Differences between the same stories, words and timelines in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have been noted since the early days of the Church. Critics claim the differences put the historical reliability of the Gospels into question. 

New Testament scholar Mike Licona’s new research in his book “Why are there differences in the Gospels? What we can learn from ancient biography” aims to show why many of the differences can be explained by the literary conventions of the day adopted by historians such as Plutarch.

Mike’s work builds on the scholarship of Revd Professor Richard Burridge, Dean of Kings College London whose seminal work “What are the Gospels?” made the case for their genre as Ancient Biography.