Some Bible stories are told more than once, with different details. For example, the four gospels disagree about who found Jesus's empty tomb and what they saw. Tap any verse to read it yourself and compare.
The Bible has places where two passages give different details about the same thing: the order of creation, who went to Jesus's tomb, how Judas died. Believers have explanations for most of them. The question is whether the explanations are natural readings or ones worked out because the text is assumed to be flawless.
Each item has the two passages (click a reference to read it), then "The believer's explanation." Not all Christians believe the Bible is free of error; many see the text as human writing with different perspectives. The explanations below matter most to people who hold that it is.
1. Which came first: plants, animals, or people?
| Genesis 1 (Genesis 1:11–27) | Genesis 2 (Genesis 2:4–22) | |
|---|---|---|
| Order | Plants (day 3) → sea and sky animals (day 5) → land animals, then humans male and female together (day 6) | A man first → garden plants → animals → woman (made from the man's rib) |
| God's name | Elohim ("God") | Yahweh Elohim ("the LORD God") |
| How | By speaking | By forming from dust and breathing |
Most biblical scholars see these as two different accounts written by different authors at different times and later joined. Genesis 1 is usually dated to the 6th century BCE (a "Priestly" source) and Genesis 2 to an earlier or different tradition.1
Some conservative writers say Genesis 1 is a wide-angle overview and Genesis 2 zooms in on day six and the garden.2 On the animals, they note that Hebrew has no distinct past-perfect tense, so Genesis 2:19 can be read "God had formed" the animals before bringing them to Adam, which is how the NIV and ESV translate it.3 On plants, they say 2:5 refers only to cultivated crops needing rain and a farmer. Critics reply that the "had formed" reading comes from the harmonizing need, not from the flow of verses 18 through 22, and that a scholar would not guess it without a reason.
2. Who found the empty tomb?
This one is worth a close look because the resurrection is central to Christianity. Here is what each gospel says. These details are summarized from scholar Bart Ehrman's comparison.4
| Mark | Matthew | Luke | John | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who went | Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother of James), Salome | Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" | Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother of James), Joanna, and other women | Mary Magdalene alone |
| Why | To anoint the body | To see the tomb | With prepared spices | Not stated |
| The stone | Already rolled away | Angel rolls it away as they arrive, in an earthquake | Already rolled away | Already rolled away |
| Guards? | None | Yes: they faint and are bribed | None | None |
| Who they saw | One young man in white, inside | One angel, on the stone | Two men in dazzling clothes, inside | Two angels inside (later, Jesus) |
| Reaction | Fled and "said nothing to anyone" | Left in fear and joy to tell the disciples | Told the disciples, who didn't believe them | Told Peter and another disciple |
| Jesus appears? | No (in the oldest manuscripts) | Yes, to the women on the road | Not at the tomb | Yes, to Mary at the tomb |
Catholic apologist Karlo Broussard argues that omission is not contradiction: if John mentions only Mary Magdalene, he doesn't say she was alone (and she says "we" in John 20:2). He suggests the "men" and "angels" are the same beings described differently, since angels often appear as men in Scripture, and that Matthew's angel account may be explaining the earthquake rather than saying the women saw it.5 He concedes that this doesn't prove the writers are reliable. His narrower claim is that the accounts aren't "hopelessly contradictory." Critics reply that with this many unrelated differences at once (number of visitors, number of angels, inside vs. outside, whether the women told anyone) each can be explained away only by adding assumptions.
It's worth noting how scholars date the gospels: Mark about 70 CE, Matthew and Luke about 80 to 90, and John about 95. These dates come after the events by decades.6 So differences like these may reflect stories retold over time, as well as different sources.
3. More pairs, quickly
| Topic | Passage A | Passage B | Common harmonization |
|---|---|---|---|
| How did Judas die? | He hanged himself (Matthew 27:5) | He fell headlong, burst open (Acts 1:18) | He hanged himself, and the rope or branch broke later. |
| Jesus's grandfather | Joseph's father is Jacob (Matthew 1:16) | Joseph's father is Heli (Luke 3:23) | Luke gives Mary's line, or one list counts a legal (levirate) father. |
| Who tempted David to count Israel? | The LORD incited David (2 Samuel 24:1) | Satan incited David (1 Chronicles 21:1) | God allowed Satan to do it. |
| Who killed Goliath? | David (1 Samuel 17:50) | Elhanan killed Goliath (2 Samuel 21:19) | 1 Chronicles 20:5 says Elhanan killed Goliath's brother; some think a copyist erred. |
| Was the Last Supper a Passover meal? | Yes (Mark 14:12) | Jesus dies before the Passover meal (John 19:14) | Different calendars were in use. |
| Can anyone see God? | Moses spoke to God "face to face" (Exodus 33:11) | "You cannot see my face… no one may see me and live" (Exodus 33:20) | "Face to face" is figurative; it means close, direct talk. |
What's the real point?
For a person who believes every word is flawless, each of these needs an explanation, and the explanations pile up. For a person who sees the Bible as a library of human writings from different centuries, none of this is surprising; people tell stories differently. Both views are held by sincere believers. What this page tries to show is simple: check for yourself. Read the verses next to each other and see what you think.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Genesis creation narrative: differences between Genesis 1 (Priestly source, largely 6th century BCE) and Genesis 2 (non-Priestly/Yahwist; dated variously, 10th–9th century BCE under the classic documentary hypothesis, later by some scholars).
- Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, Contradictions in Genesis? (a conservative case that the accounts are complementary).
- Alisa Childers, Do the creation accounts in Genesis one and two contradict each other? (the "fly-over / zoom-in" and past-perfect arguments; a commenter disputes the pluperfect reading).
- Bart Ehrman, Guards, Visitors, & Angels: Does the Story of Jesus' Tomb Contain Contradictions?
- Karlo Broussard, Catholic Answers, Biblical Resurrection Reports Are Not Hopelessly Contradictory.
- Bart Ehrman, When Was the New Testament Written?: Mark c. 70, Matthew and Luke c. 80–90, John c. 95 CE; Paul's earliest letters c. 49–51 CE. Dates are debated.
- Items in section 3 are standard textbook examples; the "common harmonization" column reflects widely given explanations. Verse links go to BibleGateway (NRSV).