I confess, you lost me here.
You’ve given an excellent picture here with these scriptures! Thanks.
I had a similar discussion recently, though it was about different perspectives within the KJV. Someone asked about apparent contradictions within the Bible. Why, for example, do the Gospels record different “last words” of Jesus. Different people telling the same story. But what if two perspectives disagree with each other?
Jesus is the WAY to God the Father. His mission was to show the way to God ----- to show us what God is like ----- to make believers in God.
John 5:50 “Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge.”
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus Himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all__this was attested at the right time.”
That is why Jesus is our great example. He pleased God and didn’t need the approval of men.
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The Gospels don’t give different last words of Jesus. They each record last, different parts of Jesus’s final few statements.
Each were at Jesus’ death, but each eye witness account, while accurate, had a different perspective.
All of them? Every. Single. One?
I’ll bet all those last words (and more) were uttered by Jesus. And to me, they all have deep significance in what they were meant (by Jesus) to convey to us.
Keep in mind that only one of the Evangelists was actually there. The other Apostles had run away. So anything recorded in their names had to be second-hand.
Note also that different Evangelists had different target audiences, and thus emphasized different things, and employed different writing styles and literary devices. (You are probably aware that the Gospel of John doesn’t have a single parable in it. but that doesn’t mean that John suggests that all the parables in the Synoptic Gospels are fabricated by the writers!)
Further, the order of events and teachings throughout Jesus’ ministry seem to differ from Gospel to Gospel. But I doubt that Jesus taught crowd from a boat just one time. Or told the parable of the sower just one time. He went from village to village, day after day, over the course of three years. I expect that he gave the same teachings over and over in village after village. So one Gospel might tell of a teaching in one village in the first year of His ministry, and another Gospel records it from the 3rd year of his ministry. Same teaching, but two very different times and locations, so specific details would obviously differ. That would explain why Matthew lists 8 beatitudes, and Luke lists only 4. Some people want to take such a contradiction and build a thesis that the Gospels are inconsistent.
Depends on what you mean by disagree.
Here’s a thought. The Great Commission said to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Do you think Jesus expected missionaries taking it to India (to pick a location) were supposed to teach the cacophony of tongues in India to interpret the original Greek and Aramaic writings? How many people in India could even read? (Even today!) Ditto Africa. Asia.
No, the message of the Gospel should not be that complicated. Even Paul (in the beginning of 1 COR:2) is noting that his Greek isn’t all that good, but the message is what’s important.
But then you CAN find translations that are created with an agenda. In such examples, it’s no longer the Word of God at work, but man’s agenda creating the discrepancies.
It’s why many other versions of the Gospels – even some that are very Synoptic in content but reworded to support an agenda (such as the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas) were not canonized as the true Word of God in the early centuries.
Only one of the Evangelist was actually an eyewitness.
There are many errors in the translation. King James was king of the Church of England. The Church of England was organized before the KJV was translated and published, and many words were changed from the original manuscripts to fit the Church of England.
One glaring error is the word church, translated from the word ekklesia. King James commanded that the word church be used instead of the word ekklesia. The translators were under the threat of death if they disobeyed.
The Greek word ekklesia and ekklesiai is a compound Greek word meaning ek = out, and “kaleo” - to call. God’s “called out people.” It is mistranslated as church.
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That’s why they are believable. If they had all said exactly the same thing, some would say they copied.
I thought in order to be chosen, Apostles had to be eyewitnesses.
Peter’s instructions to the Saints when they chose an Apostle to replace Judas.
Acts 1:21 “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us–one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection." 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsab’bas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthi’as. 24 And they prayed and said, “Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthi’as; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.”
I don’t doubt King James had biases. The translators also didn’t want to run afoul of King James beliefs regarding Baptism. However, unless we each can read the languages the manuscripts were written in, how would we be aware of such things? And then of course we’re back to the heart of the issue. Which manuscripts most accurately record the words of the Biblical authors?
I do the best I can and I think that will be good enough.
Acts 17:11 “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the world with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” ~ The Bereans
I was talking about being an eyewitness to the crucifixion. Actually standing there to hear the various statements He uttered while hanging on the cross.
BTW, Luke wasn’t an Apostle. Evangelist (capital E) is not the same as Apostle. For that matter, the authors of Mark and Matthew are assumed by many scholars not to be the actual Apostles.
Note the lack of the word “all”
Am I the only one that has figured this out in 11 years?
Thank you.
Yes. I looked at the word Evangelist and was thinking Apostle.
Weak defense of a childish broad brush.
