How do accounts of the crucifixion differ in Matthew Mark Luke and John?

Answer 1

Who went to the tomb?

Mary alone (John)

Mary and another Mary (Matthew)

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus and Salome (Mark)

Women who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem…maybe Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary mother of James and others. (Luke)

Had the stone already been rolled away from the tomb?

Yes (Mark)

An Angel rolled it away while the women were there (Matthew)

What or Who did they see there?

An Angel (Matthew)

A young man (Mark)

Two men (Luke)

No one (John)

What were the women told?

Tell the disciples to go to Galilee where Jesus will meet them. (Mark)

Remember what Jesus had told them while in Galilee, that he would die and rise again. (Luke)

Then the women tell the disciples what they heard and saw (Matthew)

They do not tell anyone (Mark)

These two different stories will have great significance later that appears to be irreconcilable.

If they tell someone, who is it?

The eleven disciples (Matthew)

The eleven disciples and "others" (Luke)

Simon Peter and another anonymous disciple (John)

What do the Disciples do?

Nothing because Jesus immediately appears to them (Matthew)

They do not believe the women (Luke)

They go to the tomb to see for themselves (John)

Remember that the writers of these stories had no idea that their works would end up side-by-side in a single book. The gospels aren't written by who they say they are and there are many many discrepancies.

Also according to the Gospels several things happened around the time that Jesus died on the cross.

His death was supposedly accompanied by a three hour blackout of the sun, earthquakes, and the rising of the dead. No record of these events is to be found anywhere outside The Bible.

"All four gospels are anonymous texts. The familiar attributions of the Gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John come from the mid-second century and later and we have no good historical reason to accept these attributions."

Steve Mason, professor of religious studies, York University in Toronto

Answer 2

Mark

None of the disciples was at the crucifixion. Women looked from afar off: among them, Mary.

On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome went to anoint Jesus and found the stone had already been moved.

The earliest known manuscripts of Mark do not even have a resurrection narrative, beyond a young man who was in the tomb and told the women that Jesus had risen. The Gospel, as written by Mark, did not mention the risen Jesus. Although this is the second gospel in the New Testament, scholars say that it was actually the first gospel to be written. Later interpolators added resurrection appearances to bring this gospel more or less into line with the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In the "long ending", used in most modern Bibles (there was also a "short ending"), Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, who told the others. He then appeared to two of them as they went into the country, then appeared to the eleven as they sat at a meal.

Matthew

The Gospel According to St Matthew does not mention any disciple at the crucifixion and only says that women looked from afar off: among them, Mary and Mary Magdalene. At the moment of Jesus' death, there was an earthquake and that dead people rose up out of the graves and walked into the city. No other gospel recorded any earthquake or resurrection of dead.

On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. The stone was in place, but then there was an earthquake and an angel rolled away the stone. They saw Jesus while on the way to tell the disciples of the earthquake and the angel at his tomb. Finally, the eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee and saw Jesus. Or at least some of them believed they did and worshipped Jesus, while others doubted it was Jesus. It may be that the evangelist was being careful to have a rational explanation if critics refused to believe in a physical resurrection.

Luke

At the time of the crucifixion, those of Jesus' acquaintance stood afar off with the women.

In Luke's Gospel, the stone had already been moved when a group of women arrived, but there is no mention of an earthquake. This time, two men appeared to the women in shining garments, apparently angels. Later, Jesus appeared to two men, Cleopas and (presumably) Peter, but they did not recognise him, even after conversing with him, inviting him home, and eating dinner with him. They only assumed that he was Jesus based on his words and behaviour, but then he vanished out of their sight. At his next appearance, Jesus went to some lengths to assure them that he really was Jesus, showing the disciples his wounds, and finally being drawn up into heaven. All this happened in and near Jerusalem, not in Galilee.

John

At the crucifixion, the mother of Jesus, her sister (also called Mary) and Mary Magdalene stood by the cross with the disciple whom he loved.

In John's Gospel, only Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre and saw the stone moved. She did not go inside and did not see the first man, the angel, nor the two men who appeared to be angels. Then came 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' and Peter, who went in and saw only the linen clothes and the napkin. Next 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' went in, saw and believed. Only after they left did Mary see two angels in the sepulchre. Mary afterwards saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus, supposing that he was the gardener. The next two appearances are quite similar to a single appearance in Luke's Gospel except, as Elaine Pagels points out in Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), the account seems intended to disadvantage the disciple Thomas, by causing him to miss the blessing of the Holy Spirit and then appear to doubt that it was Jesus that he saw [Pagels identifies a thread of anti-Thomas narrative in John's Gospel.]. Finally, Jesus appeared to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius.

Answer 3

A:A key difference, that is not readily apparent without reading the gospels carefully, is that the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) place the crucifixion on the day after the Passover, thus setting the scene for the Last Supper the day before, while John says that the crucifixion took place on the day of the Passover. This allowed the author to place more emphasis on Jesus as the paschal lamb. It is also the reason for John replacing the important episode of the Last Supper, which took place as the Jewish feast of the Passover, with the simple ritual of washing the feet of the disciples.

Luke's arrest of Jesus takes place on the Mount of Olives, perhaps the location of the Garden of Gethsemene. In this gospel, an angel appears to Jesus as he prays, strengthening his resolve. Jesus' sweat is like great drops of blood as it falls to the ground.

Among the synoptics, only Luke has Jesus heal the servant's severed ear. This is copied in John, which actually tells us that it was Simon Peter who cut off his ear.

Only Mark has the elusive young man run naked from the scene of the arrest.

In Mark, Jesus was presumably being held in a cell, while others warm themselves by a fire, when Peter denied Jesus three times. In Luke, Jesus was present and looked at Peter as he denied him.

The author of John knew that the Sanhedrin would never meet in judgement during the hours of darkness. While the synoptic gospels have Jesus brought before the Sanhedrin at 3 AM, John has Jesus brought to Annas, then separately to the house of his son-in-law, Caiaphas. The author of John was wary of offending the Romans, but also sought to portray Jesus as divine. When Jesus was taken to Pontius Pilate in the morning, Johnhas Pilate tell the priests to try Jesus according to their own law, but they responded that they could not put a man to death. After Jesus was scouged, John again has Pilate say that he found no wrong with Jesus. The Jews said that Jesus had called himself the Son of God, which made Pilate afraid of divine retribution against him, and he sought yet again to free Jesus.

In Matthew, Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified, and washed his hands. In Luke, he gave Herod of Galilee the responsibility of deciding Jesus' fate, and so did not wash his hands.

Only John has Pilate accompany Jesus to the crucifixion and then argue with the Jews about the wording of the sign placed above the cross.

In Mark, Jesus is offerred a drink containing wine and the valuable healing resin, myrrh, just before he is placed on the cross. Luke omits this, possibly because of its improbability, but has the soldiers mock him on the cross and offer him a drink of vinegar.

On the cross, Matthew and Mark says that Jesus said, "My God, My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" and then died. Luke says that Jesus talked to the two criminals who were crucified with him; then when he was about to die, he said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Neither of these was appropriate for the Son of God, so John has Jesus calmly utter the final words, "It is finished."

At the moment of Jesus' death, Matthew says that there was an earthquake and that dead people rose up out of the graves. Although Matthew says that the walking dead were seen by many in Jerusalem, the other gospels recorded no earthquake or resurrection of the dead and buried.

Mark is clear in that none of the disciples was at the crucifixion, but women looked from afar off: among them, Mary. Luke says that those of his acquaintance stood afar off with the women. John has the mother of Jesus, her sister Mary, Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross, along with the "disciple whom Jesus loved". This provided the opportunity for Jesus to tell the disciple to look after his mother as if she were his, John's, own.

In Mark, when the centurion sees that Jesus had died, just like any other man crucified, he mockingly says, "Truly this man was the Son of God." This is elaborated in Luke, which has the pagan centurion glorify God, saying this truly was a righteous man.

Answer 4

A:The question would be about the persons who wrote the gospels now known as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The first thing to realise about the gospels is that they were written anonymously and only attributed to the apostles whose names they now bear, later in the second century - long after anyone had any knowledge about the authors. In fact, modern scholars say that the gospels were not written by the apostles they are now named after, and that none of the gospels could have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed.

Mark's Gospel was the first to be written, dated to approximately 70 CE, and its author would have been the evangelist with the most knowledge about the life and mission of Jesus. It can be demonstrated that Matthew and Luke were based on Mark's Gospel, with further sayings material taken from the hypothetical 'Q' document. However, Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says of even Mark's Gospel that it seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek.

The authors of Matthew and Luke were alike in that they received everything they knew about the life and mission of Jesus from Mark's Gospel, and also in that they saw the need to improve that Gospel, especially by adding important material about the birth and subsequent resurrection of Jesus. Any traditions that each author relied on quite clearly contradict the corresponding traditions of the other author and may be considered of doubtful historicity. Matthew relied more than any other evangelist on the Old Testament scriptures to testify to the role of Jesus. Luke placed his events within a historical background, possibly based on the books of the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus. Luke also differed from Matthew, Mark and John in his obvious concern for the poor.

It is also apparent that John's Gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel, with some material taken direct from Mark. Its author seems to have felt less constrained to remain strictly in accordance with his sources than did Matthew and Luke, even moving the Cleansing the Temple story from the very end of Jesus' mission to the beginning. Some believe that John's Gospel was originally written in a somewhat Gnostic Christian community, and that it was subsequently edited to remove some of the more gnostic elements. An interesting comparison with Luke's Gospel is that, whereas Luke showed concern for the poor, John portrays the friends of Jesus as being among the rich and powerful, with Jesus performing some of his best miracles for his rich friends.

Mark seems to have been a literary genius. John was quite gifted in his ability to develop his unique themes. Luke was skilled in Greek rhetoric, such that whenever he differs with the other gospels or with Paul's epistles on any issue, it is nearly always Luke's account that we remember.

Answer 5

A:

First of all, much is similar between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the Gospel of Mark. This is because Matthew and Luke were substantially copied from Mark's Gospel, which now known to have been the original New Testament gospel, with Matthew containing some 90 per cent of the verses in Mark. There are further similarities between Matthewand Luke, because they used a source now known as the hypothetical 'Q' document for further sayings material attributed to Jesus.

Many Christians perceive similarities between the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke, but a careful reading of the two stories shows just how different they are. In Matthew, Bethlehem is the home town of Joseph and Mary. They flee from Bethlehem to Egypt out of fear of King Herod, remaining there until after Herod's death, when they begin to return to their home in Bethlehem but, being warned in a dream, turn aside and travel to Galilee where they settle in a town called Nazareth. In Luke, Nazareth is already their home town, but they must travel to Bethlehem for a census. Immediately after the birth of Jesus, they return peacefully to their home in Nazareth, stopping on the way in Jerusalem. There is a similarity in the birth taking place in Bethlehem, but this could be because the Jews actually expected a messiah to be born in Bethlehem.

The post-resurrection stories in Matthew and Luke are irreconcilably different. This is because Mark originally ended at verse 16:8 with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and the fled in terror, telling no one. Without guidance from Mark, each author had to develop his own account of the resurrection appearances. The 'Long Ending' (verses 16:9-20) was added to Mark much later,more or less harmonising with Luke's account, but also with a passing similarity to Matthew's.

John's Gospel was loosely based on Luke's Gospel and so is further removed from Mark's Gospel than the others, although there is some material that the author took direct from Mark. This author felt more free to depart from his sources, so for example we see the Cleansing of the Temple moved from the last week before Jesus' crucifixion, to the very beginning of his ministry. Some of the closest similarities are also masked by elaborations made in John. Whereas Luke has the risen Jesus meet the eleven apostles at a meal in Jerusalem on the evening of his resurrection, John has him meet only ten apostles on that evening but all eleven at a meal eight days later.

Answer 6

Mark Mark's Gospel was the first canonical gospel, written approximately 70 CE. The earliest known manuscripts of Mark do not even have a resurrection narrative, beyond the young man telling the women that Jesus had risen. Later interpolators added resurrection appearances to bring this gospel more or less into line with the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. However, the answer in respect to Mark must be that the original gospel did not mention the risen Jesus.

Matthew
Matthew's Gospel reports an earthquake that rolled away the stone. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary saw the angel who caused the earthquake sitting on the stone. The women saw Jesus later while on the way to tell the disciples of their experience. Finally, the eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee and saw Jesus.

Luke In Luke's Gospel, the stone had already been moved when a group of women arrived, but there is no mention of an earthquake. This time, two men appeared to the women in shining garments, apparently angels. Later, Jesus appeared to two men, Cleopas and (presumably) Peter, but they did not recognise him, even after conversing with him, inviting him home, and eating dinner with him. They only assumed that he was Jesus based on his words and behaviour, but then he vanished out of their sight. At his next appearance, Jesus went to some lengths to assure them that he really was Jesus, showing the disciples his wounds, and finally being drawn up into heaven. All this happened in and near Jerusalem, not in Galilee.

John In John's Gospel, only Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre and saw the stone moved. Then came 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' and Peter, who went in and saw only the linen clothes and the napkin. Next 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' went in, saw and believed. Only after they left did Mary see two angels in the sepulchre. Mary afterwards saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus, supposing that he was the gardener. The next two appearances are quite similar to a single appearance in Luke's Gospel except, as Elaine Pagels points out in Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), the account seems intended to disadvantage the disciple Thomas, by causing him to miss the blessing of the Holy Spirit and then appear to doubt that it was Jesus that he saw [Pagels identifies a thread of anti-Thomas narrative in John's Gospel.]. Finally, Jesus appeared to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius but, although 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' quickly identified him, none of them dared to ask who he was, presumably meaning that his identity was still not obvious to them all.

Answer 7

Mark

None of the disciples was at the crucifixion. Women looked from afar off: among them, Mary.

Before crucifying Jesus, the soldiers offerred him wine mixed with myrrh, a valuable pain killer, but Jesus refused to drink.

On the ninth hour of the day, Jesus called out, "My God, My God, why hast though forsaken me?" He cried out with a loud voice and died. The centurion said sarcastically at seeing Jesus die, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

As with Matthew and Luke, Pontius Pilate clearly was not present at the crucifixion. Joseph of Arimathea went to him and asked for the body for burial. Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died so quickly and asked the centurion to confirm the death.

MatthewThe Gospel According to St Matthew does not mention any disciple at the crucifixion and only says that women looked from afar off: among them, Mary and Mary Magdalene.

On the ninth hour of the day, Jesus called out, "My God, My God, why hast though forsaken me?"

At the moment of Jesus' death, there was an earthquake and that dead people rose up out of the graves and walked into the city. No other gospel recorded any earthquake or resurrection of dead.

When the centurion had seen these things, he said in awe, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

LukeAt the time of the crucifixion, those of Jesus' acquaintance stood afar off with the women.

Whereas Mark and Matthew had the two thieves both mock Jesus, Luke has one of them repent of his crimes and ask Jesus to remember him in heaven.

In this gospel, Jesus' last words were, "Father, into thy hands I deliver my spirit." The centurion glorified God and said that Jesus was a righteous man.

JohnThe synoptic gospels say that the crucifixion took place on the day after the Passover, but John's Gospel says that it took place on the same day as the Passover.

The priests argued with Pontius Pilate, who must have accompanied the crowd to the crucifixion, over the wording on the sign above Jesus, but Pilate said, "I have written what I have written."

At the crucifixion, the mother of Jesus, her sister (also called Mary) and Mary Magdalene stood by the cross with the disciple whom he loved. In this gospel, Jesus told the 'disciple' to look after his mother, Mary, as if she were his own.

In this gospel, Jesus' last words were, "It is finished."

In this gospel, the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves but, as Jesus was already dead, only speared him.