Could someone explain this New Testament contradiction?

Question

Matthew 1:16 "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus."
Luke 3:23 "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli."
The bible is full of contradictions, explain how, even with just the small and fairly insignificant contradiction above, the bible can be the infallible word of god.

Answer 1

Buddy.
You aren't reading enough.
There is no book PERIOD on the earth that compares with the Bible. Any other document on the planet that is this old would have errors far beyond what has happened with the Bible. There is no comparison whatsoever.

Answer 2

I don't follow what you are calling a contradiction; Jesus was the son of Joseph as supposed of the law, as far as Luke goes, and Matthew 1 - whats the deal with that? Jacob begat Joseph who was the husband of Mary, the same Mary of whom was born Jesus.
EDIT: I APOLOGIZE; I SEE WHAT YOUR CONFUSION IS: Heli was in fact Josephs father; Jacob was a great grandfather; I am really sorry i misunderstood you, but what you are missing is that there is not a specific word for grandfather or great grandfather, so when the Bible speaks of "father" it could mean grandfather, great grandfather, or even adopted father. Whoever the alpha-male figure in your household is, who is your acting "dad". Do you get that???? Sorry misunderstood you.
Oh, and understand that it would be legally sound that the father figure would be called legally, your father.

Answer 3

Most people believe, since the two geneologies are very different, that the Luke geneology is that of Mary. Joseph was Jacob's son by birth and Eli's (Heli's) son by marriage. The lineages are always written paternally as it was a paternalistic society.

Why not look through the Bible for more contradictions? I think you will have trouble finding any that aren't merely issues of point of view. For example, one narrative will mention an "angel" but another will say a "host of angels". Well, the other doesn't say there was only one angel, but merely takes the point of view to describe one of them.

Answer 4

Christians will probably say that the genealogy in Matthew is that of Joseph and the one in Luke is that of Mary. The problem is, both mention Joseph's father. Matthew says that Joseph's father was Jacob and Luke says that his father was Heli. There is simply no compelling reason to believe that either of these genealogies are Mary's.
.

Answer 5

Who knows: Possibly Joseph had one father who was his genetic father and died early in Joseph's childhood, and then another who was his father for the rest of his life.

So you could get diverging genealogies. You might get a different one of the two hypothetical dads stressed as the significant dad depending on whether you consulted someone on Mary's side of the family or someone related to Joseph, who was a biological child of the 2nd dad.

In Israel it was a matter of low status to be widowed, so we can expect a widow would try to get a new husband if she could. She may have had great character, looks or money as well to attract a new husband.

Answer 6

Dont listen to answers from Christians. They have eyes but they wont see and ears and they wont listen.
If you show them a contradiction, they will refer to something else to prove their belief. They will Not answer your question on the contradictions.
Ask yourself this logical question. Is God fallible?
If He is not fallible, then, can His Word be fallible? If your Answer is No, then, the bible is not the word of God but a mere fiction written by supposedly divine inspired people And many years after Jesus' demise, not even during His lifetime !

Answer 7

I am Jehovah´s witness
Evidently the father of Mary and maternal grandfather of Jesus Christ. (Lu 3:23) Joseph’s being called the “son of Heli” is understood to mean that he was the son-in-law of Heli. While not listing her, Luke evidently traces the natural descent of Jesus’ mother Mary from David.—Lu 3:31

Answer 8

Get a Strong's exhaustive concordance the term Begat in the Bible does not nessessarily mean you were that persons parent. It uses the term to show these people were relatives. That's all, the bible DOES NOT CONTRADICT ITSELF AT ALL!!!!!! if you think it does you need to dig deeper!!!!!

Answer 9

I find all of the replies amusing. So, I will respond to you with a question or two.

First, why does the bible need to be infallible? Second, what do you see as the connection between infallibility and being "the word of god." Third, what do contradictions have to do with it?

HTH

Charles

Answer 10

Thats what happens when you have so many peoples writings taken down as the words of God.

*shakes head*

Jesus was the only one who spoke on behalf of the Creator, and the bible contains more words from other people than Jesus himself.

Answer 11

That is a simple one. Jesus had TWO parents.

The genelogy given through Matthew follows the family of Jesus' "father" Joseph. To be the Messiah, Jesus had to be a legal heir to the throne of King David. The lineage of Joseph (who adopted Jesus making him a legal heir) shows that Jesus would have been the next King of Israel had the Romans not conquered the country.

However, one of David's ancestors - the last to actually sit on the throne - had rebelled against God and God had said that no one from his bloodline would ever sit on the throne again.

The genelogy given in Luke is the family tree of Mary his mother. If you look back, she was also a descendent of King David, but NOT through the bloodline that God rejected.

So from his father, Jesus got the legal right to sit on the throne, and through his mother he got the bloodline of David, needed to sit on the throne.

It is not a contradiction, but rather both sides of his family tree. (You have two family trees also - one through your father and one through your mother).

The Greek word used in the Luke genelogy also appears in other Greek literature as meaning either father or father-in-law.

Hope that clears up the issue for you.