[ref001]
Our Own Effort
[ref002]




Our Own Effort

     A thousand dollars Is certainly nothing to sneeze at, so we decided
to try for Ralph Nielsen's $1,000 offered in the summer issue.  In taking
the information from the opening verses of each account of the
resurrection, we hit a snag when we tried to fuse it all into one
consistent statement.  Our effort came out like this:


        When the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother 
     of James, Joanna, Salome, and the other women bought spices to 
     anoint the body.  Late on the sabbath day, at early dawn, as it 
     began to dawn toward the first day of the week, they came to see 
     the sepulchre when the sun was risen, very early on the first 
     day of the week, while it was yet dark.  


That was obviously no good, because glaring contradictions were already
present. The statement about the purchase of spices was taken from Mark's
version, but [ref003]Luke (23:54-56)
says that the spices were obtained before the Sabbath. More serious than
this, however, were the notable time discrepancies that say the women went
to the tomb when the sun was risen but while it was yet dark.  So we tried
again: 


        When  the sabbath was past, Mary  Magdalene,  Mary the 
     mother  of James, Joanna, Salome,  and  the  other women 
     bought spices to anoint the body.  Late  one the sabbath day 
     while it was yet dark, they came to see the sepulchre at early 
     dawn, as it began to dawn toward the first  day of the week, 
     very early on the first day  of the week, when the sun was 
     risen.


The theory behind this second attempt was to test the merits of the
inerran- tist claim that John meant for his readers to understand that the
trip to the tomb began while it was yet dark whereas the references of the
other writers to early dawn and the risen sun were alluding to the arrival
time at the tomb. It's a good theory, but it completely ignores the fact
that John said, "While it was yet dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb"
(20:1, NRSV).  "While it was yet dark" is an adverbial expression of time
that obviously modifies the verb came; thus, Mary came to the tomb while
it was yet dark, according to John. Likewise, expressions like "very early
on the first day of the week," "late on the sabbath day," "at early dawn,"
"as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week," and "when the sun
was risen" are also adverbial phrases or clauses that modify the verb come
in the passages that they are used in.  There is just no other verb in any
of the accounts for them to modify. For this reason, any effort to fuse
all of the expressions into one consistent statement is doomed to fail.

   "When the sabbath was past" is an adverbial clause in [ref004]Mark 16:1 that
modifies the verb bought.  In other words, the women bought spices
"when the sabbath was past," yet came to the tomb "while it
was yet dark."  How could both statements be true?  And how could the
women have bought the spices "when the sabbath was past" yet had
obtained the spices before the sabbath ([ref005]Luke 23:54-56)?

   With no plausible way to solve this problem, we looked ahead and saw
another inconsistency waiting in the wings.  According to Matthew, when
the women arrived, an "angel of the Lord" descended during an
earthquake and rolled the stone away from the sepulcher ([ref006]28:2), but the
other three writers all said that the stone was already rolled away when
the women came to the tomb ([ref007]Mk. 16:4; [ref008]Lk. 24:2; [ref009]Jn. 20:1).

   At this point, we gave up and decided that Mr. Nielsen's money is safe.



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[ref002] http://freethought.tamu.edu/mag/sr/1992/4/4effor92.html
[ref003] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Luke+23:54-56
[ref004] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Mark+16:1
[ref005] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Luke+23:54-56
[ref006] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Matthew+28:2
[ref007] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Mark+16:4
[ref008] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Luke+24:2
[ref009] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?John+20:1
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