The following are taken from real e-mails between Barbara and myself back in 2012 :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Barbara Clark, March 15, 2012 10:06:40 AM
Okay, I looked it up in all four gospels. Only Luke (Luke 24:4) mentions two angels in shining garments.
Why would the others say one?
Barb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply from Bill Clark, March 15, 2012 11:06:44 AM
well...
first off the books were written YEARS after the fact. They think John
was the oldest written followed by Luke. Even then though, they
estimate John was written about 60 years or so after the fact. Remember
that
game where you sit in a circle and whisper something in the person's
next to you ear? by the time you get around the circle, the whole
message had changed.
Then there is the little known, or at least
little publicized issue that John had with Luke. These two did not get
along at all. John was always writing how he was Jesus' favorite. Luke
always thought that while he was trying to write down the truth, it was
always "me me me" with John. Luke knew that Peter was the favorite but
John just kept on going on about how Jesus trusted him more than the
others and all of that. As a matter of fact at the crucifixion scene,
you see John saying that "his fav was by his mother's side". Luke knew
perfectly well that John wasn't there. Luke couldn't prove it of
course, because he was off hiding like all the others. Luke knew that
John was off in hiding somewhere as well, but he was hiding by himself
so no
one could prove or disprove whether he was with Mary or not..
John
started writing before Luke did. John did not want anyone to know that
he was writing the story and placing himself in the middle of
absolutely everything. Luke had a suspicion that John was writing
things down and so he decided to write his own version, the correct
version of what had happened. He hired a ten year old kid to go get a
copy of what John had so far. The problem was that by the time Luke had
hired the kid, John had already published and his book started to
appear in storefronts throughout the Holy Land. When the kid brought
Luke a copy of John's book, Luke lost it. John had beaten him to the
punch.
This was when Luke learned of John's tremendous ego and
how he had written the story to be more a "Jesus and John with their
Friends" book instead of a "Jesus Story". Luke was furious. He knew
that the book was out
there and people were reading, and believing that John was this great
disciple a level above the other eleven. Luke bore down and started to
write what he saw as the truth.
Unfortunately, Luke lost focus
every once in a while and strayed off into a mode of proving John wrong
on little things before getting back on track and writing the story the
way he remembered it. When Luke got to the resurrection scene he
noticed John had said that there was only one Angel at the scene. From
the way John wrote it, the angel was either Micheal or Gabriel. Luke,
while not knowing for sure which angel it was had assumed it was Andy
Messersmith, who would later become an outstanding pitcher for the
Angels when they returned to play ball in the American League in 1969. I
digress, sorry. Just a nice little side tidbit there.
When Luke
read about John's account of just one angel, he decided that this would
be a good place
for a little of that embellishment that he had used earlier in his book
to kind of stick a thorn in John's side. He made the decision that
there would have at least been two angels at such a remarkable and
miraculous event. And so he wrote the two angel part just to one up
John. He put the angels outside the tomb, kind of guarding it while
John had the angle sitting inside the tomb as if he was taking the place
of Jesus. Luke that that was a little presumptuous for an angel to
take the place of Jesus.
And so that is why Luke wrote of two
angels while the others, Mathew and Mark, more or less just assumed John
knew what he was talking about and followed his lead. After all John
had written his book before Luke so surely his memory was clearer than
Luke's.
Luke fell into a small depression because it didn't seem
any one was taking his book as seriously as Johns. Then an idea popped
in his head. None of the
guys were writing a book about what happened AFTER the event and
ascension. He immediately took up his pen and started writing about
events after Jesus had left. He knew that this book would be a good one
and possibly end up in the top five of books about life before and
after Jesus. "The Acts of the Apostles" did indeed become a best seller
and because of it's title, none of the other Apostles argued with
anything in the book, because The Acts had set a pretty high bar for
them to live up to.
And that is why Luke wrote of two angels instead of one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply from Barbara Clark, March 15, 2012 1:15:42 PM
WOW!!!! AREN'T YOU THE WEALTH OF INFORMATION.. THANKS...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply from Bill Clark, March 15, 2012 1:25:41 PM
AND I AIN'T BEEN TO SEMINARY OR NOTHING LIKE THAT ...
