Are the Gospels inconsistent?

[Inquisitor1986]

In a conversation I had with a Muslim, he claimed that the Koran is superior to the Bible because thee Koran has no conflicting accounts, but that the New Testament does. The details do vary from gospel to gospel, like the amount of bread and fish that was left after the multiplication, though this is admittedly a petty example. I felt I could not answer him properly, since on the surface it would seem that one consistent book would be superior to one at variance with itself. Could someone please clear up this discrepancy?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

The inconsistencies in the New Testament are about non-essentials. Essentially, the Gospels are quite consistent. The differences in the accounts regarding the number of people gathered or the number of loaves and fish are insignificant compared to the essential message that Jesus had compassion on the crowds, Beginning with a just a very small amount of loaves and fish, He miraculously fed them all–with food left over.
The real point of the miracle was that He was eventually going to feed them miraculously with Himself.

Islam can’t grasp such significance. The God of Islam is a fierce avenging God. Islam’s God would never show weakness. For Islam and Judaism it would be unthinkable that God would join His creatures in their creaturehood and allow them to torture Him and put Him to death. ONLY Christianity has such an understanding of God–not because Christians are smarter or more sophisticated than Muslims and Jews, but because God has taken the initiative to do just that and has revealed this to us. On his own man would never have come up with this. The mystery of Christ’s incarnation and passion is beyond our ability to fathom. Yet, in His mercy, He has revealed Himself to us in this way, giving us a glimpse of how beyond the limits of our intellects his infinite love really is.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.