Checking My Watch: Ramblings on Biblical Narrative

In the following post, What A Servant Looks Like, I mention that I "took a look at the time" and realized it was after 10:00 pm. My first draft of that post however, read something like this: "after looking down at my watch and realizing it was after 10:00..." When I had been writing out this story the first time, I lied. I wrote that I "looked at my watch." This is funny because I don't wear a watch. I vividly remember on Sunday night checking the time on my phone, not a watch. But, the watch seemed fitting to the story and just came out as I wrote down my thoughts. It wasn't necessarily a blatant lie, I was just telling the story. This "lie" had no meaning other than it was a detail to add to the story.

Does that make me a liar? Would that have made my story about Danny untrue? Certainly not. We all add elements when we tell stories that belong more accurately to our own ingenuity than to the actual events of reality. I didn't lie because I wanted to alter the truth, I simply was telling a story, and my details would have added to the appeal of the story—nothing more. This is also true with Scripture. When it comes to Biblical Narrative, we are not supposed to read ever single little word and arrogantly profess that every single thing exactly as it happen. Though the Word of God is inspired and inerrant, it also was written by human authors—creative, unique, and limited, human authors. Thus, when we read the two different accounts* of how Peter first met Jesus in the Gospels (Matthew & Mark vs. John), we should not conclude that these stories contradict each other; instead we must simply realize that each account of this meeting is told through the perspective of a unique third party—be it Matthew, Mark, or John. All of whom, throughout their detailed Gospel accounts of the life of Christ, will often describe the times when they look down and "check their watch," all by means to better illuminate the wonderful story of our Redeemer's life on earth, our Immanuel.

*(1) Matthew 4:18–20 and Mark 1:16–18
(2) John 1:35–42