How do Christians reconcile the errors and contradictions within the Bible?

Question

Cain's wife?
The "others" that Cain's mark protects him against?
Moses' Father in Law's changing name from one verse to the next?
4-legged grasshoppers?

Seriously, if it's the word ofGod, you think'd it be innerrant, eh?

But, it obviously isn't.
so, how DO you Christians explain it away?

Answer 1

Being brought up as an anligcan I was always allowed to take a very open interpretation of this text , and I read the whole thing cover to cover before i'd turned 13 I even at that age noticed these stiffling contradictions , There are probably three issues at play here , 1. THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD , (unlike the Koran or The Book of The Law the bible wasn't dictated to a human from a higher entity) . It is a a bunch of texts grouped together in order to furfther a specific agenda ( That of the Holy Roman Empire).It is as much a work of propaganda as it is a religious text. Many christian holidays are also of this nature , attributed to the same dates as various pagan festivals in order to over-ride the significance of these days with Christian propaganda ,

2. The Bible was written by hundreds of authors over a period of thousands of years , if we look at any other book which has the Bibles status , they have been written by one person over a period of several years, the original texts of the bible also had their base in many different languages , Aramaic , Greek , Ancient Hebrew , and many others.

3.The bible was compiled by humans a Bishop and a council of his followers decided back in the 1300's if my memory serves me correctly , on what books were to be included and excluded , those interested in the true basis of christian belief may want to read the apocrypha or the corpus hermeticum , which are a complilation of Christian writings based on Gnosis and have as much validity as the bible if you've only read the books of the bible you only have been given half the information.

Answer 2

Answerer #1, you cannot believe parts of the Bible. If anything in the Bible is wrong, than God makes mistakes, and He is not a perfect God, and everything we believe is false.
And to the questioner: What are you trying to get at with "Cain's wife"? And "the others"? Adam and Eve had more children than just Cain and Abel. And I've never heard of Moses's father-in-law changing his name. Can you reference me to that? Or are you just making this up? Where do you read about 4-legged grasshoppers? I think you've heard this stuff on the streets and haven't done any research. Please reference me to these verses.
God's word is just as perfect as He is. There are no contradictions.

Answer 3

There are many things in the Bible that contradict known facts and whenever I've bothered to point this out, many Christians will respond by either getting a little angry and telling me if I don't wake up I'm going to hell, or start reciting Bible verses in a overly loud voice, or not responding at all. But I really don't think the majority of Christians care about the contradictions, they only care about what they're convinced of, I guess it's just a matter of having blind faith.

Answer 4

Get three friends together.

Find a mug with one graphics and text on one side only, or even better different graphics on different sides.

Hold the mug while lining them up, one with a straight visual in front of the mug. Line the other two up with views on either side of the mug. Ask them to describe specifically what they see. I can gaurantee you that even though they are looking at the same mug, they will see different things.

Then, gather a few more friends together and play "telephone game" Line up or stand in a circle. Have the start person whisper a phrase into the ear of the next person and on down the line. You'll notice that the same message gets reinterpreted and sometimes misheard by the time you get to the last person.

Again, same message.

Then, sit down with your long term significant other, or if you don't have one, find two people who are married or have dated for a really long time. Have them each describe their first date or meeting. And wait for the fun to begin as they begin to lovingly "bicker" or "disagree" on some important detail. Did they meet on a thursday or Friday. One swears one, and the other is assured of the other. Did that mean that their meeting did not happen? Of course not!

Please, for once, try thinking in other than purely black and white terms. Christians aren't always the only ones guilty of such thinking!

Answer 5

This is a moot point for Christians and Jews alike because we adjust ourselves to conform to the Bible not the other way around. I don't have a problem with the Cain story or any other. I had some good ones I held on to from my Atheist days that GOD has clearly explained to me. As a matter of fact I was truly embarrassed for some of my attacks on Christianity that used to be "air tight" They weren't even rational. So if you wish to not believe that's fine. If you can justify your unbelief by your perception of scripture then that is great. All that stopped for me when I met Jesus personally.
May GOD richly bless you and may you find what you are looking for.

Answer 6

A carnal man cannot understand the things of God,
a man in the flesh realm cannot understand
You have to get study helps
Dig deep and you will see it does not conflict
It depends on the author of that book and other deciding factors

Strong's concordance

Vines Expository of Biblical words

The Pictorial dictionary

And many other references are here for out learning

If you want the truth you have to search for it.

Remember the Bible was not written by English speaking people

Greek and Hebrew, Latin, etc

I think you are looking for error, and you think that will

excuse you.

Not so.

Study to show yourself approved

Answer 7

Many errors are apparent with a cursory reading of the Bible. When examined closer though, they can be explained. I don't have all of the answers, but there is a man, by the name of R. C. Sproul, who explained many of the seeming contradictions on his radio program "Renewing Your Mind". His web site is listed below.

He is one of the smartest and fairest apologists I've yet heard.

Many of the "errors" are actually errors of language rather than scripture, and as such, disappear upon closer examination.

Answer 8

If you take the time to study this issue, you will see that there are no errors or contradictions in the Bible. I strongly recommend "The Answers Book" by Ken Ham. Read it. I think you'll be surprised.

Answer 9

Cain's wife was his sister the gene pool was much bigger then.

His siblings (Adam and Eve lived til about 600years they had plenty of children)

Jacob to Israel - God changed people's names in the Old testament (with the concept of the tongue has the power of life and death) to get people to speak in faith God's promises.

It is without error.

I saw this question and was going to ask you to state which contradictions, glad to see you had some.

Have a great day, may God bless you in searching.

Ask and recieve
Knock and the door will be opened
Seek and you will find
(something like that)

Answer 10

go to www.evilbible.com

you'll learn TONS about how bad the bible can be.

they cant defend it. i was actually in a christian chat the other day, and there was a muslim guy in there. they were calling hima terrorist and asking him "how can you kill people int he name of god?!" and i quoted some bible stuff about killing in the name of god, and then i brought up the crusades. there was no more talkin for like a half hour

the truth is, christian marals teach one thing, but the verses teach another. tho they dont realize hypocricy is a sin. so basically, they are all goin to hell too.

do you watch south park? "Mormon. Mormon was the right answer."

lol. i'm not mormon, but it's true that everyone condemns everyone else, so essentially, everyone's goin to hell.

as far as defending it: they claim it's divine and they claim it's the word of god and that it means something. blah blah blah. i cant eait to see the other answers here, tho.