rhutchin

Not necessarily. Kings says that "Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots" while Chronicles says, "Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots...whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem."

The 4,000 could be a subset of the 40,000. It might have been that each group of 4,000 horses was rotated into duty after some period of time in order to keep the horses fresh and not wear them out and maybe allow them to breed or be used for other purposes.

The Chronicler could well have had a copy of kings and decided to add the additional information.

rhutchin

Why is this considered a contradiction? The explanation that "There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark" does not negate the total number of pairs of clean and unclean animals that entered the ark. Do you know the argument that explains how this is viewed as a contradiction?

rhutchin

Some regard verses 19-20 as an explanatory comment to support v18.
19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

God formed the birds and animals first and after God formed Adam, He brought the birds and animals to Adam to be named. It was in doing this that "for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him," from which we conclude that Adam, and humans, are uniquely different from animals. We also know why, in v18, God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Among all the animals there was nothing that God had created that was "comparable to him.”

juergen

Exactly, like just for example softening Pharao's heart, showing him the error of his way, and reconcile Egypt and the Hebrews. It's what Jesus would have done.

BMD

Why? One says by sevens and one says by twos. Even if we accept your explanation, you still have the problem of telling us how to get seven of something into the ark in groups of two.

BMD

The way you ask us to reconcile these verses requires us to ignore the order of events. The plain reading of chapter 2 of Genesis is that God formed man and then started forming the animals to look for a partner for man. Each animal was brought before Adam, named and found wanting for the task. Only then was woman formed. And this order is different than that given in chapter 1. To reconcile the two you have to ignore both the specific order of chapter two and the story being told.

rhutchin

One verse says that the animals entered the ark in pairs. The other says that seven pairs of clean animals were to be taken on the ark. I do not see the basis for a contradiction. However, I am curious to see the original explanation for the contradiction and the reasoning behind that conclusion. Do you know if such an explanation is available anywhere on the internet?

BMD

Your omnipotent god had to harden Pharaoh's so that he could send all those plagues and killings in order to soften his heart and show him his error? Why did your cruel god harden his heart in the first place? He was ready to let them go until your god stepped in and hardened his heart in order to kill a large number of Egyptians. Why do people keep claiming that this god is good?

BMD

"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."

Are you then saying that if seven means fourteen then does that mean that two really means four? Or are you just going to take whatever reading that suits your purpose?

rhutchin

A plain reading of the translation may be misleading. Some translators say that the the text should read, "Out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast..." as the Hebrew text allows this. There is also the issue of v19-20 being an aside or insert by the editor to explain v18. It is not always easy for translators to determine the intent of the writer and reflect that intent in the translation.

What seems to be clear is that God created Adam, then brought the animals to Adam to be named and then formed Eve from Adam's rib.