Wishing you all a blessed Good Friday

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Bits of minutia, suppose that you are on trial for your life, an eyewitness decides to ignore a bit of minutia and neglects to mention that when they saw you standing over the dead body holding a bloody knife in your hand that they also saw someone else drop the knife and run away.

If the entire Bible is true, then there should not be contradictions. If one place says it was two nights and another says it was three, ir would seem to me that one of them is wrong. A wrong comment in the Bible means the entire Bible is not true. If the entire Bible is not true, then we need to seriously study to determine what is most likely true and what is not instead of proclaiming tht we believe the Bible is true and paper over inconsistencies.

Papering over inconsistencies is not loving God and seeking to know Him, it is claiming to love God while actually loving a mirage.
No, is this dire to know for salvation? …for helping someone to understand the gospel?

Nobody is on trial here. There is no dilemma. :)
 
You propose an interesting timeline. Jesus entered Jerusalem on Sunday, the next day he cursed a fig tree, that would be Monday. The next morning the disciples noticed that the fig tree was withered, that would be Tuesday. Then the next day, that is Wednesday, He told two disciples to meet a man carrying a jug of water and arrange for the place where He would hold the last supper. And he died that day also?

For the Jews, the day begins at evening when the sun goes down, 6pm. Jesus died that next morning at 9am being the same day as the previous evening. It was the day of preparation. If you want to discuss, post the verses that state your assumption.
 
Bits of minutia, suppose that you are on trial for your life, an eyewitness decides to ignore a bit of minutia and neglects to mention that when they saw you standing over the dead body holding a bloody knife in your hand that they also saw someone else drop the knife and run away.

If the entire Bible is true, then there should not be contradictions. If one place says it was two nights and another says it was three, ir would seem to me that one of them is wrong. A wrong comment in the Bible means the entire Bible is not true. If the entire Bible is not true, then we need to seriously study to determine what is most likely true and what is not instead of proclaiming tht we believe the Bible is true and paper over inconsistencies.

Papering over inconsistencies is not loving God and seeking to know Him, it is claiming to love God while actually loving a mirage.

The parts of the Bible that are true will not be contradictory, but it will require harmonizing per a correct hermeneutic to ascertain that truth/synthesis.

In the case you cited, some folks say that minor discrepancies in accounts of an event indicate that the event actually occurred rather than a story was concocted.

Another consideration is that an inerrant Bible is not necessary, because fallible readers could not be perfectly certain their interpretation was the right one. Thus, all that is needed is a process of inspiration, transmission, translation and interpretation that achieves a sufficient understanding of GRFS--and I believe their is evidence that this occurred. Yay!

I would be happy to share my hermeneutic if you are interested. :D
 
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The parts of the Bible that are true will not be contradictory, but it will require harmonizing per a correct hermeneutic to ascertain that truth/synthesis.

In the case you cited, some folks say that minor discrepancies in accounts of an event indicate that the event actually occurred rather than a story was concocted.

Another consideration is that an inerrant Bible is not necessary, because fallible readers could not be perfectly certain their interpretation was the right one. Thus, all that is needed is a process of inspiration, transmission, translation and interpretation that achieves a sufficient understanding of GRFS--and I believe their is evidence that this occurred. Yay!

I would be happy to share my hermeneutic if you are interested. :D
I am always interested in someone's hermeneutics but be careful they do not go too far. If accounts differ because of human authors, then minor contradictions are fully acceptable, but that also removes God as the ultimate source and leave fallible humans as the source. If you wish to say that then there is no problem. But if you wish to claim God's authority to support the scriptures, then you cannot cite fallible humans and excuse the contradictions.

Now John tells us that what we call "Palm Sunday" occurred 5 days before the Passover (John 12:1) but does not fill in the intervening days. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus cursed a fig tree the next day, which would be a Monday. And here we end up with another contradiction, Matthew says the disciples immediately saw the tree wither on Monday (Matthew 20:21). Mark claims they saw the withered tree on Tuesday (Mark 11:19-20) Luke does not discuss Jesus cursing a fig tree. Now Mark 14:1 has the Passover 3 days away when the priests decide to have Jesus killed, so this would fit with Tuesday night based on John. Then we hear about Jesus having his feet anointed, Judas getting upset and going to talk to the temple authorities. The next relevant thing we hear about though is when Jesus makes the arrangements for the Last Supper "on the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb", which could be Wednesday instead of Friday as it is known that there was a "Galilean" calendar that had the Passover beginning on Wednesday night, not Friday night as implied by John, no problem here.

But if the Last Supper was a Passover feast, as Mark is saying, then we have a problem. Gideon300 is claiming that Jesus was in the tomb for three days and three nights, consistent with Matthew's claim in 12:40, which would require him to be buried on Thursday, but John insists that he was on the cross at the time of the killing of the Passover lambs, which would be on Friday. This means we again have a contradiction. So, we are again faced with, is God's word consistent, or are the words those of mere humans which can be inconsistent?

Holy week shows us different timelines on the withered fig tree and Jesus's own words offer a second contradiction as to when He died and was placed in the tomb, three days and three nights require a Thursday burial, yet John's having Jesus on the cross at the time the Passover lambs were killed has Jesus dying on Friday, thus a Friday burial. Hermeneutics that can get around such contradictions need to be very carefully worded if the bible is to remain free from errors.