Easter Enigma: Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict?

This book is a very helpful tool in attempting to reconstruct the events surrounding Jesus' resurrection. The author doesn't claim to have the ONLY way to fit the events together, but rather that he is proposing a plausible way to view them which is faithful to the gospel accounts. Especially helpful were his maps and family trees.

This book not only lays to rest doubts about the compatibility of the resurrection narratives, but it enables the reader to relive the story in his imagination in a way most drier commentaries about the Easter story do not. One is taken into the story in every detail and made aware of connections that make it all the more compelling: for instance, the fact that Jesus and John were cousins. This book deserves much wider reading, as do all of John Wenham's books.

John Wenham is an author with whom many should be familiar. He taught Greek at Oxford University for many years, and is the author of first-rate books like "Christ and the Bible" and "Redating Matthew, Mark, and Luke." This book continues his excellent history of writing scholarly and accessible books. He lived in Jerusalem in 1945 and begins the book with a layout of the city, taking the reader on a mini-tour through the city. He shows you where the tomb probably was, where Mark's house would have been (site of the Last Supper), where Mary and Martha would have lived, Caiaphas' house, etc. By the end of the chapter, you feel like you are experiencing a taste of the city circa 30 AD. He then unfolds each of the characters in the resurrection accounts (Mary Magadalene, Joanna, Mary of Clopas). People who might have seemed unimportant (such as Joanna) take on fresh new import in the book. He then takes the reader chronologically through the major events of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Because he elaborated the geography, you can almost feel yourself with the disciples congregating into two locations on Saturday with disappointment and uncertainity. By tracing the paths of people to and from the tomb, Wenham renders each of the gospels with fresh perspective (for example Matthew being told from Bethany, and John from inside Jerusalem). You will see how beautifully the gospels harmonize and that apparent contradictions melt away with close reading. Wenham interacts with scholarly critics in the book, and you will understand important themes of genre as the book unfolds. This book is profitable for anyone who wants to deeply understand the gospels. It will change your understanding of the New Testament.

An engaging assimilation of the four gospel accounts of the resurrection. The Bible's differing accounts of details of the resurrection seem to pose a problem for serious Bible students: how can scripture be historically accurate if the gospels don't agree? Whenham delves into the biographies of the witnesses and locates the places geographically. He makes good historical sense of scripture's seeming contradictions and forms a compelling argument for Jesus' resurrection. An excellent apologetic resource that reads with all the interest of a detective story.

John Wenham tackles the question in his title "Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict?" His approach is that we do not need to know the exact sequence of events. Any sequence of events that would fit the accounts demonstrates that there need not be a conflict. John then describes a possible sequence of events that fits all the accounts of the resurrection. He does not claim that this is the actual sequence of events, nor does he tackle the issue of "is resurrection possible?". John does demonstrate that there is at least one sequence of events that fits the accounts of the resurrection. He argues (in my view correctly) that thus there need not be a conflict in the accounts. For me, he achieved his purpose and I also found it a very readable and thought provoking book. Tony Foord 21 March 2002