I learned two encouraging things last Friday in the class I’m TA’ing this semester on Jesus and the Gospels.
Given that I had spent the morning practically trying to convince my undergrads that not all the details of the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke could both be true (or at least asking them to tell me *how* for example Jesus could have been both presented as a newborn in the Temple and on the run from Herod, to Egypt), this was a welcome change.
The professor told the story of how one of the many apparent discrepancies between John and the Synoptic Gospels was resolved by a secular academic. They Synoptics record that Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples before he died, while in John he dies on the Friday before Passover (which was the following Shabbat). How could both be true? Well, some French scholar postulated that different groups within Judaism celebrated Judaism at different times — which is definitely true for the Essenes, for example – and so at least some scholars say that the chronology of both John and the Synoptics is acceptable. The Prof actually came out and said, “so scholars aren’t always showing that the different Gospels are incompatible – sometimes they help to harmonize the Gospels, too.” At this I wanted to cheer.
There was another interesting tidbit: the prof reads the references to Thomas, Peter, and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” in the book of John as responses to what was going on in their respective communities in the early church at the time John was written. So he thinks the post-resurrection story about the beloved disciple outrunning Peter to the tomb but waiting and letting Peter go in first (Jn. 20: 1-10) has an anti-Gnostic, anti-Gospel of Thomas message: if a follower of Jesus understands the truth before the others, his job is not to treat the latter as second-class Christians, but to wait for them – to serve the community as a whole instead of clinging to membership in the elite.
I wish all apparent discrepancies between the Gospels could be harmonized like the Passover story above. I’ve arrived at the point, though, where instead of clinging to far-fetched solutions at all costs, I’m willing to admit that some things didn’t actually happen. It’s kind of scary – but I hope ultimately God-honoring.
