The BIBLE says it is innerrant. How can this be so when it contradicts itself so much?

Question

Did those with Saul/Paul at his conversion hear a voice?

ACT 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man

ACT 22:9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me


The common rebuttal to this problem is; the modern version was translated poorly but the original writings are perfect and God inspired

The problem is that we don't have the original writings. What we have are copies - in most cases made many, many decades later. These copies also contradict each other mostly due to scribes either inadvertently or intentionally changing them during the tedious copying process

Knowing this, why would you live by what the modern version of the bible tells you? How could you know if your "instructions" were inspired by God or the opinion of an apparently heretical scribe?

1 of many sources: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html

Apparently Julia isn't too bright. Try looking more closely. The 1st verse says they do hear a voice. The 2nd verse says they here not a voice. Maybe Julia's ancestors were biblical scribes.

Some apparently appear to be too focused on the example to see the point. It's just one example. The fact is there are more variances in the earliest existing New Testament manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. It's a little more serious than just, did he or did he not hear. You cannot dismiss 400,000 variances as "nit-picking"!

The responders who hath explained away the apparent contradiction with this one example, of many, have done an impressive job regardless whether or not they 'spake' the truth. They have also incredibly successfully proven the point that you can't trust what is written in the modern day bible. They have very competently proven one instance of how badly it was mistranslated. Thanks!

Answer 1

I GO TO CHURCH AND YOU CANT GET ANSWERS FROM MAN U GO TO YOUR LOCAL CHURCH AND ASK A PREACHER . BUT THE DEVIL WANTS US TO THINK THIS WAY AND IF HE CAN GET ARE THINKING TO BE LIKE HIM HE WINS AND GOD IS SAD SO DONT LET THE DEVIL BEAT YOU UP AND DONT TRUST NO ONE ON THE WEB ABOUT THOSE QUESTIONS YOU ARE PLAYING WITH FIRE AND DONT GET BURNT CONSULT GOD HE WILL ANSWER YOU OR WILLL SEND SOMEONE TO U ASK SEEK KNOCK AND THE DOOR SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU NEVER TURN ON GOD HE WOKE US UP THIS MORNING NOT US OR WIFE GOD BLESS YOU AND I HOPE YOU FIND YOUR ANSWERS

Answer 2

The Bible was not in existence at the time the events recorded in it took place. To say that the argument that the Bible is inerrant turns upon its own self-declaration that it is inerrant is not only untrue (as that is not stated), but such a statement would have no real force or effect. It would be like asking a person whether or not he is honest--an honest person would say yes; but a dishonest person might also say yes. How then could that question ever be used to verify the person's honesty?

It is only through the Church's authority that one can say that the Bible is inerrant. The Church predates the Bible; and was the ultimate compiler of all books appearing therein. A very arduous process was undertaken to determine which books would be part of the Bible, and which ones would not.
Many books had to be discarded.

Regarding the apparent contradiction: Remember, the Bible has to be read very differently than a history book. It is clear from Acts that whether the men accompanying Paul heard a voice or not; what you might take away is that they had a different perception of the event transpiring than Paul did.

The broader point is this -- If you read the Bible looking for contradictions to disprove its authenticity; you have missed the entire message of the Bible.

Answer 3

Right,exactly! I've read the bible.Not the whole thing but I have read alot of contradictions!So yes,its not even God who is contradictary because God is perfectly good and pure isn't he?For a minute, i was thinking he was contradicting things but he's not!He's God,he wouldnt!Sucks to know people are rewriting scriptures.I suspect it too!I wanna know the truth the real news! I wish God would send me the real bible some day!Apparently,its not just the other religions changing things, that was ovious, but now i have the suspiction that even the king james,niv and more, most likely are not even the originals,like i know that, but they are even altered i bet!Changing the bible is a big sin against God,its deceptive and he frowns apon it so much i dont think the ones who altered it will be recieving a place in heaven,sorry!Ever wonder why so many religions?I have thought about it too.God know we only need one and its not called religion, its called Children of God.Look, there can only be one truth, one God,one way,one doctorine!And just by using common sense, it isnt hard for me to decipher the b.s.!This whole wide world has always been a great deception!So if you asked Jesus in your heart and you will know if its him talking,seek him for truth!

Answer 4

Perhaps the voice they heard was Paul's voice. It just says a voice, and they heard Paul talkin to someone but couldn't see anyone. Yeah it makes it sound like they heard Jesus' voice, but who knows? I understand the idea that if you can't trust the Bible down to the last punctuation mark, you shouldn't trust it at all. But I do trust it. And I trust that it was not changed over the years except for translations. Now you're making me wish I had taken Greek so I could read those verses in the original Greek and see what it says. Because the English versions sometimes say something differently than it's meant, or that would be said today other than in King James time.

Answer 5

Im afraid its the answer to all the difficult questions about any religion. Have faith, believe without question. Follow the leader (priest, rabbi,minister, pastor.) If you cant explain it take it on faith. And can we ever be sure if god inspired any of it or does god control it all. As god could be just a reason to control everything. If I was trying to prove a medical problem you could just imagine me saying to my patient with right sided intense pain,, have faith your appendix will not burst as i believe it wont. No you would think I was a crazy and go for another medical opinion. And find someone with the proof to be able to solve your problem. But we are expected to organize our lives around what is said in a non proven text. Every faith has writings and every writing has these contraindications taken on the readers faith without proof. So really no answer from me just more questions.

Answer 6

You have , I think answered your own question.
Being fluently bi-lingual, I have learned the difference between "words" and" literature"
DISCERNMENT I think ,as a gift of the Holy Spirit, is to be used in fair application of God given intelligence.
In the Holy Bible, the word "was made flesh" in Our Lord's incarnation
The Koran for example is "not made flesh" it's word is said to stand alone
I note that Julia's luminosity has unfairly been impinged. May I say "Be of good cheer Julia.you do know where to SHINE the light."
You Know! with all this numerical. biopsy of "texts" can I be forgiven to think that the Bible must have been written by my old enemy EUCLID lol

WOW! Beer King ,400,000 is a truly Biblical number..is you isight inspired. Locusts maybe, but such an infestation of nits would be an additional Egyptian Plague .. have a life sir.

Answer 7

Okay - the Bible was not written by God. It was written by men. And it was written by men in a different language. It was written in a language that was in use around 2,000 years ago. During that period, the language changed - as did all languages, and the meaning of various words changed, as happens with all languages over the years.
So you have a text written in an ancient language, translated into other ancient languages and eventually written in modern language. Of course there are errors and contradictions - even a love letter written that long ago in an ancient language would be hard to reconcile with the passionate outpourings of a man for a maid, in this day and age.
Does that mean there is no value in the bible? Not at all. There are some very fine precepts in the bible - and if you choose to live by them, you will be a good person. How about the contradictions? Does it matter whether those with Saul heard a voice? Not really. Saul did, and it changed his life. That is what is important about that particular incident, not whether other people also heard a voice.
One of the problems, as I see it, is that people become so obsessed with nit-picking that they miss the larger message and that, to me, is what the bible is all about.

Answer 8

The others heard the voice, but could not understand what it was saying. Only Paul was able to understand what was spoken.

In one instance of recounting the experience (Acts 22:9), he recalls that the others were not able to hear, as with ears of understanding.
(Ac 9:3-8; 22:6-11; 26:12-18)

In both descriptions of what happened, they saw no man.

The Bible is actually entirely trustworthy. It only seems to have contradictions when everything isn't taken into consideration, & without bias.

Answer 9

Oh no! this heretical scribe has changed the entire face of religion by this horrendous deviation from truth and consistency. The fact that this difference is so unimportant in the long run gives evidence that it was not purposefully changed with evil intent. I am not a translator but it seems that one possibility could be that the men heard the voice but did not understand what it was saying, and that these variations in meaning were not translated clearly.

Answer 10

This only allows you to see more clearly how confused this world is, you're very correct to see that this does become a problem when it has been translated. You're more brighter than you realize, these are the things that make you a true person. Read the material and with no judgment apply what is according, you have the ability, follow your heart on making your decisions. Decision should be made at the particular time. Everyone is different and every action deserves its own thought and process. Keep yourself focused and pray others see what we see. You now see are you hearing.

Answer 11

"The fault in instances of this nature does not lie with the Bible, but with the translation [process]. Like all other languages, Greek and Hebrew, the original tongues of the Scriptures, have their peculiarities and niceties, and often it is extremely difficult to give a fully satisfactory and adequate rendering in English."

"The construction of the [Greek] verb "to hear" (akouo) is not the same in both accounts. Acts 9:7 it is used with the genitive, Acts 22:9 with the accusative."

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"The Greek "akouo", like our word "hear", has two distinct meanings, to "perceive sound", and to "understand".

Acts 9:7 stresses that they heard the voice.

Acts 22:9 stresses that they did not understand it (or 'hear it').

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Only 400 of the 150,000 [textual variations] caused doubt about the textual meaning and only 50 of these were of great significance. Not one of the variations altered an article of faith or a precept of duty which is not abundantly sustained by other and undoubted passages, or by the whole tenor or Scripture teaching.