Continue with: THE GOSPELS/History or Myth-QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

What about seeming contradictions in the Gospels? 

Critics have long claimed that the Gospels are full of contradictions. Historian Durant sought to examine the Gospel accounts from a purely objective standpoint-as historical documents. Though he says that there are seeming contradictions in them, he concludes:  "The contradictions are of minutiae [trivial details], not substance in essentials the synoptic gospels agree remarkably well, and form a consistent portrait of Christ."

Seeming contradictions in Gospel accounts are often easily resolved. To illustrate:  Matthew 8:5 says that "an army  officer came to [Jesus], entreating him" to cure a manservant. At Luke 7:3, we read that the officer "sent forth older men of the Jews to [Jesus] to ask him to come and bring [the]slave safely through." The officer sent the elders as his representatives.  Matthew says that the army officer himself entreated Jesus because the man made his request through the elders, who served as his mouthpiece. This is just one example showing that the alleged discrepancies  in the Gospels can be resolved. 

What are the claims of higher critics that the Gospels do not meet the criteria of real history?  Continues Durant:  "In the enthusiasm of it discoveries the Higher Criticism  has applied to the New Testament tests of authenticity so severe that by them a hundred ancient worthies-e.g., Hammurabi, David, Socrates-would fade into the legend. Despite the prejudices and theological preconceptions of the evangelists, they record many incidents that mere inventors would have concealed-the competition of the apostles for high places in the Kingdom, their flight after Jesus' arrest, Peter's denial . . .No one reading these scenes can doubt the reality of the figure behind them." 

Next time: Continue with; THE GOSPELS/History or Myth-QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

From the Watchtower magazine, 2000