What does this mean?

Question

Luke 23.44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ****THEN*** Jesus, criying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last.

Matt27.50 Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn is two, from top to bottom.

From Luke is is clear curtain was torn THEN Jesus died. From Matt it's the oppsite (or close to it) it happened at the same time.

There are two conclusion I can come up with:
1) This is due to a mistranslation in the bible.

2) The bible isn't inspired by God.

If either of these are true, how do we believe everything in the bible. What else could have been mistranslated...homosexuals?

If God allows men to make errors in the bible, and some parts aren't true. Then doesn't the bible fall into the definition of false prophet given in the old testiment.

Some people have questioned the definition of "then." Here is the pertenate def from dictionary.com

Next in time, space, or order; immediately afterward: watched the late movie and then went to bed.

Women are also treated rather poorly in the bible, is this a liberty the men who wrote it took? How/Why would God just let this poor treatment of women continue to happen.

Answer 1

Isn't it a bit odd to pick on a minor disagreement like this in the middle of a book that's so full of huge inaccuracies? I mean, the book claims that the universe was created by some invisible super-being, and that we will all be alive after we're dead. In that context, why in the world would you be worried about this little tiny detail?

It's remarkably easy to understand the whole Bible thing: there isn't any god, and this book was put together over time by quite a few human beings. Parts were included or omitted as they seemed to work to help hold together a religious belief system. There's no great mystery at all here.

Answer 2

The Catholic church addresses this conflict very well. The Bible is still inspired by God, but that does not mean that He dictated everything word for world. He just gave the power to certain individuals to write down the words of the Bible to spread the Word of God. That obviously then does mean that there would never be such a thing as 100% accuracy.

Because of this, the Catholic church teaches that the Bible should be interpretted contextually. This means that in this case, we can look at the Bible here and know a few things for sure: that Jesus died, and that the curtain was torn in two. Since these two Gospels have contradicting information here, we can only truly accept a few parts of this to be obviously true. The rest is important to know about, but tends to be more symbolic. For example, Jesus said something different on the cross according to each of the four Gospels.

I have to agree with you then on the homosexual thing though, and the best part is, the Catholic interpretation of the Bible tends to allow my thought process here as well. The Catholic church does teach against homosexual actions, but I believe that each individual was made by God with their sexual identity and should be treated no differently for that. The Bible was written by people who were, at the time, influenced by a society that condemned homosexuality to the extreme, so obviously this was reflected in their writing. Therefore, I do not consider these references in the Bible to be valid and directly God-inspired.

Answer 3

Well how is it not true, have you seen something, one way and when someone else saw the same thing, he told it differently, just a little.

As Christians like to believe that the Bible is from God, it is from the books of the Apostles and written by them. (New Testament)

Then in the 3rd Century the what is now the Catholic Church took these books and form today's Bible and this is what actually laid out the Christian laws of today.

Yes it could be a translation problem as far as today goes but to really get a feel of the closest correct translation you need to go back to the King James version of the Bible. Compare what it says there with what is say in the version of the Bible you have. As I have found, today latest versions are taking some real big liberties with the translations.

But your statement just shows you are looking for some type of consolation for being homosexual. Well there is non, you are what you are. So live with it and don't look for Christians to give their stamp of approval on it. It will never happen.

Answer 4

It just means that the event was witnessed by two different people, and recorded as they saw it. Maybe one looked around a little before the other one did. You also fail to mention that in Matthew 27: 45 Jesus had already spoken to the Father, then he obviously cried again. Maybe it was just a groan? Who knows, but boy, are you picking at gnats. It really doesn't prove anything relevant.
About your last question... Nope, there are verses that specifically say that the sexually immoral, (then lists what He means,) will not inherit the kingdom of God, unless they turn from the sin... 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 for example.
Can't find homosexual in your Strongs Concordance? Well it used to be "arsenokoites" or "abusers of themselves with mankind" (#733 in the Greek dictionary) and it means sodomites. Maybe you can go ask Mr. Webster on that, so that I don't have to go into explicit detail on here... People look for loopholes all the time, but it isn't about the rules, or the bending of them. It is about giving your heart fully to God, then you won't want to get around Him or His rules, and because you do love Him, and appreciate that He made that rule to protect your health, then you cease to want to hurt Him, and start wanting to learn more about why He loved you enough to care.

P.S. The timing on the veil isn't what is important, what is - is the ripping from top to bottom, (that God Himself ripped it) and the fact that it was ripped. God was saying that we could come directly to Him, we didn't have to go through a priest anymore.

Answer 5

Much of the gospel was written well after Jesus died. Have you ever played that game called "pass it on"? you have a group of people, a long line of them, then the first person says something to the second one and so on. By the time it gets to the last person what was said at first is almost completely different. So too the books of the bible. Some gospels were written 50-100 years after the death of Christ.

Don't get caught up in all that. Just understand what is being said and don't rely on no TV evangelist to tell you the meaning. You decide

Answer 6

Weather or not the curtain tore is irrevelant to the truth the passage is trying to tell. Does it being before or after nullify anything? Comparing it to homosexuality is way off. There are a few other for you information like in Kings where the # of coins David bought land for is different, But does that event really change history? Luke and Matt were 2 different people and had different testimonies--it actually looks very accurate to me, being that they were 2 people.

Answer 7

You are describing an event that most likely happened at the same time, and since the temple was quite a way away, you would have to take the words of the priest that were in the temple, and saw the curtain rip, and get there time, and compare it to those who watched Christ die, and get a time, with out watches, or sundials working (no sun remember).
so its is best guess by the observers. I would say the got in under 60 seconds of difference. Not bad for dead reckoning.
[no pun intended]

Answer 8

I would agree with (1) and (2), as neither is mutually exclusive. With regard to the "darkness" at noon, I think it's called a solar eclipse. You know, I wasn't there, but my sense is that homosexuality wasn't such a big abomination among the "faithful" back then. With women reduced the the ranks just a smidgen above four-legged bovines, men got pretty mooshy about their buddies. This is just a wild guess, mind you.

Answer 9

It might be neither. The torn curtain could be symbolic, and the precise timing of the tear might not affect the meaning.

Answer 10

"Then" doesn't necessarily mean Jesus died after the curtain was torn. "Then" could also mean it all happened at the same time. Therefore, there's no contradiction. "Then" could mean three in the afternoon. They both say it happened at the same time. Nice try, french fry.

(What John said)