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Explain why the authors at times differ from each other in their accounts.
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The authors each wrote from a different perspective and with a different audience and purpose in mind. Matthew wrote from a Jewish perspective as one who saw the errors in his life and determined to proclaim to the Jewish world that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for. Mark wrote primarily to the Roman world to share Jesus as a servant. Luke wrote from a Gentile perspective to document Jesus’ miraculous life as a Savior for all. And John wrote as a beloved friend to show that Jesus was the Christ for all of humanity. Because of their different backgrounds, they interpreted the events of Jesus’ life in a different light. In order to convey their primary messages to their audiences, they focused on different aspects of His ministry or on different details of the events of His life.
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I think about my two girls and when they tell stories about the same thing. They both witnessed the same thing but because of their personalities, they picked up on different aspects. The writers of the gospels were the same way.
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The 4 gospel sites are writing from their own unique perspective, to different audiences, for these audiences different understandings about the God-Man Jesus Christ. We see that 2 of the gospel writers were apostles that walked with Jesus, and 2 who worked alongside the apostle Peter and Luke in there ministries after Jesus death. Naturally, these writings came out differently.
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Whenever there is different people involved in being an eyewitness, there will always be different accounts
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First, they were writing from different backgrounds. They were writing to different audiences. The also would have had different surroundings when they wrote, so that memories would be triggered differently
