Bible Synapse

Did Jesus first appear to the eleven in Jerusalem or in Galilee?

Hard question · The death and resurrection of Jesus · raised by 4 of the lists sceptics circulate

Two different eventsA summary and a fuller account
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The passages

Matthew 28:16–17

The eleven went to the mountain in Galilee that Jesus had appointed; they saw him and worshipped, “but some doubted”.

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

Luke 24:33–36

The Emmaus disciples returned to “the eleven” in Jerusalem, and “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them”.

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

John 20:19

On the evening of the first day of the week Jesus came and stood among the disciples behind shut doors.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

The objection

The only appearance of the risen Jesus to the eleven in Matthew is on a mountain in Galilee. Luke and John place his first appearance to them in a room in Jerusalem on the evening of Easter Day. Critics say Matthew knows nothing of the Jerusalem appearances, and that the Gospels disagree about where the disciples first saw him.

The answer

Matthew does not say that the meeting on the mountain in Galilee was the first time the disciples saw the risen Jesus. He records only one appearance to them, the one at which Jesus gave the great commission, and says nothing either way about earlier meetings. Luke and John record the first: on the evening of Easter Day, in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36; John 20:19). John adds a second, a week later, when Thomas was present (John 20:26).

John himself shows that there were appearances in both places. After the two in Jerusalem he tells of one by the Sea of Tiberias in Galilee, and calls it “the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples” (John 21:14). Paul’s list adds more, including one to over five hundred people at once (1 Corinthians 15:6), which some think was the meeting on the Galilean mountain; Matthew’s note that “some doubted” (Matthew 28:17) may hint that more than the eleven were there. So the order was Jerusalem first, then Galilee. Matthew chose one meeting with which to end his Gospel, which is a selection, not a contradiction.

From the classic commentators

To the apostles when Thomas was present, John 20:24-29. 7. In Galilee, at the Sea of Tiberias, to Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James and John, and two others, John 21:1-14. This is said to be the third time that he showed himself to the disciplesAlbert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Matthew 28 (1832)

Sources

Further reading

Raised by: W. H. Burr, Self-Contradictions of the Bible (1860), Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted (2009), EvilBible.com, The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. Only the verse references come from these lists.

Checked 2026-10-22. All hard questions