Bible Contradiction? Did Mary Magdalene recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Did Mary Magdalene recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her?

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

Yes, she recognized him.

“And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Rejoice!” And they came up and took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him.” (Matthew 28:9)

No, she didn’t recognize him.

“When she had said this, she turned around and *saw Jesus standing there, and yet she did not know that it was Jesus.” (John 20:14)

Jesus didn’t appear to her; she had a vision of angels who told her that he was alive.

“and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.” (Luke 24:23)

(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 Matthew 28:9 which the skeptic claimed “Mary Magdalene recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her” against John 20:14 which the skeptic claimed “Mary Magdalene did not recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her” and also against Luke 24:23 which the skeptic claimed “Mary Magdalene did not even encounter Jesus.”
4. When we evaluate these alleged Bible contradictions we have to ask if the skeptics rightly interpret the verses they cited.  For Matthew 28:9 the skeptic here did rightly interpret it as asserting “Mary Magdalene recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her.”
5. It seems John 20:14 which the skeptic claimed “Mary Magdalene did not recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her” is not necessarily incompatible with Matthew 28:9 which the skeptic claimed “Mary Magdalene recognize Jesus when he first appeared to her.”  While Mary Magdalene did not recognize Jesus from John 20:14-15 later in John 20:16-18 she did recognized Jesus: “16 Jesus *said to her, “Mary!” She turned and *said to Him in [a]Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene *came and announced to the disciple.”  There’s nothing from John 20:14-15 and John 20:16-18 to suggests they are different appearances; rather its still the first appearance of Jesus to Mary and its only in the beginning that Mary did not recognize Jesus but soon she did recognized him.  So according to the context within John 20 we should not take John 20:14 to mean Mary never recognized Jesus at all.  So John 20:14 in its immediate context within the chapter can be synchronized with Matthew 28:9.
6. The skeptic wrongly interpreted Luke 24:23 which the skeptic claimed “Mary Magdalene did not even encounter Jesus.”  Note the verse does not deny Mary encountering Jesus.  The verse is about Mary and other women having met angels at Jesus’ grave.  But just because the verse did not mention Mary encountering Jesus does not mean that didn’t happen; its just not the focus in Luke 24:23.  The skeptic here is making a fallacious argument of silent; remember just because this verse is silent about Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene does not mean other verses will not give details about Jesus’ appearances to Mary.
7. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of 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.”

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