Bible Contradiction? Did the eleven disciples believe the two men who claimed to see Jesus?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Did the eleven disciples believe the two men who claimed to see Jesus?

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

Yes, since he had already appeared to Simon.

“And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, 34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon!”” (Luke 24:33-34)

No.

“Now after that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country. 13 And they went away and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them, either.” (Mark 16:12-13)

(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. The skeptic here tries to pit Luke 24:33-34 which the skeptic claimed “the eleven disciples believe the two men who claimed to see Jesus” against Mark 16:12-13 which the skeptic claimed “the eleven disciples did not believe the two men who claimed to see Jesus.”
4. While both Luke 24:33-34 and Mark 16:12-13 mentioned two individuals that Jesus appeared to, there’s no mention of who the two were in Mark 16:12-13 and only one person was named in the account in Luke 24:33-34, which was Cleopas in verse 18.  Given this, it is possible that the two passages are not referring to the same event.  If it is not the same event then we don’t have an instance of a contradiction.
5. The skeptic rightly interpreted Mark 16:12-13 as claiming “the eleven disciples did not believe the two men who claimed to see Jesus.”  Note in verse 13 it says “they did not believe them.“
6. Luke 24:33-34 doesn’t even say whether the eleven believe or disbelieve the testimony of the two. So it is hard to pit Luke 24:33-34 against Mark 16:12-13 as a contradiction in light of that.
7. The skeptic is extrapolating from Luke 24:33-34 that the eleven believe these two seen Jesus because they said Simon seen Jesus as well.  But that does not follow from this premise.
   1. Just because the two said Jesus had appeared to Simon in Luke 24:33-34 does not mean the eleven believed that Jesus appeared to these specific two.  It is possible that one believe Jesus appeared to Simon and also not believe Jesus appeared to these two men; that is, the question about the veracity of these  two men’s testimonies is a separate question about the veracity of Peter’s testimony.  I acknowledge that there can be an inter-relationship between the two question (one being the evidence for the other) but I think we must acknowledge that they are distinct questions concerning different subjects (Peter, the two witnesses).
   2. Moreover it is possible that Jesus did appeared to Simon (of course Simon believed this as it was his own experience) and the other eleven even doubted Christ’s appearance to Simon’ which was why these two came to say Simon did see the resurrected Jesus to help collaborate that Simon was telling the truth.  This last possibility is one that I see as more likely since the two men is quoted as saying Jesus has appeared to Simon as something important that the author wants us to know (while other details are omitted).  The rest of the eleven here would be skeptical of these two testimony while Peter himself may or may not  have reservation about what these two men were saying.
   3. In light of this interpretation and assuming both passages are talking about same event and same individuals Luke 24:33-34 would not be contrary to Mark 16:12-13 but would be in agreement with it in that the eleven had doubts about these two men’s testimony. So here we don’t have a contradiction.
8. Looking at the greater context of Luke 24 I think it is possible to understand that the rest of the eleven besides Peter in Luke 24:33-34 still did not believe Jesus have resurrected.  Looking at the rest of Luke 24 every time the word believe appears its in the context of disbelief.  This is true even after Luke 24:33-34, note Luke 24:41: “While they still could not believe it because of their joy and astonishment, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”  If this is the case then Luke 24:33-34 is not in contradiction with Mark 16:12-13 but in agreement with it.
9. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
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.”

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