Do the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus match each other?

Answer 1

No the contradict each other

Answer 2

I suppose it depends a great deal on what you mean by "match." The gospel accounts agree in their telling. Do they parrot each other word for word? Well, no. Neither would we expect them to. If they did, we would call that collusion. Are there discrepancies between the gospel accounts? No. Are there distinctions? Yes, some but of course, that is precisely what one would expect. Distinction simply means a difference in detail. But that does not mean automatically translate to contradictions.

To illustrate: there is an accident at a particular intersection of Adam Avenue and David Drive. One eyewitness explains that a Buick traveling north collided with a Honda traveling west. Still another says a red car traveling on Adam Avenue collided with a blue car traveling on David Drive. There are distinctions here, yes? But that does not mean they contradict each other. One person describes the vehicles as moving north (Adam Avenue) and moving west (David Drive). He also described the vehicles as red (the Buick) and blue (the Honda). Still another witness says that the full-sized sedan (the red Buick) was moving at a rate of 45 m.p.h. and the compact (the blue Honda) had just moved into the intersection. Still another witness says that the light governing Adam Avenue was red and the one governing David Drive was green.

All the eyewitness stories dovetail quite nicely and give you a full picture of what happened.

It is similar with the synoptic accounts. Giving the accounts more than a cursory glance shows that indeed, they do not contradict each other, even though many people insist that they do. Every perceived contradiction in the gospel accounts can be readily explained.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 3

Father K is right. The differences in the the genealogies are also explained. That's the beauty of the gospels. Each one written from a different perspective. They overlap each other in some areas and add to the story of Jesus in other areas. They do not contradict as some suggest. Detractors seem to think that they should be exact - line by line. Do you really think that would make them more credible? What makes the gospels great is that they are written by different men (Spirit inspired of course) and not at the same time. I'd like to see this done today. Impossible feat. If you don't believe that, try it.

Answer 4

For the most part. A few of the details differ, but even if each gospel was EXACTLY like the other, people would say that they just copied from each other. That there are some differences in opinion, and the interpretation of what happened, says to me that they are simply different accounts of the same events.

And for the record, the genealogies of Jesus given are two DIFFERENT ancestries. One is Joseph's, and the other is Mary's.

Answer 5

If they had been written by 21st century western thinkers than yes - many contradictions. However, they were not written they way that we might today. For example - Mark couldn't have cared less about chronology (in truth, only Matthew did) - that's not how he was trained in telling a story. Instead, he used techniques of his day such as framing in order to get across the nature of Jesus and His message. (In framing, you begin with one story such as Jesus having to touch a blind man twice before healing then tell lots of stories about faith and end with the story of a blind man not even needing Jesus to touch him to be healed and Jesus saying "your faith has healed you.")

Each Gospel was written to different audiences - some to fellow Jews others to Gentiles and in doing so each author used different writing styles and cultural understandings in order to best communicate.

Remember, we're not dealing with people from our culture so we cannot hold them to our writing guidelines.

Answer 6

They may not all have the exact same details, but they were written by 4 different men. Each would have remembered and forgotten different things. Also, the fact that Jesus died on the cross so that anyone who accepts Him as their Lord and Savior may go to heaven is present in each account.

Answer 7

Not really. It will take no time to read all four, but there are many contradictions. The geologies of Matthew and Luke do not match up, dates for certain events are different in different gospels, and so on.

It is interesting to read, side by side, events that more than one gospel relates. Many discrepancies.

Answer 8

Think of it like this, Bettie....have you ever taken a statement about a traffic accident (I have - 1,000's of times - I was an insurance adjuster in a past life) ?? You can get different stories depending on the different angles seen by the eyewitnesses. All four Gospel writers are writing to different audiences from different perspectives.

Answer 9

I do love you Father K, but I saw Jesus jump out of the grave and start eating brains. Just my perspective though.

Answer 10

Of course not. Fact in point. Jesus's Grandpappy has two names. And they aren't similar like Bill and William, they are completely different etymologies.