The Gospels don't say the same thing, so how can you call them free of error?

🔥The question: “If they write the same event a little differently, hasn't somebody lied?”

🛡️The Church's answer: The Gospels contain differences that genuinely have to be looked at: the wording of the same saying, the order of events, the number of people present, the genealogies. Some differences can be explained together — one author mentions only one person, or arranges events by theme — while some tensions are not fully resolved from the material we now have. The mere existence of differences is not the same as lying, but neither should “they just have different perspectives” be used to make every problem disappear. Ancient biography did not copy every word identically like a recorded video; it selected, summarized, and arranged its material to convey the true life and meaning of its subject. We have to compare the genre of each text, the author's intention, and the historical evidence, and judge on what central points the four Gospels testify together to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, without forcing a harmony.

A further note — a difference of perspective doesn't settle everything

Two witnesses to the same event can emphasize different people and different words. That lets us understand some of the differences, but where details cannot be reconciled, separate historical and literary study is needed. Don't use the fact that there are four Gospels as an answer to everything; distinguish the differences that are explained from the tensions that still remain.

🧐If they press further: “Do the hard differences have to be forced into agreement?” — You can study the possible historical explanations, but there is no need to force every difference into a single scene. Listen first for what each author is trying to teach, and you can honestly leave the unresolved problems standing.

✨In one sentence: “The differences in the Gospels come from how each of the four witnesses selected and emphasized. Don't hide them — through each voice you meet the one Jesus more deeply.”