Christians Have Known About Gospel Contradictions for 1,800 Years (vIDEO)

Welcome to the home of Episode 204 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman. Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.

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The Gospels Contradict Themselves. NOW WHAT?

episode description

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This episode explores the Diatessaron, the earliest known attempt to combine the four New Testament Gospels into a single harmonized account. Bart Ehrman explains why Christians have harmonized the Gospels from antiquity onward: some wanted a fuller picture of Jesus, while others wanted to smooth over apparent contradictions and discrepancies between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The discussion examines how early Christian writers responded to Gospel differences. Origen argued that contradictions could signal a deeper spiritual meaning, while Augustine attempted to demonstrate that apparent contradictions could be reconciled. Ehrman also explains how scribes sometimes altered Gospel passages to make them agree with one another.

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Did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Actually Write the Gospels?

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Did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Actually Write the Gospels?

The episode then turns to Tatian and the Diatessaron. Although the original work has disappeared, scholars reconstruct portions of it from ancient commentaries, quotations, and later Gospel harmonies. Ehrman explains why the Diatessaron became controversial, including Tatian's later ascetic views and its eventual suppression in Syria.

The central takeaway is that harmonizing the Gospels can produce a smoother narrative, but it can also erase the distinctive voices and theological emphases of individual Gospel authors. Their differences are not merely obstacles; they can reveal what each author was trying to communicate about Jesus.