Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
Luke 6:17 He went down with them and stood on a level place.
Matthew 5:1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
Luke explains that Jesus went to the mountainside to pray, then came down and the crowds gathered. Matthew claims that Jesus saw the crowd gathering, and "went up on a mountainside" to address them. I don't think it's as contradictory as it might initially seem. I doubt that the writer is implying that Jesus, upon seeing a crowd gather to hear him speak, decided the best place to do so was from 1,500 feet above them. He probably went up a few yards to higher ground. So it's possible that he went up the mountainside to pray and came down to select his apostles. Having heard that he was there, a crowd gathered. Upon seeing them, Jesus went back up the mountainside a short distance to address them. Maybe Matthew exaggerated, maybe he used different words and those were changed or corrupted during the centuries of copying and re-copying. But it isn't a make or break deal, IMO.
Luke 6:17 He went down with them and stood on a level place.
Matthew 5:1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
Luke explains that Jesus went to the mountainside to pray, then came down and the crowds gathered. Matthew claims that Jesus saw the crowd gathering, and "went up on a mountainside" to address them. I don't think it's as contradictory as it might initially seem. I doubt that the writer is implying that Jesus, upon seeing a crowd gather to hear him speak, decided the best place to do so was from 1,500 feet above them. He probably went up a few yards to higher ground. So it's possible that he went up the mountainside to pray and came down to select his apostles. Having heard that he was there, a crowd gathered. Upon seeing them, Jesus went back up the mountainside a short distance to address them. Maybe Matthew exaggerated, maybe he used different words and those were changed or corrupted during the centuries of copying and re-copying. But it isn't a make or break deal, IMO.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
