ApostateAbe

So, while I was on my last atheventure, I told my friends Mr. Coffee and the Cancer Lady that there are contradictions in the Bible. Mr. Coffee asked me to show him one. I opened my Bible to the story of Noah's Ark and showed him these two passages:

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

You may notice that these two directly contradicting verses are just a few lines apart from each other. Mr. Coffee couldn't explain it, but he said to me, "There must be some explanation for it, because what sort of con-artist would write an obvious contradiction like that?"

I didn't know, but I said my best guess was that the scriptures are simply a hodge-podge of various writings from various religious leaders. But I still can't understand how something so blazingly stupid can be written and passed on by people who claim it is authentic or divinely-inspired.

general_koffi

I've heard apologists claim that God commanded Noah to put in 7 pairs of clean animals and 1 pair or unclean animals, but Noah did not succeed. He only managed to find a single pair of each animal.

I find the notion dubious.

Then again, I don't know anyone personally who takes the ark story literally. It's a back-woods-of-the-southern-United-States thing.

ApostateAbe

That explanation falls with the phrase, "as God had commanded Noah." What I am looking for is an explanation for why Jewish religious leaders would create and pass on an obvious contradiction like this.

lao tzu

Hmm, I'd hazard a guess that the first verse refers to the number of pairs, and the second to the pairs themselves.

David Mills

A point rarely made regarding the tale of Noah's Ark is that God neglected to make provisions aboard the Ark for preserving plant life, which, like the Animal Kingdom, would have been totally and forever eradicated under thousands of feet of sea water. At the time the Old Testament was written, mankind didn't recognize plants as living things, so neither did their god.

David Mills

Sven

I've often heard the statement that the concept of inerrancy was quite alien to Jews; they realized quite well that the stories were meant metaphorical. Thus they simply did not care if some details did not add up.

The more interesting question is why Christians later did not change this section.

Matty

Good point. And duly logged for a time worthy of throwing at someone. Cheers

ApostateAbe

This is most likely to me. Just the phrase, "sevens, the male and his female," does not make sense to me unless it is speaking of seven pairs, not seven individuals.

lpetrich

The usual solution to this conundrum is that there was not a single author, but several authors, whose works were stitched together by some editor. I think that this editor was reluctant to leave out any "recognized" tradition, thus the repetitions and contradictions.

Here's an outline of the JEDP or "Documentary Hypothesis"; also see this Wikipedia article. A summary from the first reference:

J - Yahwist
E - Elohist
P - Priestly
D - Deuteronomist (author of the Book of Deuteronomy)

What geographical areas?
J - stress on Judah (the southern kingdom)
E - stress on northern Israel
P - stress on Judah
D - stress on central shrine (in Jerusalem)

What are they interested in?
J - stresses leaders
E - stresses the prophetic
P - stresses the cultic (correct performance of ritual, like Leviticus)
D - stresses fidelity to Jerusalem

How do they portray God?
J - anthropomorphic speech about God
E - refined speech about God
P - majestic speech about God
D - speech recalling God's work

How does God act?
J - God walks and talks with us
E - God speaks in dreams
P - cultic approach to God
D - moralistic approach

God's name?
J - God is YHWH
E - God is Elohim (till Ex 3)
P - God is Elohim (till Ex 3)
D - God is YHWH

Stylistic differences
J - uses "Sinai"
E - Sinai is "Horeb"
P - has genealogies and lists
D - has long sermons

ETA: Of the two creation stories of Genesis, the first one (the six-day one) is P and the second one (the Adam-and-Eve one) is J.

Likewise, the story of Noah's Flood is an interweaving of J and P accounts.

Rhaedas

Certainly the difference in phrasing doesn't make sense, until you see it as fragments of related stories, pieced together. I still don't understand why the writing styles weren't altered enough to remove such blatent oddities during the compilation...maybe they truly felt that each part was from a holy source, so even if they didn't mesh well, it was better than changing the word of God?