Some religions believe that the Bible was inspired or received in singular events. Many historians who have analysed the Hebrew Bible and New Testament believe they were written over a long period of time. In addition, various religions assign varying degrees of inerrancy to these Scriptures. Because of this, inconsistencies alleged to be found within the Bible take on an importance in ecumenical and apologetic discussions. Those believing in Scriptural inerrancy sometimes refer to these issues as "difficulties"; some believe they were deliberately placed by God, perhaps to test people's faith. The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, plural of βιβλιον, biblion, book, originally a diminutive of βιβλος, biblos, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos, meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material... Rembrandts The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel. ... 11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Targum Hebrew Bible refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian canons. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error in the original autographs. ... The word ecumenism (also oecumenism, œcumenism) (IPA: ) is derived from the Greek oikoumene, which means the inhabited world. The term is usually used with regard to movements toward religious unity. ... Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. ...

Various explanations are provided for these issues. Advocates of Biblical inerrancy hold that they are not, in fact inconsistencies and that the claims that they are is often the result of insufficient exegesis since Bible scholarship is multidisciplinary endeavor (requiring knowledge of language, cultural differences, historiography, etc). For example, scholars who advocate Biblical inerrancy say the text must be interpreted in its true context, and some look for ways to reconcile different texts that allow the Bible to read without contradictions. Alternatively, scholars who analyse stories, myths, and ancient documents interpret many of the apparent inconsistencies as intentional storytelling devices to teach lessons by example. This article discusses textual hermeneutics. ... Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error in the original autographs. ... “Storytelling is humanity’s oldest form of literacy. ...

The Catholic Christian view (especially since the Second Vatican Council), holds that the inerrancy of the Bible is limited to the things that God intended to reveal. The highlighted issues are then deemed not to belong to this group of teachings, or are examples of figurative language and/or allegory. The Jewish view is that such issues may be reconciled by reference to other Biblical verses, or oral teachings. On the other hand, others often see these alleged inconsistencies as evidence the Bible is a human-written book of no special divine origin. Beliefs Though enormous diversity exists in the beliefs of those who self-identify as Christian, it is possible to venture general statements which describe the beliefs of a large majority . ... The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. ... God is the Supreme Being believed to exist in monotheistic religions as the creator and ruler of the Universe. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... The concept of the divine or of The Divine, meaning matters relating to a god, forms an important ingredient in many religious faiths (but compare Buddhism, for example, or Scientology). ...

Difficulties in evaluating inconsistencies

Besides the major philosophical/theological differences brought about by different views of Biblical inerrancy and different religions, there are many other factors that may make what is an "inconsistency" to one reader seem perfectly acceptable and unproblematic to another. An inconsistency is considered here to be two statements in the Bible that cannot be true at the same time. Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error in the original autographs. ...

As there is not complete agreement among believers as to which books form the Biblical canon, some alleged inconsistencies will simply not exist for some observers, as they do not consider the particular books containing them as belonging to Scripture. Problems of translation can also cause problems that may be perceived as inconsistencies. However, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy states that inerrancy applies only to the original languages, not necessarily copies or translations. The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, formulated in 1978, is a Christian interdenominational statement designed to defend the position of Biblical inerrancy against the trend toward liberal and neo-orthodox conceptions of Scripture. ...

For instance the word used in Isaiah 7:14 to indicate the woman who would bear Emmanuel is alleged to mean simply young woman in Hebrew, while the Gospel of Matthew (1:23) follows the Septuagint Greek translation parthenos meaning virgin, thus slightly changing the meaning. Some might term this an inconsistency, while others argue that Matthew and the Septuagint translators were right.[1] This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 6 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατα Μαθθαιον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... The Septuagint (LXX) is the name commonly given in the West to the Koine Greek Alexandrine text of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) produced some time between the third to first century BC. The Septuagint Bible includes additional books of the old Jewish canon beyond those contained in the...

Further, failure to understand the culture of the peoples of the Bible may also cause certain passages to appear inconsistent to a modern reader, when an ancient reader never would have noticed a problem. Hebrew "slaves" were very different from African "slaves" in the New World, even though the same English word is used for both. Most biblical "slavery" is closer to what we would now call indentured servitude.[2], although the Old Testament, as well as passages in the New Testament state that slaves were the property of their owners, assigning values to types of slaves and examples of punishments. The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Slavery was introduced to Colonial British North America in the 17th century, in imitation of labor practices used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South American colonies. ... An Indentured servant is an unfree labourer under contract to work (for a specified amount of time) for another person, often without any pay, but in exchange for accommodation, food, other essentials and/or free passage to a new country. ...

Some alleged inconsistencies might be better termed "incomplete information". When Cain is banished, he is worried that someone might kill him, yet according to the people explicitly mentioned in the Bible, only his mother and father are alive, and don't seem inclined to murder him. For some, this would be taken as evidence of inconsistency in the Biblical narrative. Others point to the 'other sons and daughters' that Adam and Eve had in Genesis 5:4, which doesn't state when they were born.[3] In stories common to the Abrahamic religions, Cain or Káyin (קַיִן / קָיִן spear Standard Hebrew Qáyin, Tiberian Hebrew Qáyin / Qāyin; Arabic قايين Qāyīn in the Arabic Bible; قابيل Qābīl in Islam) is the eldest son of Adam and Eve, and the first man born in creation... According to the Book of Genesis in the Christian Bible and Judaisms Torah, and to Islams Quran, Adam was the first man created by God. ...

In the following sections, several major groups of alleged inconsistencies in the narrative will be discussed, together with explanations for why some persons see no inconsistency in the matter.

Internal inconsistencies

Main article: Internal consistency and the Bible

At face value, there are on occasion, apparant inconsistencies between some parts of the bible and others. These fall into several categories: Some religions believe that the Bible was inspired or received in singular events. ...

• doublets and triplets - such as creation appearing to happen twice, the animals going in two by two into Noah's ark even when they go in as a group of seven, and Abraham confusing his wife for his sister, twice, or was it Isaac?
• variations within the deuteronomic history - such as Machir & Gilead being treated in an equal manner to other tribes of Israel rather than as the half-tribe of Manasseh, David being regarded positively in one book but negatively in another without much explanation for the abrupt change, and Schechem being conquered, or was it just purchased?
• variations between Chronicles and the deuteronomic history, most noticably with regards to numbers - did David's census reveal there to be 800,000 people in Judah or 1,100,000?
• amongst the Gospels - was Eli/Heli Jesus's father's father, or was it James/Jacob ? what was the order of events during the resurrection?
• amongst the Pauline Epistles - is Jesus returning soon, yes or no? Are the leaders of the church important, yes or no? is it faith, or is it works, that should be the main emphasis?
• between the old testament and the new - predominantly concerning an apparant change from a vindictive angry deity, to one full of love and kindness - a situation that some have dubbed bambi with fangs.

The explanations for these are many and varied. The majority of scholars question the authorship of the Pauline Epistles, and allege that the torah is composed from several interwoven sources. The deuteronomic history is seen by scholars as composed from the same sources as Chronicles, but putting a different political spin on them. In classical times these theories didn't exist, and other solutions were proposed, such as Lilith. Amongst those who still assert inerrancy in the modern era, the mainstream view is that it is only certain, unnamed, parts of the Bible that God used to transmit his message, and hence only these are infallable. Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ... Michelangelo Buonarroti In the Hebrew Bibles account (Gen. ... This is a list of the Tribes of Israel. ... Michelangelos David. ... Most often, Chronicles refers to the biblical Books of Chronicles. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A 19th century picture of Paul of Tarsus The Pauline epistles are those books in the New Testament that are traditionally attributed to Paul of Tarsus. ... The documentary hypothesis is a hypothesis proposed by many historians and academics in the field of linguistics and source criticism that the Five Books of Moses (the Torah) are in fact a combination of documents from different sources rather than authored by one individual. ... Lilitu is a female Mesopotamian night demon with a penchant for killing male children. ...

More rigid opinion, predominantly held by those such as creationists, is that the variations don't really exist at all, and merely reflect changes in perspective, zoom, writer's style, age, use of scribes, and so forth. At the other extreme, some would, and did, even turn the interpretation of the Old Testament completely on its head to produce gnosticism, which viewed the serpent in Eden as the hero, and the god therein as evil. Creationism is generally the belief that the universe was created by a deity, or alternatively by one or more powerful and intelligent beings. ... Gnosticism is a blanket term for various mystical initiatory religions, sects and knowledge schools, which were most prominent in the first few centuries AD. It is also applied to modern revivals of these groups and, sometimes, by analogy to all religious movements based on secret knowledge gnosis, thus can lead...

Names of God

Supporters of biblical inerrancy reply that the different names of God merely reflect different context [4] and point out that many ancient gods had more than one name. Their opponents point out that many ancient gods had more than one name because they were originally seperate gods whose identities later merged. Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error in the original autographs. ...

Elohim is a word translated from the original Hebrew as God. At first glance, Elohim is a plural word, the singular form being El and is used to refer specifically to the God of Israel in various parts of the Bible. However, some argue that it is a usage analogous to the Royal We used in other languages, to express the sovereignty of God, and that this interpretation is supported by the surrounding adjectives and verbs taking singular cases rather than plural as would otherwise be expected. However, the kings of Israel and Judah never used the Royal We, which dates from the reign of King John (of England). Elohim (אלהים) is a Hebrew word related to deity, but whose exact significance is often disputed. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 6 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... God is the Supreme Being believed to exist in monotheistic religions as the creator and ruler of the Universe. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Some argue from the variation between Yahweh and Elohim, and the references in the Psalms to El assigning Yahweh to the tribe of Israel as their protecting deity, as well as the extensive finds of statues of Asherah (allegedly Yahweh's wife) throughout Israel, and the presence of similar gods El and Yaw in early religions surrounding Israel, that the Hebrews were not originally monotheistic, but rather henotheistic. This is in contrast to the monotheism of the theological descendants of the ancient Hebrew religion — Judaism, and Islam, and the monotheism of some forms of Christianity (although many strains of Christianity have been and continue to be henotheistic, acknowledging angels, demons, saints, and acknowledging the existence of other, lesser Gods, to whom God is superior. Some accuse Christianity of being polytheistic for asserting the existence of God the Father, God the Son), and God the Holy Spirit, but Christian scholars regard that as a blatant misrepresentation. For the small research submarine, see Asherah (submarine). ... EL or El may mean: Electroluminescence, an optical and electrical phenomenon where a material such as a natural blue diamond emits light when an electric current is passed through it. ... Yaw or Yam is the name for the Levantine god of chaos and the power of the untamed sea as found in texts from the ancient city of Ugarit. ... Monotheism (in Greek monon = single and Theos = God) is the belief in a single, universal, all-encompassing deity. ... In religion and philosophy, henotheism is a term coined by Max Müller, meaning belief in, and possible worship of, multiple gods, one of which is supreme. ... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... Islām is described as a dÄ«n, meaning way of life and/or guidance. Six articles of belief There are six basic beliefs shared by all Muslims: 1. ... Beliefs Though enormous diversity exists in the beliefs of those who self-identify as Christian, it is possible to venture general statements which describe the beliefs of a large majority . ... In many religions, the supreme God is given the title and attributions of Father. ... This 11th-century portrait is one of many images of Jesus in which a halo with a cross is used. ...

Various details of the accounts

The various censuses and genealogies in the Bible provide a large number of questions for those who seek to interpret the text completely literally. When the same event is described in two places, numbers often differ. As examples, according to Matthew, the father of Joseph is named James (or Jacob), while in Luke, he is called Eli. In the Books of Kings, the basin built before the Temple has a volume of 2000 baths (a Hebrew measure, approximately 32 liters or 8 U.S. gallons), while the account in the Books of Chronicles cites a volume of 3000 baths. David's census yields a result of 800,000 people in Israel and 500,000 in Judah, according to the Books of Samuel, but 1,100,000 in Israel and 470,000 in Judah according to the Chronicler. Bible inerrantists and conservative Christians scholars, however, often complain that skeptics fail to take into account (or fail to mention) the issue of copyists' errors or the issue of estimations (which is a cultural difference) or other important matters when they make such exegetical commentary. [5] [6]. Moreover, Bible inerrantists and conservative Christian scholars see copyists errors as not affecting the legitimacy of the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy and an unreasonable complaint of skeptics who raise this objection. [7]. Skeptics counter that an error is an error; copyists' errors of numbers necessarily mean that the Bible is not 100% inerrant. Moreover, other errors could similarly be present without multiple inconsistent references to expose them. A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population). ... Genealogy the study and tracing of family pedigrees. ... The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατα Μαθθαιον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... Saint Joseph, also referred to as Joseph the Betrothed and as Joseph of Nazareth, was the father (according to the law) of Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 1:16; Luke 3:23) and the husband of Mary. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... The Books of Kings (also known as [The Book of] Kings in Hebrew: Sefer Melachim מלכים) is a part of Judaisms Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. ... Solomons Temple was the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem which functioned as a religious focal point for worship and the sacrifices known as the korbanot in ancient Judaism. ... The litre (or liter in US) is a metric unit of volume. ... The gallon (abbr. ... The Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible (also see Old Testament). ... Michelangelos David. ... The Books of Samuel, also referred to as [The Book of] Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל), are (two) books in the Hebrew Bible (Judaisms Tanakh and originally written in Hebrew) and the Old Testament of Christianity. ... Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error in the original autographs. ...

Questions of this kind formed the subject of Anglican bishop John William Colenso's 1863 book, The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined. The book created a sensation; its impact at the time was comparable to that of The Origin of Species. An example of Colenso's sort of analysis is provided by chapter IV, "The size of the court of the Tabernacle compared with the number of the congregation." Leviticus 8:1–4 says that "the Assembly was gathered unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation." To Colenso "it appears to be certain" that phrases such as "the Assembly" refer to "the whole body of the people — at all events, the adult males in the prime of life," which would in turn include "the 603,550 warriors" mentioned in Numbers 2:32. Colenso says there are multiple references to this whole congregation's being assembled within the court of the Tabernacle. Exodus 27:18 gives the court's dimensions as 100 × 50 cubits, which he calculates as 1800 square yards (1505 m²) he deducts 108 square yards (90 m²) for the Tabernacle itself, leaving 1692 square yards (1415 m²) for the area of the court. He concludes that, "The court, when thronged, could only have held 5000 people; whereas the able-bodied men alone exceeded 600,000." However, conservative Bible commentators believe that Bishop Colenso's exegesis was very unsound. [8] [9]. John William Colenso (1814-1883), British bishop of Natal, was born at St Austell, Cornwall, on January 24 1814. ... 1863 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The title page of the 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species. ... This article discusses textual hermeneutics. ...

For some of those who support the results of critical scholarship, these inconsistencies stem from different reports of the same event, with the details having become muddied in time. Many people have no problem with considering the Bible to be inerrant in its message as God intended it to be given, while allowing errors on ancillary data. Others seek to explain these "errors" by providing additional information not found in the letter of the Bible to achieve harmony.

Morality in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament divine justice is often pictured as vengeful, a consuming fire that blazes forth on enemies, conflicting with what many current individuals would consider morality. For example, God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute (despite forbidding adultery), and David commits adultery and murder but God kills David's son rather than David as punishment. However, Bible inerrantist have offered what they see as reasonable explanations for the Hosea and the death of David's son. [10] [11] In addition, while many of the acts would ordinarily be considered immoral when witnessed in isolation, some argue that they were not considered immoral in the context of the text — for example, the text does not state that God condemns incest until after Abraham and Sarah married. In other cases morality is alleged to be upheld with a more strict understanding of the text — e.g. whilst Moses is upheld as the saviour of Israel from slavery, nevertheless his slaughter was not explicitly condoned or ordered by God, and whilst God instructed Hosea to marry a prostitute, God said he did so to illustrate God's love for unfaithful Israel. Also, Hosea himself did not commit adultery by marrying Gomer. Judaism uses the term Tanakh instead of Old Testament, because it does not recognize the New Testament as being part of the Biblical canon The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible) constitutes the first major part of the Bible according to Christianity. ... The Book of Hosea is a book of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament, written by Hosea. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Michelangelos David. ...

Conservative theologians argue that man's history is filled with attrocities and that man is sinful by nature and that the 200 million people who died in the twentieth century through manmade famines, genocide, tyranny, wars, and martydoms are the result of man's sinful nature. [12] Conservatives theologians, as a result, argue that when God's wrath is poured forth God is merely displaying the righteous indignation of a holy God. Bible scholar R. C. Sproul's book The Holiness of God or Jonathon Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" reflect this view. [13]

Supporters of less liberal laws and morality also seek to justify the text by declaring that, in the text, God, and man, had specified stricter regimes — visiting the sins of the father on the sons (i.e. killing David's son for David's sin, although in Deuteronomy this is forbidden), using capital punishment for supporters of non-Jewish religions and for women who engage in extra-marital sex, etc. Other possible explanations are offered by supporters of the Biblical text: God is not bound by his own laws due to his omnipotence; God is supporting the individuals not what they do; God is not condoning the sin, but making an example out of it; and that the descriptions are of real people rather than perfect ones. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. ...

See also

• Biblical inerrancy

Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error in the original autographs. ...

External links

Pro–Biblical errancy

• List of alleged inconsistencies (see also 'Biblical Inconsistencies Answered', below)
• The Skeptic's Annotated Bible
• A Few Bible Contradictions (ongoing list; discusses some of the issues above)

Pro–Biblical inerrancy

• Biblical Inconsistencies Answered
• Basic Rules for New Testament Exegesis by Brian Knowles
• Christian Debater
• Tekton Apologetics Ministry
• A Christian Thinktank