The Apparent Contradiction in Temptation Narrative

Among the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because of the similarity in the order in which they present their stories and even in the very words, they use i.e these Gospels can be studied side by side and note down the similarity and differences between them. New Testament Scholars call this study method “Synoptic problem”. Atheists would like to call this “Gospel contradiction”. Let’s test the claim to see whether it’s really a contradiction or not. For this, we first compare the temptation narrative of Matthew, Mark, and Luke side by side and then look into the narrative of John.

Description of temptation	Matthew 4:1-11	Mark 1:12,13	Luke 4:1-13
When?	After he fasted forty days and forty nights	Only mentions of Jesus being in wilderness for 40 days, fasting not mentioned.	Tempted for 40 days by devil.
The order of temptation	Wilderness, temple, and mountain	No description of temptation	wilderness, mountain, and temple.
Wilderness	And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”	No description of temptation	The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
Temple	Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”	No description of temptation	And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and“‘On their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Mountain	Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and he only shall you serve.’”	No description of temptation	And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you, I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God,  and him only shall you serve.’”
Climax	Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.	And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.	And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Observe that the three descriptions are close to each other and yet have only some minor differences. Matthew may or may not have been the eyewitness but it’s to be sure that Luke isn’t one and he claims to have consulted both oral and written documents to write the narrative(Luke 1:1-4). But In many narratives, the wording in Matthew and Luke are so similar that scholars have concluded that they may have used same sources to write their material (sources may be either oral or literary sources) or maybe Luke used the Gospel of Matthew or vice versa. Whatever the case be, one can confidently claim that these variant doesn’t even show the slightest problem to understand the details in the episode of Jesus temptation. In a sense, these seem to give a more complete picture of temptation. Reading Matthew’s narrative only, it isn’t plausible that Satan could show Jesus all the kingdom of the world from a high mountain. It’s geographically impossible because Earth isn’t flat. But, Luke’s extra comments are worth noting. He writes that Satan showed him all kingdoms in a “moment of time” implying that it might be a vision. Luke also provides extra detail that the tempter left Jesus for only some period and we see that the temptation strikes back in Matthew 27:40.

However, few apparent differences between these narratives are to be noted. When was Jesus tempted and what is the correct order of temptation of Jesus. Both narrations agree that the temptation occurs at the end of 40 days of fasting (Luke 4:2b; Matthew 4:2b) and therefore isn’t a contradiction. It may have been that Jesus was tempted for 40 days which we have no record of as Luke suggests it. Even if Luke had known it and he felt it not necessary to describe all of them, maybe it shouldn’t bother us too. Maybe Luke was talking about the three temptations only. So, then what is the correct order? Whatever the answer to the question is, doesn’t even affect our understanding of the temptation and how he won over every craftiness of the devil. Ancient biographers weren’t concerned with giving the chronological biography of Jesus. Exact chronology is a relatively modern fixation; ancient writers were very happy to compromise chronology if by so doing readers got a better grasp on the inner meaning and real significance of the facts.¹ Neither Matthew nor Luke promised to write a chronological account but a brief biography that includes his birth,his ministry, his death, and resurrection. Yes, there are differences but having differences doesn’t mean they are contradictory.

Let’s look at the real issue. In the book “The Life of Jesus: Critically Examined”, the author describes the contradiction of temptation of Jesus between Synoptic and Gospel of John as “divergence between the evangelist.”

But there is, besides, a chronological difficulty: namely, that while, according to the Synoptics, Jesus, in the plenitude of the Spirit, just communicated to him at the Jordan, betakes himself, in consequence of that communication, for forty days to the wilderness, where the temptation occurs, and then returns into Galilee; John, on the contrary, is silent concerning the temptation, and appears to suppose an interval of a few days only, between the baptism of Jesus and his journey into Galilee; thus allowing no space for a six weeks’ residence in the wilderness.

The Life of Jesus: Critically Examined, pg. 370

Even the New Testament textual critic Dr.Bart Ehrman points out such discrepancies within the gospel account regarding the activities of Jesus after his baptism “depends on which Gospel you read.”² What the critics are pointing is that if Jesus went to the wedding of Cana immediately after his baptism but the Synoptic Gospel claims that Jesus went to the wilderness for 40 days, where do you even fit the 40 days period in the Gospel of John narrative where the events seem continuous? Did Jesus go to a wedding or to the wilderness? The critics although sounds smart here but their entire argument lies on the logic that church created the story of Jesus and therefore made mistake in the process and they are smart enough to point them. But, if the life of Jesus is historically true, then any contradiction can be solved one way or another.

Let’s look at how John the Baptist was introduced in all of the four Gospels.

Gospel according to Matthew	Gospel according to Mark	Gospel according to luke	Gospel according to John
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:1-2	John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark 1:4	And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Luke 1:16-17	There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, John 1:6-7. John bore witness about him, and cried out, John 1:15 This is he of whom I said After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ John 1:30 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, John 1:32 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” John 1:34

The authors of Synoptic Gospel gave a bigger picture of John the Baptist unlike the Gospel of John which presents him as the “witness to Christ only.” We don’t find John preaching to the crowd as in Matthew and Luke. That concludes that the author wasn’t interested in describing neither the ministry of John nor the baptism of Jesus. The Synoptics describe the baptism of Jesus while the other of John describes the witness of the baptist to the Baptism of Jesus. When did the baptism of Jesus happen? Probably earlier. At some indefinite time prior to the start of the narrative, John and Jesus have already met at Jesus’ baptism. At this point, John witnesses an event that had previously taken place when Jesus’ identity was revealed to him (1:32 –34). But, doesn’t John 1:29 [The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him]] indicates Jesus coming to John the Baptist to be baptized as described in Matthew 3:13? I will argue not. Matthew was clear that Jesus met John for his baptism (Matthew 3:13b) while the Gospel of John gave no hint on the objective of Jesus. In summary,

• What the author in Gospel of John is focusing on is the witness of Jesus to that of John and not the direct event of baptism. Thus, the baptism has already happened.
• John describes how he saw Holy Spirit descending on Jesus when he saw Jesus coming toward him. Now, this incident happens at the moment of Jesus’ baptism. This does mean Jesus’ baptism has already happened. If this was the first meeting of John and Jesus, then verse 1:32 doesn’t make any sense.

Chronologically speaking, Jesus was baptized, was tempted, returned to Jordan, witnessed by John the Baptist (Ref. John 1), and then went to the wedding with his disciple. Thus, there is no contradiction in the narration.

Footnotes:

1. Jr., W. K. C., Davids, P. H., Bruce, F. F., & Brauch, M. (2010). Hard Sayings of the Bible (The Hard Sayings Series) (Reprint ed.). IVP Academic.
2. Ehrman, B. D. (2010). Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (Reprint ed.). HarperOne.
3. All quotations are taken from English Standard Version The Holy Bible, ESV Text Edition: 2016
4. Strauss, D. F., Pfleiderer, O., & Eliot, G. (2021). The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (4th ed.). Independently published.