Help! How can I combine the seemingly contradictory material about the post-resurrection events in a way which is consistent?
Question:
My brain is overheated since i’m trying to reconcile the apparent contradictions we find in the narratives of the apparitions of Jesus after his resurrection. For example, Jesus said to the disciples to go to Galilee and that He will precede them there and then they will meet Him in Galilee. (Matthew)….but no….Jesus appeared in Jerusalem two times commanding the disciples not to go out from Jerusalem, to stay in Jerusalem until the Pentecost. (Luke) Jesus said to stay in Jerusalem? Jesus said to go to Galilee? How can the disciples go to Galilee if Jesus has forbidden them to leave Jerusalem? PLEASE HELP ME !!
Answer:
In the four gospels we have separate but non-contradictory accounts. John and Matthew are eye-witnesses and Mark may very well be, as he was in Jerusalem at the time. Luke did careful research and made a “more orderly account” of what happened. If the four accounts agreed exactly in the details, then why would we need four gospels? The four show every evidence as being at least partially independent accounts of the same events.
Several years ago I was on a jury for a criminal trial. There were at least three main witnesses of the principle events involved. Each witness gave very different accounts, with some details even seeming to contradict when we first heard them. But, when we went into the jury box, we realized that all three were believable. Also, because of the large differences in details, we knew that they had not colluded, making the testimony even more powerful.
That is exactly the case with the New Testament accounts. You or I could produced a harmonized account, but I do not believe I could improve on the account of Wilbur Pickering. Therefore, I will attach his “harmonization” of the four accounts. Here it is: Resurrection Accounts harmonization You will see that every significant detail in all four accounts are in his single scenario in a way which makes more sense together than any of the four does apart. These accounts show every evidence of being factual, relatively accurate accounts of the actual events around the resurrection of Jesus, making the fact of the resurrection more sure.
John Oakes
