Today I want to highlight a feature of Luke’s Gospel which explains one of the major apparent discrepancies in the resurrection accounts. I call it… the LUKAN TIME WARP!!!
Here’s how the Lukan Time Warp works.
- Luke takes a couple related events which have a large gap between them.
- Wanting to save space, Luke omits everything between those two events.
- He presents the events as if they occur immediately in sequence.
40 Days Gone:
The most obvious example comes at the end Luke’s Gospel. Here’s the relevant text:
“While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” [Then He proves He has a real body]Now, if you take that chapter on face value, you would probably conclude that Jesus ascended to Heaven on Easter Sunday. However, in Luke’s second book – the book of Acts – he tells us there was 40 days between Easter Sunday and the Ascension. It reads:
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. [...]You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.” – Luke 24:36,44-53
“He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God...'” - Acts 1:4In other words, Luke wasn't unaware of those 40 days. Rather, in his Gospel he purposefully skipped ahead to Ascension to save space. But you wouldn’t know that unless you also read Acts.
The Missing 3 Years
A second happens between Acts 9:25 and Acts 9:26. Taken at face value, Luke says Paul escaped Damascus and went directly to Jerusalem:
"Their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. || And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple." - Acts 9:24-26However, in Paul’s letter to the Galatians he recounts those same events. There we learn that after Paul escaped Damascus he actually wandered in Arabia for a while. Then he returned to Damascus for three years before finally traveling to Jerusalem. It reads:
"But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone | nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years | I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days." - Galatians 1:15-18Again, if you just read the text of Acts 9:25-26, you’d never know there was at least 3 years between those two verses.
Egypt Shmegypt:
A third possible example is in the Luke’s infancy narrative. (something I also wrote about here)
In Luke’s account we see the following:
- Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
- Jesus is born in Bethlehem
- Jesus is presented in the Jerusalem Temple
- The family returns to Nazareth, where Jesus grows up.
- Jesus is born in Bethlehem
- Magi find Jesus - (who is around 2 years old) - in Bethlehem
- The family flees to Egypt
- They later return to Nazareth, where He grows up.
One possibility is they DID return to Nazareth after the presentation in the Temple… but simply grabbed their stuff and moved down to Bethlehem.
The other possibility is they actually didn’t return to Nazareth after the presentation. Luke is purposefully omitting the Egyptian sojourn (and all associated events) to simplify his story. Thus, he presents the return to Nazareth as if it immediately followed the presentation.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Now for the fourth example. Let’s take another look at Luke’s resurrection account:
“While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” [Then He proves He has a real body]
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. [...]You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”Luke has Jesus – seemingly on Easter Sunday – telling the Apostles to remain in Jerusalem until Pentecost. However, if you read Matthew, Mark, or John’s account, you’d know they were told to travel north to Galilee for a rendezvous with Jesus:
"So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. 'Greetings,' He said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.'” - Matt 28:8-10So.. what gives? Were they told to stay or go?
As we noted earlier, Luke is collapsing the events at the close of his Gospel to rush ahead to the Ascension. The time jump occurs between Verse 43 and Verse 44. It’s there that Luke omits the whole 40 days and everything associated with them.
Therefore, we can conclude that Luke isn’t trying to contradict the other Gospels. He knows about those 40 days. He knows they went to Galilee. But as he does in other places, he’s wordlessly skipping over events to save space.
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