ContradictionsReading order 53Bible context 2 min read
Was Jairus's daughter alive when Jesus was approached?
Matthew makes the daughter dead at the initial request, whereas Mark and Luke make her critically ill but alive.
- Textual conflict
- Direct contradiction
- The quoted passages make incompatible claims about the same subject under the same conditions. Little additional inference is needed.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
The daughter is already dead versus still dying at the father's initial appeal, an explicit conflict about a supporting scene's initial state.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
The ruler says his daughter is already dead
While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
Matthew 9:18
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Matthew 9
Jairus approaches while his daughter is still dying
And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
Mark 5:22-23
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
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