Parallel Passage

As you may have known I have been doing a study in the gospels comparing the different versions presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In doing this I have discovered that they kinda jump around a bit and aren't always chronologically identical.

This has added to the time it takes me to study, and to be honest without the help of the Gospelcom bible and it's search tool I wouldn't have been able to stick with it as easily.

So just in case you are interested I decided to put together some of the passages as I go along to make it easier for you to try it for yourself.

One thing you will notice is that due to John's Gospel focusing more on statements and relationships between Jesus and His disciples, events that occur are often only mentioned in the first three Gospels and are not included in John.

Finally if you don't like the translation that I used (the New Living Translation) then after you have gone to the page you can use "see this passage in" pull down box at the top of the page, change it to the translation of your choice, and click go. NIV - New International Version, or KJV - King James Version, are probably two that are the most popular or well known. Do bear in mind that as this is an American website though it will have spelling mistakes (honour, and colour for example).

Jesus and John the Baptist


In this passage John sends his disciples to Jesus to verify that he is the messiah, this seems kinda weird as it was John who baptised Him, and saw the dove come down, and heard God speak. However I think there are two reasonable explanations for this;

  • He was expecting Jesus to have overthrown the Romans and kicked them out by now, as he didn't know/understand God's plan to use the Roman empire to help distribute Christianity throughout the "world".
  • He wasn't sure this was the same Jesus he baptised as he was now in gaol and couldn't go see Him for himself.


Either way Jesus tells them to see if he is walking the Talk and report that back to John.
Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples that John is Elijah (as prophesied in Malachi). He also tells them that those who don't want to understand/believe this, whinge about how John fasted, and is therefore possessed, and how Jesus feasted, and is therefore a drunk glutton.

posted by Tim @ 2/18/2004 08:06:00 AM

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