CONTRADICTIONS: How Many Women Actually Went To Jesus’ Grave On Resurrection Morning?

When conversation turns to alleged contradictions in the Bible, sooner or later a skeptic will point to the “contradictory” claims in the four Gospels about how many women were at the grave of Jesus on Resurrection morning.

Here are the allegedly contradictory passages — HillFaith relies upon the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible — beginning with John 20:1:

“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it  was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” 

Then we have  Matthew 28:1:

“Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene  and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”

Next comes Mark 16:1:

“When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and  Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.”

And there is Luke 24:10:

“Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles.”

So how many women were there, one, two, three or more? The Gospel writers should have gotten together and agreed on one number, right? Otherwise, skeptics are going to continually point to these four passages and declare the Bible is not trustworthy because it is “full of contradictions” like this one.

What Is and Isn’t a Contradiction?

First, let’s refresh our understanding of what constitutes a genuine contradiction and then compare that with the four passages in question. As “The Domain of Truth” explains it:

“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.”

So does the fact John mentions one woman, but Luke mentions more than three constitute a contradiction, or two claims that cannot simultaneously be true? Or are we here dealing with two authors who report different facts about an event that reflect their differing priorities in description?

Note, too, that all four of the Gospel writes mention Mary Magdalene first. That means at least as far as she is concerned, no contradiction is involved.

Second, we must account for the word that none of the Gospel authors used in describing the women and the grave scene on Resurrection morning. That word is “only.” If John had said “only Mary Magdalene” went to the grave that morning, then it would be impossible to reconcile that statement with Matthew if he said “only Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” were on the scene. Ditto with the other two Gospel authors. Then we would have a contradiction.

Third, we must consider the fact that each of the Gospel writers comes to the task of describing the women at the tomb with varying priorities. For John, the priority is getting directly to the point that the miracle of the Resurrection happened. The proof of that is the empty tomb, a fact which he further emphasized by noting the stone closing the tomb had been moved.

For Luke, who was an historian, we should not be surprised that he provides the most detail of the four Gospels, and that he emphasizes the fact the multiple women went back to the disciples to tell them what they had seen and how the disciples responded.

Luke, in noting there were multiple women telling the disciples that Jesus body was nowhere to be found, was contrasting their report with the skepticism of the disciples, informing us at 24:11 that “these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

Bottom line: Varying descriptive details do not necessarily amount to contradictory details.

---