DAY 115
CHALLENGE
“The Resurrection accounts are contradictory. Luke indicates that Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem on the same day, but Matthew and Mark indicate he appeared later in Galilee.”
DEFENSE
This is not a contradiction. Jesus appeared in both places.
Paul indicates that Jesus made multiple post-Resurrection appearances (1 Cor. 15:5–8). In Acts, Luke indicates he appeared repeatedly over a period of forty days (Acts 1:3). Consequently, the evangelists needed to make choices about what appearances to include in their Gospels.
Luke chose appearances Jesus made the same day in the Jerusalem vicinity (Luke 24:13–44), while Matthew chose one in Galilee (Matt. 28:16–20). Mark also indicates Jesus appeared in Galilee (Mark 14:28, 16:7), but his original ending (which may be paralleled in Matthew) has apparently been lost.
There is no contradiction. During his ministry, Jesus visited both Galilee and the Jerusalem area, and he did the same after the Resurrection. John thus records appearances in both places (John 20:19–29, 21:1–23).
After visiting Galilee, the disciples were back in the Jerusalem area before the Ascension (Luke 24:50–53, Acts 1:9–12), when Jesus again appeared there.
The Gospels thus indicate (1) shortly after the Resurrection, Je- sus appeared to the disciples, who were still in Jerusalem, (2) he later appeared to them in Galilee, and (3) toward the end of the forty days he appeared to them again in the Jerusalem vicinity. He told them to remain in the city until the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, when they began their major evangelistic work (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4, 2:1–47).
This is why Luke focuses on the appearances in and around Jerusalem. He is planning to chronicle, in Acts, how the Christian faith be- gan spreading in stages, “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Pulling the literary focus away from Jerusalem to Galilee would distract from the events he will chronicle, since the apostles made Jerusalem their home base for many years and it became the epicenter of Christian evangelization (Acts 1–12).
Matthew and Mark, not planning on writing sequels to their Gospels, focused on an appearance in Galilee, bringing closure on a literary level by taking us back to where Jesus’ ministry began.
John, supplementing the synoptic Gospels, records additional appearances in both places.