There were many Gospels and other scriptures in circulation in the early Christian world. As time went on, some came to be more popular than others. Eventually, the church elders sat down and codfied the Scripture, what was in and what was out.
It is not true, as you said, that “almost all of the differences are regarding slight differences in wording or phrasing.” Looking at earlier texts, there are whole sections inserted or deleted, transcription errors that affect meaning, details that change and contradict other details, slanting of the story to a particular audience (each Gospel, for example, was written fora different group of people), and as I noted before, editorial choices regarding which meaning of a word Jesus spoke was the correct one. Correct or incorrect, each of these affects and alters the substance and meaning of the text.
One small contradiction in the Gospel is what Jesus said, if anything, on the way up Calvary. He is quoted in two different Gospels as saying two different things (that’s possible — he could have said both), and in another as being silent all the way up the hill. Now, he could not have spoken and been silent.
Just one, and a small one, but an easy one to remember off the top of my head. And one that is not reconcilable. There are numerous others.
One of the differing versions of a key quote: In Matthew, “You are the light of the world.” In John: I am the light of the world.” Which is accurate?
Really? My Bible only has one Gospel (luke 23:27-31) record of Jesus speaking on the way to Golgotha. Arguments from silence, however, are hardly grounds for allegations of contradiction. The remaining Gospels do not declare Jesus was silent, they simply do not offer any detail.
If one will search the scripture with an honest, fair and open mind, all of your alleged contradictions will vanish.
Have you even investigated the claim you make here? Did you actually read the account yourself? If not, you should read these passages, and see if their is grounds for your weak, specious assertion. I will make it easy for you:
. Matt 27:31:33, Mark 15:20-22, Luke 23:25-33, John 19:16-18.
The Matthew passage takes place at the Mt of Olives, and the John passage takes place at the Temple. No contradiction, different time, place, audience and intent. They are both accurate!
Compare to John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Where are you getting your alleged contradictions? Have you investigated any of them yourself, or are you happy to ignorantly parrot the ramblings of unbelievers?
[[slanting of the story to a particular audience...transcription errors that affect meaning]]
you know, it’s easy for you to make these claims without providing any evidence that this is actually what happened- IF you were to actually study how careful the scribes were in copying texts, you would know that the bible is NOT full of errors like you claim them to be- These scribes were so careful that whenever they discovered a copying error they began the whole passage over and didn’t just use white out to cover htem istake- After they wrote the word God, they would throw the quill away and start with a new one
There was such a strict disciplined process for copying that not many people had the patience and dedication and skill to be a scribe
You and others like you make it seem like the copies were just so riddled with copying errors that it can’t ever be gtrusted- and nothing could be further from the truth
Here’s a link going over just some of how seriously scribes took their work- and it is apparent that the claim that the bible is full of copying errors is just an ignorant accusation
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13356-scribes
I would encourage you to do some actual unbiased objective research into just how seriously the scribes took their work- You owe it to them to find out the actual truth since you’ve insulted their intelligence and questioned their integrity and or copying skills- Had you been so careful and taken the efforts that these scribes did to make sure there were no mistakes, I don’t think you’d appreciate that years later people called into question your skills when the evidence actually supports that you did a good job