1. Are They the Same Thing (continued)
Now we turn to what is probably the most common reason that people sometimes think two biblical accounts contradict each other. The examples in this chapter all show situations where the apparent problem is a result of people not clearly seeing what the Bible really says in the two accounts that seem to conflict. First, we will consider the example of the baptism of Jesus recorded in Matthew 3:17 and John 5:37. The Voice of God – Heard or Unheard? Matthew 3:17 records that at the baptism of Jesus a miraculous sign was given: "And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'" This verse is often contrasted with one found in the Gospel of John which tells us: "And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form" (John 5:37). Both these verses are clearly talking about God the Father, as we see in Jesus' words recorded in Matthew 3:17 where the voice said "This is my Son…" and John 5:37 where the Father is specifically named.
But do Matthew and John contradict each other in these accounts – was the voice of God heard or not? We must ask ourselves a fundamental question: Do these verses really say what we are presuming they say – in one verse that people heard God's voice, and in the other verse that they have never heard his voice?
First, we should notice that Matthew does not specifically say it was the voice of God himself that onlookers heard. Certainly, the voice said "This is my Son …" – so we know the message was from God; but God uses many messengers to deliver his words.
We should remember that in his preincarnate state Christ himself was the "Logos" or "Word" of God (John 1:1, 14), acting as the "Spokesperson" of God (compare Genesis 1 and Hebrews 1:2). Since Christ, the primary spokesperson for God, was in human form at the time of his baptism, the voice that was heard from heaven was undoubtedly that of an angel relaying this message on behalf of God, just as angels are recorded to have delivered messages at other points in the Gospels – as when they spoke to Mary at the time of Christ's conception (Luke 1:26-38) and to the shepherds at the time of his birth (Luke 2:8-15).
What Matthew records regarding the voice heard at the baptism of Jesus is simply yet another case of a divine messenger delivering God's words. So Matthew's statement does not contradict the words of Christ recorded in John that no one has heard the actual voice of God the Father. What Were the Last Words of Jesus? Consider another instance of this kind of supposed problem – this time regarding the recorded "last words" of Jesus.
The Gospels of Luke and John seem to disagree on what the last words of Jesus were. Luke tells us: "Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!' And having said this he breathed his last" (Luke 23:46 ESV). On the other hand, we read in John: "When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit" (John 19:30 ESV).
On the surface, these two accounts certainly might seem to be at variance with each other regarding the final words of Jesus; but when we look more closely, we find little reason to see any contradiction.
In both cases nothing is specifically said to the effect that these were the last words of Jesus and the only last words of Jesus. Luke does seem to imply that Jesus died moments after crying out "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" However, John's account does not preclude the possibility that Jesus uttered other words – perhaps even minutes after receiving the wine – before he died.
While Luke seems to focus specifically on Jesus' final words, John seems to focus on the sour wine event and its resultant "It is finished" as the final prophecy fulfilled by Christ. This is typical of Luke's frequent focus on the humanity of Jesus and his actual words, as opposed to John's focus on Jesus' fulfillment of prophecies relating to the promised Messiah and details regarding his message of salvation.
So there is no reason to believe that both accounts were not true. Jesus' last words may have been a combination of what John and Luke record: "It is finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." If these were the actual and full last words of Jesus, then the two Gospel writers simply recorded the part of the statement that was of most importance to their own accounts.
It is also sometimes said that both Luke and John are contradicted by Matthew and Mark, whose Gospels both seem to record Jesus' expression "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" as his last words. But both Matthew and Mark write that, soon after saying this, Jesus gave a loud cry: "And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit" (Matthew 27:50); "With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last" (Mark 15:37).
But these accounts do not say whether the "loud cry" or "loud voice" contained words or not. If the cry contained words, it was doubtless those recorded by Luke and John. The reason that the other two Gospels say a "voice" or "cry" was probably because they are based on the account of a witness of the crucifixion who was close enough to hear the cry, but not close enough to make out the exact words. (Both Matthew and Mark mention, in fact, that many of the witnesses stood "at a distance" from the cross – Matthew 27:55; Mark 15:40).
When we keep both factors in mind: that Luke and John compiled their Gospels stressing different themes, and that Matthew and Mark may well have drawn their information from different witnesses, there is no need to presume any contradiction between the four Gospels as to the last words of Jesus.
When Hearing Is Not Hearing For a final example of this kind of problem, we move a little further into the New Testament to the two accounts of the conversion of Saul (the apostle Paul) on the road to Damascus, as recorded in the book of Acts. "And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one" (Acts 9:7 NKJV). "And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me (Acts 22:9 NKJV).
These two verses in Acts have been said to represent an undeniable contradiction in the New Testament – with Acts 9:7 stating that Saul's traveling companions heard a voice, while Acts 22:9 seems to state that they did not hear the voice.
The supposed contradiction is hardly likely on logical grounds because the two verses occur in the same book by the same author – who would be unlikely to contradict himself – so we might expect that there is some explanation for the apparent difference in these accounts.
Anyone who has ever said "I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said" knows it is possible to hear a voice without understanding what was said, and the ancient Greek language actually adjusted for that fact in its use of the word "hear" (akouō). When a sound was heard as a meaningless or unintelligible noise, the verb "to hear" was used with a noun in the "genitive case." On the other hand, when a sound was heard that conveyed meaning or a message, the same verb "to hear" was used with a noun in the "accusative case."
In Acts 9:7 we are told Saul's companions "heard" a voice (genitive case noun – hearing a noise only), whereas in Acts 22:9 Paul, in recounting the event later, tells us the other men did not hear the voice (accusative case noun – hearing something with meaning).
So there is no real contradiction between the two accounts in Acts. In fact, unlike the King James Version of the Bible or its derivative New King James Version from which the verses above are quoted, most modern English translations understand this fact and translate accordingly. The NIV, for example, translates the two verses in the following way: "The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone" (Acts 9:7, emphasis added here and in the following verses). "My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me" (Acts 22:9).
Apparently Saul's companions heard a voice but did not understand it. The reason might have been as simple as that the voice was speaking in Hebrew, which Saul, but not all inhabitants of ancient Judea, understood. In any case, there is no contradiction in the fact that Saul's companions heard but did not understand the voice that spoke to Saul.
In this example, finding what the Bible actually said requires some knowledge of the original Greek in which the New Testament was written, but we do not have to become biblical scholars to arrive at the answer to the problem. Simply consulting several good modern translations will usually help us to see what the Bible is saying in such cases. Keeping the Principle in Mind Looking back at the examples given in this chapter, we see a clear principle: in many instances where two verses appear to contradict each other, we simply need to look more closely at what is said in each case to find that no contradiction is present.
Sometimes we may presume that the verse in question is saying something that it is not really saying (as in the example we looked at of the baptism of Jesus where we might presume that it was God himself who was speaking). At other times (as in our second example, regarding the last words of Jesus) we might not realize that each of the two differing accounts simply does not include the information given in the other. But in both cases, looking closely at the wording of the verses in question and asking "Does it actually say that?" or "Is what is said in the two passages really mutually exclusive?" allows us to solve the apparent problem.
In the final example we considered (that of what Saul's traveling companions heard), looking at the actual meaning of the Greek words in the problem passages conclusively solved the seeming contradiction. But as we pointed out, use of such technical methods is rarely necessary because good modern translations have often done the work for us – we just need to take the time to compare the passages in several translations (for example, by using a free online Bible site such as BibleGateway.com) and we will often find the resolution to this kind of problem.
This first principle of asking "Does it actually say that?" probably solves the greatest number of apparent contradictions we may find in the Bible. In the next chapter we will look at the second most common cause of presumed contradictions and the principle that corrects it.