Q: In Matthew 20:18-19 and in other passages, Jesus tells the disciples about his impending death and resurrection. But John 20:8-9 says that the disciples had never heard any of this before Jesus' death. Isnt this a contradiction?
A: No; the objector has apparently misunderstood the passage in John. Being told something, and understanding what has been said, are not the same thing. Even in the Gospel of Luke, in 18:31-34 the apostles are told by Jesus that the Son of Man will go to Jerusalem, be delivered to the Gentiles, be mocked, scourged, killed, etc., and that He will rise again the third day. But do they understand what this means? Nope. They seem to have thought that it had some non-literal, parable-like significance. Only after the resurrection, and after Jesus had explained the prophetic Scriptures to them (as in Luke 24:27) do they understand what He meant.
Now lets take a closer look at John 20:8-9 ~ Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. The idea is not that the apostles had never been told about what was going to happen; they had just never gotten a grip on the idea that Jesus would literally die and literally come back to life. It was only when the other disciple saw Jesus burial-clothes in the empty tomb that he first believed, with awareness that he should be believing that Jesus words about the death and resurrection of the Son of Man had been literally fulfilled.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: No; the objector has apparently misunderstood the passage in John. Being told something, and understanding what has been said, are not the same thing. Even in the Gospel of Luke, in 18:31-34 the apostles are told by Jesus that the Son of Man will go to Jerusalem, be delivered to the Gentiles, be mocked, scourged, killed, etc., and that He will rise again the third day. But do they understand what this means? Nope. They seem to have thought that it had some non-literal, parable-like significance. Only after the resurrection, and after Jesus had explained the prophetic Scriptures to them (as in Luke 24:27) do they understand what He meant.
Now lets take a closer look at John 20:8-9 ~ Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. The idea is not that the apostles had never been told about what was going to happen; they had just never gotten a grip on the idea that Jesus would literally die and literally come back to life. It was only when the other disciple saw Jesus burial-clothes in the empty tomb that he first believed, with awareness that he should be believing that Jesus words about the death and resurrection of the Son of Man had been literally fulfilled.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
