10 Contradictions in the Bible and What to Do about Them

Bible faultfinders argue for a fourfold contradiction in the gospels regarding how many women went to Jesus’ crypt after His entombment. This is an example of a contradiction supposed because of ARGUMENT FROM SILENCE. The reader assumes that if something isn’t mentioned, it didn’t happen.

Matthew 28:1 says, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”

Mark 16:1 tells us, “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome” went to the tomb. 

Luke 24:1, 10 states that the group of women mentioned in Luke 23:55 prepared spices, and in Luke 24:1, they took them to the burial place. Luke 24:10 gives us a few names (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James), and an unspecified group of other women who went to the tomb.

John 20:1 only makes mention of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb.

The gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) each told the same narrative history of Jesus’ earthly walk, but each shared different details and nuances. There are many common events written, but no details are omitted which would negate others by its omission. 

From the four accounts of the women who went to the tomb, we can deduce there were at least four, but others may have been present as attested by Luke’s account. That the writers kept or omitted names was a simple matter of narrative preference by the gospel writer. No inconsistency exists because none deny what the others have stated.

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