On artistic license.

Having been asked to preach several times recently, I’ve had more reason than normal to consult Bible commentaries. In the process, I noticed that they all say things such as, “Matthew likely rearranged the material in this section to suit his purpose in writing the Gospel.” This initially bothered me because it implied the Bible’s authors were playing fast and loose with the facts, an assessment which seems to undermine the reliability of my beloved Scriptures. But these commentators were really serious about the Bible’s authenticity and its authority. They were not liberals. So how could this be?

I finally figured it out. As a modern American, I presume truth to be a matter of chronological fact correspondence. But this is a huge bias. The artist in me knows better than to think that truth can only be communicated or even best be communicated in such a realist style. The Gospel writers, under the influence of the greatest Muse of all, were revealing truth that a merely chronological account would have left hidden.

This is why their portraits of the same Person are all so distinct. But far from being evidence of fraud or forgery or even error, this is simply the natural result of men overcome with Beauty wanting to share that rapture effectively with others.