A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Patrick Sawyer
I want to begin this book review with two different scenarios. Imagine you are a Christian studying the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, and as you read, you start to notice that, at times, the different gospels tell the same story differently. Or, maybe you are a Christian engaging your friend, neighbor or coworker about the gospel of Jesus, and this person begins to challenge your faith because they find it hard to believe that the Bible is true since they see contradictions among the different gospel accounts. If you can relate to any of these scenarios, I have great news. In his new book, Jesus, Contradicted, Michael Licona guides you through the gospel accounts, examining contradictory narratives across the different gospels. The purpose of his book is threefold: to help you gain fresh confidence in the reliability of the gospels, to help you discover new insights in Scripture, and to help you develop a refined view of the nature of Scripture (p. 18).
Licona reveals how there are healthy or proper levels of variation when narrative accounts are given. He gives the example of a policeman who takes a narrative account of a story told by four different witnesses and reveals that the policeman knows there will be some variation between their accounts, and this is not only healthy but to be expected. He can draft a single account of the incident from these different accounts. Licona reveals that even though there are some differences between the different narrative accounts within the gospels, this is a normal range of variation.
Licona reveals that as one reads the different gospel accounts, they have some differences. Still, there are also similarities between Matthew, Mark, and Luke that suggest a relationship between what they call the Synoptic gospels. He examines and reveals the similarities between the Synoptic gospels, suggesting a close relationship exists between them. For example, he believes these gospels often drew from the same sources, especially written sources. He also believed Matthew and Luke often drew from Mark, the first gospel account, as their primary source.
Licona spends the majority of his book revealing what he refers to as compositional devices that the gospel writers used, which were common among ancient biographer writers. He also explains that these devices would account for why there are some differences between the gospel narrative accounts. First, the gospels used paraphrasing. For example, Matthew 13:31 states “the kingdom of heaven,” whereas Mark 4:30-31 and Luke 13:18-19 state “kingdom of God.” Another device is simplifying. For example, when one reads the account of Jairus’ daughter, Mark and Luke seem to give a more detailed version than Matthew. Matthew seemed to simplify his account and gives an abbreviated version. The gospel writers also used transferring, where the author transfers the wording from one person to another. For example, in the narrative of Jesus’ baptism, Mark and Luke use the word “you,” signifying the Father speaking directly to Jesus. In contrast, Matthew uses the word “this,” signifying the Father speaking to the crowd. They also used displacement, where an author changes an event’s geographical or chronological location. For example, Mark 14 and Matthew 26 reveal the story of Jesus in the house of Simon the Leper, and their place is two days before Passover, whereas John 12 places this same story six days before Passover. Licona believes John intentionally displaced the story to link it closer to the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. When John introduces this story, he refers to the woman as Mary, who anointed Jesus, again, linking these stories closer together.
Licona also reveals other compositional devices which include repurposing older text with a new meaning (Matthew 2;14-15), combining two or more texts and combining them into one text (Matthew 27:9-10), and editorial fatigue. Licona states, “One writer is copying the work of another, changes are sometimes made at the beginning of an account that are not sustained throughout” (161). For example, Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:12-26 give the same account, but Matthew states there are three slaves compared to 10 in Lue account, Matthew states each slave received a talents where Luke uses the word minas and Matthew states the slaves received five, two or one talents where Luke states they received ten, five or one minas. Licona reveals how Luke must have been familiar with Matthew’s accounts, but when he gave his narrative, he either confused details with another version of this parable or forgot to clean up a few details. Even though we see these compositional devices throughout Scripture, this does not mean Scripture is not inerrant or divine.
Licona provides his readers with a renewed commitment to the Bible’s divine inspiration and inerrancy in the last two chapters. First, he provides four building blocks to reveal how the Bible is divinely inspired. 1) If Jesus truly rose from the dead, we must take his teachings very seriously. 2) The New Testament authors’ use of multiple sources, eyewitness accounts, unsympathetic sources, and other criteria gives us confidence in the life and teachings of Jesus as recorded in the gospels. 3) All through Jesus life and ministry, he often quoted and referred to the Old Testament revealing its inspiration and inerrancy (Mark 14:49; Matthew 26:54, 56; Matthew 4:1-11; Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4: 21:16). We also see other NT authors referring back to the Old Testament (Acts 28:25-27; Acts 1:16; Hebrews 1:6-13; 3:7-11). 4) We also have the divine assurance of the New Testament. For example, Jesus’ teachings were authoritative, 1 Timothy 5:18 quotes Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7, 2 Peter 3:15-16 reveals Paul’s writings as Scripture.
He also examines two views of inerrancy and reveals which view helps Scripture more clearly. The first view is known as the traditional view of inerrancy. This is the idea that the Bible is inerrant because, since God cannot err and the Bible is God’s Word, it must be inerrant (195). The second view is known as the flexible view of inerrancy. Licona defines this view as “the Bible is true, trustworthy, authoritative, and without error in all that it teaches” (206). He also reveals that this view is not concerned with whether there were errors in the details in the original manuscripts. Licona argues for this view and believes that since God is sovereign and worked through human authors, He allowed these human authors to make some mistakes or errors while at the same time ensuring the integrity of the Scripture message was preserved (207). Licona also believes flexible inerrancy gives us greater clarity because it is more consistent with what we see in Scripture, with all the imperfections by human authors he has revealed throughout this book.
Licona concludes his book by reminding readers that the gospels are not modern-day biographies, but ancient ones. Because they are ancient biographies, there are what he refers to as compositional devices, which is why sometimes the gospel writers can seem to conflict with one another. But he also reminds his readers that even though these differences occur between the gospels, this does not make Scripture any less inerrant and divinely inspired by God.
I would highly recommend Jesus, Contradicted to anyone who has questioned what seems to be some contradictions between the different gospel accounts, or someone who has been challenged or is being challenged by another person about these contradictions. Licona does a great job of walking his readers through these contradicting passages of Scripture. As he walks through these passages, he examines and explains why these contradictions exist. He does a great job of helping his readers better understand how ancient writers used different compositional devices that would explain why there might be some differences in narrative accounts, and then shows how this would explain why there are some contradictions between specific gospel accounts. He also effectively explains how, even though we see these contradictions within the gospel accounts, these differences do not make God’s Word any less divinely inspired and inerrant.
Patrick Sawyer