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GOSPEL WARS:  Galilee  -vs-  Jerusalem

(Where Was Jesus Supposed To Meet Up With His Gang?)

Mark A. Smith   1995, 2002

 

 

When a husband offers up to his angry wife contradictory stories of where he spent last night, it’s a safe bet he’s lying. Likewise, when the Bible gets caught up in a contradiction, it’s also a safe bet it’s lying. That’s the power of contradictions- you know someone is lying. And once you discover the Bible is lying, it’s much harder to trust or believe that it could have come from a perfect author.

 

The contradiction under consideration here is the location of where the disciples were to meet up with Jesus after his supposed resurrection. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John have Jesus saying the disciples are to rendezvous with him in Galilee, northern Israel, about three days journey away. In contradiction to this, Luke’s two books- The Gospel of Luke and The Book of Acts, have Jesus planning to rendezvous in Jerusalem. The question is, where exactly was Jesus promising to meet up with his disciples: 

Jerusalem   -or-   Galilee?

 

   

Leave Jerusalem Go To Galilee	Don't Leave Jerusalem
Mt 26:32  But after I have been raised, I will go before you to GALILEE.	Acts 1:4  And gathering them together, he commanded them NOT to LEAVE JERUSALEM.4
Mk 14:28  But after I have been raised, I will go before you to GALILEE.	Lk 24:47  (the gospel should be preached) beginning from JERUSALEM.
Mt 28:7   ...behold, he is going before you into GALILEE, there you will see him.	Lk 24:33-37  (Jesus appears to his gang, NOT in Galilee, but in JERUSALEM.)
Mk 16:7   ...he is going before you into GALILEE, there you will see him.	Acts 1:12 Then they returned to JERUSALEM from the mount called Olivet, which is near JERUSALEM.
Mt 28:10  ...tell my brethren to leave for GALILEE, there they shall see me.	Lk 24:49  ...but you are to stay in the CITY (Jerusalem) until  you are clothed with power from on high.5,6
Mt 28:16  But the eleven disciples proceeded to GALILEE, to the mountain Jesus had designated.
Jn 16:32  An hour is coming...for you to be scattered, each to his own home3.

 

 

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CONCLUSION:

In the forty days between the “resurrection” and alleged ascension of Jesus, the Apostles either never left Jerusalem  (per Jesus' command)  -OR-  they did leave Jerusalem (for Galilee, per Jesus' command)  In the real world, people cannot be in two places at the same time, and to claim otherwise is to be caught up in a contradiction. In the real world, in that forty day span, Peter either left Jerusalem¹  or never left Jerusalem², but there’s no way in hell he could have done both, Bible or no Bible. The Bible, like the cheating husband, has been caught in a contradiction, exposed as a liar, and therefore can't be trusted to tell the truth. 

 

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1)John 21:1-3   2)Acts 1:13  3)They are called "men of Galilee" in Acts 1:11, and Peter's home was in Capernaum of Galilee,  Mt 8:5&14, so it is obvious that Jesus is saying they'll all go to GALILEE right after he dies, after they've "all left him and fled," Mk 14:50.  4)This specific command of Jesus to NOT leave Jerusalem rules out any solution to the contradiction that includes a “quick trip up to Galilee”.  5)Once again, Jesus gives a very specific command for them to NOT leave Jerusalem during the time period in question. As I said before, such commands rule out any explanations that claim the disciples went to both Galilee AND  Jerusalem. Fact is, they were already IN Jerusalem, and Jesus had put them under “house arrest”, commanding them to keep their butts there. No “side trips” to Galilee, and thus no way out of the contradiction.  6)Upon his "resurrection" Jesus commanded his Apostles to remain in JERUSALEM  (which rules out ANY side trips to Galilee) until "you are clothed with power from on high" (Lk 24:49). This the Apostles did, according to Luke, and passed the days in the temple, (Lk 24:52,53). Ten days past Jesus' "ascension" and fifty days past the "resurrection", on the day of Pentecost, in the city of JERUSALEM, not having left the city, the Apostles are now "empowered by power from on high" (Acts 2:1-21), as promised by Jesus.

 

 

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