Oftentimes, you will hear skeptics say that the Bible has contradictions in it. On the surface, this claim may seem legitimate, but once you think critically about it, you can see that there are no contradictions.

Why is it thought that the Bible has contradictions? Some point to the gospel accounts being different, where Jesus says and does different things.

Here are a few reasons why this does not point to contradictions:

• First, we need to realize that people can have different, but not contradicting, accounts of the same event, yet they are all telling the truth about the event. If a car accident occurred in the middle of a street, people on the sidewalk would see things from their own perspective, while the people in the car behind the accident would tell the story a little differently. Different accounts do not mean contradictory accounts!
• Next, we need to look at the word choices. If it said in the gospel of Matthew that Jesus only did X, then the gospel of John said that Jesus did X and Y, then that would be a contradiction. But if we look at the gospels closely, we can see that this problem does not occur. What were Jesus’ last words on the cross? We see something different from each of the gospels (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34, John 19:30, Luke 23:46). Look at the word choices of those passages, and you can see that the authors never say that Jesus only said these last words on the cross. The passages can coexist with each other and not be contradictory.
• Another thing to consider is the cultural climate in which the gospels and even the Old Testament were written in. The New Testament was written in Greek, and some Greek words have more than one English meaning. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV).  The words for rightly divided are “Ortho” and “Tomeo”, which, being translated into English, mean straight cutting. We would need to see this word in other contexts to understand its use fully. So when you think a contradiction may exist, you can go to the original Greek of the New Testament to see what the original word was and if a contradiction actually exists.
• Another thing to consider is that the gospel writers knew each other, as they were disciples of Christ. We can expect that they had each other to verify one another’s work. The gospel writers were not stupid, they were surgeons, accountants, and scribes versed in Greek.

I hope this helped clear up any supposed contradictions that may have been thrown around. If you want to learn more about this topic, please see https://crossexamined.org/a-little-experiment-to-teach-skeptics-about-the-accuracy-of-the-gospel-accounts/

God bless