EXPLAIN THIS: If the Disciples Made it All Up About Jesus, Why’d They Make Themselves Look So Bad?

It’s difficult to read the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — without coming away thinking Jesus’ disciples were, before His resurrection from the tomb, dense, stubborn, lacking in faith, and outright cowardly on more than a few occasions.

After all, Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times before the cock crowed as the Lord was suffering through his six trials that led to the cross, horrendous suffering and total humiliation. It also prompted all of the disciples, except Judas Iscariot whose betrayal led to his suicide, to hide in fear they would be crucified next.

Screenshot from “The Criteria of Embarrassment” by Erik Manning

But all of that raises a crucially important question for anybody trying to sort out whether they accept the Gospels as credible: If, as skeptics often suggest, the disciples made up the whole Jesus-was-God thing after His death, why did they make themselves look so bad in fabricating the story?

For that matter, why would they include material indicating Jesus’ brothers thought He was a nut case prior to the resurrection?

Or that they would have women be the first witnesses of the Resurrected Jesus, at a time when women’s testimony was not viewed as credible. Those of us who are believers today shouldn’t feel too superior to the disciples, however, because we are all just as capable of being dense. That said, Erik Manning of Is Jesus Alive? explains further:


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If you already are blessed with personal faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, HillFaith helps provide you with that “ready defense” that Peter says Christians are to always have. Remember to provide that ready defense with humility and compassion, not judgement and anger.

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If you are among those who have a searching faith or a skeptical faith, consider yourself a spiritual agnostic, searching agnostic, apathetic agnostic or even a hopeful agnostic, then HillFaith is here to provide you with solid facts and logic to assist you in clarifying your conclusions and the life-decision you will make based upon those conclusions.

The Ethical Skeptic:

Finally, if you are an atheist of any flavor, be it spiritual atheist, a thinking atheist, a Jesus skeptic, paid-up member of the Skeptic Society, or a former atheist who is not now sure now what you think about these matters, HillFaith can be a source of a wealth of insight and reason to help you on your journey.

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3 Comments

  1. vel on June 25, 2021 at 10:20 am

    the apostles didn’t exist and didn’t write the gospels. It wasn’t them making themselves look bad. They are characters invented for a purpose.

    • Mark Tapscott on June 25, 2021 at 12:50 pm

      Vel, it’s one thing for you to make the claim, but quite another for you to provide the evidence and the argument to back up your claim.

  2. Christopher Miller on June 25, 2021 at 10:49 am

    The uncomfortable conclusion is that the disciples (later, apostles) were purposely made to look foolish to discredit the whole idea of a Jewish Messiah. Amazingly, the stories, written long after the events, still resonates today because the truth, of what Jesus was trying to convey to his audience, shines through.

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