Jesus' Resurrection & Ascension: Contradictions in the Gospel Accounts
Sunday April 16, 2006
Christians point to Jesus' resurrection as one of the things which distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. After all, the founders of other religions (like Muhammad and Buddha) are all dead; Jesus conquered death. Or did he? For something so important and central to the message, theology, and very nature of Christianity, it's curious that the gospel authors would all have such radically different stories about what happened. Read Article: Jesus' Resurrection & Ascension: Contradictions in the Gospel Accounts
Comments
You make some very interesting comments, although I’m not sure that all of the contradictions are, strictly speaking, contradictions. For example, you seem to be assuming that a few general comments about the doubt and belief of an unspecified number of disciples after Christ’s resurrection over a time period which may or may not have covered a day or a week are chronologically ordered. It’s not as though people at this time (or generally in ancient Mediterranean or Mesopotamian cultures) were interested in meticulous chronology like modern people are. Although the comments seem vague, they do not necessarily have to be viewed as contradictory. In any case, they are based on what one or a group of observers was aware of, some who might have been aware of doubt while others might have felt that the majority or all believed without any reservation. But anyone who is a skeptic knows that something may seem true, even feel so with a rush of joy or relief, and yet find themselves with doubts or at least questions later on while thinking through the implications and unanswered aspects of an event they witnessed.
Also, I thought your argument regarding the place of the ascension would have been stronger if the distance between Jerusalem, Bethany, the Mt. of Olives and Galilee had been highlighted. The Mount of Olives lay nearly between Jerusalem’s eastern gate and Bethany, a distance of just under two miles. Jesus had friends in Bethany who among his larger number of disciples (not the 12 who were mostly from the rural north). This makes the Mark passage non-specific enough to include all three places. John doesn’t even mention the account, for whatever reason, and can’t be faulted for not including something that, though significant for some things, may not have been significant for the points he was trying to make. The Luke passage says that he “led them out as far as Bethany,” making it equally unclear whether or not he was in or near Bethany when he departed. This is further complicated by the Acts passage (usually assumed to be the second edition of the Luke narrative) which has the disciples returning from the Mount of Olives, though it is unclear whether they were at the top or near the foot of the place when they set out towards Jerusalem. The most interesting passage then, which contributes the most contradiction to the accounts, is the Matthew reference to Jesus being taken up in Galilee, some distance from Jerusalem, Bethany or the Mount of Olives.