ON CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE
The first fact that a person understands in reading the studying the Bible is that it is the inspired word of God. Yet, a serious student of the Bible at some point comes across apparent contradictions in the Bible and wonders how God’s word could have these contradictions. There are several ways to understand these conflicts.
First the Bible is an amazing book- in fact a collection of 66 books by 40 different authors writing over a span of 1500 years, and for a book of such varied origins, the message is astoundingly singular. This message is that of a loving God who created this world and watched man go astray with his sinfulness. It demonstrates the incomprehensible love of God that paid the ultimate price when his son Jesus came down to earth as a mere man and gave himself up for man’s sins and all who believe in him and turn away from their sins have eternal life. While this is the major theme that comes across when one reads the Bible, for those who are hung up on the apparent contradictions, the following reasons are helpful.
- The nature of the Scripture allows for variations. Peter, writing in 1:20,21, says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”. This is central to understanding variations found in Scripture. While other religious books like the Koran are dictations from God, that man received in a passive sense; the Bible is inspired by God’s Spirit, in the sense that man was not put into a trance by God while it was being written, but his prophets were carried along in an active sense to accomplish the Scripture. So when we read the Bible, the down to earth nature of the Word is truly refreshing. We can relate to it just like we can relate to Jesus because he was not just God but completely human as well. Just like in a mysterious sense Jesus was completely God and completely man, the Bible is completely God’s word and also completely man’s word. While this mysterious ideal union is the only way God’s word can be truly relevant to man, it also allows for translations, variations with language, paraphrasing and different interpretations without compromising the inspirational element present in the Bible.
- Translations of the Bible into different languages bring about some variations. That is easy to understand as different languages have different expressions for the same concept. The common example is that of the English word ‘love’, which is the common translation for four different words in the original biblical language- storge (empathy), philia (friendship), eros (erotic) and agape (unconditional godly love).
- The Bible translations we have today depend on the original manuscripts and the older they are, the more accurate they are considered. Ancient manuscripts are few as the Bible was predominantly passed on in an oral tradition. As older manuscripts come to light, many of the inaccuracies do get resolved.
Overall the Bible is an amazing book and the minor differences we might come across in some places does not take away from the inspired centrality of the word therein.
