This Way
And That: Biblical Contradictions
When a series of fallible authors attempt
to create a cohesive testimonial manuscript, one would expect to find
contradictions among accounts of those claiming to be witnesses and/or
reporters. We could say the same for a group of conspirators convening to
invent stories for whatever purpose they might have in mind. On the other hand,
when billions of people deem a certain collection of accounts to originate from
the inspirations of a perfect God, there’s a reasonable expectation that the
facts presented should be free from contradictions.
In the case of the Holy Bible, there’s an
overwhelming amount of inconsistencies between its covers. However, you must be
careful with the plentiful lists found across the Internet and within certain
publications because many of the so-called contradictions are justifiably
harmonizable. Estimates of these occurrences are often in excess of one
thousand, but conservative skeptics offer a number only in the dozens. Most
Christians, of course, refuse to budge from zero under the guise of divine
inspiration.
I’m confident that there are at least one
hundred contradicting passages that should be classified as “irreconcilable
through rational means,” but such a list would be too laborious to compile and
too boring to read if I were to include them all here. Consequently, I’ll limit
our overview to around forty of the best examples and explain why there’s a
contradiction in cases when it’s not painfully obvious. While many liberal
Christians will accept that there are complications due to obvious human
authorship, quite a few still hang onto the ridiculous notion that the Bible is
the infallible and inerrant word of God. We’ll look at some of the apologetically
proposed solutions to these difficulties, and I’ll specifically explain why
they don’t fully solve the problems at hand.
Interwoven
Myths Of The Pentateuch
As we concluded in the previous chapter,
Moses was not the sole author of the Pentateuch. Furthermore, we should give
credit for the books to no less than four distinct writers. Because we have a
variety of authors present, there will subsequently be divergent details in
their recollections when we come upon doublet and triplet passages. As these
discrepancies are most noticeable in the creation and flood stories, this is
where we will begin our analysis.
The more popular creation account found in
the first chapter of Genesis is the one written by the author P. In his
account, he provides a very rigid timeline covering a course of six days on the
creation of the earth’s contents. Genesis 2:4 begins a more relaxed creation
account by J, thus there’s a repetition of the story with several different
details this trip around.
According to the popular P version, God
produced the animals before he created Adam (Genesis
Needless to say, both creation accounts
cannot be true since they directly contradict one another. Apologists will
often claim, without substantiation, that segments of each story were not
written chronologically. As is the case with all contradictions, they begin
with the erroneous premise of the Bible being perfect and mold the facts to fit
this belief. When you read the passages from an impartial point of view,
however, you’ll understand how unlikely it would be for their proposal to match
the truth. It’s highly illogical to assert that the animals came before Adam
when the author mentions that God created them following the realization of the
man’s loneliness. Be cautious of the NIV in this passage, as it disingenuously
slips “had” into verse 19 in order to alter the verb tense into past perfect.
No such tense shift is present in the original Hebrew language.
The redactor interwove the two flood stories
even tighter than the creation myths, often flip-flopping between authors after
each verse. P once again manages to write the more popular version of the story
in which the animals board the ark as a couple, male and female (Genesis
After the flood, P purports the sons of
Noah traveling in separate directions because of their different languages
(Genesis 10), yet we see that the world still has only one language when
construction begins on the
What Is
God Like?
The drastic alteration of God’s
personality is the quintessential biblical contradiction. His attitude goes
from that of a vocal, evil, and vengeful god in the Old Testament to a silent,
benevolent, and forgiving god in the New Testament. It’s ridiculous to imagine
a perfect, eternal being undergoing this 180-degree makeover at some arbitrary
and unverifiable point long in the past. The real reason behind this change is
the Bible’s allowance of representation by no less than two dozen authors
living centuries apart. Since fallible authors void of divine inspiration
should have variant perspectives on the nature of God, we should not be
surprised when we encounter the anomalous behavior change between the two
testaments. Still, this doesn’t explain why people were applying this new
personality to the Hebrew god at the start of the Common Era.
The likely answer to this riddle may be
related to the life cycle that all ancient religions have undergone. Belief
systems must evolve with their followers or face extinction. Perhaps people
grew tired of the threats made in the Pentateuch and felt there were no true
rewards or consequences for their actions. Out of their desires for change,
they may have created the Christian notion of Heaven. By this point, someone
obviously grasped the notion that you could catch more flies with honey than
with vinegar.
As I’ve said many times before, we have
conflicting opinions on the omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence of God.
Hosea would have us believe that God’s knowledge is limited: “They made
princes: and I knew it not” (Hosea 8:4). Pentateuch author J would have us
believe that God cannot be everywhere: “And Cain went out from the presence of
the Lord” (Genesis
Similarly, an omnipotent creator would
have unlimited power. However, consider this ages old question: “Can God make a
burrito hot enough that he can’t eat it?” This might seem silly at first, but it
demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the existence of an omnipotent being. If he
can eat any burrito he makes, he can’t make one hot enough; thus, he’s not
omnipotent. If he makes one too hot to eat, he can’t bear the product of his
own creation; thus, he’s not omnipotent. As I hope you realize from this
illustration, an omnipotent being cannot exist. There can be no power strong
enough to make squared circles, duplicated unique items, or any other
interesting paradoxes that you can imagine.
What about the human qualities of fury and
fatigue? Can God experience these feelings? With the new biblical insight that
you should have gained over the past few chapters, it should be immediately
obvious that God has the capacity to become quite upset at times. Nahum provides
us with a nice example: “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord
revengeth, and is furious” (1:2). Even so, Isaiah unambiguously claims that God
told him “fury is not in me” (27:4). If fury is not in him, how can he
experience fury? Even though it may be superficially obvious that God wouldn’t
experience fatigue, it wouldn’t be wise to jump to such a conclusion. According
to Jeremiah, God says, “I am weary with repenting” (15:6). According to Isaiah,
however, “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary” (40:28). Either God can experience fatigue or
not. Either God can experience fury or not. Nahum, Isaiah, and Jeremiah simply
presented their contrasting, divinely uninspired, human interpretations of
their god. In the process, they inevitably end up contradicting one another.
How about those who call out to this
mysterious being? Will he always save them? Most Christians believe that God
will acknowledge these cries for salvation because most Christians only read
the New Testament. After all, Paul proclaims, “whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans
God’s
Ambiguous Life Guidelines
Is it permissible to swear when making a
promise? Pentateuch author D says we should “fear the Lord thy God; him shalt
thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name” (Deuteronomy
Should we be happy when our enemies
suffer? Common decency might lead us to have some sympathy for our adversaries
when matters drastically worsen for them, as does the good Proverb 24:17:
“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he
stumbleth.” However, we don’t need to look far to find portions of the Bible
distant from the concept of decency. Psalms 58:10 speaks of a time when the
righteous will rejoice after God lashes his vengeance on the wicked. I’m not
sure I understand the Bible’s position on the issue. Am I correct to assume
that God doesn’t want us to rejoice when our enemies fall unless he’s the one
doing the punishing? If I didn’t know better, I’d say the Christian god could
be quite hypocritical.
Are we supposed to pray in public or
private? Most churches observe public prayer in accordance with the author of
Timothy, who says, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy
hands” (1 Timothy 2:8). Okay, but Jesus specifically told his followers to
refrain from this behavior. “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the
hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the
corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy
Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matthew 6:5-6).
Granted, the people who pray in church aren’t doing so just to let others see them,
but they’re still violating a direct order given by Jesus to avoid prayer in
public. Jesus was clear in his desire of not wanting his true believers to have
commonalties with the hypocrites who pray in public for counterfeit reasons.
Even so, Christians continue to pray in church. Do the words in Timothy now
trump the lessons taught by Jesus Christ, or do Christians not fully read the
Bible?
Has God declared it permissible to be
wealthy? Psalms 112:1-3 says, “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that
delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon the
earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall
be in his house.” Considering that one obtains these riches for fearing God and
following his commandments, it’s safe to say that these verses look favorably
upon those who earn their wealth in this manner. On the other hand, Jesus says,
“it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
man to enter into the
Does God save his followers according to
their faith or by the works they do while on earth? This is a fair question and
one deserving of an honest answer if we’re to do what’s necessary to please God. As there are
several contradictions on this matter, let’s look at only one example. The letter
to the Ephesians says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast”
(2:8-9). In other words, we are saved by our faith and not through our works.
Compare that with this passage found in the book of James: “What doth it
profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can
faith save him? . . . Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone” (
Should
we love the members of our family? Of course we should, right? Jesus says, “If
any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple” (Luke 14:26). In other words, Jesus tells his listeners to hate
their families and themselves before they follow him. Contrast that surprising
declaration with “honour thy father and thy mother” and John’s words:
“he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen” (Exodus
Since passages like this are extremely
disturbing to apologists, they try to find ways to alter the meanings in order
for the Christian Jesus blueprint to remain unbroken. Luke 14:26 is certainly
no exception. When discussing the matter with semi-informed opposition, you’ll
often hear the assertion that the original Greek word for hate, miseo, can also mean “to love less
than.” In other words, these Christians believe that Jesus said to love your
family less than you love God. While this might be consistent with orthodox
belief, you can be positive of one thing: there’s no truth to this
interpretation, whatsoever. No other contemporaneous records, including the
other forty New Testament uses, ever suggested miseo could have this proposed definition. In fact, miseo is an extreme form of hatred, not
your every day disgust. Nonetheless, Christians truly believe this proposal
because they, once again, start with the faulty premise of an ideological Jesus
and only accept the most likely interpretation consistent with this belief.
This line of rationale lies far outside the bounds of reality.
Did the arrival of Jesus serve to repeal
the Laws of Moses? For those who like this justification for ignoring the Old
Testament, Jesus provides a rebuttal: “Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one
of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the
least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19). Jesus
clearly instructs his followers to maintain their observance of the old laws.
Furthermore, if the Old Testament “law of the Lord is perfect” (Psalms 19:7),
for what conceivable reason would it ever need an overhaul?
The apologists’ claim that the old law has
since collapsed seemingly has no merit with the Bible. Nevertheless, the author
of Hebrews says, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how
much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon
better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no
place have been sought for the second” (8:6-7). Now, this writer claims that
the Laws of Moses given by God did
have faults and require a replacement in the form of a new covenant. If someone
argues that the Psalm is no longer valid because its self-proclamation fell
under the Laws of Moses, an imperfect set of guidelines, this person has just
replaced the contradiction with a blatant error committed by the Psalmist.
The Background
Of Jesus Christ
The ability of the Bible to provide a
consistent background for its main character astonishingly begins to falter
even before Jesus came into the world. The genealogies provided in the books of
Matthew and Luke yield an excellent example of an error avoided by one author
but overlooked by another. Because of this human mistake, the Bible ends up
containing yet another contradiction.
In the first chapter of Matthew, we see
the ancestry of Jesus spanning from King David to Joseph, Mary’s husband. The
complication with this genealogy is the absolute lack of a blood relationship
between Joseph and Jesus. As the story goes, Jesus, a man without an earthly
father, was born from a virgin impregnated by God. If the Matthew genealogy is
true, Jesus was not a descendant of David. Consequently, he could not be the
Messiah allegedly prophesied to arise from the line of David (Psalm 132:11). As
you should expect, this was obviously not the author’s intent. Seeing as how
the author of Luke probably realized that tracing Jesus’ lineage this way would
be a blunder, he created his own genealogy passing through Heli. Even though
Luke is specific in stating that Heli is Joseph’s father, I have given
Christians the benefit of the doubt that he is Joseph’s father-in-law instead
of a second father. To very little surprise, Heli and Mary just so happen to be
descendants of King David as well (Luke 3:23-38). The Bible has now begun to
insult the intelligence of its audience.
Accounts also differ from Matthew and Luke
on when Jesus was born. The more popular account of Matthew has King Herod
alive at the time of Jesus’ birth (Chapter 2). From several historical sources,
we know Herod’s reign ended in 4 BCE with his violent death. Thus, according to
Matthew, Jesus must have been born in or before 4 BCE. The date later
designated as Jesus’ birth is misplaced, but there’s nothing biblically wrong
about that. However, Luke says that Mary was still with child at the time
Quirinius was conducting a census as Governor of Syria (2:1-5). According to
meticulously kept Roman history, Quirinius couldn’t have carried out this
census until at least 6 CE. Thus, according to Luke, Jesus must have been born
in or after 6 CE. In order for the two accounts to be harmonious, Jesus had to
be born before 4 BCE and after 6 CE: a feat impossible even for a supernatural
being. The two accounts provide a ten-year discrepancy in need of a difficult
resolution.
To
rectify this insurmountable problem, Christians have desperately proposed,
without justification, that Quirinius was a governor twice. They say this
earlier phantom governorship was held sometime before 4 BCE in order for Luke
to be consistent with Matthew. Here’s what we know from Roman history:
Quintilius was governor from 6 BCE to 3 BCE; Saturninus was governor from 9 BCE
to 6 BCE; Titius was governor from 12 BCE to 9 BCE; Quirinius, the governor in
question, didn’t obtain consulship until 12 BCE, making him ineligible to hold
Syria’s office of governor before that time; no one ever held the governorship
of Syria twice; Josephus and Tacitus, the two most important historians from the early Common Era,
never mentioned Quirinius holding the post twice; and there would be no reason
for Quirinius to conduct a census prior to 6 CE because Judea wasn’t under
Roman control until that time. A few contributions of irrelevant evidence and
several wild explanations claim to rectify this obvious contradiction, each one
through its own unique method, but they’re all nothing more than the most
outrageous “how-it-could-have-been-scenarios.” The two accounts contradict
greatly over the time Jesus was allegedly born.
The Death
Of Jesus Christ
Shortly before Jesus’ crucifixion, Peter’s
master tells him that he will choose to disavow any knowledge of Jesus on three
occasions. After these events manifest, a rooster will crow to remind him of
Jesus’ words. In Matthew, Luke, and John, Jesus warns Peter that all three of
his denials will take place before the
rooster crows (26:34, 22:34, and 13:38, respectively). In these three accounts,
the situation unfolds exactly how Jesus predicted. The rooster crows after, and
only after, Peter’s third denial is made (26:69-75, 22:56-61, and 18:17-27, respectively).
However, the details are different in Mark. Here, we see Jesus warning Peter
that the rooster will crow after his first denial and crow again after his
third denial (14:30). Of course, this is exactly how the events play out
(14:66-72). This is an undeniable contradiction without a rational explanation.
If Mark is correct, the rooster crowed after the first denial even though Jesus
said, in the other three Gospels, that it wouldn’t crow until after the third
denial. If these three Gospels are accurate, Mark is wrong because the rooster
could not have crowed until after Peter’s third denial.
In addition to the problem of the crowing
rooster, the identities of the people interrogating Peter over his relationship
with Jesus differ among the four Gospels. In Matthew, the subjects were a
damsel, another maid, and the crowd. In Mark, the subjects were a maid, the
same maid again, and the crowd. In Luke, the subjects were a maid, a man, and
another man. In John, the subjects were a damsel, the crowd, and a servant of
the high priest. While it may be possible to justify a harmonization among two,
possibly three, accounts, there’s no possibility in fitting the four reports
into one cohesive tale.
Once Jesus was summoned before Pontius
Pilate, Matthew claims that Jesus “answered him to never a word” (27:13-14).
John, however, records a lengthy dialogue between the two men (18:33-37).
Apologists often assert that John was speaking of a different interrogation
than the one reported in Matthew, but this meritless claim still doesn’t
resolve the discrepancy. Matthew unambiguously states that Jesus never answered to Pilate. If Jesus never
answered to Pilate, the discussion recorded in John could have never taken
place.
On the way to his crucifixion, Jesus burdened
his own cross according to John (19:17). The other three Gospel writers tell us
that a man named Simon of Cyrene carried it (Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke
23:36). While it’s true that both may
have carried the cross at some point, as many apologists claim, what are the
odds that all four authors would foul up by omitting this important detail?
The four Gospels also differ on what they
purport was written on the sign above the cross. Matthew 27:37: This is Jesus
the King of the Jews. Mark 15:26: The King of the Jews. Luke 23:38: This is the
King of the Jews. John 19:19: Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. Mark also
claims that the thieves who were executed with Jesus insulted him (15:32), but
Luke says that one thief insulted Jesus while the other begged his forgiveness
to secure a place in Heaven (23:39-42). In addition, the Gospel writers also
differ on what they imply were Jesus’ last words. Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Luke 23:46: “Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit.” John 19:30: “It is finished.” Furthermore, the four
contradicting authors made similar errors and/or omissions with regard to the
number of women and angels visiting Jesus’ tomb following his burial. I would
never claim that minor variations in detail invalidate a story, but you must
agree that writers inspired by an omnipotent deity should perform a little
better than they have up to this point. These discrepancies obviously arise
from several decades of playing the telephone game.
It’s All
In The Details
Has anyone ever seen God? According to the
Pentateuch, God made an appearance in human form over a dozen times in front of
several people, such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses (e.g. Genesis 12:7, Genesis
32:30, and Exodus 33:11, respectively). However, Jesus and John claim that no
one has ever seen God face to face (John 6:46 and John 1:18, respectively).
Was Ahaziah eighteen years younger or two
years older than his father (2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 21:20-22:2,
respectively)? The Bible says that a man was two years older than his father,
yet Christians still parade it as perfect! Perhaps these apologists only read
the NIV translation of 2 Chronicles, which deceitfully alters Ahaziah’s age
from forty-two to twenty-two with only a minor footnote. Even more astounding
than this perplexity is the exceedingly unfortunate Saul who died via four
different methods: suicide by sword (1 Samuel 31:4-5), death by an Amalekite (2
Samuel 1:8-10), death by a Philistine (2 Samuel 21:12), and struck down by God
(1 Chronicles 10:13-14).
How did Judas die after betraying Jesus?
The popular account of Matthew is that he hung himself (27:5). However, there’s
a lesser-known account of how he died in Acts. “Now [Judas] purchased a field
with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the
midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (1:18). I’ll openly admit that the common
explanation proposed for this contradiction is one of the funniest things I’ve
ever heard. Evidently, this is what took place: Judas hung himself from an
extremely elevated tree branch in the field, the branch snapped, he did a flip
to fall head first, and his body exploded upon impact. If someone were to add
“how-it-could-have-been-scenario” in the dictionary, the editor would surely
have to consider this example for inclusion.
There’s even a contradiction related to
how the field was purchased. Matthew says Judas took the money that he received
as a reward for surrendering Jesus and threw it into a temple. The priests
within the temple then used the money to buy a field for burying strangers
(Matthew 27:5-7). Remember, however, Acts claims that Judas, not the priests,
was the one responsible for buying the field. The most likely reason for this
blaring contradiction is a lack of one author’s access to the contrasting
records of the other. Had something lifted this assumed restriction, we could
be reasonably certain that this contradiction would disappear.
In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus
sends his disciples on a journey and tells them to take nothing but their
staves and sandals (6:8-9). In Luke, Jesus says to take nothing, provides a
list of items that the disciples are to leave behind, and includes staves on
the list (9:3). In Matthew, Jesus reaffirms his desire for the disciples to
leave everything at home, including both shoes
and staves (10:10). Such a seemingly inconsequential detail is important for
one reason only: demonstrating yet again that the Bible is a fallible record
scribed by humans, not the perfect word of an eternal god.
Here are a few more impossible puzzles for
you to solve if you ever get bored: “No man hath ascended up to heaven” (John
3:13) versus “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11); “And
one kid of the goats for a sin offering: to make an atonement for you” (Numbers
29:5) versus “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4); “If a man have long hair, it is a shame
unto him” (1 Corinthians 11:14) versus “He shall be holy, and shall let the
locks of the hair on his head grow” (Numbers 6:5); “The earth abideth for ever”
(Ecclesiastes 1:4) versus “Heaven and earth shall pass away” (Matthew 24:35);
“And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go and number
Israel” (2 Samuel 24:1) versus “And Satan
stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel” (1 Chronicles
21:1); “Walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes”
(Ecclesiastes 11:9) versus “Seek not after your own heart and your own eyes”
(Numbers 15:39); “That Christ should suffer, and he should be the first that
should rise from the dead” (Acts 26:23) versus Lazarus rising from the dead
months ago (John 11:43) and the previous resurrection miracles of Elijah
centuries in the past. Did the fig tree cursed by Jesus wither immediately
(Matthew 21:19-20) or overnight (Mark 11:13-21)? Did Jehoiachin reign three
months and ten days when he was eight (2 Chronicles 36:9) or three months when
he was eighteen (2 Kings 24:8)?
“Even The
Stuff That Contradicts The Other Stuff”
This chapter is but a small sample of
possible biblical incongruities. God’s holy word contains contradictions of
every kind from cover to cover within accounts of important events, rules for
worship, how to get to Heaven, the nature of God, historical records of birth
and rule, and the teachings of Jesus. Realizing the existence of such
contradictions would destroy the ideal quality of the book many set out to
explain by any means necessary. An impartial ear can often translate common
justifications for these problems as “the Bible says something it doesn’t mean”
or “the Bible means something it doesn’t say.” These dishonest and inconsistent
apologists feel that as long as they put a nonsense scenario out there that’s
capable of satisfying the contradiction, it’s up to everyone else to prove it
wrong. This is a very dishonest and implausible attempt at holding the Bible to
be perfect. Even worse, it doesn’t work because anyone can do that to any book. If all else fails, they often
brush aside unexplainable predicaments as “the incomprehensible and mysterious
ways of God.”
The contradictions exist for a reason.
First of all, as I’ve said so many times before, there was no true divine
inspiration from God guiding the authors to write their material. Each person
wrote through his own limited interpretations and experiences because no one
honestly expected the collection of books to grow in popularity to their
current state. In addition, no one had any way of knowing which books were
going to be enshrined in the Bible and which ones were destined to face
omission. It would have been too daunting of a task for the authors to check
every historical record for contradictions with their compositions. Instead,
it’s likely that most authors simply tried to keep a steady theme set by
preceding authors. As time progressed, the new generation of authors obviously
sensed that the Israelites needed a new God. As the Gospel writers were perhaps
aware of a growing disdain for the threats from the cruel god of the Old
Testament, they set out to create a new one in their own image.