Why is there lots of contradictions in the Bible?

Question

1. Who incited David to count the fighting men of Israel?

God did (2 Samuel 24: 1)
Satan did (I Chronicles 2 1:1)

2. In that count how many fighting men were found in Israel?

Eight hundred thousand (2 Samuel 24:9)
One million, one hundred thousand (I Chronicles 21:5)

3. How many fighting men were found in Judah?

Five hundred thousand (2 Samuel 24:9)
Four hundred and seventy thousand (I Chronicles 21:5)

4. God sent his prophet to threaten David with how many years of famine?

Seven (2 Samuel 24:13)
Three (I Chronicles 21:12)

5. How old was Ahaziah when he began to rule over Jerusalem?

Twenty-two (2 Kings 8:26)
Forty-two (2 Chronicles 22:2)

6. How old was Jehoiachin when he became king of Jerusalem?

Eighteen (2 Kings 24:8)
Eight (2 Chronicles 36:9)

7. How long did he rule over Jerusalem?

Three months (2 Kings 24:8)
Three months and ten days (2 Chronicles 36:9)

Answer 1

Never understood that either.

Answer 2

What is important to remember about the Bible is the 'who', 'what', and why aspects of the subject matter. The significance is no less material because of minor technical mistranslations between the Septuagint (Koine Greek), Syriac (Aramaic), Vulgate (Latin), and Hebrew (Afro-Semitic) manuscripts. The overall consensus was to add these accounts despite their minor numeric inconsistencies. An explanation is given as well at the bottom of these scriptures except for in the case of 2 Samuel 24:9 and I Chronicles 21:5.

The Bible is a faith and morals tutor, not a periodic table. In a world full of technically intelligent yet, socially retarded and morally irresponsible, stupid people this concept is enormously difficult to understand.

These are not contradictions at all in relation to bulk of things. If that were so, theories such as evolution would have been thrown out a long time ago (especially since its founder had serious doubts about it). It remains WILDLY inaccurate and nonsensical. If it weren't so depraved and deceitful a dogma, I'd call it hilarious.

So don't let a lingual barrier or a 'date time' irrelevancy continue to keep you from the truth.

Answer 3

1: Different translations will lead to "errors" in the text because the translators can have certain biases.
2: Some contradictions occur because the authors of the original texts were more or less specific with each other. Number 7 shows this, is ten days really that important in the big picture?
3: Context is a big thing to remember. If you copied these contradictions from somewhere you might not have the fullest context of the passages cited, which means the contradictions are synthetic.
4: Numerical differences can be cause by a myriad of things. Not all of the ancient peoples used the same counting system as us. Some used base 6 and I believe some civilizations used base 16 even. If a translator doesn't take these into account then he will find differences when two separate authors used different bases for their counts.

Answer 4

Sweet Jesus, when will you folks learn to post these INDIVIDUALLY? None of these are contradictions. Because of your impertinence, I'll only answer the first one.

In 2 Samuel 24:1, God incited David to number Israel because God was angry with David. Ultimately, God wanted to teach David not to trust in his number of fighting men, but to trust in Him. So, He moved to let David count the fighting men of Israel. He used Satan to do it which is why in 1 Chronicles 21:1, it says Satan moved David to count the men. Both are true. God most probably either sent Satan or allowed Satan to do incite David. But, how can God send Satan to do a job and yet God is not responsible for the sin? Simple.

God's authority extends even over Satan. God can use Satan to accomplish His ultimate will by simply giving permission to Satan to do that which Satan already desires to do. We see this in the crucifixion of Christ where evil men brought Jesus to death. Yet, at the same time, it was the predetermined plan of God that this be done.

Answer 5

The answer for the first question is: God send the Satan to incite King David to conduct the census. As for the next questions, the higher number was of all soldiers, and the lower was the number of those who belonged to special units. The Three years were probably of severe famine, and the remaining four were of moderate famine. As for the years of the kings, the Bible in known to be non-precise, and also, it depends on the date each year was counted.

Answer 6

Since you cut and paste your question, I'll cut and past my response. . . .see below.

But I will say that 1 &2 Kings is simply re-written in 1 &2 Chronicles -- so the versions will be similar and different, both. Because it's the same documents, rewritten. That's not contraditions -- that's literary history. One version at one time, and another version at a different time, in one volume call the Tanak.

To say the Bible "contradictions itself" is to demonstrate an ignorance of the Bible that’s only comparable to the people who think the Bible is without error.

The Bible is a collection of 66 different books, some history, some poetry, some songs, some letters, as well as the rules of an ancient religion . . . written over the span of thousands of years. Problems arise when people can't tell one from another, and confuse them into each other.

The Bible is an anthology, not one book. Take a book of prayer, a book of songs, a book of history, a volume of folk history . . . tie them all together, and call them a single Bible – that’s the Bible. Of course there are differences – it’s a chapter of poetry, not history.

Problems arise when you try to take a rule written for and by a certain group of people, and apply it to your life today (taking your disobedient child to the gates of the city to stone him, for example).

People tend to focus on the words in the Bible, and miss the message behind the story. The creation story of Genesis 1 and 2, for example, are poetry, the message is that God is powerful, neither of which is a history lesson.

Adam and Eve is a metaphor -- not literal history. It's poetic parable -- not the literal story of two people, for example.

The Bible is a fantastic collection of stories written by, about, and for the followers of the God of Abraham, and the followers of Christ.

Here's the thing . . . non-believers look at "contradictions" and think they can't believe anything in the Bible. But, if everything made perfect, edited sense -- the Gospel according to John on it's own, for example -- then the same non-believers would claim that that book of the Bible was edited and can't be believed. So, non-believers have it covered, either way.

Godspeed.

Answer 7

Quite simply, the Bible was written by humans... and humans make mistakes.

Moses didn't cross the Red Sea... he crossed the Reed Sea... the difference one letter makes is huge- the Red sea is massive, the Reed Sea is more like a river or a lake.

The Catholic Church, for all the bad press it gets, deserves credit for not just taking the bible at face value like fundamentalists do (which leads to things like homophobia and stuff) but interpreting it and trying to discern the meanings within passages.

Muslims, on the other hand, believe that the Qu'ran is the LITERAL word of God (Allah) and so anything written there must be followed, but if you tried to follow every rule in the bible you'd get yourself in a right muddle.

Answer 8

You must understand that this is the must rewritten book of all times. It was translated from old and different language into so many languages other and that being the case it was virtually re-written with each translation.

Languages of old and new, were at times difficult at best to understand...not to mention that fact that it was also all handwritten. Another obstacle in the translation process.

I am sure that the people doing the translations tried their best to do a good job, but as is done today, when they didnt understand something, I am willing to bet they simply guessed at the meaning.

Blessings,
Aviana

Answer 9

properly which could no longer carry real. God created the devil and yet he's merely as useful as God? God kicked the devil out of heaven because of the fact he could no longer administration him. Wait!! then he placed the devil right here with us vulnerable, fragile, and shortage of existence human beings. God has the capability to hold vulnerable and fragile human beings all the way down to hell and dying and yet he could no longer take care of the devil? He could no longer rule over his own homestead so how can he rule over us. study the old testomony and you will see how God reason worry and dread of him interior the olden days. And Jesus mentioned he grew to become into with God interior the initiating. So, that savior Jesus sat together with his father and mentioned no longer something approximately love, mercy, or forgiveness. Do you no longer see that they handed over the area whilst the 1st worldwide grew to become into destroyed that we could continuously think of roughly: there have been babies, pregnant women human beings, old human beings, youthful babies, and sickly human beings there. and each mom and pa be attentive to that the youngsters have been asserting mom it is been raining for an prolonged time many are going to the mountains, what can we do, and that they go through. i in my view could no longer watch this, i could have discovered yet otherwise to punish them. God acted like a baby with a toy. and you the mum spirit suffered as they watch there babies and babies die. and ladies human beings have been drown interior the midsection of having a little one. they won't run of bypass removed from the place they have been. Contradictions definite, yet once you look nearer you will see God grew to become right into a hardened killer. and those he lead interior the initiating he tried to coach them to kill.

Answer 10

There are NOT contradictions in the Bible just people who do not understand what they are reading. You should study Hermeneutics first so you do understand and get the flow. Taking things out of context when you don't understand only confuses more people. Though the Bible was written by many people over a period of thousands of years it was inspired by God, so there is no contradictions. Even as some say it is made up, why would even that person be stupid enough to not have a fluent story???

Answer 11

Three blind men study an elephant...(stop me if you heard this one).

The Bible is written from the perspective of man, which means there will be some bias based on each's own account.

Sometimes, one man sees a dark blue cloth, while others see purple or dark red. Do these conflict? Yes and no. Yes, if you want to see conflict. No, if you understand that not everyone's definition of "purple" is the same.