Originally Posted by
DD2014
24) When was Christ crucified? Mark 15:25 "And it was the third hour and they crucified him." John 19:14-15 "And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour; and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king…Shall I crucify your king?" John 19:14-15.
John wrote his gospel in Ephesus which was a Roman province and he was writing to a Hellenistic audience.
"...the Romans had always two modes of reckoning the day, one which agreed with the primitive, from evening to morning and morning to evening and was permitted at least by the law while it did not interfere with legal or religious purposes; and another prescribed by the law for the courts of justice, and for the offices and services of religion, and for public purposes in general, from midnight to midnight."
(fasti temporis catholici and orgines kalendariae by Edward Greswell, pp. 215 - 216)
At the beginning of Chapter 6 John says Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, which was what it was called by the Jews. He then clarifies it to those he's writing by saying "that is, the Sea of Tiberias." That's a clear indication that he had the audience in mind. In the gospels the phrase "the Jews" is found many times. Excluding the eighteen times Jesus is called the "king of the Jews" the phrase "the Jews" is found once in Matthew, once in Mark, twice in Luke and more than sixty times in the gospel of John. John was speaking about a people who were of a different nationality than those to whom he was writing. That is why he mentioned ceremonial washing (2:6), a Jewish feast (5:1, 7:11), the Jewish Passover (2:13, 6:4, 11:55), defined the words Rabbi (1:38), Rabboni (20:16) and Siloam (9:7), gave the Greek equivalent for Thomas as Didymus (11:16, 20:24, 21:2) and commented on Jewish burial customs (John 19:40; cf. 2 Chron. 16:14). John also stated that the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, was in winter (John 10:22); a fact which would have been known to the Jews.
The Romans did not use the midnight to midnight mode of timekeeping at the beginning of the Roman empire but, in the second century A.D., Aulus Gellius said the duration and limits of the days that were termed "civil" were reckoned differently all over the world (Attic Nights by Gellius, 3.2). He also quoted a lost work from Marcus Varro called "Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum" in which Varro said "Persons who are born during the twenty-four hours between one midnight and the next midnight are considered to have been born on one and the same day." Marcus Varro lived from 116 - 27 B.C.
There is historical evidence that the Romans reckoned the hours in a day from midnight to midnight in the writings of Pliny the Elder:
"Different peoples measure the actual unit called 'a day' in different ways. The Babylonians reckon this as the interval between two sunrises; the Athenians, that between two sunsets; the Umbrians that from midday to midday; ordinary people everywhere, from dawn to dark. Roman priests and those who- fix the 'civil day', likewise the Egyptians and Hipparchus, reckon the day from midnight to midnight."
(Natural History: A Selection by Pliny the Elder, translated by John F. Healy, 1991, p. 35)
Gleason Archer gives the reference as Natural History, 2.77. Pliny the Elder wrote Natural History about 77 A.D, very close to the time that John wrote his account of the gospel. Hipparchus was a Greek astronomer, geographer and mathematician who lived from 190 to 120 B.C., during the Hellenistic period. Roman Historian Seneca lived in the first century and wrote this:
"I shall make myself better understood, if I say the month was October, the day was the thirteenth. What hour it was I cannot certainly tell; philosophers will agree more often than clocks; but it was between midday and one after noon."\
(Seneca, Apocolocyntosis, chapter 2)
"One after noon" would not refer to the first hour of the night or Seneca would have said it was between sunset and the first hour of the evening. Seneca was speaking of one o'clock in the afternoon. In the fourth century the Roman grammarian Macrobius said the Romans had declared the day began at the sixth hour of the night (Saturnalia 1:3). There is also evidence from the deaths of Polycarp and Pionius as well.
"Polycarp was martyred 'at the eighth hour' (Mart. Pol. XXL), Pionius at 'the tenth hour' (Acta Marl. p. 137); both at Smyrna. Such exhibitions commonly took place in the morning (Philo, II. 519); so that 8.0 and 10.0 A.M. are more probable than 2.0 and 4.0."
(The Gospel According to St. John: With Maps, Notes and Introduction by Alfred Plummer, 1902 ed., p. 341)
Originally Posted by
DD2014
25) The two thieves reviled Christ. (Matthew 27:44 & Mark 15:32) Only one of the thieves reviled Christ. Luke 23:39-40.
It is possible that there were more than two robbers crucified with Jesus that day and only the words of those crucified directly next to him were recorded. The other possibility is that one thief had reason for a change of heart and repented. If the latter is true it may have been because Jesus asked his heavenly Father to forgive those who had crucified him (Luke 23:34).
Originally Posted by
DD2014
26) In 1 Corinthians 1:17 ("For Christ sent me [Paul] not to baptize but to preach the gospel") Paul said Jesus was wrong when he said in Matthew 28:19 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…" Clearly one of these people is wrong, either way, it’s a contradiction.
Paul did not say Jesus was wrong when he said to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Not everyone in a given church participates in baptismal ceremonies. Baptizing people was not Paul's main ministry though he did baptize Crispus, Gaius and the whole household of Stephanas (1 Cor. 1:14-16).
Originally Posted by
DD2014
27) When did Satan enter Judas? Satan entered into Judas while at the supper. John 13:27 Satan entered Judas before the supper. Luke 23:3-4 & 7
Both before and during the last supper. John 13:2 says the evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus but John doesn't give any details of how Satan prompted Judas. In Luke 22 Satan entered into Judas and compelled him to go to the chief priests and ask for money in exchange for his help to have Jesus arrested. It doesn't say in any of the accounts of the gospel why Satan chose to leave Judas for a while. I believe that being in the presence of the Lord Jesus for any extended period of time would have made the devil extremely uncomfortable and it wasn't necessary for him to remain in Judas. When Jesus handed Judas the piece of bread Satan entered Judas again compelling him to carry out the plans he had made with the chief priests.
Originally Posted by
DD2014
28) How many women came to the sepulcher? John 20:1 Only one woman went, Mary Magdalene. Matthew 28:1 Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" (Jesus’ mother) went.
Mary Magdalene went alone at first and the other women later. Again, the authors use the literary style of compression which can be seen clearly by comparing the end of Luke to the beginning of Acts. Both were written by Luke to Theophilus and he makes no attempt to explain the ascension as recorded in Luke 24.
Originally Posted by
DD2014
29) Mark 16:2 It was sunrise when the two women went to the sepulcher. John 20:1 It was still dark (before sunrise) when Mary Magdalene went alone to the sepulcher.
Mary Magdalene went by herself at first and she left while it was still dark.
Originally Posted by
DD2014
31) How many angels were within the sepulcher? John 20:11-12 two, Mark 16:5 one.
These probably do not refer to the same exact moment since, in John 20, Mary Magdalene went and told Peter and John that the Lord's body was missing.
Originally Posted by
DD2014
32) The Holy Ghost bestowed at Pentecost. Acts 1:5-8 & 2:1-4 The holy Ghost bestowed before Pentecost. John 20:22
The disciples received the Holy Spirit before Pentecost and He indwelled them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and anointed with power on the day of Pentecost. John 20:22 says Jesus breathed on the disciples and said "receive the Holy Spirit." No mere man could breathe out the Holy Spirit who is referred to at least once in the Old Testament as the breath of God (Job 33:4).
Originally Posted by
DD2014
33) Where did Jesus first appear to the eleven disciples? In a room in Jerusalem. Luke 24:32-37 On a mountain in Galilee. Matthew 28:15-17
He first appeared to them in the upper room. Not all events or details are recorded in any of the four accounts of the gospel and John records the first two appearances in the upper room in Jerusalem and the third on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 21:14). Matthew only mentions eleven disciples in Matt. 28 but the appearance on the mountain in Galilee was almost certainly to many people since, at that time, the eleven had no doubt that Jesus rose from the dead (cf. John 21:12, 1 Cor. 15:6).
Originally Posted by
DD2014
35) Can all sins be forgiven? (Acts 13:39) All sins can be forgiven. Great, I’m happy to know God is so merciful, but wait (Mark 3:29) Cursing or blaspheming the Holy Spirit is unforgivable.
The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is widely misunderstood and the author doesn't examine the context of Jesus' statement in Mark 3 nor does he pick the best verse to contrast with Mark 3:29. Colossians 1:13 says God forgave all our sins and 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Mark 3:29-30 - But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit" (NIV).
Mark’s comment in verse 30 should always be part of any discussion on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. A poster on another board explained it well:
In this passage the term refers to the declaration of the Pharisees who had witnessed undeniable evidence that Christ was performing miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet they attributed the miracles to Satan. In the face of irrefutable evidence they ascribed the work of the Holy Spirit to that of Satan.
Many scholars and theologians agree with this and don't believe the Holy Spirit can be blasphemed today. In his book, Eternal Security, Charles Stanley wrote a chapter about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and his view agrees with the one above. The burden is on the author of that website to give an explanation of Mark 3:30.
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