Inconsistent Quotes

MY BIBLE INTERPRETATION

Inconsistent Quotes

If the Bible is truly the inerrant word of God, then why can’t the gospel authors agree on what Jesus said? Many many times, two or more gospels talk about the same event, and they report the event using different words. That’s fine, as long as they have consistent meanings. But when they quote Jesus, the quotations should match word for word. If the Bible really is inerrant, Jesus’ quotes should have exactly the same words as those Jesus spoke.


The Gospels of Matthew and Mark have a lot of similarities. For example, the following verses appear in passages that the NIV gives exactly the same heading to: “Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar.”
Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Mark 12:17
NIV
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Matthew 22:21
NIV
These quotes are certainly very similar, but Matthew includes the word “So” (“OYN” in the original Greek) and Mark does not. (It’s quite surprising that the verses disagree on a comma, because there is no punctuation in the original Greek, so that discrepency must have been created by the authors of the NIV translation.)

Immediately following the “Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar” passage, Matthew and Mark present an event that the NIV calls “Marriage at the Resurrection.” The following verses can be found in there.
Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising---have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” Mark 12:24-27
NIV
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead---have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’2 He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Matthew 22:29-32
NIV
Boy, there sure is a lot of underlining up there. (My underlining is based on the original Greek. I didn’t underline “Now”/“But”, because both authors used the same Greek word, “ΔΕ”. However, I did underline “said”/“said”, because in Greek they used different words: “ΕΙΠΕΝ”/“ΡΗΘΕΝ.”) At least they agreed on Jesus’ quotation of Exodus 3:6. However, that quote is inaccurate, because Exodus 3:6 actually says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."”

The next passage in both books is “The Greatest Commandment.”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’2 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’2 There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31
NIV
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’2 This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’2 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-39
NIV
Whoa! Entire sentences are included or excluded. There is even some real semantic differences here.

Matthew and Mark continue in lockstep with “Whose Son Is the Messiah?”
“David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” Mark 12:37x
NIV
“If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” Matthew 22:45
NIV
There are other differences in this passage, but I’m getting tired.


It seems quite clear to me that Mark and/or Matthew did not always write down exactly what Jesus said, word-for-word. Therefore the Bible is not completely perfectly true. (The only other possibility that I can think of is that Mark and Matthew are reporting different times when Jesus gave the same teachings. However, in all of these passages, with the exception of Mark’s version of “Whose Son Is the Messiah?” somebody else says something, and what they say is remarkably similar in the two cases. So, for example, there would have to be two different groups of Sadducees that asked the same long question about the seven brothers in Mark 12:19-23 and Matthew 22:24-28.)
Recently, somebody offerred me another explanation. Maybe Jesus was speaking in Aramaic, and Mark and Matthew translated his quotes into Greek differently. It would surprise me if Jesus was not speaking to the people in Greek, as it was the common language in Israel at that time. But if so, I think this might be a reasonable explanation for the discrepencies in some of these examples. But still, it seems to me that some of the differences above are two great to attribute them to alternate translations. Also, take a look at Jesus’ “I tell you the truth.” quote.


References

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