What are the discrepancies in The Bible?

Answer 1

Another Answer from our community:

There are possibly hundreds of things that some would regard as discrepancies in The Bible. It would not be proper to call a single one of them an error or a contradiction since they all have satisfactory explanations when examined fairly.

For example the different Gospel writers, due to the various audeinces for which they were writing used different ways to tell the time. Both are correct within their frame of reference. Specific details are included in some Gospels but not mentioned in others -this is a notable difference which some would call a discrepancy, but definitely not an error. Such things actually add to the believability of the record given to us since their is no collusion -although they are all agreed on the key points.

Another Answer

The Bible contains so many errors, historical inaccuracies and discrepancies that it is not possible even just to list them in a short answer. Ignoring its errors and historical inaccuracies, it may be possible to describe just three of its internal discrepancies, which should be sufficient to demonstrate that the Bible is not divinely inspired.

Creation

There are two creation stories in Genesis, the first in verses 1:1-2:4a, the second begins in Genesis 2:4b (the second sentence in 2:4). Without going into detail around all the contradictions, it is readily apparent that in Genesis 1:27, God made man and woman after he had created all the animals, but in the second account, he created a man (Adam), then the animals then finally a woman (Eve). Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that pious readers, believing that the text cannot contain contradictions, ignore the major disjunctions between the two creation stories in Genesis and tend to treat the second story as the fuller, more detailed account of the creation of man (and woman).

The empty tomb of Jesus

Each of the four gospels has an entirely different account of how many women went to the tomb of Jesus and just what happened when they found it empty. However many women went to the tomb early on Sunday morning, and for whatever purpose, there can at best be only one true account of their (her) experience.

Christian salvation

On the one hand, Paul's epistles and Ephesians consistently say that salvation is by faith alone:-

Romans 3:28: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Romans 5:1-2: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Galatians 3:2: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. " Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."

On the other hand, the Epistle of James says that salvation is by faith and works, not just one alone:

James 2:14: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?" James 2:17: " Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." James 2:20: "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? " James 2:26: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

For almost two thousand years, an army of Jewish and Christian scribes have laboured over explanations for the many discrepancies in the Bible, all to no avail. Their ideas may convince those most willing to be convinced, but fail to survive critical scrutiny.

Answer 2

AnswerIt is not possible within the scope of a WkiAnswers question to list all the inconsistencies in the Bible, however we can provide some brief examples:

• The first creation account, in Genesis 1:1-2:4a is inconsistent with the second creatio account, in Genesis 2:4b-2:25. For example, in the first account, both man and woman were created last of all, after all the animals and birds, but in the second account, Adam is created first, then the animals and birds, and finally Eve is created.

• The story of Noah's Ark is actually composed of two separate version of the same story, interwoven so as to appear to be the same account.

One version, known as the Yahwist version, Noah took two of each unclean animal, but seven of each clean animal into the Ark. The rains continued for forty days, then Noah sent a dove to see if the waters had receded, but the dove returned. After seven days, he sent the dove again and it did not return.

In the Priestly version, there was no distinction between clean and unclean animals, Noah simply took two of each kind, both clean and unclean. The rains continued for forty days, but this time the flood continued for months. with the Ark soming to rest on a mountain in the seventh month. It was only after a whole year that the land was dry.

• Matthew and Luke provide quite different and inconsistent accounts of the birth of Jesus, although most Christians somehow harmonise these accounts as one.Matthew and Luke also provide two quite different and inconsistent genealogies for Joseph. Raymond E Brown ('An Introduction to the New Testament') says that neither genealogy is likely to be strictly historical.

• Although the synoptic gospels are substantially in agreement about the life and mission of Jesus, John's Gospel is strikingly different in many areas.

Answer 3

There are hundreds of discrepancies in the Bible, in fact some would regard the total number as being in the thousands. These errors and contradictions are usually able to be explained by the differences between two different authors, sometimes even in the same book, or different political or religious agendas.

There are discrepancies between the biblical accounts and science, history and Archaeology. There are also very many internal discrepancies even between, for example, the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke.

Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) was talking of the discrepancies in the genealogies of Matthewand Luke when he wrote, "Inspiration does not guarantee historicity or reconcilability; otherwise God should have inspired the two evangelists to give us the same record," but he could equally have been writing of almost any other part of the Bible.

The discrepancies in the four resurrection accounts prompted Archbishop Peter Carnley to write: "The presence of discrepancies might be a sign of historicity if we had four clearly independent but slightly different versions of the story, if only for the reason that four witnesses are better than one. But, of course, it is now impossible to argue that what we have in the four gospel accounts of the empty tomb are four contemporaneous but independent accounts of the one event. Modern redactional studies of the traditions account for the discrepancies as literary developments at the hand of later redactors of what was originally one report of the empty tomb...
There is no suggestion that the tomb was discovered by different witnesses on four different occasions, so it is in fact impossible to argue that the discrepancies were introduced by different witnesses of the one event; rather, they can be explained as four different redactions for apologetic and kerygmatic reasons of a single story originating from one source."