As Spring returns to the world, signs are beginning to pop up advertising “Easter Services” in celebration of their most important holiday. I reflect on what the day previously represented for me, long before I found out Easter was a colonization of Ostara from the Pagans of Old.
During my upbringing I regularly read the bible, and my favorite Gospel was John as it had the story of Nicodemus. Luke was my next favorite, as he was the doctor. But I read the gospels, and I of course listened to the Preacher Pastor Deacon Father du Jour during the service & their message, but I wanted to know them back & front. The older I got the more I began to notice inconsistencies in the most foundational truth of my religion. But I eventually got very good at knowing the bible back to front.
I knew how it went. Jesus died for 3 days, and on the third he rose again. But things really got murky after that. I always loved hearing about Mary Magdalene, and John talked about her the most. I think she & Jesus had more to say on a lot, but due to patriarchal influence, those messages have been obscured. I saw a guy on the internet some years back that just covered the inconsistencies honorably, if I remember them I will give credit.
But I took their work and I made a chart that will better demonstrate the inconsistencies, please view it here. EDIT: As of 5/22/2025 I think I found the original creator, or at least another version of this: Google Sheet.
I was always told that inconsistencies in the Bible were because men were fallible, not god. Imagine my surprise and amazement to discover the Gospels weren’t written close to Jesus’ death at all, but upwards of 80 years later.
I don’t know if you’ve ever played the game Telephone in school, but let me give you an introduction for those that haven’t.
You sit with a large group of friends, 20 or more is ideal. The first person chooses a sentence in their head, for example: “The pig can fly on Tuesday!” and must whisper it to the next person. That next person repeats it so on and so forth until the message has passed to all participants. By the end of the game, the originating sentence is seldom what the final result ends up being.
I mention this school game because, stories get messed up the more they are told, even in short spans of time. If you saw something when you were 20, how well could you recite the events and remain true to the original story some 80 years later?
Perhaps the story of the resurrection did happen, but which version is the true record?
I leave you with these questions for consideration.