Allow me to give you some background first. Mark is considered to be the first Gospel of those we have collected in the Bible. Matthew and Luke are then next, followed by John’s Gospel which is last. Notice that there are many passages in Matthew, Mark and Luke which are word for word the same. What is happening here? Q has been suggested as the written source. Q comes from Quelle, which means “source” in German. The theory is there was a lost document called Q behind Matthew and Luke from which they both copied. My belief is that the common material comes from oral tradition.
Our problem is, as 21st century people, living in an age of scepticism, is that we hear enough liberal criticism of the Bible, telling us, “you can’t trust this, and you can’t trust that”. You can’t trust the story they are telling. They can’t even get their story right!” Don’t look at the differences and think, “oh they don’t match up; there must be an error” Start looking at the differences, not with scepticism but with expectation of understanding what each gospel writer is saying with the changes they have made to the standard story passed on by oral tradition. Matthew knows the oral story, Mark knows the oral story, Luke knows the oral story, John knows the oral story. Do you think they are getting it wrong when they tell it? No! Where they make changes, they are deliberately making changes because that’s the emphasis they want to bring. Where they change words or add sections there is a reason. Where they remove a segment it is for a reason.
Start thinking about that, and learn to apply that to your study of the Gospels and you’ll be amazed at what you find out.
Pay careful attention to the order of the elements as well. It will help you work out what the writer is doing.
Next Gem will look at the Temple Cleansing story from that point of view on the large scale, looking at how each writer handles it and then we will look at John specifically.
PS:- You could start doing your own work on it and see what you find.
Jesus paid the price. You get to keep the change.
Ian Vail