jesus trial crucifixion resurrection

Exam­in­ing Con­tra­dic­tions : Jesus’ Tri­als, Cru­ci­fix­ion, and Resurrection

The Chris­tians are fond of cel­e­brat­ing the death of their man-god (whom they claim to be Jesus, peace be upon him) every year, although it does bog­gle the mind as to why would some­one accept the fact that their god can actu­al­ly die”. How­ev­er, as Mus­lims, we believe that the claim con­cern­ing Jesus(P) is false and full of con­jec­tures. A mighty Prophet of God (as we believe Jesus cer­tain­ly is) would nev­er had to bear the agony of being cru­ci­fied at the hands of his enemies.

As it stands, we would also like to note that to sub­stan­ti­ate our claims, there are var­i­ous con­tra­dic­tions regard­ing the accounts of Jesus’ tri­als, death and res­ur­rec­tion which appear through­out the New Tes­ta­ment. The fol­low­ing Bible con­tra­dic­tions con­cern­ing the tri­als, the cru­ci­fix­ion and the res­ur­rec­tion are list­ed below along with the rel­e­vant Bible references.

A. THE TRIALS

Where was Jesus tak­en imme­di­ate­ly after his arrest ?

  • a. Matthew, Mark and Luke say that Jesus was tak­en direct­ly to the high priest (Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:53 and Luke 22:54).
  • b. John says that Jesus was tak­en first to Annas, the high priest’s father-in-law (John 18:13) who, after an inde­ter­mi­nate peri­od, sent Jesus to the high priest (John 18:24).

When did the priests and scribes gath­er togeth­er to ques­tion Jesus ?

  • a. Matthew 26:57 says that on the night Jesus was arrest­ed the priests and scribes were gath­ered togeth­er before Jesus was brought to the high priest.
  • b. Mark 14:53 says the priests and scribes gath­ered togeth­er on the night of Jesus’ arrest after Jesus was brought to the high priest.
  • c. Luke 22:66 says the priests and scribes assem­bled the day after Jesus was arrested.
  • d. John men­tions only the high priest — no oth­er priests or scribes play a role in ques­tion­ing Jesus.
  • Was Jesus ques­tioned by Herod ?

  • a. Luke says that Pilate sent Jesus to Herod who ques­tioned Jesus at length and then returned Jesus to Pilate (Luke 23:7 – 11).
  • b. Matthew, Mark and John make no men­tion of Herod. This, in itself, means noth­ing, but it brings about anoth­er con­tra­dic­tion later.

Who was respon­si­ble for Jesus’ death, Pilate or the Jews ?

The Bib­li­cal account of Pilate’s offer to release Jesus but the Jews demand­ing the release of Barab­bas con­tains both con­tra­dic­tions and his­tor­i­cal inaccuracies.

  1. What had Barab­bas done ?
    1. Mark 15:7 and Luke 23:19 say that Barab­bas was guilty of insur­rec­tion and murder.
    2. John 18:40 says that Barab­bas was a robber.
  2. Pilate’s cus­tom” of releas­ing a pris­on­er at Passover.
    This is a his­tor­i­cal inac­cu­ra­cy -– the only author­i­ty giv­en by Rome to a Roman gov­er­nor in sit­u­a­tions like this was the post­pone­ment of exe­cu­tion until after the reli­gious fes­ti­val. Release was out of the ques­tion. It is includ­ed in the gospels for the sole pur­pose of fur­ther remov­ing blame for Jesus’ death from Pilate and plac­ing it on the Jews. 
  3. Pilate gives in to the mob.
    The gospels have Pilate giv­ing in to an unruly mob. This is ridicu­lous in light of Pilate’s pre­vi­ous and sub­se­quent his­to­ry. Jose­phus tells us that Pilate’s method of crowd con­trol was to send his sol­diers into the mob and beat them (often killing them) into sub­mis­sion. Pilate was even­tu­al­ly recalled to Rome because of his brutality. 

Who put the robe on Jesus ?

  • a. Matthew 27:28, Mark 15:17, and John 19:2 state that after Pilate had Jesus scourged and turned over to his sol­diers to be cru­ci­fied, the sol­diers placed a scar­let or pur­ple robe on Jesus as well as a crown of thorns. 
  • b. Luke 23:11, in con­tra­dic­tion to Matthew, Mark, and John, says that the robe was placed on Jesus much ear­li­er by Herod and his sol­diers. Luke men­tions no crown of thorns. 

B. THE CRUCIFIXION

Cru­ci­fied between two robbers

Matthew 27:38 and Mark 15:27 state that Jesus was cru­ci­fied between two rob­bers (Luke just calls them crim­i­nals ; John sim­ply calls them men). It is a his­tor­i­cal fact that the Romans did not cru­ci­fy rob­bers. Cru­ci­fix­ion was reserved for insur­rec­tion­ists and rebel­lious slaves.

Peter and Mary near the cross

When the gospel writ­ers men­tion Jesus talk­ing to his moth­er and to Peter from the cross, they run afoul of anoth­er his­tor­i­cal fact – the Roman sol­diers close­ly guard­ed the places of exe­cu­tion, and nobody was allowed near (least of all friends and fam­i­ly who might attempt to help the con­demned person).

The opened tombs

Accord­ing to Matthew 27:51 – 53, at the moment Jesus died there was an earth­quake that opened tombs and many peo­ple were raised from the dead. For some rea­son they stayed in their tombs until after Jesus was res­ur­rect­ed, at which time they went into Jerusalem and were seen by many people.

Here Matthew gets too dra­mat­ic for his own good. If many peo­ple came back to life and were seen by many peo­ple, it must have cre­at­ed quite a stir (even if the corpses were in pret­ty good shape!). Yet Matthew seems to be the only per­son aware of this hap­pen­ing — his­to­ri­ans of that time cer­tain­ly know noth­ing of it — nei­ther do the oth­er gospel writers.

C. THE RESURRECTION

Who found the emp­ty tomb ?

  • a. Accord­ing to Matthew 28:1, only Mary Mag­da­lene and the oth­er Mary.” 
  • b. Accord­ing to Mark 16:1, Mary Mag­da­lene, and Mary the moth­er of James, and Salome.” 
  • c. Accord­ing to Luke 23:55, 24:1, and 24:10, the women who had come with him out of Galilee.” Among these women were Mary Mag­da­lene and Joan­na and Mary the moth­er of James.” Luke indi­cates in verse 24:10 that there were at least two others. 
  • d. Accord­ing to John 20:1 – 4, Mary Mag­da­lene went to the tomb alone, saw the stone removed, ran to find Peter, and returned to the tomb with Peter and anoth­er disciple. 

Who did they find at the tomb ?

  • a. Accord­ing to Matthew 28:2 – 4, an angel of the Lord with an appear­ance like light­ning was sit­ting on the stone that had been rolled away. Also present were the guards that Pilate had con­tributed. On the way back from the tomb, the women meet Jesus (Matthew 28:9).
  • b. Accord­ing to Mark 16:5, a young man in a white robe was sit­ting inside the tomb. 
  • c. Accord­ing to Luke 24:4, two men in daz­zling appar­el. It is not clear if the men were inside the tomb or out­side of it. 
  • d. Accord­ing to John 20:4 – 14, Mary and Peter and the oth­er dis­ci­ple ini­tial­ly find just an emp­ty tomb. Peter and the oth­er dis­ci­ple enter the tomb and find only the wrap­pings. Then Peter and the oth­er dis­ci­ple leave, and Mary looks in the tomb to find two angels in white. After a short con­ver­sa­tion with the angels, Mary turns around to find Jesus. 

Who did the women tell about the emp­ty tomb ?

  • a. Accord­ing to Mark 16:8, they said noth­ing to anyone.” 
  • b. Accord­ing to Matthew 28:8, they ran to report it to his disciples.” 
  • c. Accord­ing to Luke 24:9, they report­ed these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” 
  • d. Accord­ing to John 20:18, Mary Mag­da­lene announces to the dis­ci­ples that she has seen the Lord. 

In con­sid­er­ing the con­tra­dic­tions with­in the accounts of Jesus’ tri­als, cru­ci­fix­ion, and res­ur­rec­tion, a crit­i­cal assess­ment reveals sub­stan­tial incon­sis­ten­cies that prompt skep­ti­cism regard­ing the reli­a­bil­i­ty of the New Tes­ta­ment nar­ra­tives. These dis­par­i­ties chal­lenge the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the depict­ed events and raise fun­da­men­tal ques­tions about their accu­ra­cy and his­tor­i­cal valid­i­ty. Upon close exam­i­na­tion, it becomes appar­ent that the dis­crep­an­cies with­in the Bib­li­cal texts cast doubt on the coher­ence of the accounts pre­sent­ed. As such, a thor­ough eval­u­a­tion of these con­tra­dic­tions is essen­tial to under­stand­ing the com­plex­i­ties of reli­gious nar­ra­tives and their impli­ca­tions for faith and his­tor­i­cal interpretation.Endmark


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18 responses to “Exam­in­ing Con­tra­dic­tions : Jesus’ Tri­als, Cru­ci­fix­ion, and Resurrection”

  1. idris Avatar
    idris

    can you peo­ple real­ized that the 5 pil­lars of Islam is in bible,they are ;
    1.Mark 12:29.
    2.Nehemiah 8:4 – 6.
    3.Mark 12:41.
    4.Jeremiah 36:9.
    5.Isaiah 2:2 – 3

  2. Ramadhan Avatar
    Ramadhan

    The bible is been con­tra­dict­ed but a few will understand

  3. iza Avatar
    iza

    it is unjust of god to not let the dis­ci­ples be eye witnessed.because it is the most crit­i­cal point and the core aim of jesus com­ing to this world

  4. Ally Avatar
    Ally

    Admin,

    We are all aware that there are lots of reli­gions nowa­days, dif­fer­ent ways, dif­fer­ent beliefs etc etc..I just wished all peo­ple will respect one anoth­er let them have free will what they believe and what they fol­low its not the reli­gion its how we han­dle it and under­stand it…

  5. Ally Avatar
    Ally

    We are all aware that there are lots of reli­gions nowa­days, dif­fer­ent ways, dif­fer­ent beliefs etc etc..I just wished all peo­ple will respect one anoth­er let them have free will what they believe and what they fol­low its not the reli­gion its how we han­dle it and under­stand it…

  6. a.z Avatar
    a.z

    So no human can judge oth­er human. If there is human judges anoth­er human it means he tooks God’s Right. and He will be angry if any human dare took His Right.”

    Where did you learn that ?

  7. ea Avatar
    ea

    i hope we don’t insult any reli­gion. because God let the reli­gions exist in this world only for Him. The reli­gions sup­pose to be the way of human to wor­ship Him. and He demand us to do what He did to us, doing good thing only!!! He give all of us the sun shine, the rain with­out ask­ing whether do the right thing or not. He is the Almighty Judge, thet held the right to judge of humen. So no human can judge oth­er human. If there is human judges anoth­er human it means he tooks God’s Right. and He will be angry if any human dare took His Right. So do all the good things and wor­ship Him alot, so when He call us back to His Place, we’ll be prepared.

  8. ak65 Avatar
    ak65

    The ONLY word of GOD is the HOLY QURAN.All oth­er books are not.

  9. xyz Avatar
    xyz

    Not all the dici­ples were present for all the things that hap­pened and were repeat­ing what was told when they assembled.”

    WHO TOLD THEM ?

  10. stany Avatar
    stany

    I read the reply by Lan­ette the poster above mine and I would like to sum­ma­rize on what he/​she is try­ing to con­vey : THE BIBLE CANNOT BE TRUSTED !

  11. jimbo Avatar
    jimbo

    You must remem­ber that the Bible is the word of God giv­en to man to write down – save for the Gospels which are sup­posed to be eye-wit­ness accounts.”

    1. Simon of Cyrene was forced to car­ry the cross of Jesus (27:32).

    2. The peo­ple on the scene mocked Jesus and chal­lenged him to prove that he was the son of God by com­ing down from the cross (27:40).

    3. The chief priests, scribes, and elders taunt­ed Jesus while he was on the cross by chal­leng­ing him to save him­self as he had saved oth­ers and to prove that he was the son of God by com­ing down from the cross (27:41 – 42).

    4. The rob­bers cru­ci­fied with Jesus also mocked him (27:44).

    5. Three hours of dark­ness fell over the land at noon (27:45).

    6. Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you for­sak­en me” (27:46).

    7. When Jesus died, the veil in the tem­ple was split from top to bot­tom (27:51).

    8. An earth­quake struck (27:51).

    9. The quake broke the rocks and opened the tombs of many saints, who lat­er rose from the dead, went into the city, and appeared to many (27:51 – 53).

    10. The cen­tu­ri­on and the Roman sol­diers see­ing these events declared that Jesus was the son of God (27:54).

    These are just some of the events that Matthew report­ed that John” did­n’t. It is utter igno­rance to think that some­one who wit­nessed the cru­ci­fix­ion did not report events as phe­nom­e­nal as num­bers 5 through 10 but that some­one who was­n’t present on the scene did men­tion them.

    paul said there were 500 wit­ness­es to his vision.why were these wit­ne­ses reduced to 12 in the gospel accounts ?

  12. Lanette Avatar
    Lanette

    Read­ing all this I can almost under­stand why peo­ple of oth­er reli­gions are con­fused about Christians.Are there inac­cu­ra­cies in the present mod­ern day Bibles ? I’m sure there are. Did God do it – NO ! You must remem­ber that the Bible is the word of God giv­en to man to write down – save for the Gospels which are sup­posed to be eye-wit­ness accounts. A good many of the prophets and dici­ples who were giv­en this inspired word of God had to rely on oth­ers to actu­al­ly write it down for them. Could it be that they may have not got­ten all of it exact­ly as it was being told to them by the prophets ? Human error could occur even back then. As for the eye-wit­ness accounts. Not all the dici­ples were present for all the things that hap­pened and were repeat­ing what was told when they assem­bled. If a group today wit­nessed or were told some­thing of great impor­tance, went thru a trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence and then sev­er­al months or years lat­er had it writ­ten down-either by them­selves or a writer” and then the group’s writ­ings were put in a book, you would find a great deal of dif­fer­ences. Also, Paul was not a fol­low­er of Jesus until after his death and ressurec­tion. His writ­ings are sup­posed to be the inspired rev­e­la­tions of Jesus/​God.
    What I know is this for a fact…in 1972 I was attacked and choked near­ly to death. Before that day I had nev­er heard of a near death expe­ri­ence”. But I had one. I know there is def­i­nite­ly a Heav­en and you can­not even begin to imag­ine it. Most impor­tant­ly, I know there is a Son of God named Jesus, because it was He who told me it was not yet my time and to fight ! I have seen Him and heard Him. And I pity all of you who doubt Him.
    You speak of peace, but you will nev­er know true peace until you per­son­al­ly know Him.
    God Bless and Peace to you all.

  13. Khairullah Avatar
    Khairullah

    i got a ques­tion for all Christians.

    first Chris­tians’ faith is based on human words means what ever Paul Luke Math­ew John Mark and Peter said 300 years after Jesus (PBUH) dis­ap­pear­ance they believe it.

    every Chris­t­ian in the world believe that the Bible is changed altered and Cor­rupt­ed by humans even though its not per­mit­ed in the Bible.

    … If any man shall add to these things (or delete) God shall add unto him the plagues writ­ten in this Book.” (Rev­e­la­tion 22:18 – 19)

    But who cares ! They do not real­ly believe ! The Protes­tants have brave­ly expunged sev­en whole books from their Book of God!.

    and also there were dozens of Gospels like The Gospel of Mary The Gospel of Thomas …

    SO HERE IS MY QUESTION.

    DO YOU CHRISTIANS ATTRIBUTE THESE ERRORS IN THE BIBLE TO GOD Almighty ?

    Error No. 1. Light was then before the source of light Gen­e­sis 1:3:5 and 14:19

    Error No. 2 — Day came into exis­tence before cre­ation of Earth. Gen­e­sis 9:13

    Error No. 3 — Earth came into exis­tence before Sun. Gen­e­sis 1:9:13 and Gen­e­sis 1:14:19

    Error No. 4 ‑Veg­e­ta­tion came into exis­tence, before sun­light Gen­e­sis 11:13 and 14:19

    Error No. 5 — The earth Will it per­ish­es or will it abide for­ev­er ? Psalm 102:25:26 con­tra­dicts in Psalm 78:69 and Eccle­si­as­tics 1:4

    Error No. 6 — The earth has got pil­lars. Samuel Job and Psalm

    Error No. 7 — The heav­ens have got pil­lars. Job 26:11

    DO YOU CHRISTIANS ATTRIBUTE THESE ERRORS IN THE BIBLE TO GOD Almighty ?

  14. Shawn Avatar
    Shawn

    At least try to back up your state­ments with facts.

    Oh, but I guess you are use to fol­low­ing what some­one says with­out any proof.

    Sad.…

  15. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    I think you are being too lit­er­al in your research. To be with­out blem­ish” in a human being has to do with his or her will, not the body. These are spir­i­tu­al things, as they per­tain to God. The mere like­ness­es of spir­i­tu­al things was what were giv­en to the rep­re­sen­ta­tive church of the chil­dren of Israel. What oth­er men did to Jesus’ body have noth­ing to do with whether or not He was with­out blem­ish. Blem­ish in man has to be viewed from the spir­i­tu­al, not the phys­i­cal van­tage point. As for the anoint­ing of the holy things of the tem­ple by the blood of the sac­ri­fice for sin, evi­dence exists that the blood of Jesus leaked onto the ark of the covenant through a crack in the ground into a cav­ern where Jere­mi­ah had deposit­ed it. This took place in the pit or garbage heap where these cru­ci­fix­ions took place. They did­n’t take place on a high hill, but in the place of humil­i­a­tion, the worst place to be by clean Jews”. There is also a pos­si­bil­i­ty that some piece of the cur­tain between the Holy of Holies was tak­en to the site, for the record is that the veil of the Tem­ple was torn in two, from top to bot­tom, pos­si­bly due to some zealot in cog­nizance of the require­ments, who went to get a piece. Being an ancient cloth, frag­ile, in the process, it fell apart by the effort. Ron Wyatt found this place of the inter­ment of the Ark near where the cross­es were put in the ground of the pit, or Cal­vary or Golgotha.

  16. RAINBOWMAN Avatar
    RAINBOWMAN

    2. Peter and Mary near the cross
    When the gospel writ­ers men­tion Jesus talk­ing to his moth­er and to Peter from the cross, they run afoul of anoth­er his­tor­i­cal fact – the Roman sol­diers close­ly guard­ed the places of exe­cu­tion, and nobody was allowed near (least of all friends and fam­i­ly who might attempt to help the con­demned person).”

    does mark say mary was near the cross ? i can’t find this is mark’s versions.I have heard that the women accord­ing to mark looked on from a dis­tance, and he iden­ti­fies them as marym, mary moth­er of james and anoth­er woman.

    ” And they all left him, and fled.”

    how is it pos­si­ble to rec­on­cile these accounts ?

  17. Jamal Avatar
    Jamal

    Asalaa­mu alaikum, would you like to exchange links, Ive already linked to you ; Rad­i­cal Muslim

  18. x-man Avatar
    x-man

    The mis­sion­ary is prob­a­bly going to rehash trasha​ton​ics​.org argu­ments to answer the incon­sis­ten­cies in the bible.trashatonics arti­cles are on skep­ti­cal review. http://​www​.theskep​ti​cal​re​view​.com/​A​u​t​h​o​r​R​o​b​e​r​t​T​u​r​k​e​l​.​h​tml

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