Undesigned Scriptural CoincidencesAN UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCE is an occasion where severalindependent narratives contain insignificant details which can becompared with one another. The coincidence exists if the details fittogether to provide an additional picture which is not part of the mainnarrative. The existence of such coincidences is good evidence of theaccuracy of the accounts in which it is embedded.

The presence of undesigned coincidences would be difficult for awriter of fiction to incorporate in the narrative. It would be even moredifficult if several different authors were to attempt to produce onebetween them. The only satisfactory explanation for an undesignedcoincidence is that the accounts report a real event in some detail.

Requirements of an Undesigned CoincidenceFor a correspondence between two passages to count as an undesigned coincidence, thereare three important elements that must all be present. These are:-

1. The detail involved must be insignificant. This means that it must not make anydifference to the flow of the narrative. The full story should not be affected if thedetail in question was not present in the account.

2. The accounts must be independent in this detail. Simply copying a sentence acrossfrom one narative to another is not enough. There must be no obvious dependencebetween the places where the details which make the coincidence appear.

3. The details must fit together. The details in the accounts must fit together to produce a harmonious underlying narrative independent of the main story.

Unless these three points are all present the account cannot be considered an undesignedcoincidence.

Herod's Servants and JesusThe Gospel of Matthew (Mt 14:1,2)contains an episode in which Heroddiscusses Jesus with his servants. “he saidto his servants, this is John the Baptist,raised from the dead…”. In the ancientworld there was a vast gulf between a kingand a palace servant, but Herod discussesJesus with such lower people.

The reason is explained in anotherGospel. Luke 8:1-3 tells us that among thepeople who supported Jesus were “MaryMagdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza,Herod's household manager and Susanna.”Chuza, one of Herod's senior servants,would therefore have a special knowledgeof Jesus. This is why Herod is prepared todiscuss Jesus with his social inferiors.

This detail is so trivial that neitherMark nor Luke mention with whom Herodwas speaking when he made his statementabout John the Baptist. It is only Lukewho records that Chuza, or any other ofHerod's servants, had a connection withJesus. The accounts are also independent.The detail of the connection betweenHerod's servant and Jesus is only found inLuke (in a different part of the Gospel)and the fact that Herod spoke to hisservants is only mentioned by Matthew. Inspite of this the two details fit welltogether to show something that is not amain part of the narrative.

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The Death of JosephJoseph the stepfather of Jesus appears inthe birth narratives and in Luke 2:43 whenJesus was 12 years old. However, he isnever mentioned after this.

Various passages describe eventswhere one might have expected Joseph tobe mentioned. Mark 6:3 lists Jesus' family,mentioning Mary and some sisters andnaming four brothers, but Joseph is absent.On the cross Jesus puts Mary into the careof John the disciple. While there is noexplicit mention of this, it all implies thatJoseph had since died.

Pharisees and BaptismLuke 7:29,30 tells us that in the earlystages of Jesus' ministry the ordinarypeople who had been baptised by Johnaccepted the teaching of Jesus while thePharisees and lawyers were not baptisedby John and rejected Jesus as a result.

Matthew 3:7-10 gives a picture of howJohn received the Pharisees. He refuses tobaptise them and forcibly tells them tochange their behaviour. This explains whythe Pharisees were against John and Jesus.

What the Coincidences MeanIf one wishes to know whether an account is an accurate record of a real event, there isno point in examining only the main points of the story. These would be consistent evenif much of the account was inaccurate or if the entire episode is fictional. However, theinsignificant details would be difficult to invent and even more difficult to remember andkeep consistent. Thus the presence of undesigned coincidences is a strong indicator thatthe accounts which contain them are highly accurate and truthful records of real events.

The undesigned coincidences in the Gospels show that the Gospels contain highlyaccurate records of the life and actions of Jesus, from his birth to his resurrection. Theyinclude coincidences in some of the accounts of the miracles he performed, in his trialsand crucifixion, and also in his resurrection. They are part of the tremendous amount ofevidence which shows that the Bible is an accurate record of the events it describes.

Gadara

Bethsaida

Tiberias

Genessaret

Capernaum

Chorazin

Sea ofGalilee

Probable site ofthe miracle

Undesigned Scriptural CoincidencesThe Feeding of the Five ThousandThis is a miracle carried out by Jesus in an uninhabited place nearBethsaida, close to the shores of Lake Galilee. In the course of thismiracle Jesus fed five thousand people. All the food he had available atthe start of the feeding was five barley loaves and two fishes. The incidentis distinct from another feeding miracle, when Jesus fed four thousand.

The incident is reported in all four of the Gospel records, which meansthat there is considerable scope for undesigned coincidences.

Grass and PassoverOne minor feature of the feeding of thefive thousand is the presence of grasswhere the miracle took place. The grass ismentioned in Matthew 14:19, Mark 6:39and John 6:10.

In the Eastern Mediterranean grassdoes not grow all the year round. In thewinter it is dormant, and from the latespring to the autumn the weather is too hotand dry and the grass turns brown andstops growing. It is only around thePassover (springtime) that the grass growswith any abundance.

Only John gives the time of year of themiracle - it was at Passover (John 6:4).

The IncidentThe miracle came after Jesus had beenteaching a large crowd. At evening hecalled his disciples and pointed out thatthe people must be hungry and suggestedthat they be fed. The disciples found twofishes and five barley loaves among thecrowd. Jesus broke the loaves, blessed thefood and gave it to the disciples, who wentround distributing it to the crowd. Themultitude ate the food and were satisfied.At the end the disciples collected theremains of the meal and found that therewas enough to fill twelve baskets. Thecrowd contained about five thousand men,besides women and children.

Scraps and BasketsAfter the feeding of the five thousand thescraps of food left over were gathered upinto baskets. A similar collection of scrapswas made after the feeding of the fourthousand. However, the accounts use twodifferent Greek words for baskets,presumably referring to different kinds ofbasket. The kind used in the feeding of thefive thousand were "kophinous", whilethose used in the feeding of the fourthousand were "spurida". The two arenever confused.

This is clearly an insignificant detail; itdoesn't appear in English translations.Nevertheless the reports are consistent.This is the kind of detail that it would bevery easy to confuse and for scribes tocopy from one account to another byaccident if they were not careful. The factthere is no confusion shows accuracy.

CommentThis set of coincidences shows how there can be minorcorrespondences between different accounts of the sameevent. It is clear that the accounts are independent of oneanother because points appear in one account which fitwith minor points from others. The detail of the agreementshows that the accounts are written accurately and copiedprecisely. This is only one small part of the Gospels. Thereare many more coincidences in the Bible.

Other Passover DetailsBefore the miracle Jesus had spoken to anunusually large crowd of people. Thereason that such a large number of peoplecould assemble was that it was close to thePassover time, at which time large groupsof pilgrims would gather.

The loaves available were barleyloaves. The barley harvest begins ataround the Passover while the wheatharvest doesn't start for another sevenweeks or so. It is thus appropriate that theloaves were of barley rather than wheat.

Philip and BethsaidaShortly before the miracle Jesus askedPhilip where the crowd could find food inthe region. (…Jesus said to Philip "Whereare we to buy bread, that these may eat?"[John 6:5]) The reason that Jesus chose toask Philip is that Philip was fromBethsaida (John 1:44) This detail is onlyincluded in John's Gospel, but Luke 9:10tells us that the miracle took place in anunsettled area near Bethsaida.

Women and ChildrenAt the start of the miracle Jesus asks thedisciples to make the people sit down onthe grass. However, it was only the menwho did so (the Greek word describesmales rather than all people). According toMark, "The men sat down in companies ofhundreds and of fifties" (Mark 6:40). Thewomen and children continued to millaround.

The arrangement of the men madethem much easier to count. We thereforefind that the men are counted, but not thewomen and children: "And there wereabout five thousand men who ate, besideswomen and children" (Matthew 14:21)

Miracles near BethsaidaIn Matthew 11 (well before the feeding ofthe five thousand) Jesus castigates theinhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaidabecause they have refused to repent inspite of all the miracles that he has done intheir region. (Matthew 11:21).

However, Matthew doesn't record anymiracles near Bethsaida until the feedingof the five thousand. Only one miracle isrecorded in Mark (Mark 8:22-26).

It is Luke who reports a whole seriesof miracles carried out by Jesus' disciplesnear Bethsaida (Luke 9:1-6). This healingcampaign ends with the disciples comingback to meet Jesus near that city (Luke9:10) and in Luke 9:11 Jesus himself healsthe inhabitants of Bethsaida.

This coincidence links a saying inMatthew which is not recorded in Lukewith a set of actions in Luke which are notincluded in Matthew's account. Theseindependent accounts agree in detail.