Don

I attacked no one for asking questions. My questions remain unanswered, I at least attempted to answer yours, altho you might not agree with my answers or even think they are answers. It is because my questions remain unanswered (even in an attempt) that I feel disrespected as this indicates to me you see this as a non-peer relationship.

The gospels were each written from different perspectives to different Christian communities from 30 to 60 years after the events they describe, they are not like newspaper articles recording events as they happened. The intended initial audience is also different for each, which can help explain some differences in presentation. Sometimes truncation occurs, which can be a curve ball if you are a Greek thinker like most of us. For example, Jesus on no sign except the sign of Jonah and Jesus on divorce contain truncations in some gospels. But if you do not know about the possibility of truncation then it is a (seeming) contradiction for Jesus to say “No sign” in one gospel and “No sign except Jonah” in another. (Mat 12, 16; Mark 8; Luk 11).