I don’t know if you have ever realized this, but the Gospels are quite embarrassing. No, I don’t mean that the Gospel itself is embarrassing, but that the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are embarrassing. Well, let me be a bit less provocative and a little more precise: the Gospels contain many accounts of the Christ story that, if true, would cause early Christians to blush.

Criterion of Embarrassment

I want to briefly talk about the “criterion of embarrassment.” This is a criteria that helps historians determine the truthfulness of historic accounts. The basic idea is this: when people lie, embellish, or make stories up, they normally do not include material that causes them to lose credibility. Paul Eddy and Gregory Boyd call this “self-damaging” material (The Jesus Legend, 408).  E. P. Sanders calls it “against the grain” (although that it a bit too close to the “criterion of dissimilarity”).  Most people don’t make stories up about losing a fight or being the bank employee who failed to lock the safe the night before. We normally cover up our mistakes or embarrassments in order to look more polished. When someone gets pulled over by the police late at night and the officer asks if they have been drinking, they would not say they had been drinking if they really had not. People don’t lie on resumes and say they did not graduate high school when, in fact, they have a masters degree.

In the ancient world, this was no different. It was the tendency to omit, change, or lie about things that would bring shame upon the writer or his community. When histories are written by a nation, those in power want their nation to look as good as possible; therefore, they only include accounts that put them in the best possible light. For example, the Assyrian Lachish Relief is the story, carved in stone, of Sennacherib’s conquest and defeat of Judea in the 8th-Century BCE. This story was proudly displayed by the Assyrians in order to show their power and intimidate outsiders. This was a common practice. Rarely, if ever, do we discover similar instances where nations make prominent displays of their failures.

The basic idea is this: people always want to put their best foot forward when introducing themselves. How much more would we expect this to be the case in the Bible when the first Christians are attempting to convert others to Christianity? But, as we will see, there are many stories in the Gospels, having to do with the historic Jesus that are quit embarrassing and hard to explain if the story was made up.

Here are 8 of the most embarrassing moments in the Gospels:

1. Jesus’ Baptism (Mark 1:4-11)

John the Baptist was called the “baptist” not because he belonged to a particular denomination, but because he nuanced an initiation rite of baptism adopted by the Christian community. John’s baptism is explicitly said to be a baptism of repentance for sins (Mark 1:4, Matt. 3:1-2, 6). Yet we have Jesus, who did not need to repent because he never sinned, being baptized by him. Why? John Meier puts it this way: “Mysterious, laconic, stark Mark recounts the event with no theological explanation as to why the superior sinless one submits to a baptism meant for sinners” (A Marginal Jew, 168). Matthew, writing later, seems to recognize the difficulty and adds the discourse between John and Jesus before the baptism where John attempts to prevent Christ from being baptized, expressing his unworthiness in comparison to Christ (Matt. 3:14-15). While this takes away a bit of the sting, it still provides no precise theological explanation as to why Jesus was baptized. John, when he writes, leaves the baptism out all-together.

Jesus’ Family Did Not Believe

John 7:5 tells us that even Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him. This is a difficult saying since one would presume that they would have better knowledge of who Christ was than anyone else. Yet on more than one occasion, we are told of their disassociation with him, even to the point that they thought he “lost his mind” and needed to be restrained (Mark 3:21).

John the Baptist’s Doubt

This is perhaps one of the least expected turns that Matthew takes in his Gospel account. John the Baptist was the first to recognize that Jesus was the Christ. Luke even has him leaping in his mother’s womb at the presence of Mary who was just pregnant with Jesus (Luke 1:41). When John baptized Jesus, he witnessed as the Father spoke from heaven and identified Jesus as his son (Matt. 3:17). Jesus himself said that there was no greater man, born of woman, than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11). Yet John is seen at the end of his life sending his disciples to Christ to inquire whether or not Jesus was really the Messiah (Matt. 11:2-3). This is probably the reason why the rest of the Gospel writers left this out of their story.

The Disciples Doubted After the Resurrection (Matt. 28:17)

Related closely to John’s doubt is something else we don’t expect. After Christ’s resurrection he told the women whom he saw to gather the disciples and have them meet him in Galilee. Once there, Matthew 28:17 records this: “And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted” (Mat 28:17 ESV). This would not be too surprising if only one of the disciples doubted since we know that John records Thomas doubting. But this is some of the disciples (or, possibly, all of them according to D. A. Hagner, Matthew [WBC], 2:884). And unlike John who shows how Thomas’ doubt is resolved, Matthew leaves it open. Since this is so damaging (from a certain perspective), it is hard to know why Matthew would include this if it were not historical.

Jesus Does not Know the Time of His Coming (Mark 13:32)

In Mark 13:32 Christ expresses his ignorance about the timing of his coming: “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (ESV). Luke does not include these words at all and in the parallel in Matt. 24:36 the manuscripts do not agree. Some include  “nor the son” and some omit it.  It is quite possible that an early scribe left these words out so that Christ might save face. The early church had the tendency to magnify the divine attributes of Jesus, so it is difficult to make the case that this is not historical.

Women are the First to Witness the Resurrection

This is one that is often brought up. Craig Keener puts it well enough: “The witness of women at the tomb is very likely historical, precisely because it was so offensive to the larger culture — not the sort of testimony one would invent. Not all testimony was regarded as being of equal merit; the trustworthiness of witnesses was considered essential. Yet most of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries held much less esteem for the testimony of women than for that of men; this suspicion reflects a broader Mediterranean limited trust of women’s speech and testimony also enshrined in Roman law.” (Keener, The Historical Jesus, 331)

Jesus Cursed a Fig Tree

In Mark 11:13-14 Jesus curses a fig tree for not having any fruit due to his hunger. While their may be true prophetic significance to cursing the fig tree (played out immediately after as Christ cleanses the temple), from the standpoint of the narrative, it carries some embarrassment as it depicts Christ becoming angry at a tree for not producing figs, even though it was not the season for figs (Mark 11:13). Another embarrassment implied in this is that Jesus did not know the tree had no figs on it. It seems unlikely that the early church would, again, share a story that illustrates Christ’s ignorance of something.

Death and Resurrection of Christ

This easily escapes our notice since the basic story of Christ is so well known. However, both the death and resurrection of Christ are, from the standpoint of the culture of the day, embarrassing and damaging. Concerning the death of Christ on a cross, Paul sees this problem: “But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23). The word used for “stumbling block” is skandalon. Louw-Nida defines this as “that which causes offense and thus arouses opposition.” Why? Because the Jews would never have thought their Messiah would have been hung on a tree. “Cursed is one who hangs on a tree” (Gal. 3:13; Deut 21:23). The Greeks thought of the resurrection as foolishness as they were dualist, essentially believing that the material world was evil and the spiritual world good. They would have scoffed at the idea that Christ returned to physical form. This is why later Greeks attempted to adapt the Christ story, doing away with the physical resurrection. Marcion is the most famous promoter of this view (see Docitism).

In other words, in the culture of the Apostles, the death and resurrection of Christ would be a very unlikely story to make up and expect people to devote their lives. But somehow this story took the world by storm in the first centuries of the church. This only makes sense if it were true.

Other Possible Examples

Jesus’ encouragement to “hate” one’s family and love him (Luke 14:26)

Betrayal of Christ by one in his inner circle (Judas).

Christ had trouble healing a blind person (Mark 8:22-35)

Christ Could not Heal People in His Hometown (Mark 6:1-6)

The women mistook the resurrected Jesus for a gardener (John 20:15)

Conclusion

The criterion of embarrassment does not provide absolute assurance in any case. There is always the possibility that what we believe to be embarrassing today, might not have been so to the people of the day. But from what we know, the list provided here is substantial. It is hard to believe that anyone would make up events such as these. In the context of the day, if the Gospels were fabricated stories, these examples could do nothing but damage the credibility of their story. But if the Gospels were true, this is exactly what we might expect and hope to find.

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C Michael Patton
C Michael Patton

C. Michael Patton is the primary contributor to the Parchment and Pen/Credo Blog. He has been in ministry for nearly twenty years as a pastor, author, speaker, and blogger. Find him on Patreon Th.M. Dallas Theological Seminary (2001), president of Credo House Ministries and Credo Courses, author of Now that I'm a Christian (Crossway, 2014) Increase My Faith (Credo House, 2011), and The Theology Program (Reclaiming the Mind Ministries, 2001-2006), host of Theology Unplugged, and primary blogger here at Parchment and Pen. But, most importantly, husband to a beautiful wife and father to four awesome children. Michael is available for speaking engagements. Join his Patreon and support his ministry

    8 replies to "Eight Reasons Why the Gospels are Embarrassing"

    • Bobby Sparks

      These kinds of post are extremely helpful. We are in a time where every Christian should become an apologist for the faith, even in the Bible Belt!

    • John Bourget

      Hello and thanks for a great argument. Just one small comment from me. Why do you use BCE? It is atheists and other “politically correct liberals” who have tried to shove this (ahem) crap down our throats. Why would you bow to this PC junk?

    • christian ako

      The only embarrassing thing about this post is the inability of the writer to explain how those 8 reasons actually make sense. I guess we have to expect that they would be embarrassed because of their ignorance.
      1. the baptism by water to those who are saved is patterned after the baptism by oil (anointed) for those who will be kings of Israel. the people then saw the similarity. besides i strongly believe that demons or demon-possessed persons cannot be baptized with water. how can Jesus be without sin?
      2.Jesus said his brothers and sisters and mother are those who follow the will of the father. Aren’t they just half-siblings? brother will betray brother…. only those who are enabled by god will be able to listen and follow his words.
      3. even peter doubted and betrayed jesus. so why can’t John the baptist? only after the father opened your eyes will you be able to understand.
      4. same as 3.
      5. because he will never be omniscient. he only knows all that the father has revealed to himself. you make Jesus a liar, trinitarians.
      6.no jew or gentile, male or female in the eyes of God. all are equal.
      7. if you don’t bear fruit, you will not be saved. much will be given to those who have much. if you have nothing, that too will be taken away from you.
      8.the sacrifice of the messiah was the mystery of God. Jesus has to bring the Gentile and the jew together as one back to Jehovah. atheists and most Jews were deceived by the Father.
      9. We should love the Father more than everybody else.
      10. Wasn’t Satan one of the principal devils?
      11. Two steps to heal the blind person is Jesus having trouble? Please, can you heal a blind person in 2 steps? Shaking my head.
      12. If you have no faith, you will not be healed.
      13. The Lord’s Supper was for the Jews during their Seder. They broke bread and drink the wine. So every time they broke bread and drink the wine, just remember the sacrifice of Jesus. For the Gentiles, just remember his sacrifice and give thanks that we don’t need to sacrifice anything.
      Pray for the spirit to guide you.
      Peace.

      • Kennedy

        Christian your responses are great. But I perceive Michael is raising these discussions in the context of Judea-Roman-Greco religious, cultural and social context. It was a highly HONOR-SHAME culture. We need to explore this more. It is in this light that I applaud Michael’s post. God bless you.

    • tseagle1

      The Bible is Infallible, it has no mistakes. The Bible is Inerrant so every word of God is true. The Bible is complete and nothing needs to be added. If you think it does read the very last words of Revelation! The Bible is Authoritive.

      You must believe the Bible the is THE WORD OF GOD. The writers were guided by the Holy Spirit so the men who wrote the Bible wrote the Words of God.

      Why would you say the Gospels are embarrassing if you believe all I said above? You are saying embarrassing if true and I say you do not believe totally in God or the Bible if you believe that! And you are causing people to rethink the validity of the Bible and that is not only wrong but shameful!

      Christian what you said was spot on. I hope people who come to this article can see that the writer(s) are the embarrassment for their poor understanding of the Bible.

    • tseagle1

      The Bible is Infallible, it has no mistakes. The Bible is Inerrant so every word of God is true. The Bible is complete and nothing needs to be added. If you think it does read the very last words of Revelation! The Bible is Authoritive.

      You must believe the Bible the is THE WORD OF GOD. The writers were guided by the Holy Spirit so the men who wrote the Bible wrote the Words of God.

      Why would you say the Gospels are embarrassing if you believe all I said above? You are saying embarrassing if true and I say you do not believe totally in God or the Bible if you believe that! And you are causing people to rethink the validity of the Bible and that is not only wrong but shameful!

      Christian what you said was spot on. I hope people who come to this article can see that the writer(s) are the embarrassment for their poor understanding of the Bible. Jesus was asked about when He would come AGAIN and He did not have an answer to that question because only God the Father knows that answer.

    • […] an historical criterion known as the “principle of embarrassment,” which is to say that the Gospel authors also reported many facts about Jesus that appear to cast Him and themselves in a negative light—that is, […]

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