Contradictions are widespread in the bible. Apologists have many criticisms about identifying contradictions, and in many cases they go out of their way to add things to the bible in order to explain them away. In fairness to those who believe in the bible, I make no assumptions that any of these contradictions are true. But that’s precisely because I make no assumptions that the bible is true. Below is a list of contradictions that I have identified. This list is incomplete and will continuously be updated.
- Does god lie?
- What did the women do after visiting Jesus’ tomb?
- Does god get angry?
- Is only god holy?
- Who slew Goliath?
- How did David kill Goliath?
- Do boys have to be circumcised?
- Does god listen to prayers?
- Who is to blame for original sin?
- Where is the devil?
- How long will the earth last?
- How many sons did Abraham have?
- Is god’s law perfect?
- Can god be found?
- Is incest ok?
- What does the bible say about men who are castrated?
- Are sins forgiven?
- Who was Moses’ father in law?
- Who was Heman’s father?
- Does god value foolishness?
- Should Christians preach to atheists?
- After resurrection, how many disciples did Jesus reveal himself to?
- Can the devil capture us at will?
- Is it ok to have a census?
- Who raised Jesus from the dead?
- Who does god respect?
- Should Christians cast out devils?
- How long was the Babylonian Captivity?
- Did all the Egyptian cattle die during the fifth plague?
- Can god do anything?
- Can we eat animals? – [VIDEO]
- Who gave the law to Moses?
- Who were David’s sons born in Hebron?
- If a man believes, is his non-believing family saved?
- Is it ok to make images?
- Does everyone have to die?
- Did god appear to Moses in the burning bush?
- Does god work on the sabbath?
- Is it ok to kill?
- Does god dwell in light?
- Do sinners go to hell?
- When did Baasha die?
- Does sacrificing an animal take away sins?
- Does god help us?
- How does Antiochus die?
- Is Jesus god?
- Did Enoch die?
- Can women teach in church?
- How high were Solomon’s capitals?
- Can Jews intermarry?
- What happened to the city of Ai?
- Can “true” Christians leave the church?
- Who was Kish’s father?
- How many false prophets are there?
- How old was Benjamin when he came to Egypt?
- Does god like magic?
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Bible Contradictions: the Straw Man Fallacy
Jesus of Nazareth is the greatest philosopher of all time — “philosopher” in the sense of “lover of wisdom”. He used the analytical method. His analysis of texts and declarations included the “smallest letter” of each word and even “one stroke of a letter” (Matthew 5:18).
The philosopher Jesus of Nazareth presented the argument that the Bible has no contradictions. From Genesis to Revelation, he argues, the Bible has only true statements (John 17:17; Luke 24:44, 45; Revelation 21: 5). Where there are only true statements, there is no contradiction. One of Jesus Nazareth most famous disciples and a friend of his, the writer John the Evangelist, recorded the logical principle that he had been taught, “no lie originates with the truth” (1 John 2:21). Thus, if the assumptions are true, the conclusion will be necessarily true. Jesus of Nazareth’s argument has the following logical structure:
_1_ does not have_2_
Jesus of Nazareth fills the empty place on the right side of his argument schema with the object consisting of the union (sum, join) of the ordered set of words of the Hebrew language (including some passages in Aramaic) with this ordered set of Greek words. This object — only this object and nothing more than this object — is the Bible. Let’s nominate it by a. He fills the empty place on the left side of his argument structure with any object that someone considers a contradiction. For example, some claim that there is a contradiction between the passage of 2 Samuel 23:8 and the one of 1 Chronicles 11:11. Let it be c such object. In this case, Jesus of Nazareth’s argument presents as follows:
a does not have c
Note that the object a, the Bible has been translated into many other languages — thousands of them, being the most translated set of words in the world. Let’s denote by x any translation of a. Note that, whatever x, a and x are distinct objects. For instance, all x is more recent than a and all x is not written in the same passages in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek of the time of a. Furthermore, a may exist without x, but x cannot exist without a. The object a is absolutely independent of x, nothing that affects a affects x.
The Bible is not a book in Latin, in English or in Chinese. It should be noted that there is not an original Bible and a non-original Bible — as well as there is not an original Koran and a non-original Koran, or an original Tanakh and non-original Tanakh, or an original Iliad and a non-original Iliad. There are translations of these works. Register that there is at least one religious organization that translated the Bible into English and that instead of titling this work Bible or the Holy Bible or Holy Scriptures, titled it, quite honestly, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. It is a translation. So, people know what they have on their hands. Therefore, he who wants to demonstrate an inconsistency or contradiction in the Bible must discuss the Bible; he who wants to demonstrate an inconsistency or a contradiction in the Iliad must discuss the Iliad. If he discusses a translation, the most he will be able to demonstrate is a contradiction in that translation.
Some people attacked the argument of Jesus of Nazareth and of the School he founded, according to which there are no contradictions in the Bible.
For instance, you and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people defend the thesis that the Bible has many contradictions. It turns out, however, that you and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people are not discussing the object a, the Bible, which the philosopher Jesus of Nazareth held in his argument. You and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people are discussing something completely different, that is, the object b, the translation entitled King James Version. Therefore, this is the argument of Jesus of Nazareth:
a does not have c
While your argument and the argument of The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people is a very different one, that is:
b has c
The argument put forward by Jesus of Nazareth is the same his followers today defend. To succeed in their argument attack, You and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people must demonstrate the following:
a has c
Which you do not.
Notice that you and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people are distorting the argument of Jesus of Nazareth and of the School he founded, in order to affirm that the Bible has contradictions. Indeed, where Jesus of Nazareth and his School put the sentence
a does not have c
You and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people put a different entity, which is this:
b has c
As one can see, you replace the object a by the object b.
With this distortion you and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people change the topic, the subject or the theme of the argument of the discussion of Jesus of Nazareth and his School. In fact, the topic of Jesus of Nazareth and his school is the Bible contradictions, and your topic and the topic of The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible is the contradictions of a translation of the Bible, but making believe they are discussing the contradictions of the Bible.
With this distortion, you and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people incur the logical defect called “the straw man fallacy”. “The straw man fallacy is committed when an arguer distorts an opponent’s argument for the purpose of more easily attacking it, demolishes the distorted argument, and then concludes that the opponent’s real argument has been demolished. By so doing, the arguer is said to have set up a straw man and knocked it down, only to conclude that the real man (opposing argument) has been knocked down as well.” (Patrick J. Herley, A Concise Introduction to Logic, 11th edition. International Edition, 2012, p. 129).
Unless you and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people analyze the Bible itself, the object a (and not a translation of it, the object b, as they do) the straw man fallacy remains. Consequently, YOu and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people do not prove any contradiction in the Bible: You fully and absolutely fail your attack against the great philosopher Jesus of Nazareth and his School argument. You and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible people argumentation is illogical and unreal.
http://skepticsbible.co/
This is literally word salad. You didn’t demonstrate the historical accuracy of the text… Yes it is a translation. But what is being used is the translation… So you have one thing being said in one part of the bible vs something completely different being said ON THE SAME subject later. So what are you talking about?
Skepticsbible is actually quite accurate with it’s concerns which you failed to even posit….
Funny how you were using the “straw mans fallacy” when you, yourself have used it in your “explanation”.
You haven’t addressed anything regarding what the skepticsbible addresses… You did seriously a lot of hand waving….
The bible is the object and the translation is the bible…. Are you for real?
IF you had the ORIGINAL copies then WE could analyze that instead of the TRANSLATIONS. Go back to school and sit down. You have created a straw man and knocked it down yourself…..
“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Well I certainly don’t want to be called a fool by a book that I already do not believe in.
Has it ever occurred to you that OTHER religious texts might say the same thing about you?
only a fool follows a book in fear of being called a fool by said book
Wait… I thought 2 Corinthians 10:5 says to engage in the debates because truth is truth.
“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”
I didn’t have time to read through your list yet but I will do so later 🙂
On your youtube video “6 Baffling Bible Contradictions” you said at the end of the video “Feel free to comment any criticism or some bible contradictions you have.” I’ve found only few contradictions myself but here’s another interesting list I’ve stumbled upon previously and can recommend reading if you haven’t already: kyroot.com
I don’t know the author of that website but they seem to list every argument against the bible they find from different sources so if you have some new ones to add, maybe they would be interested (don’t blame me if they aren’t though, I have no idea how they choose their sources).
Few of the reasons have some incorrect information but most of that list is still rather interesting reading since it’s rather long and there were quite a few I hadn’t read of beforehand.
Jason lile has a book on this that explains why they aren’t contradictories at least most of them. And meat is way not a contradiction as it is in the OLD Testament.
Can you make another to the list of contradictions?: How does one attain salvation?
Another contradiction. Can one lose salvation.