Does The Women At the Tomb Scripture Passages Contradict Each Other?

Here are three Bible verses that are often assumed to be alleged contradictions. Yet, as we shall see, that is not the case at all. The Bible verses in question are as follows:

"MAT 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

MAR 16:1 “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”

JOH 20:1 “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."

Then the skeptic will pose this question to the Christian. "Who was at the Tomb? Is it..."

FIRST, there are four accounts as follows, not three: Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1. You left out the account in Luke's Gospel.

SECOND, there is no contradiction here. What we have is four accounts of the women at the sepulchre [tomb]. The fact that each of the accounts differ from one another, does not disprove that the accounts were not true, nor does it contradict it. Instead, it rather confirms more strongly the genuineness of the accounts in question. Had each account been written the exact same, word for word, then that would certainly cast doubt on the accounts given, and weaken the authenticity of the incidents in question.

THIRD, not all of these events of the women occurred at the same time, like in the case with Mary Magdalene weeping at the tomb. Actually, the Gospel accounts tell us that Mary Magdalene made more than one trip to the Tomb.

FOURTH, the details in some of the accounts of the names of the women mentioned, differ from each other. Again, such details of names that differ from each account rather strengthens, not weakens the integrity of each Gospel writer. If you have four different witnesses at a crime scene that seen the murder take place. Each one that gets questioned by the police about what happened are going to give accounts that are the same, but with different details of what happened. If each witness told their story the exact same, word for word, as let's say the first witness, then that would make each of their stories of what happened questionable. It would make the investigators wonder if the witnesses came together to collaborate their stories to possibly hide, or leave out important evidence that is crucial to solving the murder case.

FIFTH, the account mentioned in Luke 24:1 uses the phrases "they came" and "they had." There is no mention to who "they" are by name. Not until verse ten are the names revealed of the women that visited the Tomb that resurrection morning.

SIXTH, finally, looking at each of these accounts is like viewing four different sections of the same picture an artist painted. Each part of the painting not only compliments, but is necessary for the picture as a whole. The same truth can be conveyed, when construction workers build walls in each room of a house they are constructing. The construction workers don't knock down the walls just because the walls in the master bedroom differs in details from the walls of the bathroom or the living room. Of course not! All of the walls are needful and necessary for the completion of that one house under construction. The same truth is conveyed in the differing accounts of the women at the tomb.