XX. Why the Gospels Disagree on Details

Three angels at the tomb? Two? One? Did Jairus' daughter die before the messengers arrived, or after? Did the cock crow once or twice in Peter's denial? Did Judas hang himself or fall headlong in the field? Were Jesus' last words "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" or "It is finished" or "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me"?

The Gospels do not match in every detail. This is one of the first things any honest reader notices. And the question is among the oldest in Christian thought.

The shallow answer says, "They contradict, so they can't be true." The deeper answer, which Christians have given since the second century and which secular historians of antiquity broadly affirm, says: the disagreements are evidence, not embarrassment. Four independent accounts that agreed verbatim would be suspect. Four that agree in substance and vary in detail are what genuine eyewitness testimony looks like.

Modern readers approach the Gospels with assumptions formed by audio recording, video, and forensic transcription. Did it happen exactly as recorded? is, for us, the natural question — and we mean it like a court reporter's question.