Bible Contradiction? Was Jesus silent during his trial before Pilate?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Was Jesus silent during his trial before Pilate?

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

He was silent.

“And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did not offer any answer. 13 Then Pilate *said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they are testifying against You?” 14 And still He did not answer him in regard to even a single charge, so the governor was greatly amazed.” (Matthew 27:12-14)

“And the chief priests started accusing Him of many things. 4 But Pilate questioned Him again, saying, “Do You offer nothing in answer? See how many charges they are bringing against You!” 5 But Jesus said nothing further in answer, so Pilate was amazed.” (Mark 15:3-5)

He spoke many words on his own behalf.

“Therefore Pilate entered the Praetorium again, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “You are the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you about Me?” 35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed You over to me; what have You done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this purpose I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”” (John 18:33-37)

(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 both Matthew 27:12-14 and Mark 15:3-5 as affirming the claim “Jesus was silent during his trial before Pilate” against John 18:33-37 as affirming “Jesus spoke many words on his own behalf during his trial before Pilate.”
4. Let use see if both Matthew 27:12-14 and Mark 15:3-5 were properly interpreted as teaching “Jesus was silent during his trial before Pilate.”
   1. Matthew 27:12 states Jesus “did not offer any answer” and Matthew 27:14 states Jesus “did not answer.”  So Matthew 27:12-14 does show at some point Jesus was silent during His trial before Pilate. The key word here is for a duration, but not during the entire time Jesus was before Pilate.
   2. In Mark 15:4 Pilate asked Jesus “Do You offer nothing in answer?” and Mark 15:5 states “Jesus said nothing further in answer.”  So Mark 15:3-5 does show at some point Jesus was silent during His trial before Pilate.  The key word here is for a duration, but not during the entire time Jesus was before Pilate.
5. As stated above seeing both Matthew 27:12-14 and Mark 15:3-5 were properly interpreted as teaching “Jesus was silent during his trial before Pilate” I said the key here is Jesus was silent for a duration, and should not be seen as Jesus was silent during the entire time Jesus was before Pilate.  That is not supported by the passages (note the lack of phrase like “the entire time,” “did not speak at all the whole time,” etc).  Also in the context of both Matthew 27:12-14 and Mark 15:3-5 we see Jesus does speak to Pilate before Jesus decided to be silent so one can’t take both Matthew 27:12-14 and Mark 15:3-5 to mean that Jesus didn’t speak at all during His trial (especially the moment before He choose to be silent).
   1. Right before Matthew 27:12-14 in Matthew 27:11 it states “Jesus said.“
   2. Right before Mark 15:3-5 in Mark 15:2 it states “And He answered him” with this in the context being understood as Jesus being the one speaking and answering.
6. In light of point 5 we see it does not contradict any passages where Jesus is recorded as speaking with Pilate.
7. John 18:33-37 does affirm “Jesus spoke many words on his own behalf during his trial before Pilate.”  Note there are quotes of what Jesus said in verse 34, 36-37.  Yet I also want to note that what the skeptic state is “many” it should not be taken to mean that there was not a time where Jesus was silent during His trial before Pilate.
8. Thus there is no contradiction here.  Seems like the skeptics need to learn from our post How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
9. 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.”