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Different Perspectives

A hot topic of many believers, new and old, is that of the Bible “contradicting” itself. While there’s a long explanation for these concerns, today, we will tackle the discrepancies among the gospels. The gospels are the first four books of the New Testament (remember talking about that?). These books are four versions of the same story: the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. New believers are typically pointed to one of these books at the start of their faith journey, so I find it significant to explain why the differences and similarities between the stories don’t mean they are false.

Can you think of a time when you experienced the same moment as someone else, but they remember it entirely differently? I used to think that everyone else was super dramatic because of this, and they might be, or they simply processed the moment differently than I had. That goes for the authors of the gospels as well! Some of them were actually with Jesus at times and saw things firsthand, while others wrote based solely on the stories of witnesses. Slight variations of the same story are bound to happen when we hear the story told by different people with different perspectives.

Perspective plays a role in the differences: things like the author’s personality, audience, and experiences. The author of Matthew was writing to an audience of Jewish people (aka people who knew the Old Testament), so he emphasized how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Mark is written for non-Jewish people, called “Gentiles,” so it focuses less on teaching and more on Jesus’ actions. Luke is thought to be written by a non-Jewish doctor, so he wrote a very descriptive account of Jesus’ life. John writes with a different purpose: to have people believe that Jesus is God, not just to give a summary of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. These differences explain why the gospels differ.

You and I can see the beauty- the validity in the differences- or doubt. If you choose to doubt, I hope that you will dive in to prove it. I think you will find the Bible is the perfect, written word of God.