Synoptic Discrepancies & Contradictions

 The gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke — in order of written composition — have a similar narrative. However, there are many discrepancies and apparent “factual” contradictions between them.

 This is where I will review them, as always, briefly.

 The discrepancies arise out of what scholars call the “synoptic problem.” Raymond Brown, one of the three principal editors of the Jerome Biblical Commentary, identifies 80% of Mark’s text as reproduced in Matthew, only 65% in Luke. The remainder is attributed by a variety of scholars to sayings and stories not common between them. The theory is that they came from some text(s) that have not survived.

 As to the “factual” contradictions, please note the quotes; no one knows the actual facts in most of these cases). I will tackle set sets today.

 First, we have the genealogies, which are not really of Jesus, but of Joseph.

  Matthew, working forward in time from Abraham, claims Joseph was a descendant of David through Solomon. Luke, working backward from Joseph to Adam (!), makes the Davidic claim through King David’s son Nathan. After that, they differ completely, even claiming different fathers for Joseph.

 Neither genealogy neither alludes to the virgin birth by Mary, through the non-sexual power of the Holy Spirit. If Mary was a virgin, then the ancestors of Joseph tell us nothing about Jesus; Luke does say that Jesus “the son, as was thought, of Joseph” (Lk 3:23).

 Some have argued that Luke’s version is matrilineal; if so, why name Joseph and omit Mary? Moreover, as the Gentile Luke may not have known, the ancient rabbinical judgment was that inheritance, including lineage as a Jew, comes from the (Jewish) mother. 

 Secondly, the Nativity of Jesus is replete with apparent factual problems between Matthew and Luke (Mark says nothing about the birth of Jesus). To wit:

• Annunciation and Pregnancy: Luke has the angel Gabriel’s the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, then pregnant with the boy who would become John the Baptist; Matthew is silent.
  
  
• Date: Matthew says during the reign of Herod; Luke says during the census of Quirinius, governor of Syria, in 6-7 AD, or 10 years after Herod died, in 4 BC (which suggests, humorously, that Jesus was born “before Christ”).

• Magi (Eastern astrologers, magoi ) — not “kings”: Matthew, has them give Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrhh; Luke doesn’t report them at all.
  

• Place, circumstances: Matthew has a house in Bethlehem, where Joseph and Mary lived; Luke has a stable in the same city, as they came from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census. 

• Flight to Egypt: Matthew has Herod order the killing of all male children under two years old in and around Bethlehem (“slaughter of the innocents”). Joseph is warned by an angel, so they flee. Traditions in Coptic Christianity state that the Holy family lived in the village of Abu Serghis, where a church stands on the place the family allegedly had its home.
   
• Temple and Nazareth: Luke has Jesus presented at the Temple eight days after birth (but no fleeing); Matthew gives his parents no time for such rituals. Both agree that the family returned to Nazareth.
  

 That’s just the birth of Jesus. We will need another entry to cover the rest.