Hey, Bro. Hall,
I just wanted to write because I had a question about the Bible and to thank the church for all the bulletins you all have been sending me. I enjoy reading them. It is amazing how something so little can make such a big difference when you receive it and just because it is from your home church.
I have been reading through the New Testament and I noticed that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke several of the verses are worded the same and several of the parables are similar. Why are the same miracles mentioned in all three books, just worded a little differently?
Well, tell the church that I said "Hello" and I will talk to you again later. U.S. Marine Bradley
Hello, Bradley!
That is a good question. The best answer is that all of the gospel writers were present and saw the same things. They probably talked together about the events they had seen as well. By seeing and talking over common events, it makes sense that their stories would be very similar. If you and your buddies were to write a book about your first three months of deployment, I imagine several of you would write about the same events, especially among those with whom you are the closest. In fact, I imagine that would be the case even after a full hitch. That is what the disciples were doing, only the Holy Spirit was also guiding them to write the incidents that He wanted recorded. So there would naturally be a lot of overlap in what they wrote.
Even so, the stories are not the same because they are written by different people who noticed different things and thought different aspects of the incident were more important than others. Each of the gospel writers was actually writing to a different group of people and so would have emphasized different aspects of Jesus' life. Matthew wrote to the Jews and so emphasized Jewish prophecy and law more. Luke wrote more to the Gentiles. John wrote more to convince the intellectual crowd that Jesus was the Son of God.
So God gave us different but similar accounts of the same event. I hope the answer helps. Keep reading your Bible !