Celsus

*Sigh* not another Biblical contradiction thread... Oh well... I posted this elsewhere:
Happy now?

Joel

Sven

How about a sticky thread with links to the most recent Biblical contradiction threads?

hagiograph

PHF,
Just this year, after 40 long years on this planet, I decided to start reading the Bible cover to cover. At the same time I picked up my NRSV I found the Skeptics Annotated Bible. I agree that often the "contradictions" listed are little more than misinterpretations of the true contextual writing, but for me the neat part is the ability to search the text tagged for the various commentary. For instance I was in an e-mail debate with a friend over some stuff that Paul says in some of the Epistles. If I want to pull up all the anti-woman comments Paul makes all I have to do is go to whatever epistle and click on the little icon for women and up it comes. Now, granted, I can weed out the spurious stuff, but it acts as a first-pass seive to help me find something that I read the night before that I found particularly annoying.
I do think it is a useful, if somewhat crude filter to start the process, but you are indeed correct, it must be used in conjunction with an actual reading of the Bible itself.

BlakeEM

Here are some good ones...


Which first--beasts or man?

GEN 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

GEN 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

GEN 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.







The number of beasts in the ark

GEN 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

GEN 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, GEN 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.





The sins of the father

ISA 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

DEU 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.




Jesus' last words

Matt.27:46,50: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?" that is to say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ...Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost."

Luke23:46: "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, "Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:" and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."

John19:30: "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished:" and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."








CRUEL, UNMERCIFUL, DESTRUCTIVE, and FEROCIOUS or KIND, MERCIFUL, and GOOD:
"I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy." (Jer. 13:14) "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling."
"The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." (James 5:11)
"For his mercy endureth forever." (1 Chron. 16:34)
"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." (Ps. 145:9)
"God is love." (1 John 4:16)







Tempts?
"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham." (Gen 22:1)
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 1:13)






Judas died how?
"And he cast down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed, and went out and hanged himself." (Matt. 27:5)
"And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all of his bowels gushed out." (Acts 1:18)






How old was Jehoiachin when he began to reign?

KI2 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

CH2 36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.




ON SEEING GOD
"... I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." -- Genesis 32:30

"No man hath seen God at any time..."-- John 1:18





ON THE POWER OF GOD
"... with God all things are possible." -- Matthew 19:26

"...The LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." -- Judges 1:19





ON DEALING WITH PERSONAL INJURY
"...thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. " -- Exodus 21:23-25

"...ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." -- Matthew 5:39




ON CIRCUMCISION
"This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised." -- Genesis 17:10

"...if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." -- Galatians 5:2




ON INCEST
"Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of this mother..." -- Deuteronomy 27:22

"And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter...it is a wicked thing...." -- Leviticus 20:17

[But what was god's reaction to Abraham, who married his sister -- his father's daughter?] See Genesis 20:11-12

"And God said unto Abraham, As for Sara thy wife...I bless her, and give thee a son also of her..." -- Genesis 17:15-16




ON PUNISHING CRIME
"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father..." -- Ezekiel 18:20

"I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation..." -- Exodus 20:5



ON TEMPTATION
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." -- James 1:13

"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham..." -- Genesis 22:1




ON RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
"...he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. " -- Job 7:9

"...the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth...." -- John 5:28-29




In the creation of earth there were days, evenings, and mornings and light before the sun and moon were created.


A few other things that are simply wrong. The bible calls Bats birds. It also says that Rabbits chew their cud. It says insects have 4 feet, also wrong. It says Snails melt.




I noticed many of these things are simply taken out of context and you need to think about what was going on when they were said. Many of the bible contradictions I read seemed very silly. Some of the stuff might not have been meant to be taken literally (but how would anyone know?). These are just some quick ones I found online, some are better than others. Some stuff might have been screwed up in translation as well. Some of these however are pretty obvious contradictions.

inquisitive01

What? Not a single response (yet) regarding the above reply to the so-called contradictory Verses (about delusions in the OP? :huh:

inquisitive01

How can one sincerely "think" about them when only one verse in each instance is looked at (and in many cases, not really looked at too deeply)? In other words, sometimes explanations for what is said in one verse can be found in preceeding verses OR in verses that follow. Some words, such as the word delusion, can have different meanings (delusion can mean either deceit, elusion, or frustration).

Also, in some instances, it seems that what appears to be peoples' names in the Bible (i.e., Jacob... "I will call you Israel") may actually stand for something that is not a human (i.e., a city, country, a group of people, etc.). Because of the way the Bible is written (and translated), one cannot simply skim over it in hopes of trying solve the mysteries behind it.

Skeptic Pete

http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...adictions.html



"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand
that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
[Mark Twain]

Lord Emsworth

OK, I'll bite.


Firstly ...

Thessalonians-2|2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong >frustration<, that they should believe a lie.

Thessalonians-2|2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong >elusion<, that they should believe a lie.

Thessalonians-2|2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong >refrigerators<, that they should believe a lie.

The God of truth still makes them believe a lie. Regardless of whether he achieves that with delusions or something else entirely, like refrigerators, doesn't matter.


Secondly ...

The verse does not say elusion, frustration or refrigerators but plain for everybody to see DELUSION. The Blueletterbible does not offer these as alternatives.

Roland

On Jesus' first appearance to his disciples after his resurrection:

Luke 24:35 says ALL ELEVEN disciples were present.

John 20:24 says Thomas was missing.

inquisitive01

See Verses 3-4 in the same Chapter. The "son of pardition" (Satan), who would delude some to believe he is God, would send the "strong delusion." Below is Verses 3-12 of Chapter 2, which is necessary to read if one is to understand these Verses (you can't just read Verse 11 and get the whole picture, in other words, which I mistakenly did earlier... my apologies):


3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this cause God (the one they believe to be God, but is actually Satan deceiving, or deluding them) shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.