Bible Contradiction? Who carried Jesus’ cross?

For today’s post will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who carried Jesus’s cross?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:

Jesus carried his own cross

“They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, ^[a]bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.” (John 19:17)

Simon the Cyrenian carried Jesus’s cross.

“As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.” (Matthew 27:32)

“ They *pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.” (Mark 15:21)

When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.” (Luke 23:26)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. Whenever we begin to tackle a Bible contradiction we should seek to confirm if the verses cited from the Bible by the skeptic actually backs the claims the skeptic makes.  We want to check since there are instances in which the skeptic has cited verses that does not lead to the claims made by the skeptic.  (See for example “How was Zedekiah related to Nebuchadnezzar?“).  In our specific case the skeptic did properly extrapolated the Bible verses.  John 19:17 does show “”Jesus carried his own cross” while Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21 and Luke 23:26 does show “Simon the Cyrenian carried Jesus’s cross.”
3. Even looking at the skeptics’ claims of what the Bible teaches, we see that we don’t have a Bible contradiction.
   1. The first claim the skeptic stated is “Jesus carried his own cross.”  Logically speaking in order for their to be a contradiction going against the first claim the other claims has to be “Jesus did not carried his own cross” or “Only someone other than Jesus carried his cross.”  But the second claim is neither one of those claims.  Instead the second claim the skeptic wrote was “Simon the Cyrenian carried Jesus’s cross.”
   2. Again the second claim the skeptic stated is “Simon the Cyrenian carried Jesus’s cross.”  Logically speaking in order for their to be a contradiction with the second claim the first claim would have to be “Simon the Cyrenian did not carried Jesus’s cross” or “Only Jesus carried his own cross.”  But the first claim is neither one of those claims.  Instead the second claim the skeptic wrote was “”Jesus carried his own cross.”
   3. Both the claim “Jesus carried his own cross” and “Simon the Cyrenian carried Jesus’s cross” are not mutually exclusive.  Thus it cannot be a contradiction.
4. All these verses can be harmonized.  All four Gospel mentioned that the Roman soldiers had Jesus taken out to be crucified.  Three of the Gospels mentioned that it was on their way that they stopped Simon the Cyrenian to force him to carry Jesus’ cross.  Again there’s not a conflict of account that is irreconcilable.

This is another contradiction in which the skeptic is trying too hard to make up a contradiction with the Bible that isn’t there.