Undesigned Coincidences

It's strange when unintended connections confirm a story.

When I was a kid, I hiked the Grand Canyon - outpaced my parents and ended up probably a good mile down the trail. I had all the gear, was wearing my hiking pants and a long-sleeved shirt. I made it down to the plateau above the river and decided I should probably turn back. So I did, and on my way back up, I heard my mom at a ranger phone saying "we found him," and then got the whole story of her adventures.

She was worried about me because many who make it to the river can't get back up in one day, and have to be airlifted. Being the adventurous teen I was, she thought I'd try to make it down and back, and so called the part rangers to be on the lookout for a teen in a certain pair of pants and a certain shirt.

Downside? I'd already changed by the time I started back up. The rim of the canyon was snowy, so I'd started the day in long pants and long shirt. By the time I'd hiked all day, I'd shed a lot of outer layers and so was no longer wearing what I'd originally been wearing when I'd set out.

Was my mom lying?  No.

She was explaining what I'd been wearing when I left. She hadn't seen the change, and thus her information was both accurate and yet incomplete. These "inconsistencies" in a story lend credibility - I had the spare clothes in my bag, and if anyone else had seen me, they'd be able to describe my features, my gait, my attitude - just not my clothes. Those had changed. I'm a real person who really changes his clothes, who really talks, who really picks things up and moves them around.

There's a story of two men who were lynched - the McDonald boys. Stories existed of them both hanging from a railroad tie and from a tree. Seems like a contradiction, right? And it most likely would have stayed that way - a weird wrinkle of history that we can't confirm or deny. Lynched? Yes. Where? No idea.

Here's the catch - they were lynched in both places.

How do we know?

Photographic evidence.

The two men were lynched and hanged in both places. Why? No idea - perhaps the simple cruelty of man. But what's this tell us? History is weird. History is inconsistent and hard to understand. We have no shortage of situations where two facts seem completely at odds - did they get hanged from a railroad tie or from a tree? Both.

Did Judas hang himself or did his bowels gush out? Both.

It doesn't take much imagination to see how these things work, but if someone goes into the Bible stories thinking they're lying, then the conclusion is predetermined. Was I wearing shorts and pants, short-sleeve and long-sleeve? Yes. But the time of day affected my attire.

Did Jesus do this thing and that thing? Yes.

Did Judas hang himself and "fall headlong" and pop open? Yes.

The Bible is full of "Undesigned Coincidences" that lend little bits of information, bringing the area to life and fleshing out these real people. To see a lot more of these, see our "Hard Questions that Demand an Answer" Series.