It started out as a discussion about the gospels and the contradictions and inconsistencies. My associate would indicate that there are no contradictions or inconsistencies, and then I would point out one, and the response would be "Well, maybe, but the rest is okay" and then I would point out another and the response is again "Well, okay, but the rest is still mostly all okay." Thus, I took Bart Ehrman up on his suggestion to read the gospels in parallel, but this was actually very difficult, as the order of stories is so different in the different gospels. Thus, I created a graphic where I started with the stories of Jesus's interactions and events as portrayed in the gospel called "Mark". It is shown as an orange line in this graphic, and it is both a timeline and provides location (Nazareth is in the top left, Capernaum is in the top right, Jerusalem is in the lower center and left, Bethany is more to the right, etc. In each case, I combine similar stories from the three gospels.
Figure 1. An image capture of the Life of Jesus graphic.
Click to see the actual pdf.
Creating this, I realized how little I knew about the life of Jesus from my time at Immanuel Baptist Church. I was not really aware of Capernaum, nor was I aware that in the first three gospels, Jesus only goes to Jerusalem at the very end, but in John, he visits Jerusalem many times, and events that are early on in the synoptic gospels appear near the end in John and vice versa.
For example, in Mark and Matthew, only after Jesus has been at his ministry for some time does he return to Nazareth where he is subsequently chased out of town by the locals. Similarly, Mark and Matthew give the excuse for Jesus starting his ministry as being the fact that he heard that John the Baptist had been arrested. This sounds like someone who is a follower of John and taking up the teaching of John's message, and consequently, the author of Luke takes the story in Matthew and Mark and removes the reference to Jesus hearing that John the Baptist is arrested and replaces this with the story of the people of Nazareth chasing Jesus out, only now at the start of his ministry.
I find it interesting that most of the life of Jesus in the first three gospels revolves around the town of Capernaum; however, in John, there is only one reference to this town, and that is in the second chapter: "After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days." This immediately follows him turning water into wine.
Another difference was the story of Jesus healing the Centurion's servant/slave. In one gospel, it is a conversation between the Centurion and Jesus, while in the other, the Centurion only communicates with Jesus through intermediaries.
One of the more remarkable differences is a complete change of context. When Jesus goes to heal Jarius's daughter, in two of the gospels, the girl is ill and the father seeks Jesus to heal the daughter. However, there is dramatic tension added to the story when an ill woman touches the robe of Jesus. During this time, the girl dies, and the father's servants tell him that there is no further need to bother Jesus: Jesus was understood to be a healer, and once death occurs, a healing can no longer occur. Jesus, however, resurrects the daughter. In one of the gospels, however, the girl is already dead and the father is seeking a resurrection--a fundamentally different understanding of the powers of Jesus. As the girl is already dead, there is no further dramatic tension added to the story with the woman touching Jesus's robe. The purpose of the intermediate narrative is consequently lost, as the girl is dead, so whether or not she is dead for a few minutes or a few days really should make no difference.
Note that I only start with Jesus's baptism, as the nativity stories are completely different, contradictory and irreconcilable and only appear in two of the four gospels. Even then, John immediately diverges from the other gospels, where Peter and his brother Andrew immediate meet Jesus and it is Andrew who immediately declares Jesus the Messiah. There is no mention of Peter et al. until after Jesus had returned to Nazareth and subsequently begun his ministry in Capermaum.
With all these stories now together, it becomes quite clear that significant differences are actually the norm and not the exception. Please note, I aim for accuracy in the above graphic, so if you see an error, please let me know.