Do the resurrection stories contradict each other?

The four Gospels do describe the resurrection morning differently, and it's worth being honest about that instead of smoothing it over.

They disagree on some details: how many women came to the tomb, whether one angel or two were seen, and the exact order events happened in. Matthew mentions two women; Mark adds a third; Luke mentions several, naming two; John's narrative focuses on Mary Magdalene alone—though even John has her say "we don't know" where the body is, hinting others were there too.

Historians actually expect this kind of variation from independent, honest testimony. Eyewitnesses to the same real event routinely remember and report different details, especially in a chaotic, emotional scene. What all four accounts agree on is more significant: the tomb was empty, women found it first, and this launched belief that Jesus was alive.

Whether every detail can be perfectly harmonized is a real, ongoing conversation among Christian scholars, and honest people land in different places on how much harmony to expect from ancient testimony. It's a genuine open question, not one with a single required answer.