this is some contradictions in the bible .. donno why ?

Question

Contradiction #1
Who incited David to count the fighting men of Israel? (a) God did (2 Samuel 24:1) (b) Satan did (1 Chronicles 21:1).
Contradiction #2
In that count how many fighting men were found in Israel? (a) Eight hundred thousand (2 Samuel 24:9). (b) One million, one hundred thousand (1 Chronicles 21:5).

Contradiction #3
How many fighting men were found in Judah? (a) Five hundred thousand (2 Samuel 24:9). (b) Four hundred and seventy thousand (1 Chronicles 21:5).

Contradiction #4
God sent his prophet to threaten David with how many years of famine? (a) Seven (2 Samuel 24:13). (b) Three (1 Chronicles 21:12).

Contradiction #5
How old was Ahaziah when he began to rule over Jerusalem? (a) Twenty-two (2 Kings 8:26). (b) Forty-two (2 Chronicles 22:2).

Contradiction #6
How old was Jehoiachin when he became king of Jerusalem? (a) Eighteen (2 Kings 24:8). (b) Eight (2 Chronicles 36:9).

Answer 1

These are old questions that are commonly used to try to point to contradictions in the Bible. Here are explanations.

Concerning the census.

For many Bible readers, the parallel accounts that describe David’s numbering of Israel (found in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21) pose a serious problem. “Why does 2 Samuel 24:1 state that God ‘moved’ David against Israel, while 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that it was Satan who ‘stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel’ ”? Can both passages be right, or is this a contradiction?

The Hebrew verb wayyaset, translated “moved” (NKJV) or “incited (NASV), is identical in both passages. God and Satan’s actions are described using the same word. The difference lies with the sense in which the word is used: Satan incited (or tempted—cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:5) David more directly, while God is spoken of as having incited David because He allowed such temptation to take place. The Hebrews often used active verbs to express “not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do” (Bullinger, 2898, p. 823, emp. in orig.). Throughout the Bible, God’s allowance of something to take place often is described by the sacred writers as having been done by the Lord.

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Concerning the number of fighting men.

Many alleged discrepancies in the Bible deal with numerical values being different from one book to the next. Several plausible ways exist to show that these differing numbers are not really discrepancies at all. It could be the case that the different authors were counting different groups of people or rounding off their numbers to different places.

One such alleged discrepancy that involves differing numerical values is found between 1 Chronicles 21:5 and 2 Samuel 24:9.

1 Chronicles 21:5 (ASV): “Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.”

2 Samuel 24:9 (ASV): “Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.”

Obviously, the numbers given for the men of Israel differ by 300,000, while the numbers for the men of Judah differ by 30,000. Are there any possible solutions to this alleged discrepancy? The truth of the matter is that there are several possible solutions. Let us deal first with the differing number of the men of Israel.

The first possible solution is based upon a closer reading of the text. When the two verses are compared, 1 Chronicles 21:5 says that “All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword” (emp. added). But 2 Samuel says, “And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword” (emp. added). It could be that the author of 2 Samuel was indicating the number of “seasoned veterans” or “valiant” men, while the author of 1 Chronicles was numbering any man who drew the sword, not just the valiant ones. Gleason Archer concluded:

A possible solution may be found along these lines. So far as Israel (i.e., the tribes north of Judah) is concerned, the 1 Chronicles figure includes all the available men of fighting age, whether battle seasoned or not. But from 2 Samuel 24 we learn that Joab’s report gave a subtotal of “mighty men” (‘ish hayil), i.e., battle-seasoned troops, consisting of 800,000 veterans. But in addition there may have been 300,000 more men of military age who served in the reserves but had not yet been involved in field combat. These two contingents would make up a total of 1,100,000 men—as 1 Chronicles reports them, with employing the term ‘ish hayil (1982, pp. 188-189).

Remember that the only thing required to prove that a discrepancy does not exist is to provide a single possible solution (see Lyons, 2004). Archer’s explanation reveals quite clearly one possible solution. However, it is by no means the only one. Eric Vestrum lists another quite reasonable solution to the problem.

There is another possibility that will be reasonable after examination. The reader should re-read 1 Chr 27. Notice here that there are 12 divisions of 24,000 men each, giving a total of 288,000 men. It is possible that the Chronicler counts these men whereas the author of 2 Sam does not. Notice that the 800,000 men in 2 Sam were included in a census, as David wanted to know how many men there were for fighting. Yet, as the numbers of divisions were apparently fixed at 24,000 per division, one would presumably not need to take a census of groups whose sizes are intrinsically defined by a priori fixed numbers. It is not requiring too much to state that it is reasonably possible that the author of 2 Sam did not include these 288,000 while the (different) author of 1 Chr did. With two different authors writing apart from each other at non-identical times, it is not at all specious to assert a reasonable plausibility to a different mode of reckoning in reporting the census (Vestrum).

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Concerning the age of the Kings

In 2 Kings 8:26, we read that Ahaziah, the sixth king of Judah, was twenty-two years old when he began his reign. However, in the book of 2 Chronicles, the Bible indicates that he was forty-two years old when he became king (22:2). Furthermore, in 2 Kings 24:8 we read where Jehoiachin succeeded his father as the nineteenth king of Judah at the age of eighteen, yet 2 Chronicles 36:9 informs us that he was “eight years old when he became king.” How is it that both of these kings are said to have begun their respective reigns at different times in their lives. Was Ahaziah twenty-two or forty-two when he became king? And was Jehoiachin merely eight years old when he began his rule over Judah, or was he eighteen as 2 Kings 24:8 indicates? How do we know which numbers are correct? And more important, how does the believer, who regards the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, explain these differences?

Fortunately, there is enough additional information in the biblical text to prove the correct age of both men when they began their particular reigns over Judah. (Ahaziah ruled Judah around 841 B.C., and Jehoiachin almost 250 years later in 598 B.C.) Earlier, in 2 Kings 8:17, the author mentions that Ahaziah’s father (Jehoram) was 32 when he became king, and died eight years later at the age of 40 (2 Chronicles 21:5, 20). Obviously, Ahaziah could not have been 42 at the time of his father’s death at age 40, since that would make the son (Ahaziah) two years older than his father (Jehoram). Thus, the correct reading of Ahaziah’s age is “twenty-two,” not “forty-two.” There also is little doubt that Jehoiachin began his reign at eighteen, not eight years of age. This conclusion is established by Ezekiel 19:5-9, where Jehoiachin appears as going up and down among the lions, catching the prey, devouring men, and knowing the widows of the men he devoured and the cities he wasted. As Keil and Delitzsch observed when commenting on this passage: “The knowing of widows cannot apply to a boy of eight, but might well be said of a young man of eighteen” (1996). Furthermore, it is doubtful that an eight-year-old child would be described as one having done “evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 24:9).

Even though it is possible to know the ages of Ahaziah and Jehoiachin when they began their respective reigns in Judah, the ages of these two kings in Chronicles are incorrect. Are these legitimate mistakes? Are we to conclude, based upon these two verses in 2 Chronicles, that the Bible is not from God? What shall we say to such questions?

The simple answer to these queries is that a copyist, not an inspired writer, made these mistakes. In the case of Ahaziah, a copyist simply wrote twenty instead of forty, and in Jehoiachin’s situation (2 Chronicles 36:9), the scribe just omitted a ten, which made Jehoiachin eight instead of eighteen. This does not mean the Bible had errors in the original manuscripts, but it does indicate that minor scribal errors have slipped into some copies of the Bible. [If you have ever seen the Hebrew alphabet, you will notice that the Hebrew letters (which were used for numbers) could be confused quite easily.] Supporting this answer to the “number problems” in Chronicles are various ancient manuscripts such as the Syriac, the Arabic, at least one Hebrew manuscript, and a few of the Septuagint manuscripts—all of which contain the correct ages for these kings in 2 Chronicles (22 and 18 rather than 42 and 8). Based upon this evidence, and from the fact that the ages of Ahaziah and Jehoiachin given in the Massoretic text of Chronicles are incorrect, the translators of the NIV decided to translate 2 Chronicles 22:2 and 36:9 as “twenty-two” and “eighteen” rather than the way most other English versions of the Bible read (“forty-two” and “eight”).

Although history records that copyists were meticulously honest in handling the text of the Bible, they, like all humans, made mistakes from time to time. Yet, even though technical mistakes in copying the text were made by these scribes of old, three important facts remain: (1) accurate communication still is possible; (2) many times one can find the correct reading by investigating ancient manuscripts such as those listed above; and (3) errors in copies of the Bible do not mean that those errors were in the original manuscripts written by inspired men.

Answer 2

I've seen contradictions before, but I don't think they're really contradictions, for one thing, there are different translations of the Bible, and when people have tampered with the original translations, sometimes they get words mixed up and so the original message is a little mixed up. Also, there is an answer above that I somewhat agree with, sometimes there is a point that is being made or different numbers that are being written about that are mixed up for a purpose. The Bible is probably the least contradictory of any ancient books. The Koran is more contradictory to itself in certain places than the Bible. If you really get deep into the Bible, you will see how amazing it is. How could so many different people from different time periods, different cultures and different backgrounds write 66 books that all lead up to the same message. God has to be in control of that. I really believe that the Bible is intirely God's word and he used men to write his word. Now the men he used to write the Bible were not perfect people and they also didn't understand everything that God told them to write. God inspired the Bible and wrote it in a way that humans can understand it. I'm sure some of it is not meant to be taken literally, but other portions of it are. The most important portion is the Gospels, Jesus is the person that the Old Testament looks forward to and that the New Testament is all about. Jesus is the reason for the Bible to exist.
I don't understand why there would be any contradiction in the Bible (and as far as I have studied, the "contradictions" that people give could be easily explained) but if God allows that to happen, then he allows it for a reason, God can do whatever he wants, and we don't understand everything he does, but he has power over his own word as well as we humans and I think he allows us to see the truth, otherwise, everyone would be blind to the truth and truth wouldn't exist.

Answer 3

If someone is actually going to study the bible (and not just look for contradictions) you must first realize that the bible was originally written in Hebrew. If you go back and look at the original bible you'll see that the bible does not in any way contradict itself.

Oh by the way, interesting fact about the bible: In ancient language there was a number for every letter. IN the bible if you take a paragraph and add up the numbers for every letter the # you end up with is always divisible by seven. How interesting considering that God's perfect number is 7. Scholars, historians and many other people say that this is almost impossible to do with a few paragraphs let alone and entire book with thousands of pages.

sincerly Kate

Answer 4

I don't have time to look at the rest, but I can talk a little bit about #1:

1) Satan was indeed the one who incited David. The OT, throughout, shows that God has sovereign control over the devil. And knowing that God is always good, we can determine that he allowed Satan (and he does with Job and in other places) to work in David, whose pride was ripe for the plucking.

As for the number, some bibles translate it (one million, one hundred thousand, including...). Either way, typographical errors with numbers seem to happen in several places in the Bible. It would be strange if we found that the original copies of I Chronicles and II Samuel did not match, since both likely drew on the same histories for much of their writing.

Answer 5

Bible difficulties, or apparent Bible contradictions, exist. The opponents of Christianity often use them in their attempts to discredit Christianity. Sometimes these attacks undermine the faith of Christians who either don't understand the issues or don't have the resources to deal with them.

Opponents of Christianity will cite what they consider a Bible contradiction or difficulty by comparing one verse to another (or more) that seems to disagree with the first. In doing this, several verses are often referenced as being contradictory or problematic. Therefore, to make this section of CARM easy to use, it is arranged by verse for easy lookup. Since many of the same "difficulties" deal with one verse in opposition to another or even several others, I have listed all the verses addressed in the same answer. This makes the initial list look larger than it really is. For example, how many animals did Noah bring into the ark? Genesis 6:19-20 says two while Gen. 7:2-3 mentions seven. Therefore, both verses are listed and both links point to the same answer.

http://carm.org/introduction-bible-difficulties-and-bible-contradictions

If we read the Bible at face value, without a preconceived bias for finding errors, we will find it to be a coherent, consistent, and relatively easy-to-understand book. Yes, there are difficult passages. Yes, there are verses that appear to contradict each other. We must remember that the Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors over a period of around 1500 years. Each writer wrote with a different style, from a different perspective, to a different audience, for a different purpose. We should expect some minor differences. However, a difference is not a contradiction. It is only an error if there is absolutely no conceivable way the verses or passages can be reconciled. Even if an answer is not available right now, that does not mean an answer does not exist. Many have found a supposed error in the Bible in relation to history or geography only to find out that the Bible is correct once further archaeological evidence is discovered.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-errors.html

The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation
By: Norman L. Geisler, Thomas Howe
http://www.christianbook.com/difficulties-clear-concise-answers-genesis-revelation/norman-geisler/9780801071584/pd/071584?event=AFF&p=1011693&

Answer 6

In NIV Contradiction #6 both Books says he is 18. And for Contradiction# 5 Ahaziah in both Books it says he is 22.
Contradiction #4 Both Books also said three.
Which tabloid are you using?
For the numbers of fighting men in Contradiction #3  Israel and Judah are two separate kingdoms although it is considered One Israel so, you will notice the discrepancies.
Even in our modern times when people are counted in one place like the millenium event in New York, a figure is not always exact it just gave an estimate of number of people per square meter of area in the streets or plaza so, it is not exact as it is always said.

Answer 7

RESPOSNE TO CONTRADICTION #1:
These two stories do not contradict themsleves. The Choronicler is making a theological point. Allow me to explain...

Notice when you read Chronicles the history of the Northern Kingdom is never mentioned. The Chronicler is purposely not including the Norhting Kingdom of Israel because he is trying to comfort those that are in captivaty that God will restore the kingdom of Judah through the Davidic line. So, David's adultery is not mentioned and this story is told in such a way that doesn't make David look as bad.

Yet, how can these two stories come from the same historical truth? Well, you have to understand the Hebrew term "satan". The term "satan" can simply refer to a road block or adversary. In the Bible, the term "satan" is attributed to humans as well as to angels from God as being advesaries. See 1 Kings 11:14 & Numbers 22:22 respectively. (as well as other places)

Of special interest to this context is 1 Kings 11:14, where God raises up Solomon as a "satan" or "adversary". Therefore what appears to have happened is that God raised someone up to convience David to hold a census. He "moved" David to hold a census through a human "adversary" or "satan".

The theological interest can also be seen later in each of these chapters.

In 2 Sam. 24:24, David bought the Threshing floor for 50 shekels of silver. In 1 Chornicles 21:25 David bought the threshing floor for 600 shekels of gold.

Why the difference? Because the Chronicler wanted to show the historical/theological/religio... significance of the site. Notice in the very next chapter in Chor. he talks about the preparation for a temple to be made. The Chornicler is showing the huge signifiance of that particular site. Which is meaningful to the peopel caught in the exile in the east.

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Many Hebrew scholars and Jewish scholars believe that to render the Hebrew word "satan" as Satan in this passage is a bad translation that is influenced by a Christian interpretation and understanding of Satan as the personfication of evil. The latter was unknown at the time of writing the book of Chronicles.

A more accurate and fitting translation for the context would be "adversary".

In order to save space I will not repond to others, but if you would like a reponse EMAIL them to me.

Answer 8

hahaha
my old HONEST bible...
2 samuel 24:1 = book of Kings 2, 24:1
and the footnote for that verse...
here , as often, the old testament record describe god's dealing with mankind in strictly human terms. by a somewhat violent metaphor, he is compared tp a human ruler who is anxious to pick a quarrel with his neighbours, and employs an agent provocateur to give him a pretext for interference. in I Par 21:1 (1st Book of Paralipomena = 1 Chronicles) the same course of events is described in theological terms, and we are told that satan tempted David to register the people.

is my bible trying to explain that god and satan is actually one and the same? i mean, god is the peace-loving character, satan is the angry-jealous side of him?

when free.. will check the others to see if any "footnote" is written...

Answer 9

uh, for a document that is thousands of years old, has been translated and retranslated many many times, been changed and edited for political purposes here and then throughout history, and etc etc, if you've only found six contradictions, either you have to read some more or its one of the most accurate books ever written. There are probalby just as many oddball contradictions in the bible as there are in any other religious text, they say that the koran has about 6% that might as well be written off as totally wrong (contradictory)

Answer 10

Kings and Chronicles were written by two opposing groups, Judeans and Israelites.

The books are just political in content.

I don't take anything in the Bible literally, unless it can be verified by an unbiased extra-biblical source.

Answer 11

Ok you found us out. We tried to fool you but you were to smart for that. We are sorry. Game over. Yup we would of got away with it to if it wasn't for you pesky kids.
So now that you have so cleverly disproved the Bible and have opened your eyes you must really feel relieved. Yeah you can rest at night knowing that it is all garbage and continue doing all that stuff that used to bother you. Rock on man.
(disclaimer) For some reason you later find out that your life is still empty and you want a relationship with your Creator then look Jesus up ok?