Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them)

by Bart D. Ehrman

  Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17–20)

  Paul thought that followers of Jesus who tried to keep the law were in danger of losing their salvation. Matthew thought that followers of Jesus who did not keep the law, and do so even better than the most religious Jews, would never attain salvation. Theologians and interpreters over the years have tried to reconcile these two views, which is perfectly understandable, since both of them are in the canon. But anyone who reads the Gospel of Matthew and then reads the letter to the Galatians would never suspect that there was a reason, or a way, to reconcile these two statements. For Matthew, to be great in the kingdom requires keeping the very least of the commandments; just getting into the kingdom requires keeping them better than the scribes and Pharisees. For Paul, getting into the kingdom (a different way of saying being justified) is made possible only by the death and resurrection of Jesus; for gentiles, keeping the Jewish law (for example, circumcision) is strictly forbidden.

  Of course, Matthew also knows all about the death and resurrection of Jesus. He spends a good part of his Gospel narrating it. And he, too, thinks that apart from Jesus’ death there can be no salvation. But salvation also requires keeping God’s laws. He did give these laws, after all. Presumably he meant them the first time and didn’t change his mind later.

  One passage in Matthew suggests, in fact, that salvation is not just a matter of belief but also of action, an idea completely alien to the thinking of Paul. In one of the great discourses of Jesus, found only in Matthew, he describes the Day of Judgment that will come at the end of time. The Son of Man comes in glory, with his angels, and people from all the nations of earth are gathered before him (Matthew 25:31–45). He separates them into two groups “as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” The sheep are on his right and the goats on his left. He welcomes the sheep into the Kingdom of God “prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Why are these people brought into the kingdom?

  Because I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.

  The “sheep” are perplexed, though. They don’t remember ever meeting Jesus, the Son of Man, let alone doing these things for him. But he tells them, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, so you did it to me.” In other words, it is by caring for the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and imprisoned that one inherits God’s kingdom.

  The goats, on the other hand, are sent away to the “eternal fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels.” And why? Unlike the sheep, they did not take care of the Son of Man when he was in need. They, too, are perplexed, for they don’t recall ever seeing him. But they saw others in need and turned their backs on them: “Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, so you did not do it to me.” Matthew concludes his story with this stark statement: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” These are Jesus’ final public words in the Gospel of Matthew.

  How do these words stack up against Paul? Not so well. Paul believed eternal life comes to those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. In Matthew’s account of the sheep and the goats, salvation comes to those who have never even heard of Jesus. It comes to those who treat others in a humane and caring way in their hour of deepest need. This is a completely different view of salvation.7

  There is another striking story in Matthew. A rich man comes up to Jesus and asks him, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus tells him, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” When asked, “Which ones?” Jesus lists as examples some of the Ten Commandments. The man insists he has already done all these—what else is needed? Jesus replies that he should give up everything he owns, “and you will have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:16–22). Jesus then says, “And come, follow me”—but note: following Jesus comes only after the man will have inherited heavenly treasure by giving all away.

  I wonder what would have happened if the same man had come up to Paul, twenty years later. If Paul were asked how someone could have eternal life, would he have said, “Keep the commandments”? Not Paul. The commandments have nothing to do with it. Jesus’ death and resurrection do. Would Paul have said that giving away all he owned would earn him treasure in heaven? No way. Only faith in Jesus could bring eternal life.

  One can’t argue that Jesus was talking about salvation before his death, and Paul about salvation afterward, because Matthew was writing after Paul. Moreover, in Matthew, Jesus is talking about the last judgment, which obviously would take place after his death and resurrection. And so the problem is this: if Matthew’s Jesus was right, that keeping the law and loving others as yourself could bring salvation, how could Paul be right that doing these things were irrelevant for attaining salvation?

  SEVERAL OTHER DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

  There are other large and small differences in the books of the New Testament. The best way to cite a few examples is by asking pointed questions.

  Why Did Jesus Die?

  The death of Jesus is central to both Paul and to each of the Gospel writers. But why did he die? And what relation did his death have to salvation? The answer depends on which author you read.

  Mark is clear that Jesus’ death brought about an atonement for sin. As Jesus himself states in an early chapter of Mark: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The death of Jesus ransoms others from the debt they owe to God because of sin; it is an atoning sacrifice.

  Luke used Mark’s Gospel as a source for his own, adding, deleting, and altering Mark’s words as he saw fit. And what did he do with this current verse? He completely deleted it. Why would Luke delete the verse? Possibly he has a different understanding of Jesus’ death.

  In this connection it is striking that in Mark, the “evidence” that Jesus’ death brought an atonement is found immediately after Jesus dies, when the curtain in the Temple is ripped in half, showing that in Jesus’ death people have access to God. But Luke changes the timing: the ripping of the curtain occurs while Jesus is still living. Many scholars think this is significant: the ripping of the curtain no longer signifies the atoning significance of Jesus’ death but the judgment of God on the Temple of the Jews, a symbolic statement that it will be destroyed.

  So what is the reason for Jesus’ death in Luke? The matter becomes clearer in Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts, where the apostles preach about the salvation that has come in Christ in order to convert others to the faith. In none of these missionary sermons is there a single word about Jesus’ death being an atonement. Instead, the constant message is that people are guilty for rejecting the one sent from God and having him killed. The death of the innocent one (Jesus) should make people repent of their sins and turn to God, so he can forgive them (see Acts 2:36–38; 3:17–19). Luke’s view is that salvation comes not through an atoning sacrifice but by forgiveness that comes from repentance.8

  But aren’t atonement and forgiveness the same thing? Not at all. It’s like this. Suppose you owe me a hundred dollars but can’t pay. There are a couple of ways the problem could be solved. Someone else (a friend, your brother, your parents) could pay the hundred dollars for you. That would be
like atonement: someone else pays your penalty. Or, instead of that, I could simply say, “Never mind, I don’t need the money.” That would be like forgiveness, in which no one pays and God simply forgives the debt.

  The death of Jesus is important to both Mark and Luke. But for Mark, his death is an atonement; for Luke, it is the reason people realize they are sinful and need to turn to God for forgiveness. The reason for Jesus’ death, then, is quite different, depending on which author you read.

  When Did Jesus Become the Son of God, the Lord, and the Messiah?

  The missionary speeches of Acts deal not only with issues of salvation; they also make bold statements about Christ and how God exalted him after his death. In Paul’s speech to potential converts in Antioch of Pisidia, he speaks of God’s raising of Jesus in fulfillment of Scripture:

  What God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ (Acts 13:32–33)

  In this text the “day” Jesus became begotten as God’s son was the day of the resurrection. But how does that square with what Luke says elsewhere? In Luke’s Gospel, the voice utters the same words, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (Luke 3:22), when Jesus is baptized.9 But even earlier, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary prior to Jesus’ conception and birth that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). In this instance it appears that Jesus is the Son of God because of the virginal conception: he is physically God’s son. How can Luke say all three things? I’m not sure it’s possible to reconcile these accounts; it may be that Luke got these different traditions from different sources that disagreed with one another on the issue.

  The same type of problem occurs with some of the other things Luke says about Jesus. For example, in Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost, he speaks of the death of Jesus and affirms that God raised him up and exalted him to heaven: “Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Here, again, it appears that Jesus receives this exalted status at the resurrection—that is when God “made him” Lord and Messiah. But what then is one to think of the birth narrative in Luke, where the angel informs the shepherds who are “watching over their flock by night” that “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (2:11). In this instance, Jesus is Messiah and Lord already at his birth. How did Jesus become both Messiah and Lord at both points in time? Here again there appears to be an internal discrepancy within Luke’s own writings, possibly because different sources were used to create his accounts.

  Has God Overlooked the Ignorance of Idolaters?

  We have seen that the book of Acts occasionally presents discrepancies not only with the Gospels but also with the writings of the hero of its narratives, Paul. One particularly interesting instance occurs in one of the few instances in Acts in which Paul is said to deliver a message to a pagan audience, his sermon to the philosophers in Athens while standing on the Areopagus (Acts 17:22–31). Paul begins this sermon by complimenting his hearers on their great religiosity, but he goes on to indicate that they have committed a great error in thinking that they could worship God by worshipping idols, for God “does not live in shrines made by human hands.” Instead he is the Lord of the earth, the creator of all. But “God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, and now commands all people everywhere to repent.” This is a key verse. According to Paul, the pagans have worshipped pagan gods out of ignorance. They simply didn’t know any better. God has overlooked all that and given them a chance now to face the truth and to come to believe in him through Christ, who has been raised from the dead.

  What makes this point of view so interesting is that Paul himself speaks about pagan religions in one of his letters and makes it ever so plain that he does not at all think that pagans worship idols out of ignorance, or that God has overlooked their actions in hopes that they will repent. In Romans 1:18–32, Paul indicates quite the contrary, that the “wrath of God” is poured out upon pagans because they willfully and consciously rejected the knowledge of God that was innate within them. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:19). They have not pursued their religious fantasies out of ignorance but in full knowledge of the truth: “Though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him…and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.”

  Has God overlooked their sin? By no means: “They are without excuse.” And God punishes them, not only in some undisclosed time in the future but also in the present, by making them, or allowing them to become, increasingly corrupt, wicked, and immoral.

  And so we have two contrasting portrayals of Paul’s view of the pagans and their worship of idols. Do they worship idols out of ignorance? The “Paul” of Acts says yes, Paul in his own writings says no. Does God overlook what they’ve done? Acts says yes, Paul says no. Are they responsible for their idolatrous activities? Acts says no, Paul says yes. Does God inflict his wrathful judgment on them in the present as a result? Acts says no, Paul says yes.

  Scholars have often tried to reconcile these contrary views. Most often it is claimed that since in Acts Paul is talking to the idolaters themselves, wanting to convert them, he doesn’t tell them what he really thinks, so as not to give offense. I frankly have always found this hard to believe. It would mean that Paul, in order to gain some converts, would straight out lie about what he thought was God’s view of their religious activities. Paul was a lot of things, but I don’t think a dissembler was one of them. The real Paul would more likely have preached some fire and brimstone to get these people to realize the error of their ways; tact is another characteristic rarely attached to the historical Paul. It appears that the Paul of Acts is not the same as the real Paul, at least when it comes to this very fundamental issue of the divine reaction to pagan idolatry.

  Is the Roman State a Force of Good or Evil?

  My final question regarding a major discrepancy of perspective is one asked by many of the early Christians: What is to be the appropriate Christian attitude toward the state? Different authors answered that question differently; sometimes these answers were at odds with one another. The apostle Paul represents one end of the spectrum:

  Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed…for it is God’s servant for your good. (Romans 13:1–2, 4)

  The governing authorities are from God, He has instituted them for the good, and no one should resist them because to resist them is to resist God.

  The polar opposite view is represented in the book of Revelation, which sees the governing powers as wicked, instituted, and controlled by the forces of evil, and subject in the end to the overwhelming wrath of God. Here are such “ruling authorities” as the Anti-Christ and his minions. Here the city of Rome is described as “the great whore” and the “mother of whores and of earth’s abominations,” “drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.” Why should this “whore of Babylon” of Revelation 17 be thought of as referring to the Roman authorities, the ones Paul had such praise for? Because an angel gives us an interpretation of the meaning of this vision of the “whore of Babylon.” The beast on which she sits has seven heads, which represent the “seven mountains on which the woman is seated”; she herself is “the great city that rules over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18). What is the great ruling city of the first century, seated on seven mountains? Of course it is Rome, the city “built on seven hills.”

 
In the book of Revelation, Rome is not the kindly disposed institution working to bring about the good, not God’s servant appointed for the well-being of God’s people that it is in Paul. In Revelation, Rome is a heinous, wretched, blasphemous, flagrantly immoral, violently oppressive authority, not appointed by God but established by God’s enemies. But its day is coming; God will soon overthrow the Roman state in order to bring in his good kingdom and wipe the whore of Babylon off the face of the earth.

  CONCLUSION

  For nearly twenty-five years now I have taught courses on the New Testament in universities, mainly Rutgers and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In all this time, the lesson that I have found most difficult to convey to students—the lesson that is the hardest to convince them of—is the historical-critical claim that each author of the Bible needs to be allowed to have his own say, since in many instances what one author has to say on a subject is not what another says. Sometimes the differences are a matter of stress and emphasis; sometimes they are discrepancies in different narratives or between different writers’ thoughts; and sometimes these discrepancies are quite large, affecting not only the small details of the text but the very big issues that these authors were addressing.

  I’ve tried to cover some of the interesting “large” discrepancies in this chapter: Who was Jesus? How did he come into the world? What did he teach? Why did he perform miracles? What was his attitude toward his own death? Why did he have to die? How are people made right with God? What is God’s attitude toward “false” religions? How should Christians relate to the ruling authorities? These are, by all counts, major issues. And different New Testament authors answers them in different ways.