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I have heard that the Bible is full of contradictions. Is this true?

The short answer:

At first glance certain passages of the Bible do seem to conflict with each other. The key words, however, are “at first glance.” When you take a closer look at these passages, however, there is no contradiction that would impact the truthfulness of the Bible. These so called “contradictions” generally fall into three categories:

1: Passages that were mis-copied at some point in the past. These are not a cause for concern, however, Though copying mistakes are bound to happen, there are surprisingly few of them in the Bible. They are easily discovered and they don’t really impact the meaning of the Bible at all.

2: Accounts that are told from more than one view point. Two people who saw the same account often remember different details. These are not contradictions. One account simply amplifies the other. When we put the accounts together they amplify each other rather than contradict.

3: Times when God tells us things outside our experience and senses. When an infinite and eternal being tries to describe himself within the limited experience of mortal human beings, we should, of course, expect some things that would look like contradictions from our point of view. How can God be three, yet one? How can God be unchangeable, yet listen to and respond to the prayers of human beings? These are things which, because they are beyond our understanding, we simply accept on faith. Instead of shaking our faith in the Bible, these things should strengthen our trust in God. After all, a God who could reasonably explain Himself to the human mind would be no bigger than we are and, therefore, not a God we could depend on.

The long answer:

I think it is important that we first look at the reasoning behind the question about contradictions. Why are critics of the Bible so quick to point out the supposed “contradictions” they find in it?

Through out history and especially from the late Middle Ages through the 18th century, people have asked themselves, “how do I know what is true?” In answer to that question, many philosophers turned to the rules of logic to determine what is true and what is false. Men like Anselm and Descartes attempted to prove that God was real or the Bible was true through logical reasoning.

One of the rules of logic is that two mutually exclusive statements can not both be true at the same time. (a contradiction). Therefore, if the Bible contain a contradictions, two statements which can not both be true, one or both of the statements in the contradiction would have to be false and the Bible itself would be in error.

This is why critics are so quick to point out things they believe are contradictions in the Bible. If the Bible were shown to be in error then we would not be able to trust it to tell us the truth about God, salvation or morality.

I find a problem with that, however. The rules of logic describe human reasoning. And the human mind is incapable of comprehending the infinite or eternal reality of God. To place human reasoning over God and to use human logic to judge the truth of what God tells us is backwards. We are dealing with an infinite God and should expect that, at times, what He tells us of Himself will seem contradictory from a human point of view.

This really should not surprise us. We deal with these kinds of contradictions or “paradoxes” all the time in life. (A paradox is a contradiction in which the mutually exclusive statements are, in fact, both true at the same time). Light, for instance, acts like a wave in physics experiments. But a wave is not an object. It is a movement of a substance such as water or air. Yet light is able to move through empty space. It may be that eventually we will find that “empty space” is not empty at all but is, in fact a substance. But, until we can prove that, light is a paradox. Its behavior is a contradiction from our point of view.

In the same way, if we could see reality from God’s point of view, there would be no contradiction. But since we are looking at the infinite from a limited human standpoint, many things about God will be paradoxes. For instance, the Bible clearly says there is one God. Yet, it just as clearly calls Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit God. Hence, the Trinity (three in one). The Bible says God is unchangeable. Yet it clearly tells of times when God responded to the prayers of people and changed His plans.

These kinds of paradoxes, however, should strengthen our faith in the Bible, not create doubts. For if God were able to squeeze Himself into human reasoning and logic, He would be little bigger or more powerful than we are. That God can not reduce Himself to the level of human reasoning reminds us that He is beyond our comprehension and, therefore, a God we can really trust to know much more and do much more than we ever can. The “contradictions” in these paradoxes, then, testify to the truthfulness of the Bible, that God is honest about Himself even when He knows we can not comprehend what He is telling us.

A second source of supposed “contradictions” occur when we see the same incident recorded from two different view points. These are not a real concern as they do not actually contradict each other.

Again, we often deal with similar situations in our everyday lives. For instance, you might tell your child that day and night are caused as the earth revolves on it axis so that parts of it face the sun while other parts do not. The next minute you might mention what a beautiful sunrise it was this morning, as if it were the sun that were moving. There is no contradiction here. From the sun’s point of view, we move. From the point of view of a person on earth, it is the sun which is moving. It is the same event told from two different points of view.

This happens in the Bible as well. For instance, Matthew is very reluctant to give much detail about events he did not personally witness. John, however, was a witness for many events where Matthew was not present and gives much more detail about the things he saw. So, in the account of the resurrection Mathew only mentions the women who went to the tomb and saw Jesus as they were leaving. He spends much more time speaking of the guards’ experience, leading us to suspect that he knew at least one of the guards personally and wished to tell what the guard had seen. John however, went to the tomb with Mary and Peter. He focuses on Mary’s experience, therefore, and does not mention the other women. Both accounts are correct. They are simply the same incident from two different points of view.

Once again, these incidents should increase our faith in the Bible. That different writers each told of the events from their own point of view assures us that we have gotten the full story and know all we need to know of Jesus’ life and god’s plan of salvation.

A third source of apparent contradictions is similar to that of the different points of view. Languages do not always match up and, even if they are using the same language, people often mean slightly different things when using the same words. Again, we often do this ourselves in everyday life. When you tell your daughter she is sweet, you certainly don’t mean the same thing you did that morning when you told her that she did not need to put sugar on her cereal because it was sweet enough already.

As an example in the Bible, the Greek word for faith has a very broad range of meanings so sometimes the apostles will use the word in different ways. Paul tells us that faith alone saves. He uses the word faith to mean “a trusting relationship with Christ.” James, on the other hand, says faith alone can not save. He is using faith, however, in a much more limited sense. When James uses the word faith, he means simply acknowledging the truthfulness of who Christ is and what He did. That’s a far cry from actually trusting Christ.

These are not contradictions. We simply have to be careful to let the context tell us what meaning a writer is using.

And, finally, there are contradictions that occur when a scribe made a mistake in copying the Bible. These contradictions are not a real problem. The original Bible as it was written was without contradiction in these spots and only human error since has created the contradiction. These errors are usually easily spotted and seldom make any difference at all in the message God has given us. As to why we can still trust the Bible in spite of copying mistakes – that is the subject of another question and answer.

In conclusion, then, when we take into account the paradoxes about God and differences in view point, the Bible does not have any contradictions in it. Furthermore, the many millions of very intelligent people throughout the last 2000 years who had faith in the bible as the true and accurate Word of God should be a tremendous testimony that we can trust the Bible as true.