Just about anyone who went to American grade school will be familiar with the story of George Washington, founding father of America. As the story is told, George as a precocious child took an axe to his father’s prized cherry tree and chopped it down. His father returned home and angrily inquired who committed such an act?, George pipes up saying “ father, I cannot tell a lie…I did it” and his father forgives him.
It is a quaint story demonstrating the integrity of a young man who went on to later become the founding father of the greatest nation on earth, it is also a similitude often used to present America to the rest of the world as a nation founded on the principles of truth. However, there is a tiny problem. The story is false, we know this because the author of the story, the very elegantly named Parson Weemes, confessed to the fabrication. Americans however have never allowed a few facts to get in the way of a good story (Hollywood anyone ?) and the story is still taught today.

Many such stories abound in the New Testament today. Stories and accounts handed down by word of mouth intended to convey a moralistic outlook were wrongly attributed as historical facts by bible scribes, gospel writers incorrectly attested many accounts of the birth, life and death of Jesus, each ascribing their own understanding of the scriptures, and left many Christians with the horrible act of creating a new gospel to accommodate the viewpoints of all the gospel writers, worse to come are the pseudonymous writings, scriptures written and attributed to a well-known disciple or Apostle, for instance we now know that the pastoral epistles i.e Timothy and Titus could not possibly be the writings of Paul, in addition to others. I will take a look at individual stories next.

When did Jesus die ?

All the gospels agree that Jesus died sometime during the annual Jewish feast of Passover. On the day of preparation for the Passover feast the Jews would bring a lamb to the temple for slaughter in the afternoon and go home to roast it. At night which for the Jews was the beginning of the next day…they would eat it.

Our earliest gospel writer sets the scene in Mark 14:12, the disciples ask Jesus where he wants them to make preparations for the Passover feast and later that night, he shares the meal with them, so we are now clear it is the day of the preparation of the feast. Later that night at the garden of Gethsemane Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot, he spends the night in Jail, after appearing before the Sanhedrin. In the morning he is brought before Pontius Pilate and by 9.00am the morning after the Passover meal is eaten he is sentenced and taken away to be crucified.

In the account of the Gospel of John we are informed that Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, we are also told he shares a last meal with his disciples, but this meal takes place Before the festival of the Passover (John 13:1), Jesus symbolically washes his disciples feet as opposed to breaking bread, later that night at prayers, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, taken before the Sanhedrin, spends the night in jail and is brought before Pilate who condemns him to death by crucifixion. John is very clear on this (19:14) “now it was the day of the preparation of the Passover and it was about noon…”

Clearly these accounts are irreconcilable. One account is correct and one is wrong or both are wrong, never-mind apologists, who for centuries have tried to rationalise the contradiction with an array of convoluted and often pathetic reasoning. One of these two narratives has the cherry tree syndrome. I will take a look at which one and why?

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus is crucified around noon time on the day of the preparation of the Passover feast, whereas Mark asserts that Jesus was killed the morning after. Who was right? Who got it wrong? who has an interest in manipulating the time of death of Jesus? let’s take a closer look at John.

John is the only Gospel explicitly identifying Jesus as the lamb of God John 1:29 “behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” and again in John 1:36 “behold the lamb of God”. John portrays Jesus as the Passover lamb, the shedding of who’s blood somehow brings atonement and salvation, he is killed at noon, the same time as the sacrificial lambs brought to slaughter, and pretty much at the hands of the same people, the Jewish leaders. As far as John is concerned, Jesus really is the lamb of God.

John has altered an historical account to make a theological point. He has placed the day of Jesus’ death deliberately on the day of sacrifice and therefore presented a story that is not historically accurate, but in his own judgement theologically correct.

Quite a few shall we say Cherry tree stories like these pop-up in the bible here and there, I hope to take a look at one or two more.

Woman taken in adultery.

One of the more famous stories in the NT is that of the woman taken in adultery. It appears only in the Gospel of John 7:53-8:12. Everyone is familiar with the story, a wanton woman is brought before Jesus by the Pharisees looking to entrap him, Jesus does some nifty talking and asks that those without sin should cast the first stone, his traducers sullenly slip away, he thereby saves the life of the woman in question, commanding her to go and sin no more, truly a wonderful story.

There is a problem though. The story is not original to the Gospel of John in fact it is not original to any of the gospels, it is a later addition by bible writers. How do we know this, quite simply, the story is not found in our oldest extant manuscript of John. Hilariously one scribe tried inserting the story after John 21:25, another tried Luke 21:38, no matter what, whosoever wrote the story we know that John was not the author.

Next I will consider the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus.

Tell this on and on to Christians but they'll not listen. They insist that the Bible is infallible even in the face of evidence of fabrications, falsifications and forgeries in the supposed holy writ.

McSterling:
Tell this on and on to Christians but they'll not listen. They insist that the Bible is infallible even in the face of evidence of fabrications, falsifications and forgeries in the supposed holy writ.

Yes, generally ignorance is bliss.