 New Testament Coincidences
Truthful witnesses support each other without collusion. When their
stories are compared, the underlying validation becomes clear. A
close inspection of truth will uncover aspects that unintentionally
support each other whereas a close inspection of lies will normally
uncover inconsistencies. This principle of cross examination of
accounts is used to great effect by police and lawyers.
A close examination of the New Testament narrative of Jesus' life and
works will show that it has a ring of truth about it. A few examples
of the underlying co-incidences (from the book "Undesigned Scriptural
Co-incidences" by J Blunt) are provided below:
Prophesy... Who hit you?
The religious rulers of the day and the Roman soldiers were
interrogating Jesus. The story according to Matthew (26:67) is that
they found him worthy of death and then "spit in his face and struck
him with their fists. Others slapped him and said 'Prophesy to us
Christ, who hit you?"
It would appear to be an unusual thing to stand before a person, to
hit him and then ask "Who hit you?" A study of the parallel
account in Luke's gospel (22:64) explains the mystery... "They blindfolded him
and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?"
The charges against Jesus modified to suit the audience
Matthew reports that Jesus was taken to the religious authorities and
that "the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false
evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death." (Matt. 26:59).
The charge against Jesus (in this situation) was that "He has spoken
blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses?"
When the Jews brought Jesus before the Roman authorities, they changed
the charge... "We have found this man subverting our nation. He
opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.
The coincidence is that other passages co-incidentally give reasons
for this twisting of the charges. Consider these examples:
When Jesus proclaimed that "I and the father are one", the Jews
"picked up stones to stone him." (John 10:30-31). Jesus said to the
Jews "My father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too,
am working. For this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill
him." The Jews reacted violently whenever Jesus claimed to be the son
of God, and it would be natural for the religious leaders to note that
this was an aspect of Jesus' teaching that offended the common people.
It is equally interesting to note that the charge of blasphemy would
not be sufficient to obtain permission from the Roman authorities for
the execution. The letter to the Roman Governor, Felix relating to
the Apostle Paul demonstrates this point:
This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment.Acts 23:27-29, NIV
Would a writer of fiction think to include a twist in the story that
dealt with the fact that the charge brought against Christ had to be
manipulated to have maximum impact on the various groups that had to
be influenced against Christ?
Peter recognised by the door keeper
Jesus was taken to the high priest's residence for questioning before
his crucifixion. During the questioning, Matthew tells us that Peter
was identified as one of Jesus' disciples by a woman at the high
priest's residence. "Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and
a servant girl came to him. 'You also were with Jesus of Galilee',
she said."
The servant's recognition of Peter would normally be an unusual thing,
how did this woman recognise a stranger from Galilee? Matthew's account
gives no clue as to the underlying collaborating detail within the story,
but the gospel of John fills in the gaps. John explains that he was known
to the high priest and that:
Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple [John], who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.John 18:15-16, NIV
John's record completes the picture by supplying the information that
the servant girl knew that Peter was an associate of Jesus through
their mutual friend John.
Once again, this collaborating information is included in the record
in such an obscure way as to identify itself as the mark of truth.
The crucifixion affected people's attitudes
Joseph of Arimathea before Christ's death, was identified as a secret
follower of Jesus because he was scared of the Jews (John 19:38). Why
would such a timid follower of Jesus go "boldly to
Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus." (Mark 15:43). It would
appear that the events during the crucifixion changed people's outlook.
People ridiculed Jesus at the beginning of the crucifixion:
Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!Mark 15:29-31, NIV
As Jesus approached death, the observer's attitudes towards him began
to change. When he complained of thirst, a man ran and
filled a sponge with vinegar and offered it to Jesus. At the moment of his
death, it is recorded that the Roman centurion said "Surely this man
was the Son of God".
What made the difference between the beginning of the execution and
it's end? Mark explains that there was darkness over the land for
three hours and Matthew states that there was an earth quake. Is it
merely coincidental that the new-found courage of Joseph of Arimathea
(made evident in his approach to Pilate to request Jesus' body)
happened after people had been shaken by the events surrounding Jesus'
death?
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