Why WOULD there be contradictions in the bible?

Question

I see people all the time saying to Christians "Look! Look! These two don't match up! It's a contradiction! God isn't real!"

Have you ever stopped to wonder WHY there'd be contradictions in the first place? Think about it, from what I understand of the bible. The apostles kept regular contact with each other. HOW could there be contradictions? And HOW does that disprove gods existence?

If you seriously think about it, it doesn't make sense. Ok, the bible has contradictions, where'd they come from? What made the people that wrote the bible think differently?

Especially that whole "last words" thing, where no one can agree what Jesus's final words were, what were the apostles doing? Covering different crucifixions? Sure, you could point out that there ARE contradictions but you don't know

1. where they came from exactly

2. who made them

3 why they're there in the first place.

Basically, what I'm saying is: How could contradictions like that come about?

And yes people, I know they were people who made mistakes and were human, but c'mon now, they had walked with Jesus, watched him be crucified and a lot of other stuff.

If you notice too, the contradictions are all in different books. Not a true contradiction has happened where one guy contradicted himself. What does that mean?

Answer 1

Lets mention the different translations the bible has endured.

And as the Apostles go....each one seen maybe something different. I figured Jesus' last words...It was all said. One Apostle was a tax collector, one was a Physician, while others were fishermen. Each one seen something that they felt worth mentioning.

If you and I saw a car accident, would our stories be the same, even though we both seen the exact same thing. Probably not. We are two separate people and even though we saw the exact same thing, I could possibly emphasize on one detail were you may not, and vice versa. Bottom line...we both seen it.

There are no contradictions in the bible.

Answer 2

The Bible has many seeming contradictions within its pages. For example, the four Gospels give four differing accounts as to what was written on the sign that hung on the cross. Matthew said, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (27:37). However, Mark contradicts that with “The King of the Jews” (15:26). Luke says something different: “This is the King of the Jews” (23:38), and John maintains that the sign said “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” (19:19).

Those who are looking for contradictions may therefore say, “See—the Bible is full of mistakes!” and choose to reject it entirely as being untrustworthy. However, those who trust God have no problem harmonizing the Gospels. There is no contradiction if the sign simply said, “This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.”

The godly base their confidence on two truths: 1) “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16); and 2) an elementary rule of Scripture is that God has deliberately included seeming contradictions in His Word to “snare” the proud. He has “hidden” things from the “wise and prudent” and “revealed them to babes” (Luke 10:21), purposely choosing foolish things to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Answer 3

I'm a little confused by the question- it seems like you're wanting people to come to a particular conclusion, but I can't tell what you want that conclusion to be.


Inconsistencies and inaccuracies occur because of limited technology (the incorrect definition of pi in 1 Kings 7:23, and in 2 Chronicles 4:2 is the most glaring.)

Inconsistencies also exist in the Bible because the Bible was written over a very long period of time, by very diverse people (and not by the Apostles, at least according to many religious scholars.)

Inconsistencies also occur because the needs and goals of the church were very different at different times. The needs of the church were not the same when the Gospel of Mark was written, and when the Gospel of John was written. There were even more desperate times that inspired more dramatic Gospels that didn't get put in the Bible, such as the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Judas. Read "Reading Judas" for more details.

In a documentary about the life of Jesus, one Religion professor said that the inconsistencies show us that the writers of the Gospels that they did not intend for us to take the Bible literally, and I agree with that.

Personally, I think the bible is a book, a thing. It would be silly to assume that Godliness could be captured in a simple book.

Answer 4

(1) Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Bible is the only source of God's Word.

(2) The first Christians "were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles" (Acts 2:42; 2 Tim 1:14) long before the New Testament was written — and centuries before we knew with certainty which books were part of the New Testament.

(3) The Bible affirms that Christian teaching is "preached" (1 Pet. 1:25), that the Apostles' successors were to teach what they have "heard" (2 Tim. 2:2), and that Christian teaching is passed on both "by word of mouth [and] by letter" (2 Thess. 2:15; 1 Cor. 11:2).

(4) Not everything Christ did and said is recorded in Scripture (Jn. 21:25).

(5) New Testament authors availed themselves of sacred Tradition. For example, Acts 20:35 quotes a saying of Jesus that is not recorded in the Gospels.

(6) Scripture needs an authoritative interpreter (Acts 8:30-31; 2 Pet. 1:20-21, 3:15-16).

(7) Christ left His Church with divine authority to teach in His name (Mt. 16:13-20, 18:18; Lk. 10:16).

(8) The Church will last until the end of time, and the Holy Spirit protects the Church's teaching from corruption (Mt. 16:18, 28:19-20; Jn. 14:16).

(9) The Church — and not the Bible alone — is the "pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).

(10) The Bible refers to more sources of the Word of God than only Scripture. Jesus Himself is the Word (Jn. 1:1, 14), and in 1 Thess. 2:13, St. Paul's first epistle, he refers to "the Word of God which you heard from us." There St. Paul is clearly referring to oral apostolic teaching.

Answer 5

Contradictions come from human error. Know the history of the bible? It was compiled by a large council (I want to say it's called the Nicean Creed or something like that.. they talk about it in The Da Vinci Code) who decided what did and did not make it into the bible. Contradictions also come about from different interpretations of things and somethings being translated incorrectly.

Answer 6

Christians believe that the bible was "divinely inspired," however, every christian agrees that it was still written by man. Man is flawed, therefore anything that man creates is flawed. Apart from the fact that of all the books and texts written at the time only a small handful were considered canon by a man who lived his life as a pagan, how can there not be contradictions? The best books on the market have flaws and contradictions because they're all written by men. The bible is no different.

Answer 7

whoa. majorly hard question. interesting...
I have a few guesses:
These contradictions started w/ rumors. and gossip. just like we have now.
People think that it disproves god's existence, because if there are contradictions, God is wrong. even tho we contradict ourselves all the time. does that make us "not real"? and many just want a reason not to believe in God.
and keep in mind that the bible was written by man, and everyone has their own opinions and different sides of the story.

Answer 8

"Sure, you could point out that there ARE contradictions"-Okay so are you saying there are contradictions?

So you're trying to emphasize the why are there contradictions, and not that fact that they're are. The whole contradictions in the bible thing isn't trying to disprove God (impossible to do) but to show that the bible isn't infallible.

How could contradictions like that come about?

Different authors, recalling memories could be inaccurate, mistranslations, etc.

Answer 9

You are so right....The alleged contradictions are sometimes just taken out of context and in the whole make perfect sense. God gave the right words to the right people at the right time, that should do more towards proving the existence of God rather that disprove it.

Answer 10

I had thought of it.In fact,
I 'cut my teeth','on that' Lie.
After I started an earnest search for the truth, I took a free Bible study,& that was 1 of my earliest Q's. I had been reading @ least an hr., a day. So I had my Q, prepared.
Contradiction def:A statement or proposition that contradicts or denies another or itself & is logically incongruous. Incongruous def:not harmonious in character;inconsonant;lacking harmony of parts:an incongruous mixture of architectural styles*
(2 try to be brief yet through).The contradiction: "He is a righteous tower in which we run to for protection; @ Pr18:10",then; "Let all the earth fear Jehovah Ps33:8".
Here is the most logical of any & all answers (To humans). A child is told by his parents to come right home after school, now the child doesn't obey his parents,stays out late,knowing full well he's gonna get in trouble when he returns home...so he stays out later,avoiding his punishment/ disipline / correction from his parents; "It's a healthy fear", his parents r doing their job,keeping him close to home; as it were.Now,the same child sees something frightening 1 day, and "runs to his parents for protection".
There is NO contradiction.You must take context,meaning into ur heart. Lu10:21.
There are NO inaccuracies; we r earth bound creations, we think 'earthly' that's why the different writers,(b-sides the time frame for the writings) *we are different ppl, and think differently*.God had 'Men' write, so 'Men' could understand it better*. It is in harmony w/ itself,it's just different men, different writing styles. For our benefit. * 2 Tim 3:16.
The translations; (as 1person already said) originally written in Hebrew,Aramaic&Greek then English. In translating,sometimes from 1 language to another, there is no 'exact' same word. We are encouraged to use more then 1 translation of the Holy Scriptures, to help others grasp the full meaning. & to help ourselves as well. If u r having a hard time getting the sense of the parable being told,ask for assistance.1Cor1:27. Through prayer is best. Or ask some1 who has more exp., in the study of the scriptures. As an aid to students, a # of editions provide extensive footnotes showing variant readings where expressions can legitimately be rendered in one than 1 way.
No contradictions, no inaccuracies, mistranslations.
Diligently search,it's a treasure worth searching for.
He wants to be found, by YOU.
His word is in harmony with itself.
Just a mixture of architectural styles, for our benefit*.