The story of the temptation of Jesus is full of contradictions.  Matthew iv. 2, 3, implies that the first visit of the tempter was made after the forty days’ fast, while Mark and Luke speak of his being tempted for forty days.  According to Matthew, the angels came to him when the Devil left him; but, according to Mark, they ministered to him throughout.  According to Matthew, the temptation to cast himself down is the second trial, and the offer of the kingdoms of the world the third:  in Luke the order is reversed.  In additions to these contradictions, we must note the absurdity of the story.  The Devil “set him on a pinnacle of the temple.”  Did Jesus and the Devil go flying through the air together, till the Devil put Jesus down?  What did the people in the courts below think of the Devil and a man standing on a point of the temple in the full sight of Jerusalem?  Did so unusual an occurrence cause no astonishment in the city?  Where is the high mountain from which Jesus and the Devil saw all round the globe?  Is it true that the Devil gives power to whom he will?  If so, why is it said that the powers are “ordained of God”?

Another “discrepancy, concerning the denial of Christ by Peter, furnishes a still stronger proof that these records have not come down to us with the exactness of a contemporary character, much less with the authority of inspiration.  The four accounts of Peter’s denial vary considerably.  The variations will be more intelligible, exhibited in a tabular form” (Giles’ “Christian Records,” p. 228).  We present the table, slightly altered in arrangement, and corrected in some details:—­

MATTHEW.  MARK.  LUKE.  JOHN.
1st.  Seated without Beneath in In the On entering
in the the palace, by midst of the to the
palace, to a the fire, to a hall where damsel that
damsel. maid.  Jesus was kept the
being tried, door.
seated by
the fire, to a
maid.

2nd.  Out in the Out in the Still in the In the hall,
       porch, having porch, having hall, in standing by
       left the room, left the room, answer to a the fire, in
       in answer to in answer to man. answer to the
       a second a second bystanders.
       maid. maid.

3rd.  Out in the Out in the Still in the Still in the
       porch, to the porch, to the hall, to a man. hall, to a
       bystanders. bystanders. man.

In addition to these discrepancies, we find that Jesus prophesies that Peter shall deny him thrice “before the cock crow,” while in Mark the cock crows immediately after the first denial:  in Luke, Jesus and Peter remain throughout the scene of the denial in the same hall, so that the Lord may turn and look upon Peter; while Matthew and Mark place him “beneath” or “without,” and make the third denial take place in the porch outside—­a place where Jesus, by the context, certainly could not see him.