“Different Details”

Monday, September 02, 2019

     Hello, AYP.  I thought after they walked on water, Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat in Matt 14:32.  Why does Mark 6:51 say that only Jesus climbed into the boat?  Help me please before I consider this a contradiction.

Sincerely,
Wanting The Dots To Connect

Dear Wanting The Dots To Connect,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all are narratives of Christ’s life, but they each tell things from different perspectives.  As you may have noticed, Matthew doesn’t include all the same stories as Luke, and John tells things differently than Mark… the books are designed to give different angles to Jesus’ life here on Earth.  In fact, John said it would be impossible to tell of everything that Jesus said and did on this planet – so they only told us the details that were important for their particular purposes (Jhn 21:25).
This brings us to your question about Jesus walking on water.  Matthew covers the entire story of Jesus walking to His disciples upon the water, but Mark simply sums up that particular occurrence by saying, “He went up to them in the boat” (Mk 6:51).  Mark isn’t contradicting the story of Peter that Matthew tells; he just omitted that section of the story.  In the end, they tell the same story… Matthew was just more detailed.

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