Why are there differences in the gospels? : what we can learn from ancient biography

337 Pages·2017·1.79 MB·English

by  Michael R. Licona

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Why Are There Differences in
the Gospels?
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Why Are There
Differences in
the Gospels?
What We Can Learn from
Ancient Biography
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MICHAEL R. LICONA
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Licona, Michael, 1961– author.
Title: Why are there differences in the gospels? : what we can learn from
ancient biography / Michael R. Licona ; foreword by Craig A. Evans.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016017896| ISBN 9780190264260 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780190264284 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Gospels—Criticism, interpretation, etc. |
Synoptic problem. | Plutarch. Lives.
Classification: LCC BS2555.52 .L53 2016 | DDC 226/.066—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017896
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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To Craig Keener and John Ramsey, consummate
scholars and dear friends.
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Contents
Foreword  ix
Acknowledgments  xiii
Abbreviations  xv
Introduction  1
1. Compositional Textbooks  9
2. Who Was Plutarch?  15
3. Parallel Pericopes in Plutarch’s Lives  23
4. Parallel Pericopes in the Canonical Gospels  112
5. Synthetic Chronological Placement in the Gospels  185
Conclusion  197
Appendix 1: Thirty- Six Pericopes Appearing Two or More Times in
the Nine Lives of Plutarch Examined  203
Appendix 2: Nineteen Pericopes Appearing Two or More Times in
the Canonical Gospels Examined  207
Appendix 3: Which Women Were Present at the Cross, Burial,
and Empty Tomb?  209
Appendix 4: Biosketches of Main Characters in Plutarch’s Lives  213
Notes  221
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Glossary  267
Bibliography  269
General Index  281
Modern Names Index  295
Ancient Sources Index  299
Scripture Index  303
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Foreword
All who reAd the New Testament Gospels carefully will observe a great
many similarities and a great many differences. The similarities are what
we expect. After all, the four Gospels are talking about the same person,
Jesus of Nazareth. It is the observation of the differences that creates the
problem. The wording of something Jesus says appears in two or three
forms in the Gospels. Sometimes where Jesus says it differs from one
Gospel to another. How is this to be explained? Should these discrepancies
be regarded as errors? Were the Gospel writers poor historians? Have they
told the truth about Jesus?
It is very understandable that modern readers of the Gospels raise these
questions. If historians today produced parallel accounts of the life and
accomplishments of a United States president or a British prime minister,
which exhibited the kinds of discrepancies that we find in the Gospels, no
doubt their work would be sharply criticized.
In large part this explains the problem. We moderns have very different
expectations of what constitutes historiography, or the “writing of history.”
Most of us have no idea how the ancients understood history or how it
should be written. Many of us probably assume that the ancients wrote
their histories the way we moderns do, or at least tried to. If we think this,
we are wrong. In fact, many of us have little idea how the ancients thought
the life and teaching of a great man should be preserved and passed on.
This is especially important in the case of someone like Jesus, who as a
teacher (or “rabbi”) taught disciples (“learners”). How he taught, what he
expected his disciples to learn, and how he expected them to teach others
all come into play in the writing of the Gospels. In other words, the peda-
gogy (manner of teaching) of Jesus is every bit as important as ancient
historiography for understanding the Gospels and why they tell the story
of Jesus differently.