Are there any errors in the bible?

Answer 1

The introduction to this Bible includes an article entitled: How to Read Your Bible. This article makes a lot of valuable points. I reproduce for your edification some of the main points offered in that introduction. Everything listed in the points below is directly asserted in the article itself or implied therein. I have only summarized. I did not improvise. Where I use my own words I still represent the ideas of the authors. Often, you will notice the presence of quotations marks. These mark off the included words as the words actually used by the editors of the New American Bible, St. Joseph Medium Size Edition. The article from which the points are drawn is found on pages 17 to 35 of the introduction. Consider these points; use them politely and wisely.
What the Scholars confess about the Bible in General

The Bible is not necessarily the most read book or the best understood book.

The Bible was inspired by God. But "This does not mean that God dictated His message as a businessman dictates a letter to a secretary. God takes the author as he is and leaves him free to choose his own means of communication."

"Some authors chose existing folk tales and even beast fables to bring out their point."

There is a difference between INSPIRATION and REVELATION. The entire Bible is inspiration but not the whole Bible is revelation. The authors of the Bible were inspired to search for meaning in life and in the events of history. The search for answers was inspired, but the answers found were not necessary revealed by God. But some of those answers are written in the Bible by the human authors. Some of what they wrote clearly cannot be attributed to God. "Think of the ‘holy wars’ of total destruction, fought by the Hebrews when they invaded Palestine. The search for meaning in those wars centuries later was inspired, but the conclusions which attributed all those atrocities to the command of God were imperfect and provisional."

An example of such atrocities is in Judges1:1-18. Read it for yourself.

The Bible is a collection of many books of different kinds. "A major disadvantage is that these books are not put together systematically as the books of a modern library."

"Edifying interpretation of events" is "often intermingled" with history.

"The Bible is God’s word and man’s word. One must understand man’s word first in order to understand the word of God."

The Bible contains "Beast Fables." Examples: Genesis; Numbers 22, 22-35.

Speeches of persons in the Bible are not necessarily what the persons said. "It is the inspired author who wants to state something by putting these words into the mouth of a person with authority."

The book known as Acts of the Apostles in the Bible often puts words into the mouths of its characters.

The description of the heavens and the earth in Genesis, chapter 1, is not necessarily a true description. That description is conditioned by the time and culture in which it was written. "Do not be shocked about this!"

"The sacred writers attribute quite a number of human characteristics to God." This too is "conditioned by time and culture."

The Psalms are a collection of poems full of feeling. Psalm 137, verses 8 and 9 pronounces a blessing on one who grabs a Babylonian baby and dashes it against a rock. In this psalm "The feeling, the thought, the total poem is inspired (guided) by God, though it is not necessarily revealed truth!" But this is not the only Psalm which is not necessarily revealed truth. To find out for yourself, "Read some psalms!"
What the scholars confess about the Gospels in particular

"What did the authors of the Gospels do? In the congregations, mainly in the cities around the Mediterranean, they found scores of narratives about Jesus, the beloved Founder of the Christian faith. The writers took those narratives and frequently even remolded and refashioned them to bring out the lesson they wanted to teach."

Therefore the four Gospels are not really biographies of Jesus. They are "digests of Christian teaching concerning the risen Lord Jesus."

"A remarkable fact is that for a long time Christians misunderstood" this truth about the Gospels.

The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 1, verses 1-17, is not an absolutely true genealogy. First, Matthew took it perhaps from the family of Joseph. Second, "the sacred writer refashioned this document to a list of three times fourteen ancestors."

"Reading the Gospels, one should distinguish historical facts from theological elaboration."

The Gospels often represent Jesus in controversy and conversation. "One may ask: Was Jesus involved in these conversations? Did He answer exactly as related in the Bible? It is not certain."

There may be some true events and "controversies which supplied the background materials for the conflict stories of the Gospels. But as these accounts now stand, they are literary forms used by the Gospel writers in their catechisms to bring out what they had to tell the opponents of early Christianity."

Matthew tells us that baby Jesus was taken to Egypt. This is not necessarily true. But since Israel had been in Egypt, and since Israel was God’s chosen one, Matthew placed Jesus in Egypt to convince his readers that Jesus was the real Israel. "This is a strange literary device, but the ancient writers loved to work with this kind of figurative speech."

"It is difficult to know whether the words or sayings attributed to [Jesus] are written exactly as He spoke them."

"True, the Gospels are based on sound historical facts as related by eye-witnesses, but both deeds and words of Jesus are offered to us in the framework or theological interpretation."

Did Jesus say the things which the Gospels report? "The Church was so firmly convinced that the risen Lord who is the Jesus of history lived in her, and taught through her, that she expressed her teaching in the form of Jesus’ sayings." The words are not Jesus but from the Church.

"Can we discover at least some words of Jesus that have escaped such elaboration? Bible scholars point to the very short sayings of Jesus, as for example those put together by Matthew in chapter 5, 1-12"

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapters 5 to 7, was delivered by Jesus while he was on a mount – or was he? Matthew only represented the matter such in order to show that Jesus was like Moses who received the law on Mount Sinai. Jesus was not really on a mountain. This is only a figurative device used by Matthew.

"Walk into a modern library, you will find all the books neatly arranged under fiction and non-fiction. It is not that simple in the library called the Bible. How does one know whether one deals with history or some form of figurative speech?" To begin with you should always be disposed to follow the teaching authority of the Church."

"The signature of a bishop in your Bible assures you that opinions, expressed in footnotes and introductions, reflect what is generally accepted as sound doctrine in the Catholic tradition."

"Knowing that early Christians mistakenly expected Christ’s second coming during their own lifetime, helps you to understand 1 and 2 Thessalonians." The first of these two books in the Bible is written under the said mistaken expectation.

"The Hebrews [who wrote the Bible] were restless searchers for meaning in our human condition. Reading their inspired literature should challenge you to go on with a faithful search for meaning in your own situation."

There you have it folks. A collection of confessions of the scholars who edited the New American Bible. The words within quotation marks are their own. All the ideas are their own. Some of the said ideas they have explicitly stated; others they clearly imply. Words within square brackets were inserted where necessary to make the points clear. Use these points to help convince Catholics.

The title page of this Bible shows that the book is "authorized by the Board of Trustees of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine" and "approved by the Administrative Committee/Board of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops" and the "United States Catholic Conference." It is published by the Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1986. The Bible contains all the necessary Catholic certification: the Nihil Obstat, and the Imprimatur from the Archbishop of Washington. And, oh, yes! A letter from the Vatican, including the signature of the Pope, appears in the preface to guarantee the reliability of this Bible for Catholics.

Protestants and others may not be convinced by the confessions. They may object that these are not their own scholars. Yet many Protestant scholars have reached the very same conclusions. But that is the subject for another article. Notice, however, that you can always argue that the points above are admitted by friends of the Bible. Even one who does not recognise the authority of Catholic Bishops will have to admit that they are nevertheless friends of the Bible. Their testimony above cannot be discounted so easily.


errors in the bible

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).
Contradiction #11

When David defeated the King of Zobah, how many horsemen did he capture?
(a) One thousand and seven hundred (2 Samuel 8:4).
(b) Seven thousand (1 Chronicles 18:4).
Contradiction #12

How many stalls for horses did Solomon have?
(a) Forty thousand (1 Kings 4:26).
(b) Four thousand (2 Chronicles 9:25).
Contradiction #13

In what year of King Asa’’s reign did Baasha, King of Israel die?
(a) Twenty-sixth year (1 Kings 15:33 - 16:8).
(b) Still alive in the thirty-sixth year (2 Chronicles 16:1).
Contradiction #15

Solomon built a facility containing how many baths?
(a) Two thousand (1 Kings 7:26).
(b) Over three thousand (2 Chronicles 4:5).
Contradiction #22

Ezra 2:64 and Nehemiah 7:66 agree that the total number of the whole assembly was 42,360. Yet the numbers do not add up to anything close. The totals obtained from each book is as follows:
(a) 29,818 (Ezra).
(b) 31, 089 (Nehemiah).
Contradiction #23

How many singers accompanied the assembly?
(a) Two hundred (Ezra 2:65).
(b) Two hundred and forty-five (Nehemiah 7:67).
Contradiction #94

Who killed Goliath?
(a) David (1 Samuel 17:23, 50).
(b) Elhanan (2 Samuel 21:19).

Answer 2

At first glance it may appear to contradict but if you look deeper into the context and research each individually you will find that it was either a translation error or some other explainable contridiction.
BY NO MEANS DO THESE DISCREDIT THE BIBLE AS BEING INSPIRED OF GOD!!

For he wrote the bible PERFECT!

Answer 3

No errors in God's infallible Word. Yes errors in man's limited mind's understanding without The Holy Spirit's giving understanding to. God who is perfect and who has a plan for everyone, would not allow His most Holy perfect Word be given to man's errors. If God can create everything, don't you think He can control everything if He wants? His perfect Word is under His perfect control, not to be ruined by mere man. God bless

Answer 4

Lots of them. The story of Adam & Eve is a fabrication because when members of the same family have children, the offspring are always born with genetic abnormalities like Sterility and Mongolism (Down Syndrome). If you want proof, just marry your cousin and have children. The dummies who wrote the Bible didn't know that there are 1.8 million different species of living things on this planet. Noah would have needed an Arc a few miles long.

Answer 5

I think that the Bible is scripture, not because it has no errors in it, but because it was written by people who were convinced that God had saved them, and no human agency. Therefore, it advocates for continued zeal in life, and not just to exalting the efforts of others, such as doctors, lawyers etc. When times get tough, corruption takes over society, so exalting the efforts of man is like joining in with picking on those who don't do so well by the system, which tends to be intellectuals, thinkers and cultural types.

Therefore, you're getting the results of God-fearing humans writing what has helped them cope. Because of this, I think that the Bible is substantially unchanged, although there's plenty of room for digging deeper into it.

The word for inspired is "God-breathed." The word for breath also means wind and appears in John 3:5, 8. This reminds me of feng shui, which has to do with the symbolism of water and wind. The thing about this world is that it likes to classical condition people to believe that their body belongs to everybody else. This is a problem that is commented on with regards to teenagers and their eating disorders and body images. I think that God's inspiration of the text is analogous to the way spiritual (and physical) healing can loosen the tongue (Mark 7:35). The state acts like it owns your body. Democracy is based on the myth of the social contract where you give up personal freedoms in exchange for protection of your rights. It's not necessary, and this is what freedom in Christ is all about.

Answer 6

No.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17) All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.

Answer 7

Many.... Just setting up a bible to be printed can cause errors.

Answer 8

The Bible is the perfect Word of God.
The same yesterday,today,& forever.
No errors in Gods Word.<><

Answer 9

as a muslim, i believe that there is a holy book called injil revealed to Jesus..but not the nowadays bible,because many has proven that it's not he word of God..some saints have corrupted the word of God and wrote the Bible..this is an example...

The number of beasts in the ark

GEN 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

GEN 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, GEN 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.


for more,you can google in the net...

Answer 10

It's loaded with errors. How about this one: The gospels say that Jesus was sent to Pilate by the chief priests because they, (the chief priests,) weren't able to lawfully put a person to death. In The Acts of the Apostles, (the book that immediately follows the gospels,) a man named Stephen is stoned to death by order of the chief priests.

Answer 11

from the original text.. no.
however, certain translations have errors due to human scribes who were not as disciplined as the Jews; and translation errors because of western non-Jewish religious notions and ideas.
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