Question to all "Intelligent" Christians? Please refrain from giving answers like?

Question

Dont tell me to read the Bible in Context, Try to understand the Scripture etc.

Who was Joseph's father?
Mt 1:16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
Luke 3:23 When He [Jesus] began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli.

How did Judas die?
Mt.27:5 And he [Judas] threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.
Acts 1:18 (Now this man [Judas] acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.

Now, there are hundres of Contradictions such as the above in the Bible. A Logical and Sensible Question for you to think. If you were given a Text Book on Physics, Chemistry etc in School and you find out there are contradictions there, will you accept?
Why then, are you accepting the Bible?

Answer 1

Its very clear in the above verses and yet the Christians refute and try giving an explanation. Explanations are most welcome but are they reasonable and Logical? Theere are some of them even claiming there are no errors in the Bible at all. Funny people !

Answer 2

"Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli." This is the lineage of Mary. We have some non-bible documentation to support the fact that Mary's father was Eli. There is no term for Grandson used at that time. If Eli was Mary's father Jesus would be called son of Eli. The lineage in Matthew is Josephs lineage. Jews have been keeping accurate lineages over the centuries becuase you had to prove you were a Jew by your lineage and it was a big deal to be related to David and to be in the line of the priests or levites.

Judas hung himself in the potters field (Matthew 27:5) and then after his body decayed and bloated, evidently the rope broke and he burst into pieces on the land of the potters field (Acts 1:18-19). Acts 1:18-19 presumes Judas' hanging...as a man falling down in a field does not result in his body bursting open. Only decomposition and a fall from a height could cause a body to burst open. When Judas threw the thirty pieces of silver down, the priests took the money and used it to buy the potter’s field (Matthew 27:7), not knowing that Judas was going to hang himself there. Judas may not have purchased the field himself, but it was the money Judas received for betraying Jesus that purchased the field.

Answer 3

The contradictions in scienceism just aren't obvious because they're written by and to the top 2 to 5 percent in intellectual apprehension, and as everyone knows, if you have said something that you know isn't quite true and you can get away with it, then eventually it takes on the characteristics of the truth. Almost everyone believes it, I say almost because there are people who know that it's not the truth but turning the opinion of the whole intellectual community, when that would mean that they would have to question what they believe, is impossible. Hmmm, where have I heard that thought expressed before?

edit:

Ok, I forgot to answer the questions. The lineologies are from Mary's side and from Joseph's side. In that culture the child's mother's lineology was attributed to him from the father's side.

Judas hanged himself and the branch broke and his body fell to the ground and his bowels burst out.

Any more questions? Not to be flippant but there are answers to all the seeming contradictions on the internet, course that would mean that you might hear the truth. Are you ready?

Answer 4

First "supposed" contradiction. Who was Joseph's father?

Answer: In Matthew, where unquestionably we have the genealogy of Joseph, we are told that Joseph was the son of Jacob. In what sense, then, could he be called in Luke "the Son of Heli"? He could not be of natural generation the son of both Jacob and Heli. But in Luke it is not said that Heli begat Joseph, so that the natural explanation is that Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli, who was,like himself, a decendant of Jacob. That he should in that case be called "son of Heli" ("son" is not in the Greek, but rightly supplied by the translators) would be in accord with the Jewish usage. THe conclusion is therefore inevitable that in Luke that we have Mary's geneaology; and Joseph was "son of Heli" because espoused to Heli's daughter. The geneaology in Luke is Mary's, whose father, Heli, was descended from David.

Second "supposed" contradiction: How did Judas die?
The Bible said that Judas hung himeself in Matthew 27:5 but the Bible also says that the Earth opened up and Judas bows was gushed out which signifies two different disciples accounts on how Judas died.

Matthew believed that Judas died while he was being hung by himself.

Luke(author of Acts) believed that Judas died when the tree fell from an earthquake while Judas was hanging on the tree but not yet dead and when the Earth squeezed him, his guts gushed out to where the parsel of land was called the field of blood.

There is no contradiction in this. Anytime you see a "supposed" contradiction in the Bible, understand that you are misinterpreting the Bible and do not fully understand it's context. If the Bible could've been proven wrong, then why are there over 40 billion copies read in our history's time and still the #1 most read list? Not that our people are misinformed, but that they are informed. :)

Answer 5

Luke's account traces Christ's genealogy through Mary, while Matthew's account is through Joseph. Here's what one source has to say:

"After considering the Greek of Luke 3:23, Robert Gromacki believes it should be translated as follows: "being the son (as was supposed of Joseph) of Heli, of Matthat, etc."

Gromaki states: "Since women did not appear in direct genealogical listings, Joseph stood in Mary's place, but Luke was careful to note that there was no physical connection between Joseph and either Jesus or Heli."

Luke's genealogy also lists Adam as "the son of God." This would indicate that one would have no grounds for insisting that the term "son" meant only the direct, biological offspring. Thus, one could think of Jesus as the "son of Heli."

This is taken from:

http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/bible.htm#79

As far as the second discrepancy, please note that Matthew does not say that Judas died as the result of hanging -- merely that he hanged himself. Many people survive suicide attempts by hanging because the rope or the object it's tied to broke. It's easy to envision a scenario where Judas attempted to hang himself, the attempt failed because of a broken rope. He could have easily fallen onto rocks and was disemboweled as a result.

Matthew 27:5-8 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood." And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.

The money was still technically Judas', so he would have 'acquired' the field, even though the chief priests were the ones who bought it with his money.

Answer 6

I don't believe the Bible is inerrant, and thus, accept the fact that it has contradictions. Heck, with all the variants on some things, contradictions are the least of my worries. Fortunately, Christianity (at least in its ancient form) is not wholly based on a book :).

I accept the Bible as a support to my faith, but it isn't the only thing I base it on. I can accept history with contradictions (I do in other areas); that's how history works. I don't think I could be so lenient in science, but the Bible isn't a science book.

I can, however, address one of your problems (you will find some I'd just throw up my hands on as actual contradictions).

Eusebius records a tradition that St. Joseph was adopted and that the two contradictory genealogies trace it back through legal and bloodline routes, and this solution extends to the different passages.

On the second, well, I have no clue. One does appear to contradict the other. Sometimes a contradiction does turn out not to be such, but I have no answer for that one, nor does it bother me much. My faith doesn't rest in the book.

Answer 7

Oh, noes! Neither I nor any other Christian has ever seen these alleged contradictions before!

And a logical and sensible answer to your question would be if I found what I thought were contradictions in a textbook on physics, chemistry, etc., I would first make sure I was understanding the material correctly and try to discover a way to resolve the apparent conflicts.
Why don't you do the same with the bible?

Answer 8

Are they really contradictions?

You have to realize that the books were written a long time ago and written from each persons perspective.

Different people view things in different ways, and not all of the stories were related first hand, like Judas for example. Did anyone see him hang himself? What if one person saw him hanging and another saw him later after being cut down and maybe his intestines did gush out during the fall?

The point is, what does it really matter in the big picture, neither way detracts from Jesus being the Son of God and our savior, and the fact is that Judas was dead from his sin.

Good Luck and God Bless!

Answer 9

Eli was Joseph's father because when they say father in Mt 1:16 they mean like ancestors or forefathers.

Judas hung himself. The second verse is described what happened when he hung himself ("falling headlong").

I do not accept everything in text books and yes there are contradictions in Chemistry and Physics books.

You have not given examples of contradictions here, sorry, but you can't prove anything to me. I know that Jesus saved me from my sins and I have repented so that I can enter Heaven. Where are you going when you die?

Good luck!

Answer 10

I can't argue with you....people blindly say it's God's word just because it's contained in the bible! I'm here to say that the bible is tainted, very tainted especially the new testament. I think it all started with Saul of Tarsus who became known as Paul. He and Peter had a rift and went seperate ways I believe! I think Peter was more legit. Paul more of a compromiser. Remember that the people who compiled the books of the bible didn't have people's welfare in mind a desire for the truth! All they desired was control! I think the only untainted books in the bible are the first 5 also known as the pentatuch..written by Moses but even still translations can twist things easily. Example.....in Genesis where it says 'the serpent was craftier than any BEAST of the field' the hebrew word is Nachash which is actually translated as 'living being' now when you read something about beasts you think of creatures below us or filthy or evil but if read about living beings you might have a totally different perspective on the creatures. That's just a minor example of how the English language in particular warps the word!

Answer 11

These are not Contradictions.. I know they look like it but The Mathew account was the direct line of Joseph. The Account in Luke was the linage of Mary Joseph being the son (in law) to Eli. I see both the accounts of Judas' death are true. Why can't a rope break? Jim