Bible Contradiction? Were the disciples frightened or glad when they saw Jesus?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Were the disciples frightened or glad when they saw Jesus?

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

They were frightened when they saw him.

“But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.” (Luke 24:37)

They were gladdened.

“And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20)

(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. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the website’s track record of inaccurate handling of biblical passages.  See the many examples of their error we have responded to here in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this post, which is what the remainder of the post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages the Skeptic Annotated Bible cited and see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. For the purpose of the readers knowing the context both Luke 24:37 and John 20:20 record Jesus’ disciples’ reaction to the post-Resurrection appearance of Christ.
4. To phrase it better than the way the skeptic stated it the skeptic here tried to pit Luke 24:37 which the skeptic believed made the claim “the disciples were frightened when they saw Jesus” against John 20:20 which they claim affirm the claim “the disciples were glad when they saw Jesus.”  We need to ask if the claims cited by the skeptics are necessarily contradictory and also ask the second question of whether the verses cited by the skeptic demonstrate the claims the skeptics have asserted.
5. Just considering the skeptic’s own claims of what the Bible verses teach we see there’s not a contradiction.  The claim “the disciples were frightened when they saw Jesus” are not necessarily contradictory with the claim that “the disciples were glad when they saw Jesus.”  They don’t necessarily have to be contradictory in light of two consideration:
   1. They are not necessarily contradictory if the disciples didn’t have those emotions at exactly the same time.  One can be frightened first and then later the heart turn glad and joyful to see the post-Resurrection appearance of Christ.
   2. Nor are they necessarily contradictory even if those emotions happened at the same time.  The resurrection of Jesus One was not what they expected.  Thus to see the post-Resurrection appearance of Christ was something they psychologically were not prepared for so they can simultaneously be frightened and glad at the same time.
   3. If its hard to consider the possibility of multiple conflicting emotions going through a person at the same time consider the many examples on videos of returning military servicemembers in which their family or loved ones are surprised by the surprised return of their Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marines.  You see one of fear, surprised, joy, sadness, crying and laughing happening simultaneously.  One can also imagine the same thing with the resurrection appearance of Christ.
6. Were the verses cited by the skeptic proof for the skeptic’s claims of what the verses teaches?
   1. The skeptic is right that Luke 24:37 does make the claim “the disciples were frightened when they saw Jesus” since it mentioned the disciples emotions as “startled and frightened.“
   2. The skeptic claimed that John 20:20 affirm that the disciples”were gladdened.”  To be precise John 20:20 doesn’t show the disciples being glad as it mentioned they “rejoiced.”  Rejoice is more than being glad.
7. Looking at the two verses (John 20:20 and Luke 24:37) we also see there’s not a contradiction.
   1. Luke 24:37 record the disciples fright and the reason for their fright: “thought that they were seeing a spirit.“
   2. John 20:20 record the disciples emotions after Jesus “showed them both His hands and His side” indicating He was not a ghost but truly resurrected.
   3. Thus these two emotions are reacting to two different beliefs they had about Jesus with one being the mistaken belief they saw a ghost and the second being the reaction to the correct truth that Jesus was resurrected.  We see here that the two different emotions here are not contradictory since they are reactions to two different things.
   4. Also note that chronologically it is likely the disciples first reacted in their initial wrong assumption that Jesus was a ghost and then later as Jesus stayed around longer they realized it really was resurrected Jesus and hence that led to a different emotion.  If Luke 24:37 record the disciples’ initial reaction of fear in light of their mistaken belief that Jesus was a ghost then it is not contradictory with their later reaction recorded in John 20:20 of the disciples having joy once they realized Jesus really was physically resurrected.
8. We don’t need to speculate about the order of which came first chronologically, whether it is Luke 24:37 or John 20:20 if we look at the rest of the context of both passages.  That is, looking at the rest of the surrounding context of both passage we see there is not a contradiction.
   1. Again if Luke 24:37 record the disciples’ initial reaction of fear in light of their mistaken belief that Jesus was a ghost then it is not contradictory with their later reaction recorded in John 20:20 of the disciples having joy once they realized Jesus really was physically resurrected.   The context of Luke 24 suggests that Luke 24:37 was their initial reaction but their later reaction was one of joy.
   2. Note in the next verse in Luke 24:38 Jesus asked the disciples the following question in light of their fear: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”  Jesus continue to talk to them in Luke 24:39 saying “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”  This is to correct their wrong beliefs that He was a ghost.  Then the following passage of Luke 24:40-41a is Luke’s parallel of John 20:20!  Luke 24:40-41a states “And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹ While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement.“
   3. Note how Luke 24:41a affirmed that the disciples’ emotion was one of “ joy and amazement.”  This matches with John 20:20 since the Greek noun for “ joy” in Luke 24:41a is χαρᾶς and share the same Greek root as the verb for “rejoice” in John 20:20, the lexical form being χαίρω.
   4. Note also how in both Luke 24:41a and John 20:20 the disciples joy followed after Jesus showing His hands and other parts of His body.  The two account in Luke and John are in agreement.
   5. Yet also note that Luke 24:41a shows the disciples’ joy followed after their initial fear.  There’s no contradiction here and the rest of the chapter in Luke 24 itself affirm the account given in John 20:20.
9. Thus there is no contradiction here with all the above consideration.  The two verses if read in its context and also with critical thinking of the skeptics’ own claimed is found to be not contradictory but compatible and mutually reinforcing.
10. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”