An Atheistic Bible Study Of The Gospels

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This is the miracle Jesus was on his way to perform when interrupted by the episode involving the girl who could not stop her haemorrhaging menstruation blood as described in my last Feature. This miracle therefore shares the same chapter references in each of the three Gospels dealing with it. Matthew 9:18-26 A synagogue leader approaches Jesus and asks him to come to tend to his recently deceased daughter. Jesus immediately sets off to the man’s house followed by numerous believers. The episode of the girl who bleeds interrupts the journey, after which Jesus goes on to the synagogue leader’s home. Many people are loudly mourning at the house, including pipe players among those commemorating the girl’s death. Jesus tells them the girl is not dead but merely asleep. The various mourners laugh at Jesus but somehow he gets everyone to leave the house so he can be alone with the corpse. Taking the girl by the hand he rouses her as either genuinely asleep, faking her death, or literally returning from the afterlife. Word of the miracle quickly spreads. , Mark 5:22-43 Mark names the synagogue leader, Jairus, a detail Matthew omits. There are other differences too. Jairus has to beg and plead with Jesus to get him to look in on the allegedly dead daughter while he barely asked in Matthew before Jesus agreed to investigate. After the blood soaked girl incident, Jairus is approached by friends who tell him that the daughter is dead and that he should just accept the situation and not waste Jesus’s time. Jesus tells Jairus to maintain his faith which he does. Unlike the description in Matthew, Jesus enters the house in the company of three of his Apostles, Peter, John and James. Once the noisy wailing mourners are driven out of the house, only Jairus and his wife are allowed in to witness the girl’s supposed resurrection. Jesus takes the girl by the hand and tells her to get up. She rises up and walks round the room. We are now given her age, twelve. Jesus instructs the family to tell no one that the girl was brought back from the dead and to be sure the girl gets some food. Feeding her seems realistic after her sleep, coma or actual death experience, but not telling anyone about her seems impossible as many mourners saw her body. Unless Jairus hides the girl away forever, never letting her out of the house, someone is bound to see the once dead girl walking about. Matthew’s at least shows that everyone made no effort to conceal the story. Luke 8:41-56 This version is virtually identical to that of Mark. Another resurrection tale, in two conflicting versions, full of questionable details. Arthur Chappell