One netfriend (August 2004):
It would be so helpful if […] would provide us with a list of all the errors in the Bible. I can’t think of much that would benefit mankind more. He continuously asserts that the Bible contains errors, but every time we ask him about something, he claims he agrees. Soooo, what is the text of the [….] Version?
To which I responded
[…] , I don’t know how sincere you are in asking this question, but there are hundreds of apparent/real contradictions in all translations of the Bible.
If you want to research many of them visit the Skeptics’ Annotated Bible and for each book of the Bible click on the ‘contradictions’ tab.
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com
Eg.
Jer.52:22 “And the height of one chapiter was five cubits.”
versus
2 Kg.25:17 “The height of the chapiter was three cubits.”
OR
“How did Judlas Iscariot die? According to Matthew 27:3-10 , Judas “hanged himself”.
In Acts 1:18 the apostle Peter says that Judas “falling headlong, burst asunder, and all of his inwards gushed out.”
(I think there’s an easy way of reconciling these two descriptions: what’s yours?)
OR
In Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4 Jesus is tempted in the wilderness after his Baptism. Both gospels describe in almost identical detail the three temptations, but they list them in a different order.
These sorts of apparent (note my use of that word advisedly) contradiction occur many times in the Bible.
Of course, a dive into any commentary will uncover some obvious explanations for many of these ‘contradictions’. But not all.
But the basic question we have to face is ‘Where is our faith to be placed?’ In God through Christ, or in the Bible or dogma? The Devil can/does quote the Bible…
Now, to refute a couple of dozen statements on these groups (which I usually ignore) about ‘Croucher is against the Bible’ let me put it on the record that I read the Bible every day, reverently, and prayerfully, and it is God’s Word to me. It is a God-inspired revelation of God’s truth, leading us into a life of faith, hope and love.
Another ‘netfriend’ responded: <> Croucher IS against the Bible!
My response:
I grew up with two kinds of fundamentalists: those who shut their ears (like the people who stoned Stephen) and those who had open minds, but clearly-defined presuppositions.
The first group believed Jesus was God so when a baby Jesus knew the laws of astro-physics, and when a boy could throw a curve-ball. A most difficult text for them was Jesus’ admission that he _didn’t_ know everything… (Matthew 24:35-36; See http://www.carm.org/questions/Jesus_know.htm for an interesting approach to that question).
The second group believed that ‘Scripture is inerrant’. So when the statistics from the same battle described in the historical books of the OT differ they told me the scribes copying the Bible way back made a mistake, but the *originals* must have been inerrant because ‘God cannot lie’.
This I call ‘theology by syllogism’ (this and this therefore that). Maybe the originals were error-free, but who can prove that? And why didn’t the NT or the creeds spell out the ‘inerrancy’ idea if it’s so basic?
This is where ‘evangelicals’ (like me) differ from ‘fundamentalists’. I’m not prepared to believe anything about the Bible which the Bible doesn’t clearly assert.
—
Shalom!
Rowland Croucher
Discussion
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