Why do the Gospels contradict each other?????

I think it is simply the fact that you have different perspectives of the same activity. If four people saw the same wreck happen at the corner, then their would be four different perspectives of the same thing. Each one would have seen the incident just a little bit differently base on their perspective.

Anthony, I have to disagree that there are contradictions. Others have already pointed out that four different men wrote the Gospels from four different perspectives - but I must add that they wrote as God inspired them. While inspired by God, this doesn't mean a mechanical dictation. God used the personalities and attributes of the men, but gave approval to the content. If there had been a mechanical dictation, wouldn't we have four identical Gospels? Had this been so, there would be only one Gospel account. Instead, we have four - all agreeing, but from differing perspectives. This is why we see Matthew, a Jew, portraying Jesus as the prophesied King who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. Matthew wrote particularly to Jews and spoke of their interests. Mark portrayed Jesus as the obedient Servant and concentrated on Jesus' miracles and actions, appealing primarily to the Romans. Luke, the physician, was more historical in nature and presented Jesus as the Son of Man, appealing more to the Greeks. Then we have John. John presented Jesus as the divine Son of God, the Saviour of the world. His appeal was to the Church and he concentrated on Jesus' teachings. Let us not forget that these men were eye-witnesses of Jesus' life. I have known, loved and served my loving heavenly Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, for 50 of my 73 years, and He has proven again and again the absolute truth of His Word.

This question I had asked myself (and my teachers) for many many years. The solution I have found from Jesus' words given by a dictation through the inner word to the Austrian musician Jakob Lorber (1800 - 1864) in his "New Revelation". In English the "New Gospel of John" is available at least in major parts from www.franky1.com and there you can find the Lord's explanations. It is not about assumptions of some theologists and historians, it is simply about the historical origin and the purpose of the Gospels in the household of God.

I think they're different because they're written by four different people with their own point of view. The main thrust is the same in each - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."

They're written by different people, and the Bible was initially just word of mouth before people decided to compile a whole lot of gospels together. Believe it or not, there is even a gospel of Judas Iskariot, but we're not going to talk about that :3 So, we have different gospels by different people with different perspectives and ways of thinking. If that's not enough already, these stories were also initially passed on through word of mouth, which means that the storytellers might have added their own parts in too. Furthermore, we then translated these Hebrew writings into English with the new King James Version. Whoa (:

Yes, there are a great many contradictions between them - maybe hundreds, but certainly more than we have time & space on here to discuss properly. Some have mentioned the authors wrote from different times & places & cultures, though the Church teaches us that these books were written by immediate companions & apostles of Jesus Christ, faithful eye-witnesses to his work and word, commanded & inspired by Christ / God / the Holy Ghost (which one is not explicit), to write and publish these wonderful biographies of Jesus. This is explicitly the teaching and dogma of the Church: no real Apostolic author, no true Gospel. Through 'pious Christian fraud & forgery', there were fraudulently in vogue some couple of hundred “books current under an Apostle’s name in the Early Church, such as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Apocalypse of St. Peter,” that quoted from the Catholic Encyclopaedia (iii, 274), it admits of these fraudulent “sacred writings” — with Apostolic titles. Our Ecclesiastical authority then states the “certain indubitable marks” whereby true Apostolic authenticity, essential to validity and credence, must be known: “For the primitive Church, evangelical character was the test of Scriptural sacredness. But to guarantee this character it was necessary that a book should be known as composed by the official witnesses and organs of the Evangel; hence to certify the Apostolic authorship, or at least sanction, of a work purporting to contain the Gospel of Christ.” (Catholic Encyclopaedia iii, 274.) All purported “Gospels” as to which Apostolic authorship or sanction could not be guaranteed and certified were, of course, spurious, as is natural and proper. Yet, for centuries, false and forged “Gospels,” etc, as the two just named, bore the Apostolic certificates of authenticity — now confessed to be false. According to the names “supplied” to the Four Gospels, as to the other New Testament books, the “Apostolic” authors were Jews; the same is supposedly true of most of the now confessed apocrypha. All these were forgeries in the names of Jewish pseudo-apostles. But all of the Gospels, the other New Testament Books & the forged apocrypha, were written in Greek. Self-evidently, these “ignorant & unlearned” peasant Apostles, speaking a vulgar Aramaic-Jewish dialect, could neither speak nor write Greek, —if they could write at all. It was also the Greek Septuagint and Greek forged Oracles that were exclusively used by the Greek Fathers and priests in all the Gospel-propaganda work of the first three centuries. Obviously, the Gospels and other New Testament booklets, written in Greek and quoting 300 times the Greek Septuagint, and several Greek Pagan authors, as Aratus, and Cleanthes, were written, not by illiterate Jewish peasants, but by Greek-speaking ex-Pagan Fathers and priests far from the Holy Land of the Jews. There's more proof that the Gospels were not written by Jews. Traditionally, Jesus and all of the “Apostles” were Jews; all their associates and the people of their country with whom they came into contact, were Jews. But throughout the Gospels, scores of times, “the Jews” are spoken of, always as a distinct and alien people from the writers & mostly with a sense of racial hatred & contempt. A few instances only need be given; they all betray that the writers were not Jews speaking of their fellow Jews. The Greek writer of “Matthew” says: “this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day” (Matthew xxviii, 15), — showing, too, that it was written long afterwards; a Jew must have said “among our people,” or something similar. It is recorded by “Mark”: “For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands of it, eat not, holding to the tradition of the elders” (Mark vii, 3); no Jew writing for his fellow-Jews would explain or need to explain this Jewish custom, known to & practiced by “all the Jews.” Luke names a Jew and locates geographically his place of residence: “Joseph, of Arimathea, a city of the Jews”; an American writer, speaking of Hoboken, could not say “a city of the Americans” nor did Jews need to be told by a Jew that Arimathea was a “city of the Jews.” The Greek priest who wrote “John” is the most prolific in telling his Pagan readers about Jewish customs and personalities; absurd in a Jew writing for Jews: “After the manner of the purifying of the Jews” (ii, 6); “And the Jews’ passover was at hand” (ii, 13) “Then answered the Jews, and said unto Jesus” (iii, 1); “Then there arose a question between some of John’s disciples—[all Jews]— & the Jews about purifying” (iii, 25); “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus” (v, 16); “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him” (v, 18). But wait - here's more: “And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh” vi, 4); no American would say “the Fourth of July, a holiday of the Americans,” though a French writer might properly explain this. “After these things Jesus would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him” (vii, 1); “for they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already” (ix, 22); “His disciples said unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee with stones” (xi, 8); “As the manner of the Jews is to bury” (xix, 40), which need be explained to no Jew. These and many like passages prove that no Jews wrote the Gospels; that they were written by foreigners for foreigners; these foreigners were Greek-speaking aliens unfamiliar with Jewish customs; the writers were therefore ex-Pagan Greek priests who were zealously “selling” the “glad tidings of great joy” to the ignorant and superstitious Pagan populace.

Question: "Why did God give us four Gospels?" Answer: ) To give a more complete picture of Christ. While the entire Bible is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16), He used human authors with different backgrounds and personalities to accomplish His purposes through their writing. Each of the gospel authors had a distinct purpose behind his gospel and in carrying out those purposes, each emphasized different aspects of the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. This website may help you: http://www.gotquestions.org/four-Gospels.html

Anthony, As stated by many other responses already, there are differing points of view, but one thing remains true through all of it. The Gospels do NOT contradict each other in any way. Take Luke for instance. Luke was a doctor, therefore, most of the content in that book is very detailed and colorful. Just because someone doesn't notice the same level of detail that someone else may, doesn't mean their account of the same occurance is any less accurate, or in any way contradictory. After seeing the title of your post, I had to bring this to your attention. The Bible, as a whole is not contradictory, but complimentary to itself through and throughout. I also know that there are some books that have been omitted from its current content, but as a whole, the message of the Bible is one and intact, and that is the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.