Religion 101 Final Exam

[AngusJS]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

AngusJS Im not quite sure what the argument is concerning the timeline of events at the tomb are but would be happy to discuss it with you.

My argument is that each gospel gives a contradictory account of the empty tomb story, and that this shows that the bible is not inerrant. Frame57 suggested this:

What is taught in regards to this and other similar comparisons of the text is that people do not account for time. Those that visited the tomb did not all arrive at the same time, hence they all could have indeed encountered different scenarios.

I tried to show that this doesn't work in this case, as three of the gospels have the women arriving at the scene at roughly the same time. And if you're still going to say that each account is accurate, then Mary Magdalene has to go to the tomb 4 times- once alone to see no one there, another time with the other Mary to see an angel, another time with the other Mary and Salome to see a young man, and then another time to be in the group of at least 5 and see two men.

You could say that in fact, all the people and events mentioned in the four different stories were there, and it's just that the gospel's authors decided to focus in on only certain elements. This makes sense for trivial details like if they were carrying spice or not, but I don't buy it for important details such as who first heard the "good news" and from whom did they hear it.

In any other context, anyone hearing stories with such contradictions would think that at least one was wrong. It's only when you absolutely must maintain the inerrancy of the stories despite evidence to the contrary that you would provide such strained interpretations to save them.