I was told by a knowledgable Christian that....?

Question

The Gospels in the Bible (which account for Jesus's life and message) were all written by different people/apostles at years apart in time and hundreds to thousands of miles apart (different parts of the world), and yet they all agree on the same story even agreeing on specific details about Jesus and his life. What do you make of this?

"Matthew first wrote his gospel for Jewish believers while he was still in Palestine. In fact Eusebius, (a bishop of Caesarea and known as the father of church history), reported that Matthew wrote his gospel before he left Palestine to preach in other lands, which Eusebius says happened about 12 years after the death of Christ. Some scholars believe that this would place the writing of Matthew as early as 40-45 A.D. and as late as 55 A.D."


Also something extra:

The writers left far too many “hard sayings,” and culturally unacceptable / politically incorrect accounts that would need explaining. An example of this is that the first witnesses of the resurrection were women, whose testimony held no value as a witness in the culture of that day.

Answer 1

Yes, and it's the only book in History to have a situation like this AND have it be so accurate. Most people agree from Historians to Scientists that it would be impossible to replicate any such book again with as many authors as the Bible has and have it not be a complete mess.

Answer 2

Yes this is partly true, although not entirely!! The New Testament today was actually put together by a Roman emperor and various christian men. They wanted to have 1 book in which all Christianity would follow so they got all the various stories together and decided on what should go into the bible and which stories should not. (for example:- some ppl believe there is a section called The Gospel according to Mary which was never allowed in the bible) All stories are written by 1 different man, for instance there is not 2 or 3 ppl who write about the birth of Christ only one. There wasn't 2 or 3 who wrote about the Crucifixion, only 1, only one person wrote about Noah or Adam and Eve. One of the topics the Roman Emperor wanted resolved was about Jesus. 2 of the Highest Christians in Rome disagreed as to what Jesus actually was. One claimed he was the Son of God so an immortal (which we believe today) and the other believed that Jesus was just a man therefore mortal. The three of them took days arguing and talking until the 2 Christians came to an agreement. Religion might have been so different if that decision had went another way. But the point is that the Bible was put together by man, so you can take it as a fact that there are things in it that are wrong and things were made up so there are not two stories by 2 different ppl telling the same thing so there is no agreement.

Answer 3

That's not entirely accurate. You must remember that the Christian Bible only has 4 Gospels, but the primitive Christians had about 19 Gospels in use, most of them written from 40 C.E. to 12O C.E.

It was the Nicea Council (355 C.E.) who chose the 4 gospels that were to be included among the Canonical Books of the Bible, the others were ignored initially, but years later, since the emerging church couldn't stop people from using those other gospels, the Church invented the Holy Inquisition and began to kill those who practiced heresy (teachings contrary to what was taught by the Church) and burned most of the ancient manuscripts.

But if you pay close attention to the Bible. You will find that it does contradicts itself, and our religious leaders always come up with great ways to cover up that fact.

Since I am not a religious leader, I encourage you to seek for yourself, and come to your own conclussions, about what I am telling you. The Bible is a great book with many wonderful teachings. You are the one who must decide -after a very profound study - whether it is the Word of God or if it is the word of man. Don't ever let any religious leader impose his/her beliefs on you.

Answer 4

Your friend did not take into account the sourcing of information.

The Synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Mark was written first, and it appears that both Matthew and Luke had a copy of the book of Mark to use as a reference. They both also apparently had a source that has disappeared, because they are in near total agreement on some stories, but we don't know what source they were using to compile their accounts. This shared source of information is often referred to a "Q" for the German word "Quelle," meaning "source."

In addition, both Matthew and Luke had references that were unique to them specifically. This is why their nativity stories differ, and why Mark leaves out the nativity entirely. It also was either absent or ignored by one or both of them in the "Q" account of Jesus life.

John, on the other hand, is the last book written and was more of an accounting to document Jesus divinity. This is why John's story of Jesus looks almost like it is describing a different character. There are a few stories in common, but most of Jesus sayings are entirely different from those detailed in the Synoptic gospels.

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Answer 5

Mathew and John were actual eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ. They lived with him for 3 years. Mark and Luke were disciples of Paul who was not an original apostle but called by the ONe True God to be an apostle to the Gentiles. All these people lived within 100-200 miles from Jerusalum. They were all written for different target audiences. That is why they are different.

Answer 6

Your friend is correct that the Gospels were written and rewritten by many different men over the centuries and in a number of different locations. However, it is inaccurate to charactize them as being in agreement regarding the story of Jesus. There are subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the texts.

As most Christians know nothing about the history of the bible itself, who wrote it and why, your Christian friend is quite knowledgeable

Answer 7

Sounds like a knowledgable Christian. The Gospels were written by different authors inspired by God.

The bible had 40 authors written in a span of over 1600 years. All authors gave credit to God.

Answer 8

The gospels were written by four different people and at the time of their writing they were in different parts of what was then considered "the world" . However, each of these men either had direct connection and a direct relationship with Jesus or they were close to someone who did have the one on one experience with Jesus. All accounts in the four gospels are considerd "eye witness" accounts.

Answer 9

ACTUALLY, there were 34 different gospels in the jesus movement. Half of them wanted to portray Jesus as the son of god, and the other half wanted to portray him as a religious leader. If you remember the emperor Constantine he wanted to unite his empire under one religion so he created the Council of Nicea. This council was compiled of all the major "christian" movements and its main purpose was to sit down and end the dispute about which holy books to teach from. Its easy to believe that politics became a big part in this council, In fact it did when Alexander of Alexandria created a kinda of clique that pressured the council to make Jesus a Messiah. So if you wondering why the stories are so similar its because the group of "Christians" sat down and picked the best Gospel to represent their faith in good.

If you dont believe me do some research about the council.

Answer 10

God's hand at work. Matthew was written possibly in Antioch 60 - 70 AD, Mark written in Rome 60 - 65 AD, Luke possibly In Caesarea 60 - 65 AD, John written in Ephesus 90 - 96 AD, Acts place where written uncertain but in 65 - 70 AD....