Why Are There Differences in the Gospels?

Watch the video above and talk about it with a group or mentor. Learn more.

Key Points:

• Ancient writers had different standards than we do when it comes to acceptable use of information. They reasoned differently and addressed different questions than we do.
• The gospels consist of “snapshots” of Jesus’s life that are not always chronologically-arranged, but sometimes thematically-arranged. While this may surprise modern readers, ancient people were familiar with this practice and wouldn’t have batted an eyelash at it.
• The story of the cleansing of the temple occurs early in the Gospel of John, but later in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
• Some argue that Jesus cleansed the temple twice. Others argue that given the nature of ancient writing, it wasn’t inconsistent from the ancient writer’s perspective to simply move the story because it better fit with the larger narrative themes to do so.
• We might call some of this “bad historical writing,” but from the perspective of the ancient writers, it was simply business as usual. The problem, then, is not with the New Testament (NT) but with our understanding of it and of the methods of ancient authors.

Quote This:

Luke 1:1-4 Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.