Differences among the Gospel accounts

Program / Course 17: Defending Scripture / Lesson 4.3

What you will learn

• Describe the relationship among Matthew, Mark and Luke (the Synoptic problem) and the distinct character of John.
• Explain how ancient biographies were written and why it matters for reading the Gospels.
• Apply the method to the resurrection accounts, the cleansing of the temple and the date of the last supper.
• Distinguish among harmonizing, composing a combined narrative and honoring each Gospel as it stands.

The big idea

The four Gospels tell the story of Jesus with striking agreement and also with real differences in order, wording, detail and emphasis. Ancient readers knew that there were four accounts and chose to keep all four, rather than merge them into one. The differences are best approached by asking what each evangelist was doing. Some differences are easily explained as selection or paraphrase. A few, such as the timing of the last supper and the details of Easter morning, remain debated, and the traditions handle them in different ways.

Key terms

Synoptic Gospels

Matthew, Mark and Luke, which share much material and can be viewed side by side (the Greek root means seen together).

Synoptic problem

The question of how Matthew, Mark and Luke are related to each other and to common sources.

Markan priority

The view, held by most scholars, that Mark was written first and was used by Matthew and Luke.

Q

A hypothetical source of sayings of Jesus, shared by Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark. Its existence is debated.

Diatessaron

A single narrative woven from the four Gospels by Tatian in the second century.

Bios

A Greek word for life. A type of ancient biography that many scholars believe the Gospels resemble.

Pericope

A short unit of text, such as a single story or saying, that can be compared across the Gospels.

Background

The early church faced the question of four Gospels from the beginning. Tatian combined them, and the Syrian church used his work for a long time, but the wider church kept the four separate. Irenaeus defended the four as a unity. Augustine wrote On the Harmony of the Gospels in the early fifth century, taking on pagan critics who said the Gospels disagree. He argued that the evangelists differ because each remembered and arranged things in his own way, and that the sense is the same.

Modern study asks how the Gospels were composed. The majority view is that Mark was written first, probably around the time of the Jewish war with Rome in the 60s or 70s, and that Matthew and Luke used Mark along with other material. Others hold that Matthew was first, as the early church thought, or that Luke used Matthew. John is distinct, with its own vocabulary and structure, and the relation of John to the others is debated. None of these theories is a certainty.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: What kind of books the Gospels are

Many scholars, including Richard Burridge, argue that the Gospels belong to the genre of ancient biography. Ancient biographers aimed to portray a person’s character through deeds and sayings, and they were free to arrange events by theme, to abbreviate and to paraphrase speeches. They did not usually claim to give a day-by-day record. Luke says he wrote an orderly account after tracing things carefully (Luke 1:1-4), which fits this picture.

Others stress that the Gospels also claim to rest on eyewitness testimony. Richard Bauckham, in a book on the Gospels and eyewitnesses, argues that the evangelists drew on named witnesses and that the early church valued them. These two views are not exclusive. A biography can use eyewitness reports and still arrange them by theme. The question is how much freedom the evangelists had and how far it extended.

Step 2: Differences easily explained

Mark 10:46 tells of Jesus healing a blind man, Bartimaeus, as he left Jericho, and Matthew 20:30 tells of two blind men. Luke places a similar healing as Jesus drew near to Jericho (Luke 18:35). The usual explanation is that Mark names the better known of two men, and that Luke’s wording can refer to the neighborhood of the city. This is a difference of selection and not necessarily a conflict.

The same holds for the inscription on the cross, which differs in wording in each Gospel. Ancient inscriptions were in more than one language, and each evangelist gave the sense. In these cases the evangelists agree on the substance and vary in the words, as ancient authors regularly did when they reported speech.

Step 3: Easter morning

The resurrection accounts agree that the tomb was found empty on the first day of the week by women who followed Jesus, and that Jesus appeared to his followers. They differ in which women are named, in whether one angel or two appeared, in whether the women at once told anyone, and in where the first appearances to the disciples took place, Galilee or Jerusalem.

Defenders propose harmonies in which the women came in groups or at different moments and each Gospel records a part of the story. Critics say the differences are larger than that and show the evangelists drawing on different traditions. A cautious statement is that the accounts agree on the core claims, the empty tomb, the women as witnesses, the appearances, and differ on details that no one has convincingly reconciled. Many Christians regard that as consistent with independent testimony.

Step 4: The temple and the last supper

The Synoptics place the cleansing of the temple in the last week, and John places it near the start (John 2:13-17). Options include two cleansings, John’s thematic placement and Mark’s different arrangement. Scholars do not agree. The Synoptic Gospels also describe the last supper as a Passover meal, while John 18:28 says that the leaders did not enter Pilate’s headquarters so as to eat the Passover, and John 19:14 calls the day the preparation of the Passover.

Proposals include different calendars in use among Jews at the time, such as the one found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, that John uses Passover in a broader sense for the whole festival, and that John is presenting Jesus as the Passover lamb. Each has defenders and critics. This is one of the best-known tensions, and the traditions deal with it differently: the Eastern churches use leavened bread in the Eucharist partly in light of John’s chronology, while the Western church uses unleavened bread.

Step 5: Four Gospels, not one

The church could have kept only one Gospel or only a combined one. It kept four. Many Christians see that as a sign that the differences are part of the witness: each Gospel gives a portrait, and together they show more than any one. Skeptics say the church kept four because each was too well known to drop, and the differences remained as a problem. Both observations have a basis, and a student can hold that the church chose to accept the evidence as it stood.

1. Why might an ancient biographer rearrange events by theme, and does this make the account unreliable?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of a combined account such as the Diatessaron?
3. How would you describe the difference between the evangelists agreeing on the core and on every detail?
4. Which of the harmonizations of the resurrection accounts do you find most convincing?
5. How does knowing that Mark probably came first change the way you read Matthew and Luke?
6. What does the church’s decision to keep four Gospels suggest to you?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

Dei Verbum affirms that the four Gospels faithfully hand on what Jesus did and taught, and also that the evangelists selected, synthesized and explained the material for their churches. The 1964 instruction of the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the historical truth of the Gospels describes three stages: Jesus, the apostolic preaching and the written Gospels.

Orthodox

The Orthodox church reads the four Gospels as a unity and has the liturgical reading of the Gospels at the center of worship. The Fathers, such as Chrysostom, note the differences and explain them by the evangelists’ purposes without forcing a single narrative.

Protestant (evangelical)

Evangelical scholars often argue for the historical reliability of the Gospels and for harmonizations that preserve each account’s details, while accepting that the evangelists paraphrased and arranged. Some, such as Craig Blomberg, have written on this at length.

Protestant (critical)

Critical Protestant scholars study the Gospels as products of early churches that shaped the traditions about Jesus for their own settings. They hold that this does not remove the Gospels’ value as witnesses to him, and many reject harmonizing as a distortion of each author’s voice.

Skeptical and Jewish scholarship

Many non-Christian scholars study the Gospels as sources for the historical Jesus. They accept much of the outline of his life and teaching, while holding that the differences show considerable development. They question the claims of miracles and resurrection on historical grounds.

Why it matters

The Gospels are the center of Christian faith, and the differences among them are often the first thing a thoughtful person notices. A student who understands how ancient biographies were written, and how the Gospels relate to one another, can read them without a defensive reflex or a dismissive one. The topic also shows how traditions differ even in their handling of difficulties: some harmonize, some emphasize the individual voice, and some leave the tension in place.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Does the difference among the Gospels strengthen or weaken your trust in them as witnesses? Why?
2. Why do you think the church kept four Gospels when it could have kept one?
3. How would you explain the difference between agreement on the core and on all details to someone who expects total agreement?

Independent assignment

A Gospel parallel

In your own notebook, choose one story told in at least three Gospels (for example the empty tomb, the feeding of the five thousand or the denial of Peter). Read each account and write the points of agreement and difference in two lists. Then write 300 to 400 words using the method of Lesson 4.1 to classify each difference and report an outcome. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.

Further study

• Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses Read selectively for the argument about eyewitness testimony in the Gospels.
• N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God Read selectively for the resurrection accounts in the context of the ancient world.
• Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Read the passage on the four Gospels.
• Augustine of Hippo, The City of God Read selectively for Augustine’s general approach to the Scriptures.
• Luke 1:1 Luke’s introduction to his orderly account.
• John 19:14 The day of preparation of the Passover.
• Mark 16:1 The women come to the tomb.