Six days of Matthew 17:1, or, Eight days of Luke 9:28 – which one is correct?

 

Question: 

Why is there an inconsistency in the number of days between Matthew 17:1 and Luke 9:28 – which is correct?

 

Answer:

 

    The question does seem to be a challenging one, and at a glance, there does seem to be an inconsistency, a contradiction between the two descriptions of the event, in the Word of God. The answer found through the application of the basic principles of Bible interpretation; since it is nearly always the ignoring of these principles that gives rise to such presumed and inappropriate inconsistencies, whereas actually there is no contradiction in the Word of God. The basic principles of Bible interpretation are – every word, phrase, verse, and section should always be studied in its context, never out of its context; and every word of the Bible should be paid attention to, because no word in the Word of God is in vain. Also, always keep in mind that in the original writing in the original languages, there was no division into chapters and verses as we have now in our present-day Bibles. The divisions into chapters and verses that we have in our present-day Bibles, is an artificial one, introduced centuries after the books of the Bible had been compiled together, and has been done to help making it easier to study and refer to a particular part. Therefore, we always ought to study and interpret according to the ongoing subject matter and thought process of the part under consideration, and not according to the artificially divided subject matter and thought process. Let us now look at these two verses based upon these principles:

It says in Matthew 17:1 “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves”;

And in Luke 9:28 “Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.”

    Luke 9:28 very clearly provides its context – about eight days after these sayings; therefore, now it is up to the reader to look into and understand this context, and then taking that into consideration interpret the rest of the verse appropriately. Please also note that here “sayings” (plural) has been stated, and not “saying” (singular) – implying that it was eight days after all that had happened prior to the statement of Luke 9:28, that this event took place. If we look at the verses preceding Luke 9:28 then we see that immediately before, in 9:18-27, is an important discussion that the Lord Jesus had with His disciples, which is consistent with Matthew 16:20-28; this discussion is ‘one of’, and is the final one of the series of sayings or events given before this. Prior to this discussion, in 9:11-17 is the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand by the Lord, using five loaves and two fishes; and prior to that we have the Lod sending His disciples for preaching (9:1-6), Herod getting perplexed and worried regarding the Lord (9:7-8), and the disciples returning from their preaching assignment and reporting their experiences to the Lord (9:10). All of these ‘sayings’ or events, collectively form the context of Luke 9:28. Therefore, according to the context, Luke 9:28 is to be understood as follows – it was eight days after the Lord sent the disciples to preach and their returning back to report, followed by their going to a quiet place, then a crowd following them there, and the Lord’s miraculous feeding the crowd, that the Lord took three of His disciples and went up to the mountain.

    Whereas the context of Matthew 17:1, is the last part of the immediately preceding chapter, i.e. Matthew 16:21-28, which is similar to the discussion the Lord had with His disciples in Luke 9:18-27, and forms the final ‘saying’ of ‘these sayings’ of Luke 9:28. It was ‘after six days’ of this discussion between the Lord and His disciples, during which Peter was severely reprimanded by the Lord for trying to be His counselor and manager (Matthew 16:22-23), that the Lord went up to the mountain with three of His disciples.

    Keeping the context of both these descriptions (Matthew 16:21-28; Luke 9:18-27) in mind, the obvious conclusion is that it was eight days after ‘these sayings’ of Luke 9:1-17, and six days after the discussion of the Lord with His disciples that the Lord went up to the mountain with His disciples.

    God’s Word is always incontrovertible, consistent, true and trustworthy; even if there appears to be any error in it, it is always due to the short-comings of us human beings in seeing and analyzing it properly through our limited wisdom; the apparent error is never in the Word of God. Hence, it is a request to all the readers that if they feel there is something inconsistent or contradictory in God’s Word, then they should prayerfully and repeatedly read and study that portion in its context; and should also look at it and analyze it along with the ongoing subject matter and thought process, instead of interpreting it only on basis of the artificial divisions into chapters and verses.