Which Gospel is an Eyewitness?

October 12, 2009, 9:06 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 19

This post will describe some of the issues with John’s account verse the Synoptic Gospels and the Traditions of Men.  My last posts covered some issues with the prophecies about Jesus; death, events that occurred before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate.  This post will be an introduction to the problems in the records of the four Gospels about Jesus’ death and burial.

I will start in the Gospel of John, for obvious reasons:

John 19:35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that you tells the truth, and testifies so that you may also believe.

So we have one man’s testimony that proves these events occurred.  As of I pointed out before the Gospel of Luke is at least a third hand record of the events (the disciples → Paul → Luke).  I’ve also pointed out that the Gospel of Mark and the second hand (Peter → John Mark).  The Gospel of Matthew is a little more complex but there is no record of Matthew being at the events described in chapter 19 of the Gospel of John.  In fact, Matthew would seem to have been one the deserted Jesus at the rest:

Matthew 26:56 but this has all taken place that writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Even looking at all four gospels we see that only the number of people witnessed the crucifixion.  In the Gospel of Matthew it was only Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James Joses, and mother of Zebedee’s sons.  In the Gospel of Mark it is the same Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, but this time the only other name mentioned is a woman named Solome (possibly the wife of Zebedee).  In the Gospel of Luke no actual names are mentioned:

Luke 23:49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these events.

If we want to be generous we can claim that all the apostles for their based on this verse.  But is that true?  No other gospel records it this way; in fact, the others mention names and do not make it apparent that anyone else witnessed the death of Jesus.  In the Gospel of John the only people mentioned are Jesus’ mother, her sister Clopas, Mary Magdalene, and we assumed the Apostle John.  From reading these four gospels, we have no idea who was actually witness to the crucifixion!  The only one we can be certain of is Mary Magdalene.  Yet we have no record of these events from Mary Magdalene’s perspective.  Worse, is that we have only one Gospel that could be held up as a true eyewitness, the Gospel of John.  As a result, in actuality we do not have two eyewitness accounts of the events occurring during the crucifixion.

So what about the burial of Jesus?  That one seems to be more accurate.  Starting with the Gospel of John we see that .Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were responsible for the burial of Jesus’ body. They even brought 75 pounds of spices to prepare the body for burial.  In the Gospel of Matthew again it is Joseph of Arimathea, but Nicodemus seems to not be present.  Instead, Mary Magdalene and another Mary were present.  In the Gospel of Mark, it is even more confusing.  Again, Joseph of Arimathea was involved, Nicodemus is again missing, Mary Magdalene is prominent, and this time we understand that the other Mary was the mother of Joses.  For some reason, even though in the Gospel of John, Joseph had already prepared the body, both of the Marys and Solome came after the Sabbath to repeat the preparations for burial.  In the Gospel of Luke, we are told that only “the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee” followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb.  Again, they left to prepare spices and perfumes for the burial of the body.  Wouldn’t be pretty obvious to anyone following Joseph and Nicodemus carrying both a dead body and 75 pounds of spices that the body of Jesus had been prepared for burial?  Would not the odor of 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes be obvious to the women?  Why in the Synoptic Gospels would there be this tremendous difference from the only eyewitness account.

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