Is it true that there are so many contradictions in the Bible?

Answer 1

What we see in 21st century Western standards of analysis as "contradictions" do not necessarily come out as "contradictions" to first-century Jewish standards. For example, "five hundred thousand" is adequately close to "four hundred seventy thousand" that this isn't really a contradiction; perhaps 30,000 guys moved and were miscounted. Other "contradictions" can be explained by recognizing that, though God inspired The Bible, it was still written by men with different viewpoints; for example, the gospel of Matthew was written by a former tax collector, while the gospel of Mark was written by a physician, and the two different viewpoints can be seen. This is similar to seeing two different news reports of an incident, one "contradicting" the other, but accurately reporting the same event.

Can errors be accepted to be the word of God?Even though Christians believe that God inspired the Bible, it was still written by men. A weak and sinful creation of God that makes mistakes and more mistakes in life. If the Bible is indeed holy and the Word of God,then it should be perfect without any flaws. Even a tiny error cannot be tolerated. So can these men who contradict each other's writings be trusted to write the "Word of God?". Did God 'inspire' these people to write different things?

• God inspired men to note what is important. Perhaps God doesn't think that "a tiny error" is important. Do you or I? Who cares? I believe that God protected what's important -- the way to salvation -- in spite of what sinful man could do to it. It's up to me to accept it or not. I'm not God. I have no right to dictate to Him what is tolerable and what is not.

We are not talking about just a normal book here. We are talking about a holy book, a book that should have been no confusion and error-free since it is for our guidance in this life, and in the here-after.

About the contradiction of how Simon Peter found out that Jesus was the Christ:

(a) By a revelation from heaven (Matthew16:17).

(b) His brother Andrew told him (John 1:41).

Which is it now? How can such information about the holy Jesus be inaccurate? If the writers can't even decide how Simon Peter found out that Jesus was the Christ, how can these men who cant even get a simple information correct, be obliged to write other things in the Bible? Maybe this contradiction is not good enough to convince, but lets see another one.

• Both can be accurate. John's story tells how Simon first hears about this man from Nazareth, whom his brother Andrew claimed was the Messiah. That didn't mean Simon believed it, just that his brother thought so. Matthew, on the other hand, tells about what happened later, after Simon had gotten to know Jesus. At '''that''' point, Simon knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that this man really is the Christ. God revealed it to Simon in a way far greater than his brother Andrew's claim did.

Did Jesus ascend to Paradise the same day of the crucifixion?

(a) Yes. He said to the thief who defended him,

"Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).

(b) No. He said to Mary Magdelene two days later,

"I have not yet ascended to the Father" (John 20:17).

So here, did he or did he not ascend to Paradise the same day of the crucifixion? This is not merely a question of "Did president Bush go to Iraq the same day he went to Israel?" This is about a significant event that happened to a holy man in which the Christians claimed to be as "the Son of God". Previously it was mentioned by one of the commentors above that the people who wrote the Bible are "accurately writing the same event". Have all of the contradictions presented so far been the "same event"? Maybe it can be justified that numbers such as 470000 can be rounded up to 500000, even though the difference is still undeniably large. But can a "yes" be rounded up into a "no"? If this 'yes' or 'no' contradiction still can be tolerated, then lets just go to another contradiction.

• I've heard of claims that "Paradise" in this context doesn't mean Heaven, but rather a holding area in Hell where those who were considered righteous before Christ's sacrifice stayed protected. Since there is no Biblical account of this, I'm not going to say this is the explanation. 2 Corinthians 12 '''does''' indicate that there are different layers or levels of "the heavens," one of which includes "paradise" (v. 4). Thus, it's possible that the Paradise to which Jesus refers before His death is not the place to which He ascended after His resurrection.

Another contradiction:

(a) Adam was told that if and when he eats the forbidden fruit he would die the same day (Genesis 2:17).

(b) Adam ate the fruit and went on to live to a ripe old age of 930 years (Genesis 5:5)

• There is death, and there is death. Is it not possible that there is more than one death? Part of Adam did die that day, because he was separated from God.

The story seems undeniably and completely different. So now, how can we believe that Jesus is really the Son of God? Isn't it possible that Jesus was just a messenger of God, who was trying to deliver God's messages to His creation? Isnt it possible that these "men" who wrote the Bible were wrong about Jesus being the Son of God? Yes, it is hard to accept the fact that Jesus is not the Son of God after being told otherwise since we were small. But think about it. Aren't most stories about Jesus in the Bible somewhat illogical?

• No, it is not possible that Jesus was merely a messenger from God. He claimed to be God incarnate. (There are other questions on FAQ Farm dealing with this.) Because of what He said, he was either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic. He couldn't be just a good man, let alone a mere messenger from God. As for logical vs. illogical, again I ask, by whose standards? Those of sinful and imperfect man? By your own admission, that is no standard worth using.

Answer: Show Me A Genuine ContradictionI have seen so many lists of contradictions. They all sound very impressive. One small problem. They've all been answered many times already. The people who keep on putting them forward are either ignorant of the answers which is possibly understandable or even worse they are trying to push an agenda, having already decided the Bible is false without really looking for a sensible answer. In some cases they already have another religion but the Bible is annoying by the exclusiveness of its claims to absolute truth, so they feel the need to cut it down to size.

Its all been done before. The answers are all there - if you look for them. If you really want them. If you will be silent long enough to hear the still small voice of truth.

One specific area where there are supposedly hundreds of contradictions is that of the different Gospel accounts - but they don't. They're just different. When closely and fairly examined they just put forward slightly different views, a different 'angle' or perspective of what is essentially the same amazing truth. People can be so clever and yet so 'willingly ignorant'.

There's an awful lot I don't know. But I do know this. The Bible does not contradict itself. They are all like a morning mist when the hot glaring light of the sun comes on it, it fades into nothing.

Answer: Yes, many contradictionsWhen caught in obvious contradictions, bible believers simply reinterpret the bible. When caught again, they reinterpret it again with another twist. Bible academics will pull their hair out attempting to rationalize away these contradictions with complex answers that exhaust the reader instead of enlightening them. It's almost like observing a high-priced lawyer giving a "Chewbacca" defense -- where the aim of the argument is to confuse the jury. The simple truth is that many of these contradictions are in fact contradictions.

God is a mighty God, not a confusing God. Would God, being all-knowing, give a message that would require such complex rationalizations for humans that he knows are so simplistic by comparison?

Some versions of the bible actually delete verses, such as Matthew 17:21. It is in King James but isn't in others. The bible, though a good book, not only contradicts itself, it is clearly fallible.

Does anyone really believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, for instance? Many bible believers did by following a biblical genealogy. But as stated before, when caught in contradictions or an inaccuracy, bible believers simply reinterpret the bible --over and over and over for hundreds of years.

If you need a list of contradictions, they are all over the internet along with counter arguments. Many are not legitimate, but others certainly are. Decide for yourself.

The bible does NOT contradict itself in any way. God cannot contradict Himself.

If you are humble and can admit you have found a "contradiction" previously and later learn through knowledge and the Holy Spirit, you are wrong, then that should tell you all other "contradictions" are also wrong.

There are many bibles out there by religions who choose to take what has been handed down through the ages and change it to read what they want it to read.

If you study the history of religions, you will find all, except one, was started in the 16th century or after. Only the church Jesus founded, was started at Penticost over 2000 years ago. Google Scott Hahn and also check the EWTN network for the real truth to all your question.

Answer 2

The entire Bible is filled with historical information and prophecies, written down by about forty men, from many walks of life and over a period of about 1600 years. As an important person dictates a letter to a secretary, God used his holy spirit, or active force to send this information to these Bible writers. Many times, the Bible writer tells things from his own point of view, as with the four Gospel writers. This can cause Bible accounts to seem contradictory. The original Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramic, and Greek. Jesus commanded his followers to preach God's Kingdom throughout the entire inhabited Earth, the Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages. If it is not a quality translation of the Bible, the translators place their own views or beliefs in this Bible as 'gospel'. The King James translation of the Holy Scriptures was published in 1611 A.D. This version of the Bible used archaic English (thee, thy, shew, shambles, maketh, etc.), words that we no longer understand and this Bible translation did not have the benefit of archeological evidence of the 17th through the 20th century, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also, it doesn't use Jehovah God's name in each the over 7000 locations where it was in the original scriptures. I'm placing a web link below, which isolates separate instances where people have believed that the Bible contradicts itself. You will see that it doesn't.

Some of the reasons that people believe the Bible contradicts itself are that they firstly do not understand it in its cultural setting or possibly that it contains various types of literature such as narrative, history, teaching, poetry, etc... When these and some of the other factors mentioned above are thoughtfully and impartially considered, most, if not all of the alleged contradictions melt away into nothing. Often the Bible is also deliberately mis-quoted by people who have a reason to discredit it. This makes it say something it doesn't and so produces a contradiction which is not there in the original meaning read as all literature should be -in context. In addition, often the intent and persons addressed by the author of a particular passage are ignored which makes a scripture apply to one group of people to which it does not apply - this is another type of out of context usage which causes non-existent contradictions.

This last reason is possibly one of the major sources for passages which could be described as having a different perspective. Over time God has revealed various aspects of truth to various groups, culminating in the birth, death and glorious resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Certain aspects of the previous dispensation such as the need for sacrifices, was done away with by the once for all sacrifice of God's Son. Thus there is a certain 'unfolding' of truth as time goes on until 'in these last days He has spoken unto us by His Son.'

Various methods have been used to resolve apparent contradictions. The following general points give a summary of general principles to help resolve these some of which are also mentioned above:

1. What is currently unexplained is not necessarily unexplainable. Further study of understanding may reveal an answer.

2. Fallible interpretations of men do not mean a fallible revelation from God. Sometimes a passage can appear contradictory because it has not been interpreted correctly.

3. Understanding of the context of the passage often resolves difficulties.

4. Difficult passages should be interpreted in the light of ones which are clear. Often one author has a different focus and so only incidentally or only partially describes a certain detail. Numerous times other passages which have a different focus and more detail can clarify the issue.

5. Incompleteness in detail does not mean error.

6. New Testament citations of Old Testament writings do not need to be exact - this allows for the fact of different language plus the general practice of non-exact quotation.

7. The Bible records much of what it does not necessarily approve - it records it because it happened.

8. Non-technical everyday language, according to the context in which it was written, is employed in the Bible.

9. Round numbers are sometimes used instead of exact numbers.

10. Different literary devices such as metaphor are used. These need to be considered.

11. An error may have crept into a copy which was not an error in the original - in this regard it is worthy of note that the large number of manuscripts serves as a corrective. The Dead Sea Scrolls have also demonstrated how amazingly accurate was the copying.

12. Later revelation often supercedes earlier revelation. The earlier revelation is thus not contradictory it has merely ceased to apply

Except for a few Epistles of Paul which was judged authentic, most were mere hearsay and was written by anonymous Authors.

One example of hearsay can be found in;

Luke 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,

1:2 Even as thy delivered them unto to us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; Did Mary see an angel remove the stone from Jesus' tomb? Read Luke 24:1-3, John 20:1-2, Mark 16:1-4 and Matthew 28:1-5 and see if you can give a yes or no answer.


It isn't. Take the time to read it, to study it, and to meditate on it (revising information, understanding it and applying it). And you will find out for yourself that it isn't. Also, some things may seem contradictory because one thing is from the old testament and another from the new. for example, sacrifice was mandatory in the old testament, but when Jesus died, in the new testament, he became the ultimate sacrifice. No longer was animal sacrifice needed. this is a change over a period of time, not a condradiction. Hope this helps

Answer 3

There are numerous contradictions in the Bible, most of which are called 'doublets'. The most famous doublet contradiction is the Genesis creation, which is actually two quite different creation accounts. In the first account (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), for example, man (both male and female) is created as the last act of creation, whereas beginning in Genesis 2:4b is an account where man (male - Adam) is created as the first act of creation, while his female (Eve) is created last.

Another interesting contradiction can be found in the spy story of the Book of Numbers, where Moses sent out spies to the land of Canaan. One of several related doublets is found where the author 'P' wrote that Joshua and Caleb tried to encourage the Israelites to proceed with the conquest, but were opposed by the other spies (Numbers 14:6-9). Joshua was eventually to be their leader, who would defeat the Canaanites and distribute the lands to all the tribes of Israel. However, the conflated account by the author 'J' states that Caleb alone tried to encourage the Israelites to proceed with the conquest, and shows no knowledge of Joshua (Numbers 13:30-31).

This depends on what is meant by the term 'contradiction'.

If one is referring to a situation where someone says something and then someone says something different then there are numerous examples of this. One such would be the two reports which came back to King David after the defeat of Absalom or the two different types of advice given to Absolom regarding how to defeat David. Another would be the two contradictory types of counsel given to the new King Rehoboam about how to 'tax' the people.

If one if referring to a contradiction in the Bible in terms of two different doctrines coming into conflict or the two different ways of good and evil then there are also numerous examples of this.

If one is referring to the Bible being self-contradictory then there are no clear examples of this although there are many examples where people who do not understand the Bible try to prove a non-existent contradiction. One of these would be the non-existent contradiction in the Genesis 1-2 creation account which has two parts, using a literary device used by ancient peoples. The first account is a chronological list and the second part from Genesis 2:4a enlarges upon the creation of man and so there is no contradiction just a different perspective.

There are many. Below are a few;

Old Testament vs Old Testament

1.How many men did the chief of David's captains kill

800 men, 2 Samuel 23:8.

300 men, 1 Chronicles 11:11

2. Did the city of Ai exist after Joshua destroyed it

No it was never rebuilt. Joshua 8:28

yes, it existed at the time of Babylonian Captivity. Nehemiah 7:32

New Testament vs New Testament;

1. In whose name is baptism to be performed?

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mathew 28:19

In the name of Jesus alone. see Acts 2:38, Acts 8:16, Acts !0;48, Acts 19:5..

Old Testament vs New Testament

1. How should adulterers be punished?

They should be executed. Leviticus 20:10

they should not be Punished. John 8:3-8

Will add more as I recall.

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: THERE ARE NO CONTRADICTIONS, REFER TO LINK PROVIDED...

Answer 4

Actually, it's been my experience, that if one has a real desire to understand, takes time, and does appropriate prayerful research, there ARE no contradictions in the Bible. What often appear to be contradictions turn out, most often, to be misunderstandings.

Answer 5

There appears to be a contradiction about how Man is saved, by faith and acts or by faith alone, and it has led to much disagreement among Christians. I believe that they do not contradict each other, and the contradiction is created by misinterpretation. Also, one of the Ten Commandments was Thou Shalt Not Kill, but upon entering the Promised Land the Hebrews were then commanded to do quite a bit of killing. It is generally accepted that "kill" in the Ten Commandments means "murder," and killing in war is not murder.

Answer 6

The Bible does not contain any real or proven contradictions. The Bible is the combined collection of the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Scriptures. These are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages.

Before charging the Bible of any contradiction one needs to consider its original context, cultural milieu, languages used in ancient world coupled with the limitations of its current translations into many different languages.

In addition to these factors we also need to be mindful of the fact that there are some copyists' errors in some of the MSS copies, not necessarily in all of them. Since we have thousands of Hebrew MSS, Greek MSS and also the MSS in other Middle Eastern languages from the first five centuries we can know for sure what are the errors and what are the originals.

According to 'the law of non-contradiction' an entity or a proposition cannot be what it is and what it is not at the same time in the same sense. At the first look there may seem to be some apparent contradictions in the Bible, but upon close scrutiny in the light of the above factors it becomes evident that those apparent contradictions are not real contradictions at all.

Answer 7

There are 'seeming' contradictions; which may not really be contradictions when taking the context and circumstances into consideration.

Example 1: Mark (15:17) and John (19:2), the soldiers put a purple garment on Jesus. But Matthew (27:28) called it "a scarlet cloak." Is this a contradiction? Not necessarily. Purple has components of both red AND blue. Light reflection and background could have given different casts to the garment, and the Gospel writers mentioned the color that was strongest to them. Likewise today, quite often someone will call something 'green', while someone else may see more of the 'blue' in an object.

Example 2: Jesus performed a miracle. Matthew and Mark say it was when Jesus was "going out" of Jericho that he performed this miracle. Luke, however, says that it occurred when Jesus was "getting near" to Jericho. (Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43)

The book Bible Then & Now alsothe book Archaeology and Bible History - - indicates that Jericho of Jesus day was a double city; one was the original Jewish city; the other was a Roman city about a mile apart.

So perhaps Jesus performed the miracle while leaving the Jewish city and approaching the Roman city or vice versa. Clearly, a knowledge of the circumstances that existed at the time of writing helps clear up what might appear to be a contradiction.

Example 3: 1 Corinthians 10:8 says that 23,000 Israelites fell in one day. However, Numbers 25:9 says 24,000.

It's quite possible that the number of those slain was between 23,000 and 24,000, allowing for either round figure to be satisfactorily given as a total.

Or perhaps, since Numbers mentions that 'the judges' killed some 'head men' and then 'the scourge' killed 23,000. So perhaps the 'head ones' that were killed by 'the judges' may have been close to 1,000 (rounded off); the total number killed by both 'the judges' and 'the scourge of God' amounted to 24,000.

Many more examples can be cited; but it all goes to show that these are only 'seeming' contradictions, notnecessarily contradictions at all. The context, and the writer's perspective needs to be considered.

Answer 8

Some examples, out of many:

• Genesis 1:27 says that God created man, both male and female; after he had already created all the animals on earth; but Genesis 2:7, 19-20 say that God created man first of all, only later creating the animals and having Adam name each animal as it was created. This is not so much that an author wrote a contradictory text, but that there were two authors. The first account was by the anonymous author now known as the Priestly Source, while the second was by the Yahwist, or 'J Source'.
  

• Luke's nativity story says that Nazareth in Galilee was the home town of Mary and Joseph, and that for a census they travelled to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. After the period of Mary's purification, the young family travelled to Jerusalem and then returned peacefully to Nazareth. They travelled from Nazareth to Jerusalem each year for the Passover. Matthew's nativity story says that Bethlehem was the home town of Mary and Joseph, and that they remained in Bethlehem until Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt for fear of King Herod, who sought to have Jesus killed. The young family remained in Egypt until Herod died, then began to return to their home in Bethlehem but, Joseph again being warned in a dream, turned aside and travelled to Nazareth instead.
  

• Matthew's Gospel tells us that Joseph's father was called Jacob (just as Jacob was the father of the Old Testament Joseph), that he was descended from Zorobabel, son of Salathiel and from King David. Matthew's Gospel tells us that Joseph's father was called Heli (Luke 3:23), that he was descended from Zorobabel, son of Salathiel and from King David. Further contradictions in the genealogies include Matthew's account that the paternal grandfather of Zorobabel was called Jechonias, while Luke's account says his name was Neri. Both accounts also contradict, in different ways, the Old Testament genealogy, as each author attempts to use numerology to prove that Jesus was destined for greatness.
  

Answer 9

Yes. Biblical scholars, expert in Hebrew and Greek, have carefully researched the Bible and are very much in agreement that the Bible does contain contradictions. These are not just issues of interpretation or understanding, but fundamental differences in meaning.