Loved what you did with your children's accounts. That's spot on. Our experience and our interpretation really are bound up together tight, and because we are different, so are our accounts. I'll try to remember how you explained that, and the other points. Well done!
Excellent work! Love the honesty at the end! Really enjoying the TMBH Podcast too. Great job, Matt.
Ah yes, I've been waiting for this video ever since you teased it in the last episode. Seeing this notification was legitimately satisfying.
It was very difficult to keep this video even sort of manageable in terms of time. So much to talk about...
@@MattWhitmanTMBH Regardless, you were able to talk about the synoptic problem while still keeping it within the realm of the canonical gospels, that's quite the task. Speaking of, would you ever think about doing an episode going all of the way in on the synoptic problem? I think much of your audience would find it very interesting.
Your kids seem really great!
Thanks Ellie!
This video is so great
And it’s not even that strange on this channel, I always love to go here for the beautiful explanations and story structure of the videos
Great, informative video! Many times people have pointed out to me the fact that the Gospels were different, but never told me WHY they were different. Thanks for shedding some insight!
I always appreciate your illustration, and message setup. This is a discipline that I am working on improving in my own life.
I am a Christian and recently I've been very unsettled by these contradictions. Some of them I can easily dismiss or understand as of not much importance. But some are hard for me to reconcile. For example the account of Judas' death and and the 2 different narratives of Jesus' itinerary after his birth in Mathew and Luke. I would love for you to tackle those and some other sthat are hard to explain.
loved the [not a] location change [not] segue!
Great execution explaining a simple [complex] topic!
Best setup for the differences btw the Gospels that I've ever heard. Great work, Great ministry! Thank you, dear Brother. 👑👑👑
I really appreciate your videos! Informative yet easy to understand :)
Great job illustrating why there are inconsistencies in the Gospels. It is also consistent with research on eyewitness evidence in that what is remembered varies on the viewer.
24 minute bible hour :P
Great work, Matt. Keep it up!!
I really liked the example you used with your children, each telling their experience of your family outing, showing how each person experienced the same things through the day, but demonstrated their different views of the details that stood out to each of them. Great example of how different people who all experienced the same things, tell about things each in their own way. Very practical and real life example. 👍
I let apparent contradictions get to me in my 20’s. My view of scripture isn’t that all translation is perfect or that we can match up everything somehow. But it’s perfect in its message and theology. To me now as an almost 40 year old…that’s what’s more important than everything being an exact word for word retelling that has no “contradictions.” The message is the same thing in each gospel. Christ died for our sins and rose again as the first fruits to our promised resurrection in the end times.
Beautiful family, I love you channel, thanks for what you are doing its really refreshing.
Great explanation on differences in the Gospels. Thank you!
Another great video, thanks Matt. It does seem obvious why there are differences when you try and get witness accounts about any event. It's remarkable how similar the 4 gospels are (possibly due to the Q document, but we don't know for sure). They seem like great kids and I'm sure you are raising them to be very well grounded for their adult life. God bless
I love this video. I also needed to make peace with apparent contradictions in the Bible in my own faith journey. Although, my understanding of the Church (specifically the Roman Catholic one) helped a lot. Thanks for this.
And fourth.. this is so true. We all see things through our own world view. When I became a Christian in the 1990’s I started reading the gospel. Matthew first... ok, Jesus did some cool stuff. Mark... why is Jesus doing the same stuff? Of course I understand now, but that was my first impression.
Excellent video! Great explanation of the differences we find in the Gospels.
Great clip!! Your ministry is a huge help for any lay person looking for quick easy resource. Very well done. Appreciated!! :):):)
Thanks for the video, praying this grows faith in others
What an amazing analogy. I love how you explained each of your kids' individual processes.
Thanks, that was the thing that really stood out to me. I didn't see that coming, and I learned from them.
@@MattWhitmanTMBH Matt, Thank you for what you are doing. I am a leader of a nondenominational Bible study and teach fourth grade at a Missouri Synod Lutheran school. I am constantly referring back to information you have shared in your videos. You have made me a better teacher.
Important topic! Love your videos!
You're doing great work on this channel Matt
This was helpful and encouraging. Thank you.
While I have not made any kind of in-depth study of the "conflicts" in the Gospels, I have generally attributed the differences to: A) Theological emphasis, or what is the main point of the narrative being told, and B) Witness testimony differences. Two people can see the exact same incident, let's say an automobile accident, but report very different narratives of the same incident (as shown by the example of your kid's retelling of your vacation trip).
Good video, thanks!
I thought you made so much sense in this whole video. If I wore one, my hat would be off to you on this one! Thank you.
Can you do a video on Revelation, more specifically the letters to the seven churches, even more specifically the letter to the church of Laodicea
Dr Taylor marshall has a video for each chapter
Until you get a Catholic perspective you are not getting close to the truth.
@@bridgefin hey now dont rain on the heretics' parade
@@kodingkrusader2765 🥱
Great topic. My research in NT Bible history at my Bible Institution reveals that the Gospels were among the 1st writings to be quoted as sacred and authoritative . The Gospels in essence strengthened the churches defences against Heresies and pagan critics thereby revealing life teachings and ministry of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The word Gospel was never meant to be a book but defined as The Good News the good tidings which jesus and the disciples announced. The Apostle Paul called it the Gospel of God writing to the Romans and Thessalonians the Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesian called it The Gospel of Peace and the Gospel of Salvation. Great points you made Keep up the good work.
Your Channel is very refreshing .
Good stuff, love these videos.
Such a good video! Loved this will use t at youth groups !
The music in the intermissions was FIREEEE!!
literally, as someone new to the bible, I read through the Gospels and was SO confused on why they didn't tell Jesus's death correctly. Thanks for this!
I’ve always that the way Jesus’ last world s on the cross are different on different gospels may have just been their location. John was close because he was with Mary. Mark his account from Peter, who was probably not close because of the shame of denying Christ 3 times. Luke was not there so he had second hand accounts
Thank you for your teaching. You are great at breaking down difficult things. I pray that my podcast can reach even half of what you do
this is my favorite YT channel
The boy was John, the youngest daughter was Mark, and your oldest was Luke or Matthew. Beautiful.
Good point. It gives more authenticity to the 4 Gospels!
Brilliantly done Matt
I truly think this is my favorite channel. You always surprise me by the radical honesty you have. I loved this video a ton.
Question for you. I think Matthew quotes a prophecy “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Is that really a prophecy though? Isn’t that a reference to Israel who was called out of Egypt? It’s weird. The only decent solution I have is to say that the 1st century Jewish brain didn’t think of these inspired documents as merely referring to a specific event, but as true of greater things and intended for a larger meaning. This is also how I resolve how the sign of Jonah was interpreted. Reading the story of Jonah and comparing it to the passion, resurrection, and then the repentance of the nations it makes a TON of sense that Jesus is the greater fulfillment of that. Same thing with some psalms that obviously weren’t intended to refer to prophecy by the human authors, but have clear meanings when read in light of Christian events. God Bless.
I think Matthews use of Hosea 11:1 makes sense. I talked about that at great length in a recent episode of the Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast.
I don't have the ability to look up the episode right this second, but it's somewhere around episode 30 give or take a couple.
Brilliant! Thank you
Great video, thank you Matt!
Man I really appreciate your videos. I hope anyone that's having doubts thrown at them, can come up on your videos. There's so much deception in the world, thanks for being an objective conduit for The Truth!
Loved the example at the beginning!
Hadn't heard that Nazarene anomaly before, will have to look into it more too
Great video your explanations are very accessable
Very neat! Nice parallel between your kids and the gospels.
My wife and I are staring to read through Luke. I was thinking of your "who was it written to?" when Luke was going through who was the governor, the tetrarchs etc. Thanks for helping me look at things from a different perspective!
"It's like a fog basically" :))) lovely kids
Great video 💆🏻♀️
This is a really intriguing topic
When Matt was doing the rundown of what his middle child said, and keeping with the title of the video, I thought "Yep -- like Mark" (and then 12:20 happened)
Same. When he said, "Get in, get out," I said, "Mark."
Excellent breakdown of this broad Topic. There’s a Christian channel called “ Inspiring Philosophy “ that does a breakdown of “ supposed Contradictions” but this is a good tangible summary i can send to spiritually curious friends who are curious and want a quick breakdown! Thanks for this
The True word of God/our One and Only Creator cannot have contradictions, no matter how much we try to justify the differences... The All-Mighty will protect His word.
This is a timely video. I'm reading through Luke for the Advent season, and there's an apparent historical contradiction between Luke's nativity timeline and Matthews's nativity timeline. Matthew claims Jesus to be born before the death of Herod the Great, which would be 4 BC at the latest according to Josephus. However, Luke mentions the census under Quinilius (sp?), Which took place about 9 AD per Josephus. Anyone else studied this disparity and found a reconciliation? The arguments I've studied for reconciliation seem weak to me.
Great content as usual! Ps I want that falco amiibo sir I have many gold dabloons for you if you can arrange that
Best statement ever, "I'm sure you see where this is going... Zzzz ten minzz ba bibles in the names bible hour we're talk about the bible n stuff..."
Just subscribed. I really like your style of teaching. Something I've wondered about is why did Song of Solomon get added to the old testament? That's in my don't really understand category.
The differences in genealogy of Yeshua(Jesus) in Matthew and Luke is a big one. Happy to hear that they have found Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew where it says Joseph >Father< of Mary so it all makes more sense. God Bless you all, may this be a year of love, truth and obedience to YHWH
I would love to see you cover the book of Genesis on here one day. How your knowledge of history lines up with how you interpret the historical claims within it
Really creative :)
hey Matt, this video isn't in the corresponding playlist (Nuts & Bolts of the Bible)
You are so brilliant man. Wow
Matthew 2:23 is attributed to "the prophets" plural. (17:50) So Matthew does signal that the sourcing for this prophesy is complex. It is usually connected to Isaiah 11:1: "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit." In ancient times, Hebrew was written without vowels. If you take the consonants in Isaiah and play around with the vowel placement, the word translated as "branch" can be read as "Nazarene." This was noticed in ancient times by Jerome: "'There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots,' in the Hebrew idiom it is written thus, 'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse and a Nazarene shall grow from his root'." (Jerome, Letter 47:7).
I've always had questions about John's placing of the cleansing of the Temple. I understand fully that many ancient histories are not chronological, but are written to make a point. Therefore, there is no historical problem with John placing Temple cleansing at the start of his gospel since one of John's themes is Jesus restoring true worship of God. However, I also, humanly, like the idea of Jesus opening His ministry by cleansing the Temple and closing His ministry by cleaning the Temple.
I would love to see your thoughts on annihilationism and biblical literalism, new to your channel and I love it!
Your kids are so bright. I hope you have more.
The question on the original language of Matthew deals with errors in the Greek text that show tendencies of a native Aramaic speaker to have made. The overall question of the validity of the text is not the "accuracy" of the text to a historical setting but their agreement with the Traditions of the Church when they became accepted as meeting the "cannon" or standard they were looking for. The Church was fully functional for many decades before all the different books became available to the entire Church.
Brilliant 'experiment'/analogy
At about the 10-minute Mark, you talk about the different times listed for the crucifixion of Jesus. Think about somebody who lives in Indiana. for half of the year, they are in the central time zone. For the other half of the year there in the eastern time zone. Indiana does not recognize daylight savings time.
When I watch biblical based videos I judge the speaker or creator by whether I can see them as a follower of Christ...like back in the day...an apostle..like Peter and John In the Gospels. I try to picture them like Mary and martha, not apostles, but followers and believers. Can I see this person sitting and learning at the feet of Christ? The reason I've continued to watch your vids past the title is I see you following Christ, I see you listening and learning and maybe, like Thomas, asking a lot of questions. 😊 I'm learning so much about the bible, about denominations and TRUTH. This is why faith is so important. This is why love is so important. Christ born, Christ crucified, Christ Risen.
I would love to hear you tackle The Rapture. The thing that scared us all in vacation bible school as kids.
i'd be curious to hear your take on the 'descended into hell' vs 'today you will be with me in paradise'... the whole 'it is finished' thing.
This was good. The Gospel writers absolutely had different audience and purpose for writing. So they will sound different. An interesting thing I heard about John's account of cleansing the temple. The money changers were taking up the court of the gentiles so that the Gentiles couldn't enter the part they were permitted and pray. They were actually in the temple grounds. So Jesus threw them out to make the Father's house a house of prayer.
I hold to the view that Matthew was originally written in Hebrew (or Aramaic with Hebrew letters), and therefore the "He shall be called a Nazarene" is probably a translation issue. Of note is that he references Prophets, plural, not Prophet, singular, so it is likely not a direct quote, but rather that the Prophets referred to the Messiah as a "Nazarene". It is likely therefore that the city of Nazareth, and therefore Nazarene, shares an etymological root with a Hebrew word that was used as a title for Messiah, with the most common example being Ne'tser, or Branch.
Such as in Isaiah 11:1 "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:"
Truth is that which comports with reality. You said that timelines and such don’t all line up meaning that at least one of the stories does not match reality and is untrue.
Love that 70's music score.
My problem is I can’t read and listen to slamming disco grooves simultaneously
Thanks for this video.
I think there's an unstated assumption here that contradictions are bad and a significant problem. But I'm not sure if that's true. There was significant disagreement in early Christianity, so it doesn't surprise me to find that disagreement reflected in the texts. Further, it's not clear that early readers would have cared about many of the surface level contradictions. As you note, the Gospel writers weren't writing histories that provide direct accounts of the past, but were always filtering that history so as to make a theological point.
There's also the challenge of the canon which crops up here and elsewhere. In reference to the prophecy in Matthew your note that a reference to an extra-biblical text messes with the canon. But it's not clear there was a universal canon at the time Matthew's Gospel was being written. (Which dovetails with the broader point of: which Old Testament is canon? The Masoretic Hebrew or the LXX which the New Testament writers mainly used? They have differences that aren't trivial.)
And, of course, it's not clear that early readers commonly had access to all four Gospels. So it's hard to say how contradictions were understood broadly.
Lastly, Mark is a deeply subtle book with lots of puzzles and hidden connection. He is certainly not just giving a straight down the line interpretation.
Should do a series of top Christian books in different genres 😍
Atheist year, I totally enjoy your content. It's very informative
Sweet! Thanks for being here Josh!