No Hunting Part 5

Blog » No Hunting, Part 5

                                                   Friday, July 5, 2013    Nick Cirino

There is one more difference we haven’t accounted for yet: 

Luke 18:35 ESV
     · As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging 

Matthew 20:29-30 ESV
    · And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two
      blind men sitting by the roadside, 

Out of all the issues we’ve talked about, this one is probably the hardest to reconcile. On the surface, this looks like a blatant contradiction. Did the miracle happen as Jesus came into the city or as he went out of the city? 

What do you do when there doesn’t seem to be a way to reconcile two accounts in the Bible? 

My first thought is, Give the Bible the benefit of the doubt. We may not be able to see how two things reconcile, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t reconcile. 

Imagine if I told one person I met my wife at church. And then in a conversation later I told someone else I met my wife in a classroom. Then I tell a third person that I met my wife in a basement. Then imagine if all three of them got together and exchange stories. It would sound like I told three different stories and hopelessly contradicted myself. 

Hopefully though, those three people would give me the benefit of the doubt. Even though they don’t know how to reconcile my story, they don’t assume it is irreconcilable. 

The truth is, I met my wife in the basement of the church teaching a children’s class. If those three people had been there, they would have seen there was no contradiction. 

Likewise, if we had been at Jericho, we would have seen how Luke and Matthew were accurately telling the same story from different angles. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, even if we don’t have a solution. 

(But I think there is a possible solution!) 

Image from: flickr.com/photos/jamesjordan/  

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