Comparative Theology · Internal Contradictions
Galilee or Jerusalem? The First Appearance
Handle with care. Acts 1 allows forty days, so a harmonisation exists. Address it directly: Luke's own Gospel places the ascension on the same day, and Matthew's account has no Jerusalem appearance at all.
In short
- 1.Mark and Matthew: the disciples are told to go to Galilee, and that is where they see him
- 2.Luke: they are commanded to stay in Jerusalem, and all appearances happen there
- 3.John 20 is in Jerusalem; the appended chapter 21 moves to Galilee
The claim being examined
The location of the first resurrection appearance should be the single most memorable fact for any witness. The Gospels place it in two regions roughly seventy miles apart.
The Islamic position
The Islamic position is that God took Jesus to Himself, and that later communities constructed differing accounts of what followed. The geographical split is evidence of separate developing traditions, not one shared memory.
Analysis
Mark's young man instructs the women to tell the disciples that Jesus goes before them to Galilee, and Matthew stages the climactic commissioning on a Galilean mountain. Luke has the risen Jesus explicitly forbid the disciples to leave Jerusalem, and compresses everything into a single day there. These are not two halves of one itinerary — Luke's command and Matthew's mountain exclude each other. John preserves both traditions in separate layers, with chapter 21 widely regarded as a later appendix.
Side by side
| Mark | 16:7 | 'He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew | 28:16-17 | The eleven went to Galilee, to the mountain, and there they saw him. |
| Luke | 24:33-49 | All appearances occur in and around Jerusalem on the same day; they are told to stay in the city. |
| John | 20:19 / 21:1 | Jerusalem in chapter 20; the Sea of Tiberias in the appended chapter 21. |
From the Qur'an
Qur'an 4:157
وَمَا لَهُم بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ
They have no knowledge of it, only the following of conjecture.
From the Bible
Matthew 28:16
εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν εἰς τὸ ὄρος
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
Read it in their BibleLuke 24:49
καθίσατε ἐν τῇ πόλει
Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
Read it in their BibleSources
Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted · Dale C. Allison, The Resurrection of Jesus
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