Contradictions among Gospels Part 1 :Gospel According to Mark

Gospel According to Mark

The Gospel begins with ”The Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God...” The

Easy to Read Bible has a footnote stating that some Greek copies omit the “Son of God”

from this verse. Taking into consideration that “the son of god” is the most important

statement in Christianity, how can it be added or omitted from the Gospel of Mark? Did

Mark or did he not write this statement? Is it possible that the statement “the son of

god”, in this verse is a Hebrew expression that meant intimacy with God? There are

many references in the Old Testament about prophets being called Son of God.

The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels. In the third century the

Christian historian Eusebius of Caesarea, relates this Gospel to Mark, using a statement

from an earlier writer named Papias (60? -125?). Papias suggested that Mark was John

Mark, cousin of Barnabas, mentioned in Acts 15:37-39, in several letters of Paul,

(Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24), and in 1 Peter 5:13. It is extremely

difficult to confirm that Mark was actually John Mark. Some Christian scholars think that

an unknown Christian named Mark wrote this Gospel.

In chapter 13, Mark refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, which makes the

writing of this Gospel to be around 70 AD. Clement of Alexandria stated that Rome was

the place of writing, while other scholars suggested that it might have been written in

Galilee or Syria.

This Gospel does not include any information about Jesus’ childhood. It starts

with his baptism by John the Baptist. The story goes on until his arrest, crucifixion, and

burial. Mark (8:11-13) is in contradiction with Matthew and Luke with regards to the sign

of Jonas. In Mark, Jesus says that there will be no sign without any exception. Mark

states that during crucifixion at noon the whole land became dark (15:33). Mark reports

the saying of Jesus on the Cross as follows:

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?” (Mark 15:34), which is identical to Matthew 27:46.

There are two versions for ending of this Gospel. Most of the Greek manuscripts

have the “long ending,” closing at 16:20. The second version with the “short ending”

extends only through 16:8. Most scholars believe that the short version is the correct

one. Verses 16:9-20 are not included in the two oldest manuscripts of the Gospels,

Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. There was a sudden and improper ending of the

Gospel of Mark. Verses 16:9-20 are added from the Gospel of Luke to have a

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reasonable ending! What a blunt admission is provided for us here? Human

manipulation of the texts of the holy inspired Scriptures is just outrageous!

The conclusion is that the author of this Gospel is unknown, the place of writing this

Gospel is unknown, the time of writing this Gospel is unknown, and the Gospel

contains stories that contradict other Gospels. Yet the Church wants us to believe

that the Almighty inspired the whole Bible, word for word.

Contradictions among Gospels Part 1 :The Gospels

The Gospels

The four Gospels are the heart of the New Testament. The first three Gospels are called

synoptic because they generally correspond to each other. Yet, the origin of these

Gospels is the greatest mystery of Christianity. There are so many mysteries relating to

the Gospels. Who did actually write them? When and where were they written? These

Gospels are full of contradictions. Apologists through complex and elusive interpretation

might handle some contradictions. Others are shy of explanation or outright

unacceptable.

The careful reader that is interested in reading the titles of each chapter in the Bible

may ask why the titles of all four Gospels have the word “according to”, like the Gospel

according to Saint Matthew. Why “according to”? Why did the authors not identify

themselves first? In the Gospel according to Matthew 9:9:

“And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew”

Why did Matthew not say, “he saw me” instead of “he saw a man, named Matthew”?

In John 21:24 “This is the disciple which testify of these things, and wrote these

things: and we know that his testimony is true.”

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Who are “we”? And why did John talk about himself as third person “his”? And why in

the following verse, he referred to himself as “I”? Was verse 21:24 written by someone

else and verse 21:25 written by John?

Gospel According to Matthew

Matthew was one of the apostles of Jesus, although not a distinguished one. According

to tradition, he was the author of the first Gospel and therefore one of the four

evangelists. However, little is known about Matthew. The first three Gospels state that

he was a tax collector who would have been a man of some education, skilled in

arithmetic and able to speak both Aramaic and Greek. Some scholars suggest that he

left to Ethiopia for preaching Christianity where he died there at 63 or 70 AD.

There are evidences to indicate that this Gospel was written for the Jews,

because the Gospel includes many references to Jewish scripture. The Gospel was

written in Hebrew, then an unknown person translated it to Greek, and the original

Hebrew manuscript has perished. This raises a serious question about the knowledge

and intention of the translator. Was he knowledgeable enough in the two languages?

What was his background? Was he a Jew or a Gentile? Did he try to push certain

concepts in the Gospel? Early Christian writers suggested that Matthew wrote his

Gospel in Palestine; others favored the city of Antioch in Syria. The date of writing, as

frequently suggested, was around the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, perhaps from

65 to 80 AD. The date of writing the original manuscripts is unknown. Why did Matthew

wait 40 years after Jesus to write his Gospel? Was it really written by Matthew or

someone from the second generation, perhaps one of his students? The author of

Matthew used Mark and “Q” as his two major sources.

Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Jews. Jesus

states that he did not come to destroy the Law of Moses, but to fulfill (5:17). Also, Jesus

commands his disciples to preach “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:6). The

influence of this Gospel on Christianity has been authoritarian ever since its writing. This

is because the Gospel was used in the formulation of doctrine and the divine nature of

Jesus, an importance shared only by the Gospel of John.

Matthew includes some exclusive stories: the visit of the wise men from the East

(2:1); the travel of Jesus’ family to Egypt to escape the slaughter of male children by

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Herod the Great; and their return from Egypt after Herod's death. The death of Jesus'

betrayer, Judas Iscariot (27:3-10), the dream of Pontius Pilate's wife (27:19), Pilate's

washing his hands of liability for Jesus' death (27:24-25), the earthquake following

Jesus' death (27:51-53), the guard at the tomb (27:62-66), the earthquake at the time of

Jesus' resurrection (28:2-4), and the appearances of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene

and the other Mary (28:9-10) and to his disciples in Galilee (28:16-20). Matthew (1:18-

2:23) shows similarities between Moses and Jesus to appeal to the Jews. Both were

hidden from an evil king that massacred children, and both lived in Egypt in their

childhood.

Many scholars regard Matthew as a writer with wild imagination. He includes stories

in his Gospel that are unbelievable. An example, of his outrageous imagination, is the

description of the events relating to the crucifixion of Jesus. The whole country became

dark for three hours, the temple was torn into two pieces, the tears started at the top and

tore all the way to the bottom, an earthquake happened, and many dead people were

resurrected and went to Jerusalem, and were seen by many (27:51-53). This is a big

story. It should have been reported in the other Gospels. Did these stories convert a

large number of people to Christianity? These stories have no correspondence in the

other three Gospels.

The most debatable story in the Gospel of Matthew concerns Jonas’ sign

(12:38:40). When the Pharisees ask Jesus for a proof, Jesus replies that the son of man

will give the miracle that happened to Jonas. Luke has the same story, but Mark is in

contradiction with Matthew and Luke with regards to the sign of Jonas.

Matthew reports the saying of Jesus on the Cross: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?” This

means My God, my God, why did you abandon me? (Matthew 27:46), which is identical

to Mark 15:34.

The conclusion is that the author of this Gospel is unknown, the place of writing this

Gospel is unknown, the time of writing this Gospel is unknown, and the Gospel

contains stories that contradict other Gospels. Yet the Church wants us to believe

that the Almighty inspired the whole Bible, word for word.

Contradictions in New testament Part 4 :English Translations

English Translations

Christianity reached England with a Latin Bible. There was a need to offer an English

Bible for both the clergy and the laymen. Between the seventh and fourteenth centuries,

parts of the Bible were roughly translated into English as an aid to the clergy. Interest in

translation from Latin to English grew rapidly in the fourteenth century, and in 1382 the

first complete English Bible appeared in manuscript. It was the work of the English

scholar John Wycliffe, whose goal was to give the Bible to the people.

In 1525 the English scholar William Tyndale translated the New Testament from

the Greek text. It was printed in Germany and smuggled into England. Tyndale's

translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew text was only partly completed. His

simple writing and popular expression established a style in English translation that

dominated future versions.

In 1535 the English scholar Miles Coverdale published an English translation

based on German and Latin versions in addition to Tyndale's. This was not only the first

complete English Bible to appear in printed form, but unlike its predecessors, it was an

approved version by the Canterbury Convocation. Later, Oliver Cromwell nominated

Coverdale to produce a new Bible, which appeared in six editions between 1539 and

1568. This Bible was called the Great Bible, which was primarily a scholarly Bible. The

next important version was produced in Geneva in 1560 by English Protestants in exile,

and was called the Geneva Bible. This Bible contained several innovations including the

division of chapters into numbered verses. The final revision of the Great Bible, in 1568,

by scholars and bishops of the Anglican Church was known as the Bishops' Bible. This

Bible was designed to replace the Great Bible with a translation for the laymen.

The King James Version and Its Revisions

In 1604 King James I commissioned a new revision of the English Bible; it was

completed in 1611. Following Tyndale primarily, this Authorized Version, also known as

the King James Version, was widely acclaimed for its beauty and simplicity of style. In

the years that followed, the Authorized Version underwent several revisions, the most

notable being the English Revised Version (1881-85), the American Standard Version

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(1901), and the revision of the American Standard Version undertaken by the

International Council of Religious Education, representing 40 Protestant denominations

in the US and Canada. This Revised Standard Version (RSV) appeared between 1946

and 1952. Widely accepted by Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic Christians, it

provided the basis for the first accepted English Bible. In the Preface of the RSV, 1971,

the following is written:

“The King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth

century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts

more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it

manifest, that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for the revision

of the English translation.” The preface continued to refer to the unhappy experience

with unauthorized publications, “which tampered with the text of the English

Revised Version, in the supposed interest of the American public.”

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV, 1989) eliminated much

obsolete and ambiguous usage. The New King James Bible, with contemporary

American vocabulary, was published in 1982. The Holy Bible, Easy-to-Read version, in

1987 and 1989, was adapted from the existing text by the World Bible Translation

Center to represent present day English.

The Roman Catholic Versions

Roman Catholics in English-speaking countries commonly used the Douay or Douay-

Rheims Bible, completed between 1582 and 1609, until the eighteenth century, when the

English bishop Richard Challoner considerably revised it. The Douay Bible was a

translation from the Latin Vulgate, primarily the work of two English exiles in France,

William Allen (1532-1594) and Gregory Martin (1540? -1582). During the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries, Roman Catholics replaced the Douay and Challoner Bibles with

other translations. In the United States, one of the most widely used is the New

American Bible of 1970. It is the first complete Bible to be translated from Hebrew and

Greek by American Roman Catholics.

The Roman Catholic Version, RCV, is the oldest version that one can buy today.

Despite its antiquity, the whole Protestant world condemns the RCV, because it contains

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seven extra books, which they refer to as the Apocrypha. Notwithstanding the terrible

warning contained in the Apocalypse, which is the last book in the RCV (renamed as

“Revelation” by the Protestant), it is “revealed”:

Revelation 22:18-19 “If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto

him the plagues written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the

words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book

of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

In spite of the above warning, the Protestants have eliminated or the Catholics

have added seven whole books from their “Word of God”. These books are: Tobias,

Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 1 Machabees, and 2 Machabees.