Bible Contradiction? Were the men or angels inside or outside the tomb when the women arrived?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked:  Were the men or angels inside or outside the tomb when the women arrived?

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

Outside.

“And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.” (Matthew 28:2)

Inside.

“Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.” (Mark 16:5)

“but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing” (Luke 24:3-4)

“But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.” (John 20:11-12)

(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 Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic here raises a side question of whether it was men or angel the women saw at the tomb.  We dealt with the question here: Whom did the women see at the tomb?
4. The skeptics cited Mark 16:5, Luke 24:3-4 and John 20:11-12 as recording the fact that the angels were inside when the women arrived.  This is pitted against Matthew 28:2 which the skeptics cited as recording the fact that the angels were outside when the women arrived.
5. The skeptics did correctly cite Mark 16:5, Luke 24:3-4 and John 20:11-12 as recording the fact that the angels were inside when the women arrived.
   1. Notice Mark 16:5 stated the women “saw a young man sitting.”
   2. Luke 24:4 stated angels “suddenly stood near them.“
   3. John 20:11b-12a stated how one of the woman, Mary, “looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels.“
6. The skeptic hasn’t established that Matthew 28:2 as recording the fact that the angels were outside when the women arrived.
   1. It is true that this verse tells us “an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone” which would have meant the angel was outside. Yet Matthew 28:2 record events before the women arrived at Jesus’ tomb and thus this event was before the women saw what the angel was doing outside of the tomb.
   2. For the reason why we interpret Matthew 28:2 as parenthetical in describing events before the women arrived at Jesus’ tomb and not what they saw and head, check out our argument here: Was the tomb opened or closed when the women arrived?
7. Since it is shown that the skeptics are incorrect in interpreting Matthew 28:2 as teaching that the angels were outside the tomb when the women arrived then we don’t have a Bible contradiction.  Thus we can conclude there is not a contradiction here.  The skeptic needs to learn How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
8. 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.”