There
are those who try to confuse Christians or those interested in becoming
Christians by showing inconsistencies in Biblical wording trying to disprove
that Jesus Is the Son of God. First of all, we have to figure out what the
inconsistencies are in these passages. Three of the four Gospels refers to
Jesus saying something similar to, “Follow Me and I will make you
Fishers of Men.” Each
of these three Gospels say it differently. Also, the Gospel of John doesn’t
record Jesus saying that. I will use the New King James Version (NKJV) of the
Bible to research these and put my findings in [brackets] to see if these
inconsistencies are significant enough to disprove that Jesus Is the Son of
God?
Matthew
4:17-20 says: From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two
brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the
sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They
immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Mark
1:16-18 says: And as He [Jesus] walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon
[Peter] and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make
you become fishers of men.” They
immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Luke
5:1-10 says: So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of
God, that He [Jesus] stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats
standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing
their nets. Then He [Jesus] got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s [Simon
Peter’s], and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and
taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped speaking, He said to
Simon, “Launch out into the deep and
let down your nets for a catch.” But
Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught
nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had
done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So
they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And
they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man, O Lord!” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the
catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John the sons of
Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
John
1:33-34 John the Baptist says: “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to
baptize with water said to me, “Upon whom you see the Spirit
descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ “And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of
God.” John 1:35-51 goes on to say: Again, the next day, John [the Baptist]
stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he [John
the Baptist] said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak,
and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to
them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to
say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He [Jesus] said to
them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying,
and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). One of the
two who heard John [the Baptist] speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon
Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have
found the “Messiah” (which is translated the Christ). And he [Andrew]
brought him [Simon Peter] to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him [Simon Peter],
He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is
translated, A Stone). The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He
found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”
[Well,
I’m going to put the three passages side by side to better compare them.]
Matthew
4:19 says: Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make
you fishers of men.”
Mark
1:17 says: Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make
you become fishers of men.”
The second part of Luke 5:10 says:
And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on
you will catch men.”
[In my
opinion, the verse in Matthew saying “I will make you fishers of men”, Mark’s
saying, “I will make you become
fishers of men”, and Luke’s saying, “...From now on you will catch men”, are
all very similar in nature and does not invalidate that Jesus said this, nor
does it come anywhere near disproving that Jesus Is the Son of
God!]
[The
next part of comparing where these first three Gospels take place to see if any
inconsistencies are significant.]
Matthew
4:18 says: And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw
two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into
the sea; for they were fishermen.
Mark
1:16 says: And as He [Jesus] walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw
Simon [Peter] and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishermen.
Luke
5:1-2 says: So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of
God, that He [Jesus] stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and
saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and
were washing their nets
[First,
I did a Google Search for: Is the Lake of Gennesaret the same as the Sea of
Galilee? I found what I needed at:
While it is a lake and not a sea, the Lake of Gennesaret is
also called the Sea of Galilee, as well
as the Sea of Tiberias, after the resort city of Tiberias that Herod the Great
built on its western shore and named after Caesar Tiberias to endear himself to
his Roman overlord.
This tells me that all three Gospels are talking about the
same general place which is not significant enough to invalidate that Jesus
said this or that Jesus Is the Son of God.]
[Additionally, I need to research to see if there are other
details that are questionable in these three Gospels.]
Matthew 4:18 says: And Jesus walking by the
Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
Mark
1:16 the second half says: He [Jesus] saw Simon [Peter] and Andrew his
brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Luke
5:5-8 says: But Simon answered and said to Him [Jesus], “Master, we have toiled
all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the
net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and
their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to
come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began
to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
[In my
opinion, all three Gospels are talking about Simon Peter, his brother, Andrew,
and possibly others casting nets into the sea. I guess when I first read it, I
was thinking that they cast their nets into the sea from the shoreline, but I
realized after reading this several times, there’s nothing that really says
this. In Luke, they are casting the nets into the sea from the boat, and in
re-reading the passages in Matthew and Mark, it just says that they were
casting their nets into the sea which could have been while they were in a
boat. Regardless, if some passages had them on land casting in their nets and
some in a boat, would it be significant enough of an inconsistency to prove
that Jesus didn’t say this and to disprove that Jesus Is the Son of God? In my
opinion, it most certainly does not.]
[We
now need to compare these first three Gospels with the Gospel of John. I
checked in John 1 to see where the passage above took place.]
John
1:27-28 says: “It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose
sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” These things were done in
Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
In
checking out the map at the following site, I found that Bethabara is by the
Jordan River and near the Sea of Galilee also called the Lake of Gennesaret: https://www.bible-history.com/new-testament/baptism-of-jesus-bethabara.html
[It is
my opinion, that all four passages in the Gospels take place around the same
area of water deep enough for baptizing and for fishing. Even if they weren’t
in the same area, would that be significant enough to prove that Jesus didn’t
say this or disprove that Jesus Is the Son of God? No way!!!]
Are
other inconsistencies between the Gospel of John, Matthew, Luke and Mark
significant enough to prove that Jesus didn’t say this or to disprove that
Jesus Is the Son of God?
[In my
opinion from researching this, the Gospel of John mentions nothing of casting
nets or fishing, although they were by a body of water where this could have
happened, but was not recorded isn’t a significant discrepancy.]
Are
there other inconsistencies between these portions of the Gospels of John and
Matthew, Mark, and Luke that are significant?
[Additionally,
Matthew and Mark have Jesus asking both Simon Peter and Andrew to Follow Him
and become Fishers of Men. Luke notes that Jesus said this to Simon Peter and
the only thing similar in the Gospel of John 1 is in verse 43 says: The
following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to
him, “Follow Me”, but are these significant? In my
opinion, I don’t think so. Just because John didn’t specifically note that
Jesus said to Simon Peter to Follow Him and become Fishers of Men, doesn’t
invalidate that it happened. Sure, it could be that Jesus said it directly to
Simon Peter and John didn’t hear that conversation, but whether or not that
happened, still isn’t significant enough to disprove anything.]
[In
conclusion, none of these inconsistencies disprove that Jesus Is the Son of
God, in fact, it does quite the opposite.]
Luke
5:5-10 gives lots more detail than Matthew and Mark to why they left their jobs
as fishers and followed Jesus: But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we
have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let
down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish,
and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other
boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that
they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees,
saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For he and all who
were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken and so
also were James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on
you will catch men.”
[Not
anyone, except for the Son of God could direct a person to drop down a net when
they had fished all night and immediately the nets were so full that they
started to break. Really, re-reading these Gospels over and over again as I
researched this is really very beneficial. I saw that although the Gospels of
Matthew and Mark said something similar to Luke, there was more elaboration
about the miracle with the nets overloaded with fish in the Gospel of Luke that
really lets you know why these men stopped their careers as fishermen to become
Fishers of Men for Jesus, the Son of God!]
[Furthermore,
that the Gospel of John says John and Andrew realized that Jesus was the
Messiah and got Simon Peter to meet Him, and left all to become His followers
is still more proof that Jesus Is God’s Son, regardless of whether there are
minor inconsistencies with the other three Gospels. If someone came to me and
told me that they met someone who was the most impressive person they had ever
met. I might be skeptical at first, but even if I was impressed by them, I
wouldn’t give up my job, my family, my belongings, and my friends and go follow
them. These men who became Jesus’ Disciples saw His miracles and heard Him talk
and they knew that following Him was worth giving up everything else to do so.
This Is Proof that Jesus Is the Son of God!]
