Why do old testament and new testament contradict each other?

Question

According to old testament God is one but the latter testament preaches trinity.The former prohibits usury,working on sabbath, eating some animals etc but jesus allowed all of them.The former says that messiah will appear when we move away from our sins and will be of human origin.But the latter says that the messiah has already arrived,is divine in origin and will take away our sins if we accept him as our saviour. The former says that any gentile can be saved if he/she follows just 7 laws of Noah but jesus says that without accepting him nobody can be saved!Judaism considers marriage to be compulsory but christianity considers celibacy to be preferable.Now friends which bible should we believe and why?

Answer 1

Because a whole mess of different people wrote those texts and then there were also tons of interpreters which pretty much leads to complete chaos

Answer 2

The purpose of the 'Old Testament' was to show that mankind is indeed imperfect, & it also provided many many prophecies by which Christ would be later identified.

The 'New Testament' is about the Christ. It both documents his life, & his teachings. It also documents the earliest of Christianity.

The OT & the NT are entirely harmonious, without any exception.

Why You Can Trust the Bible :
http://www.watchtower.org/library/t13/why_trust.htm

You Can Understand the Bible
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2001/7/1/article_01.htm

This question amounts to libelous slander against God's Word. It is a danger not to know how to recognize such lies, so these articles have been provided:

Should You Believe Everything You Hear? :
- Propaganda Can Be Deadly
- The Manipulation of Information
- Do Not Be a Victim of Propaganda!
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20000622/article_01.htm

Also: The Bible does Not teach a trinity. There is No place in any of the oldest available manuscripts --OT or NT-- that teaches Anything regarding God as being a trinity.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm?article=start.htm

(For more info, or, when a link becomes modified.) http://www.watchtower.org/search/search_e.htm

Answer 3

1. The Doctrine of the Trinity affirms the oneness of God.
2. The sabbath activities that Jesus affirms were not part of the original commandment. The idea that one couldn't pick a head of grain and eat it while walking through a field was a man-made law.
3. The short version of the story is that role that the prohibition on eating certain animals played in redemptive history no longer applied. Nevertheless, the underlying principle of the commandment remains.
4. There is an already and not yet aspect to the coming of the Messiah. Certain things were fulfilled at his first coming and other things will be fulfilled when he returns.
5. Your statement about Gentiles being saved in the OT and Jesus' comments on salvation in the NT is fallacious - equivocation of the concept "saved."
6. Christianity doesn't consider celibacy to be preferable.

The bottom line is that if you approach the text looking for contradictions, you will find them. However, if you give the biblical authors the benefit that they knew what they were talking about, then it is usually not too difficult to understand.

Of course, if you have an axe to grind, you're not going to approach the text with an open mind anyway.

Answer 4

That is a question which can be raised for almost all religions of the world. I am a Hindu by religion, follow and practice Hinduism actually Vaishnav sect of Hinduism. When I read old scriptures and its translations and meaning defined I find many differences and this is due to time, and I feel it is same with Bible and its followers.

Vedic religion originated some 10000 to 12000 years back (and this is estimated time since we do not know the history we can just try to reconstruct according to evidences available) and with time it changed a lot. Anything, what ever said or done changes with time and this is the nature of things. Vedic religion became Sanatan and this became Hinduism and even today it is changing 500 years from now it will not be the same as today.

Bible has also gone through all these changes with passage of time. The most important thing is to have faith and understand what is right and wrong. What we should do and what not. If you have faith in religion you follow you are the winner you get support from the supernatural.

On reading different scriptures I could come to one decision - ATMAN or the SOUL is the greatest of all. Believe in your self, your Soul and your work (KARMA) and you will get what you want, you will be able to understand the concept of GOD.

So, remember all difference in OT and NT is due to time and need of time; just try to understand the finer meaning, the real truth and that is what is required. Many of these changes were done to regain the supermacy by the authorities and this always happen.

Answer 5

A better question is, why does the Old Testament contradict itself.

Abraham, surely, was a noble man.

But, look at these two quotes.

Genesis

8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, *** for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.***"

11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring [b] will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."

Deuteronomy 21:15-17

15 If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, 16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. 17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

_______________________________

Abraham sent off Hagar and Ismael. Ismael was gone when Abraham died. And, Isaac inherited everything. Ismael got nothing, even though he was first born.

The only way I can see that these two Old Testament passages do not contradict each other is that, Isaac, whose son Jacob and his followers became the Jews. And, Ismael and his decendants, became the Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Africans. And their gift, Christianity, was much greater than what Isaac inherited.

I know many people will say that Jesus and Christianity was a gift to the Jews. But, except for the Apostles and several dozen other followers, the Jews denied Christ as God. The Arabs (Assyrians), Persians, Turks, and Africans (specifically Egyptians and Ethiopians) were the first Christians with the first churches.

So, I guess, Ismael and his decendants inherited something much greater than Isaac and his decendants.

Does this make sense to anyone.

Answer 6

The social conduct that both the testaments enjoin may vary depending upon the varying social scenario and the time of the social setting. What you eat and what your social conduct is immaterial, so long as you are spiritually inclined and do spiritually nearer to God. A religious leader or a spiritual master or messiah ushers in a new approach to God and reforms the existing the religious practises. If he does not do that , there is no need for a new religion or new teaching. Further another reason for the apparent contradiction is not due to the difference in the teaching but in the interpretation of it as given by the church. Often, the latter's expostulation of it is on the wrong premises. Much of the christian theology and the social conduct as enjoined by the church are derived from the preaching of St.Paul and on what Jesus said.

Answer 7

The answer is simple. It is the interpretations that contradict, not the text itself.

2 Peter 1:20, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."

2 Peter 1:20 is about this very issue. It is telling us that the bible is to be interpreted unilaterally, not piece by piece according to several 'possible'
interpretations.

*The rule of dependence upon the HOLY SPIRIT: Scripture tells us that we are to rely on the Holy Spirit's illumination to gain insights into the meaning and application of Scripture (John 16:12-15, 1 Corinthians 2:9-11). It is the Holy Spirit's work to throw light upon the Word of God so that the believer can assent to the meaning intended and act on it. The Holy Spirit, as the "Spirit of truth" (John 16:13), guides us so that "we may understand what God has freely given us" (1 Corinthians 2:12). This is quite logical: full comprehension of the Word of God is impossible without prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God, for He who inspired the Word (2 Peter 1:21) is also its supreme interpreter **(the one truthful interpretation).

A man who scientifically explores the words, without spiritual guidance, will always find contradiction.

Answer 8

The Father was not made, nor created, nor generated by anyone. The Son is not made, nor created, but begotten by the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is not made, nor created, nor generated, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. There is, then, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits. In this Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less. The entire three Persons are coeternal and coequal with one another. So that in all things, as is has been said above, the Unity is to be worshiped in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity.


Christ did not say, "Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself." If Christ had said that, there would never have been a Christianity on the earth at all, but a Babylon and confusion instead, and never one Church, the union of one body. Hence, Christ never said to His Apostles, "Go and write Bibles and distribute them, and let everyone judge for himself." That injunction was reserved for the Sixteenth Century, and we have seen the result of it. Ever since the Sixteenth Century there have been springing up religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all fighting and quarreling with one another, and all because of the private interpretation of the Bible.

Christ sent His Apostles with authority to teach all nations, and never gave them any command of writing the Bible. And the Apostles went forth and preached everywhere, and planted the Church of God throughout the earth, but never thought of writing.

Answer 9

God is the trinity in ONE dude. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus even said if you have seen me, then you have seen the father. Jesus allowed those workings on the Sabbath to show how the religious leaders were hypocrites. He revealed there lost ways by saying how if one of there sheep were trapped on the Sabbath how they would work to save it. Remember we are Jesus' sheep. He worked on the Sabbath to "save His lost sheep" hence all His miracles and healings. Your supposed contradiction of the prophesiesed messiah is wrong too. Remember in the Old Testament Jesus had not yet come, so it was true in prophesising that Jesus would come in human form to remove sin. In the New Testament Jesus had already come and payed the price for our sin on the cross, therefore it too is correct. Nobody can keep those laws in the Old Testament. They show how corrupt we are and why we need a savior. Jesus is our savior and we need Him in order to stand in God's presence.

Answer 10

When reading the Bible, you need to ask God, who is He talking to? Where is it taking place? What is He referring to? Why is it being said? and When was it said?

The Bible is God's written Word to us.
It was written by human authors, under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21. (New International Version)

Breakdown of the Bible
36 human authors inspired entirely by God over 1600 years.
66 separate books
39 Old Testament
Genesis- The creation of the world, sin, flood and birth of Israel
Exodus to Esther- History of the nation of Israel
Job to Proverbs- the books of poetry and wisdom
Isaiah to Malachi- Prophecy or foretelling of the future events to come.
27 New Testament
Matthew to John - Four Gospels representing the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ now with all authority in Heaven and earth.
Acts- Birth of the Church (The Bride of Christ)
Romans to Jude - Letters to the Churches
Revelations - The ultimate future plans for: The Church, Heaven, Hell, a New Heaven and a New Earth.
Here are some Bible Study Resources for anything you may want to look up:

http://www.Biblegateway.com
http://www.Ntgateway.com
http://www.Bible.org
http://www.bible-history.com

Answer 11

Both the New and Old Testaments describe God's dealing with the world, making them very valuable.

You mention too many broad issues without references to address them specifically, but I'll provide one general explanation that applies in many cases.

I've included a link below to a well known poem about blind men describing their experience with an elephant. Each of them was correct, but from different perspectives. I believe that's a significant reason for what appears to be contradictions between the Old and New Testaments. Even devout believers in the Bible interpret it in different ways. Many times they're both correct, but from different perspectives.