Posted by Bibleman [Bibleman] on November 12, 1999 at 18:18:38 {CkRQXOxAaIMRXA6xmpscslyACFuF8c}:
In Reply to: **Jesus' Resurrection posted by kc on November 12, 1999 at 11:04:43:
I'm just wondering how four different men writing about Jesus' resurrection could have such different stories?
The reason they have three different stories is because they were talking about three different events with three different Mary Magdalenes.
Weren't they all around at the same time?
No.
Didn't they all know each other?
Basically, yes.
There is not just one inconsistency, (like which Mary was it and how many Mary's were there?), there are many inconsistencies.
Here is where you are wrong. There are NO inconsistencies. You are presuming there are inconsistencies because you think there was only one Mary Magdalene. That is not the problem of the gospels, but your interpretation. You're seeing an error that is not there because you don't take into consideration the "style" of the gospels and you have strong cultural bias for a specific name: "Mary Magdalene."
But as you said, since all of them knew there were three Mary Magdalenes, they would understand the gospels as just making sure the three accounts didn't get mixed up. They would have known this was about three Mary Magdalenes since for one, they knew about this, and two, because they know the gospel writers are not totally incompetent and were truthful.
The problem here is though a superficial treatment of the text, with language and cultural biases thrown in so it appears there are incredible contradictions when they are not.
So the error is our own in presuming there was only one Mary Magdalene instead of presuming there might have been three or more. It should be obvious, though, that once you do presume this may be referring to more than one Mary Magdalene, that the total situation disappears, that that is entirely the case.
At any rate, claiming there is a CONTRADICTION now is not a matter of the text, but a matter of one's bias in presuming the number of Mary Magdalenes involved. And since it is quite possible two people may share the same name, there is no legitimate claim here for any contradiction.
There is no contradiction, except in the minds of the culturally biased and/or inexperience with the special style of the gospels.
Sorry, but superficially going in and seeing contradictions that are not there is not sufficient to dismiss the "inspired" gospels.
Cheers,
Bibleman