Category Archives: Contradictions

Who saw Jesus first after the resurrection?

Contradictions,

Two Marys

According to Matthew, Mary Magdalene and another Mary were the first to find out that Jesus had risen. And then they saw him, before they got a chance to tell the disciples what they’d heard. So none of the disciples even heard that Jesus was alive before the Marys saw him. And I think we can assume they hadn’t independently seen him yet either, or the angel wouldn’t have told the Marys to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive.

One Mary

According to Mark, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first. It doesn’t mention any other Mary. And it says when she told the others that Jesus was alive, they didn’t believe her. So that’s further confirmation that no one else had seen him yet.

John agrees with Mark that Mary Magdalene was the first to see the resurrected Jesus. John also says that when Jesus first appeared to some of his disciples after the resurrection, it was to ten of them at once.1

Two disciples

According to Luke, some women found out that Jesus was alive, but they didn’t see him (which contradicts Matthew and Mark). The women told the disciples, who didn’t believe them. Then Peter went to look at the tomb himself, but he didn’t see Jesus either, and he wasn’t sure what had happened to Jesus. So at this point, no one has seen Jesus alive yet.

Then it says Jesus appeared to two disciples, who were seven miles away from the others at the time. When they got back to Jerusalem, they told the other disciples about it. Then Jesus appeared to all the disciples there, and they were shocked, because the disciples in Jerusalem hadn’t seen him alive yet. So when some of the disciples first saw Jesus resurrected, it was only two of them, not ten, contrary to John.

Just Peter

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Will God destroy all living creatures again?

Contradictions, , ,

No.

After God flooded the whole world, he famously gave us the rainbow as a sign that he would never destroy all life on earth in a flood again. But that’s not all. In the chapter before that, God went further, and declared that he will never again destroy all living creatures. So that even rules out the possibility that he’ll do it by some method other than a flood.

Yes.

God told Nahum that he would leave the lions of Ninevah no prey on the earth. What does that entail? Maybe it doesn’t necessarily mean that absolutely all animals on earth will die out, but it sure doesn’t sound promising. Even if he doesn’t mean actual lions, God is saying the people of Ninevah will have no more people on earth left to kill. Which means God must be planning to at least kill all the people on earth.

Which God confirms in Isaiah, when he says he will totally destroy all nations. Or maybe he just means he’ll destroy their armies? No, Zephaniah says God is going to consume the whole earth with fire and make a sudden end of all who live on the earth. So God is definitely going to destroy all the people on earth. And it sounds like he’s going to destroy all the animals too.

Which God confirms in that same chapter, saying he’ll sweep away everything from the face of the earth, man and beast, when he destroys all mankind on the face of the earth. And the New Testament agrees that the earth will be laid bare on the day of the Lord, when everything will be completely will be destroyed by fire.

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Should female slaves be freed in the seventh year?

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In the book of Exodus, God’s law says when you buy a male Hebrew “servant“, you have to free him in the seventh year of servitude, unless he doesn’t want to be free. When you buy a female Hebrew servant, on the other hand, you don’t need to free her in the seventh year.2

But when the law is repeated in the book of Deuteronomy, this time it says you do have to let your Hebrew servants go free in the seventh year, whether they’re men or women.

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How many generations were there between David and Jehoiachin?

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The gospel of Matthew claims that there were 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile to Babylon, and 14 from the exile to the Messiah. There is some ambiguity in that statement: When you say there were N generations from X to Y, are you counting both X and Y as part of those N generations, or are you counting just one of them, or neither of them? Matthew does list the generations he’s talking about, though, so we can look at his list to get a better idea of what exactly he means.

Looking at that list of ancestors, it seems like the author intends to count both the first and the last person as part of the group of 14 generations. We can also see that he is including the last generation in one group of 14 as the first generation in the next group of 14. And that when Matthew talks about the generation of the exile to Babylon, he’s talking about Jeconiah, AKA Jehoiachin.

But there’s a problem with Matthew’s list: The second group actually contains 15 generations, not 14. You could count it as 14 if you interpret that number as a difference between generations, rather than inclusive of both the first and last person listed, but then you would have to say the other groups were just 13 generations each. Whichever way you count them, Matthew’s second group does not have the same number of generations as his first and third, contrary to what he claims after listing them.

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Do intentions matter?

Contradictions

No.

God’s law says that even if you break his rules unintentionally, you are guilty and will be held responsible. You are required to give God a sin offering before he will forgive you for what you didn’t mean to do.

Paul likes that the Corinthians are willing to give, but he says that doesn’t do any good if you don’t actually have anything to give.

And he says he doesn’t really care if people preach the gospel for the wrong reasons. All that matters is that people preach the gospel. As long as they’re doing that, Paul will be happy, even if they’re doing it “from false motives”.

Yes.

God’s law says if you kill someone on purpose, you should be executed. And if someone tries to take vengeance on you, they should be allowed. But if you kill someone by accident, you don’t deserve to die. If someone tries to take vengeance on you in that case, they should not be allowed.

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Was Jesus still with John the day after the Spirit descended on him?

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The gospel of John says John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descend on Jesus. And it says the next day, John the Baptist saw Jesus passing by again.

But according to the gospel of Mark, as soon as the Spirit descended on Jesus, it sent him out into the wilderness at once, and he stayed there for 40 days.

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