Bible Contradiction? How did Peter and Andrew become Jesus’s disciples?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How did Peter and Andrew become Jesus’s disciples?

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

Jesus called them directly as they were fishing on the Sea of Galilee.

“As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” (Mark 1:16-17)

“Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: 15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a Light dawned.” 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He *said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”” (Matthew 4:12-19)

They were with John the Baptist and approached Jesus on their own.

“Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and *said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” 39 He *said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He *found first his own brother Simon and *said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).” (John 1:35-42)

(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 tries to pit Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 as affirming the claim “Jesus called them directly as they were fishing on the Sea of Galilee” against John 1:35-42 as affirming “They were with John the Baptist and approached Jesus on their own.”
4. I think our passages took place at different time period which is important for later on.  For both Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 it seem to take place after the event in John 1:35-42.  The reason why I say that is because both Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 takes place after John the Baptist was arrested.  In introducing Mark 1:16-17, the passage Mark 1:14 states: “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God.”  Likewise Matthew 4:12 states “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody…”  In John 1:35-42 John the Baptist was still free as seen in verse 35-36.  If John the Baptist was still free in John 1:35-42 obviously the event took place earlier before Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 which happened after John the Baptist was already in jail.
5. While John 1:35-42 does record Andrew taking the initiative to approach Jesus and also inviting his brother Peter to see Jesus one interpretation is to see that at that moment Peter did not become a follower yet (though I think Andrew did become a follower since the passage says so).  There’s two reasons for this view.  First in John 1:35-42 the passage does not state that Peter followed Jesus like how Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 explicitly states it.  Secondly in the context following the passage you don’t see any mention of Peter doing anything with Jesus or following Him.  What John 1:35-42 likely record is Peter and Andrew’s first or early encounter with Jesus before Peter committed to becoming a disciples.  Jesus calling him Peter can be seen as prophetic.  Then later Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 record how Peter finally followed Jesus.
6. For those skeptical with this first interpretation of John 1:35-42 remember that sometimes people need to hear Jesus or encounter Him more than once before they come to saving faith and become His disciple.  This fact should indicate this first interpretation is at least possible.
7. Even if you take opposite interpretation of John 1:35-42 and you see that passage as being when Peter and Andrew became disciples and followers of Jesus still we don’t necessarily have a contradiction between this passage against Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19.  Recall both Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 mentioned about the arrest of John the Baptist.  The fact of John the Baptist being detained is important for a reason to the passage.  Since we know in John 1:35-42 that Andrew was at one time a disciple of John the Baptist we can imagine this news of his former teacher being jailed must have been hard for Andrew.  Perhaps knowing about the arrest of Andrew’s former teacher John the Baptist made both Andrew and John quit being Jesus’ disciple so they went back to fishing.  No doubt we see that a few years later we see something similar where they would struggle with the death of Jesus and went back to fishing.  I wouldn’t downplay this second interpretation since in the Scriptures events sometimes repeats itself.  So when you read Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 we see Andrew and Peter who left Jesus is now being called back by Jesus Himself to be a disciple, and a genuine disciple this time.  Note I favor this second interpretation.
8. It seems the skeptic annotated Bible didn’t do a thorough job.  They didn’t cite Luke 5:1-11 which is important in clearing a contradiction here by showing the second interpretation is preferred.  Luke 5:1-11 record the same event as Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19.  We know this because like Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 Luke’s account also mentioned about Peter casting a net in the sea followed by Jesus calling them to fish for men and then the two brothers followed Jesus along with the two brothers James and John, sons of Zebedee.  Unlike Mark 1:16-17 and Matthew 4:12-19 though the passage in Luke 5:1-11 gives us additional detail of Peter’s conversation with Jesus.  For example verse 8 record how Peter reacted to Jesus between the time Peter threw the net to sea and when he followed Jesus: “But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!””  That’s an unusual reaction for a fisherman who had just been given a miracle of getting a lot of fish.  Most people would be grateful.  So why did Peter confess he’s sinful and even asked Jesus to go away?  I think its because He was previously following Jesus but must have quit.  Peter must have felt convicted with the goodness of Jesus towards Him even after he and his brother quit following Him.
9. There’s not a Bible contradiction here in light of the above observations.
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.”