Chapter VI

CONTRADICTlONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

 

 There are contradictions in the Gospel accounts and such contradictions also prove that the Gospels do not constitute a revelation of God or that human interference has changed the original revelation out of recognition. Any ordinary author possessing an ordinary measure of consistency will not allow contradiction in what he writes. How then can we tolerate contradiction in a ‘Book of God’?  We give some examples here:

       1.         With regard to the birth of Jesus, we find from Matthew (1:1- 22) and Luke (1:32- 33) that the Messiah was to be one of ordinary human beings. From the Gospel of John (1:1), however, we find that the Messiah is the word which was ever with God and was in fact, God so that all have been made out of Him.

       2.         From Matthew (3:13-17), Mark (1:9-12) and Luke (3:21-22) and (4 1) it appears that Jesus received baptism from John and he left him at once or on the same day. But in the Gospel of John, there is no mention of any baptism and the meeting between Jesus and John is said to have lasted two days.

       3.         From John (1:1944), it appears that Jesus after remaining with John and his disciples for a few days, Jesus went straight to Galilee. But from Matthew (4:1), Mark (1:12) and Luke (4:1), it appears that Jesus, after receiving baptism from John, went to the woods to have a trial of strength with Satan and remained there for forty days.

       4.         From John (1:35-51), it appears that soon after meeting John, Jesus made two of John’s disciples, one Andrew and the other unnamed, his own disciples and on the way to Galilee, he made Simon Peter and Nathaniel his disciples. But from Matthew (4:12-22), Mark (1:12-20) and Luke (4:14-15; 5:1-22), it appears that after meeting John and remaining for forty days in the woods, Jesus fasted and on hearing of the imprisonment of John went to Galilee and preached there in many places and for many days, and beside the lake at Galilee he admitted Simon Peter, Andrew, John and James as his disciples. This means that the place where, according to the other Gospels, the admission of these disciples took place and the time also at which the admission took place according to John is not the same as the time given by the other Gospels. The other Gospels put the time about two months later.

       5.         In John (4:3 and 43-45), we are made to understand that the native place of Jesus was Judea and that Jesus believing that a prophet is not honored in his native place, left it for Galilee where he was much honored. But, in contradiction to this, Matthew (13:54-58), Luke (4:24) and Mark (6:4), we are told that the native place of Jesus was not Judea but Galilee. Not honored in Galilee, he said no prophet had been honored in his own native place.

       6.         In John (3:22-26) and (4:1-3), we are told that even before John was put in prison, Jesus had started preaching his message and baptizing people. But in Matthew (4:12-17) and Mark (1:14-2), we are told that Jesus started preaching after John was imprisoned.

       7.         According to Luke (3:23), Joseph the husband of Mary was the son of Heli; but according to Matthew (1:16), he was the son of Jacob.

       8.         According to Luke (3:31), Jesus descended from David through Nathan but Matthew (1:6) traces the ancestry of Jesus through Nathan’s brother, Solomon the King.

       9.         In the genealogy given by Matthew, we have from Joseph to Abraham, forty-one persons but in the genealogy given by Luke, we have fifty-six persons. Besides this, the names in the two genealogies do not correspond.

     10.        In Luke (24:50-51), we are told that Jesus was carried up into heaven at Bethany. But in The Acts (1:12), we read that the ascension took place on a mount called Olivet.

     11.        Luke (24:21-29, 36 and 51) says that on the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, or the night following, he ascended to the sky forty days after he rose from the dead.

     12.        In Matthew (10:10), we read that Jesus told his disciples to provide “nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes nor yet staves”, but Mark (6:8-9) says that Jesus told his disciples that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only. Mark, however, admits that Jesus ordered the disciples to be shod with sandals. From this, it appears that according to Matthew, Jesus forbade the wearing even of shoes and the carrying of staves, but according to Mark, the disciples had orders to carry stag and to wear shoes.