Skeptic Tank Text Archive File

ges 8, 16: autumn 1992

                  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 Luke (23:54-56) says that the spices were obtained before the 
Sabbath. More serious than this, however, were the notable time discrepan-
cies 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 (see EFFORT, p. 16), whereas the ref-
erences 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 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 (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 (28:2), but the other three writers 
all said that the stone was already rolled away when the women  came to the 
tomb (Mk. 16:4; Lk. 2: Jn. 20:1).  

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


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