What's In Your Bible?
…for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. – Psalms 138:2
The Gospels Compared
The first four books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) record the same story from different perspectives.
Matthew: Jesus as King.
Mark: Jesus as Servant.
Luke: Jesus as Son of Man.
John: Jesus as Son of God.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
Frequently Asked Questions
For this specific topic
God gives the same message through different perspectives.
General
Yes. Yes it does.
Additional Documentation
One of the internal evidence of this is the lineages.
In Matthew, the lineage takes Jesus to the Throne of David and to Abraham.
Mark has no lineage because servants don’t have a lineage.
Luke has the lineage from Jesus to Adam for the Son of Man.
John doesn’t have a lineage because God has no lineage. God has no beginning or end.
When reading the Gospels, take into consideration what perspective the story is being told. When Jesus was on the Cross, the last 7 things Jesus said can get confusing when considering what was the last thing he said. Did He say, “It is finished” or “Into thy hands I commend my spirit?” If John is from the perspective of Jesus being the Son of God, then it would be plausible that God would get the last word so “It is finished” would fit the bill. Luke has “Into thy hands I commend my spirit” which is from Jesus being the Son of man. I would submit that the Son of man would be the second to the last thing Jesus said and that the Son of God would have the last word.
Sinaiticus is interesting in that these two verses were in the original Sinaiticus, then some scribe omitted them and then another scribe put them back in the text!
The main manuscripts that omit both these verses are Vaticanus, P75, A and a handful of other minor copies.
The Revised Standard Version 1972 actually omits all of verses 43 and 44.
42 “Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
43 * [No text]
44 * [No text]
45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,”
The older RSV 1952 included both verses without brackets!
The 1972 edition omitted them.
The New RSV 1989 put these two verses back in their version, but with brackets this time, while the ESV now includes the verses but with no brackets but just with a footnote that says “Some manuscripts omit verses 43 and 44.”
Among these Critical (Condition) Text versions the verses are NOT in brackets in the ESV, NIV, CSB, Legacy Standard Bible 2021.
The NASB, NET and Holman Standard put them in brackets so you won’t get too confident that they are actually inspired Scripture and belong in the Bible.
Special thanks to Will Kinney for his manuscript evidence.