If the Bible was written by men inspired by God why does it contain so many contradictions?

Question

Surely if the Bible were inspired by God there would be no contradictions, no misrepresentations and no mistakes in translation. Surely God inspired people would translate perfectly, and consistently!

It suggests that Godly inspiration is fallible and untrustworthy otherwise.

If only the first 5 books were divinely inspired then why are there contradiction in them.

Genesis 20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

God states that he doesn't know what is happening in Sodom and Gomarrah and actually has to physically go there to see if the reports he is hearing are true.

Answer 1

The answer is simple.It was a control mechanism.In ancient times before forensic sciences how did crime get solved?It didn't unless they were many witnesses,only accusation and usually falsely based.Therefor the best method is prevention.Create yourself a magical almighty being that can see every move you make and bash the fear of tremendous reprisal into the masses.Problem not solved completely but greatly diminished.

Answer 2

Hi Penster,
You state that the Bible contains contradictions but give no example of this.
Are you in fact referring to the many different interpretations of Scripture that the various denominations of the Christian church have arrived at through dubious methods of interpretation?
There are sound principles of interpretation and the first of these is to allow the Bible to be its own interpreter.
If this golden rule were followed by all there would be no variations because all would come to the same conclusions.
I'll watch to see if you add any clarification to my query.
I see that you have now referred to Genesis 20 as an example of so called contradiction.
My first question is have you read the whole chapter?
If you have you will see that is not just about the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham's nephew Lot and his family live there.
God has revealed that He is going to destroy the five cities of the plain because of their depravity.
Abraham goes into a bargaining session with God to spare these cities if even 10 righteous men can be found in them. The term "men" also includes women. This is a cultural thing of the Middle East. We must be mindful of the culture in which the story occurred.
According to Hebrew law an accusation can only be upheld if two or more witnesses agree. “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established." Deuteronomy 19:15. Notice that there are two other beings accompanying The Angel of the Lord.
God does not act in an arbitory fashion. He has heard of the accusation, but He acts according to the law and even allows Abraham to bargain with Him.
God is a God of mercy, but in this case mercy is over-ruled by justice when He is confronted by the depravity of the city.
Even so, He makes arrangements for Lot and his family to leave before the destruction even though the number is less than the 10 persons Abraham had bargained for!
The story takes on a different perspective when viewed in the proper manner.
God Bless,
H'chat.

Answer 3

The bible was written by various writers at different times.
Each person has his or her interpretation of right & wrong.
When the bible was officially put to gether there was alot more books, but at the time it was felt that these books should be left out, as they did not convey Gods teachings, and even cause confusion, while other books were left because they told people usful stories that could help one spirituality.
Take Gennises. even though it is one book there is 2 stories about creation: One consisted about how the earth was made by God & the Second was based more on how man turned from God. So the first story attempts to explain that God is all powerful & the second explains why God is not happy with man. But if you carry on following the story-line it leads to how God forgave man & gave him a second chance.

You have to remember that even though we believe that the bible is God inspired, that man is not perfect and his interpritation of what God is saying when he wrote the books of the bible may have been rght for him, but later on would read differantly.

Answer 4

You have fallen victim to others ignorance as so many before you. The bible does not have a SINGLE contradiction. I have proved many wrong. If you don't want to believe it that's fine, but I assure you, you will do nothing but make a fool out of yourself by trying to find errors in Gods word.
As to your example, If you read the Hebrew which you can do on line, you will find that the wording in the Hebrew dose not even come close to the translation. In a sense it is saying, not that I will no, but that the evidence is so convicting that even they will realize they are guilty., If you would like, email me and I will send you the links, I just doubt you will go to the trouble so I wont either at this point.

Answer 5

The example that you cite must be the most imortant and serious of your objections since of all your supposed contradictions this is the one you select to most powerfully demonstrate your argument.

Yet it is plainly not a contradiction but a manner of revelation as the text makes clear.

That you lack understanding condemns you not the Bible.

A better question might be, have you kept the Ten Commandments without any breach?

Or are you, by them, found to be a sinner and this just might be the reason why you object to the Bible?

Answer 6

First of all, I have to ask you, have you ever actually READ the Bible? And, have you ever actually STUDIED it? It really helps to read and study if you want to make an evaluation of the contents of any book.

Yes, the Bible does contain some seeming contradictions, but the knowledge obtained through further study helps to resolve many of these and the rest one has to live with - bearing in mind that one day God promises that all will be revealed! However, I do think that often people who talk about the Bible's contradictions are hard pressed to name any specific examples (apart from the 'donkey' anomaly of Jesus' ride into Jerusalem on what is called Palm Sunday).

In your question, you seem to be confusing the source (God, who gave the word), the receivers of the word (the NT/OT prophets) and the translators.

When God gave the word, it was perfect, because it issued from him. It came down to imperfect men - the prophets - who received and transmitted it perfectly too, because the Holy Spirit directed them. They heard it in Hebrew and they wrote it down in Hebrew or, in the case of the New Testament, it would have been mostly Greek. After that, it was transcribed laboriously by Jewish scribes who, because they were godly and had a deep love of the word, used a system of intensive correction, in which everything was numbered, checked and double-checked to a meticulous degree. The result was that practically nothing escaped them and the wonder is that these old manuscripts (such as the Dead Sea extracts from Isaiah found in Qumran) are practically identical to what we have today.

So, in answer to your question, as far as God giving the word, the prophets receiving it and the Jewish scribes writing it down, all went very well and practically no errors ever got through due to the Holy Spirit and men's faithfulness. Also, the fear of God was upon them, and they literally dared not tamper with what was written.

The waters got muddied during the times of the Early Church and the Early Church Fathers, when many heresies arose and had to be contested and many people were led astray by them. Then arose many writings and false 'gospels' (gnosticism) from people claiming revelation. However, this revelation did not line up with Scripture and was rejected, but a part of the 'church' did hold to some of these writings and used them to justify their beliefs and they were included in the two apocryphas.

The problem has clearly arisen with the translation and not the transcription. Here the mind of man and the decisions of man became involved and error crept in. Why did God allow that? One day when all things are known, someone will be able to ask him, but I suggest that, since God has always permitted man's mind and his will (his right to chose) to be free, he had to allow his word to become vulnerable and permit error to come in at that point. We live in a fallen world and even God doesn't always get his way.

So, Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, bringing with it his own viewpoint, and for around a milennium this was the only Bible available to most men. At the time of the writing of the Greek NT by Erasmus, there was an all-pervasive environment of error, and Erasmus literally had to do the best he could. However, although a few things had been interfered with by people whose doctrine drove them to alter their source material, it was still possible to study the Word and find God's message in it. God always preserved the general body of truth, so that men like Luther, coming much later, could recognize it and free himself and others, escaping the clutches of the stifling tradition of error of interpretation into which they had been born.

As I have said, the problem arose with translation and some translators have made a commendable job of it - eg. Tyndale - and others have incorporated errors into their translations.

So, I cannot agree that Godly inspiration is fallible - only that men are - and I have tried to show you how this has come about. However, you are right when you suggest that God is responsible for his Word, and I have also tried to show you that the body of truth has been passed down to us to a remarkable degree intact today, so that it still has undiminished its power to change man.

The scene today is that there are some pretty bad 'translations' (eg. 'The Message' which is more a very liberal paraphrase) and some very good ones (I would recommend the King James or the New King James) and many in-between. The point I wish to make is that God, even alongside the corruptions, has still preserved his Word in all the necessary things intact. He has been faithful in preserving the truth still 'out there' even in the midst of the corrupted environment - where everybody is allowed to have their say - which this world has largely become.

It is not God's time just yet to correct mankind. One day, that time will come, but in the meantime he lets mankind make his decisions whether to follow truth or error and he has given him help through the voice of his conscience which will lead him to the truth if he will seek honestly for it.

Answer 7

1 Corinthians 1:18- 25
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
22 For the Jews request a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
God does not operate or exist by the standards of man. As the creator of all things, should He not have the right to do things as He chooses.

Answer 8

This is something I've struggled to understand as well.

My only explanation for it is that the Bible is a collection of different books, written at different times by different people (many hundreds of years apart in some cases).

Also it was originally written in Hebrew (I think), and then converted to something else, and then something else, and then English.

So when you take all these factors into account, plus the fact it was written by imperfect humans, there are gonna be errors somewhere along the line.

I think the whole book can be summed up like this really:

"Love God and others, and treat others how you yourself would like to be treated"

Answer 9

The Lord in Question does not refer to God directly. God cannot descend into this realm without causing enormous upheavals in the fabric of the Universe. No one down here could actually look at God, even if He were to be here. They would be fried to a cinder.

Answer 10

You must know that everyone has different viewpoints and different interpretations of events, etc.

The contradictions do not suggest this to me. All it suggests is that different people see things in different ways.

You said that God inspired people would translate perfectly, but how can that be? No one is perfect. We're human.

Answer 11

There is a way that seems right to a man and this way ends in death.
The Bible does not contradict itself.
The Bible is the word of God where God reveals his truth through the spirit.
It was not written for understanding of the flesh but the truth is revealed through the spirit.
Those that love and seek God's truth will find him.