Hi everyone, in today's video we are going to look into the question of errors and contradictions in the Bible. Many skeptics level this charge that the Bible has got so many errors and contradictions or absurdities and inaccuracies in it. If you do an online search, you'll probably find lists in which there are hundreds, or maybe even thousand, of contradictions or factual errors in the Bible. And in this video, we are going to look at some of these claims and critically examine them. But first we will have some background.


Apparent contradictions and errors everywhere
If you look into every field of knowledge or even our day-to-day life, we find that there are apparent contradictions and errors everywhere. For example, in a simple statement, like the sun rises in the east, it's possible to find an objection to this. Someone might say that, you know, the sun is not really rising. The sun is not going around the earth across the sky. It's the earth that is rotating about its axis. And so, the sun only appears to rise in the east, but nevertheless, we use this simple non-technical language. So technically, there is an error here, but nevertheless, this is an accepted way of speaking.

This is about electricity. And these equations probably look very complicated to those of us who don't have a science background. Perhaps you can make out that there's a difference between these two formulas. And usually in a physics class students will notice, and they will ask, isn't there a contradiction here? There is a factor of half and this formula, and the second formula here in the box seems to be a formula for the same thing, and yet it does not have a half, so there seems to be a contradiction. Well, but both formulas give the same final answer. So the final answer matches. So, what's the answer? Well, the V here and the V here refer to two things which are slightly different. So, you here you see there is an apparent contradiction, but the contradiction can be resolved. Now, my reason for pointing this out is that we see a similar pattern in the Bible. There are things that appear to conflict with each other, but then on closer examination, they get resolved.

Now, if you look up the price of a car. This is the price of Honda City as estimated by two different websites, and you can see that there is a difference in the prices that are being quoted. Now no one goes and complains and says that you know, these websites have false, or there is a contradiction. Nobody says such things. The reason is that the price of a car can include various heads. So based on what you include, or exclude, the final figure that you get might differ. At different times and in different states, the taxes of the insurance fees and so you may be different. So, you may have a slightly different total. So, we understand and accept that certain figures may not tally with each other because of different backgrounds. These things have to be kept in mind even while reading the Bible.

This is a concept from mathematics. And somebody who comes to study this topic for the first time might see that there is a contradiction. You know, do we put we put x = 1? The answer is yes and no. And if the student asks the teacher you know, can we substitute, can we put this value? Can we plug in the value of x = 1. At sometimes the teacher will say no, and at sometimes, yes. Okay, so there seems to be a contradiction but if you study and understand this topic, there is no real contradiction. So, here's also an example where there is apparently a contradiction but no real contradiction.

There is a theory in physics, it's called a theory of relativity. Perhaps even people who are not from a science background may have heard of Albert Einstein. So, this is one of his famous theories. And this theory is famous for its paradoxes. So, these paradoxes have even been given names. We have the ladder paradox, the twin paradox, where there are certain scenarios that we can think of, and this theory seems to give a contradiction in these scenarios, but it is not really a contradiction. So, even books have been written on this subject. And this is part of teaching the topic in any course. Any teacher will spend some time in resolving these paradoxes. So yet again, we have an example of paradoxes that are only apparent but not actual.

Okay, moving away from science to something which is closer to the Bible, and that is reporting an examination of a record or a witness testimony in court. Here also we see that there could be contradictions, that appear to be so on first sight, but are not really contradiction. So, this is an exact actual example from a case in which the claimant, the person who is giving a complaint, said that his surgical stoma had changed color, but then a doctor had recorded that it was of normal color. So there seem to be some wrongdoing a contradiction, but then the judge observed that there is in fact no necessary inconsistency between the exchange as the claimant recalls it and the record in the note. If the doctor had indeed said that the slightly darker appearance of the stoma was due to bruising. It seems to me that the author could have interpreted that as meaning, that the appearance included the color of the storm was normal. So, when you take into account the factor of injury, or bruising, then taking that into account, the color is normal, so perhaps that's what the doctor meant. So, the judge was able to observe that.

This is legal practice, standard legal practice, where the guidelines put it this way. It says that, if the testimony appears to conflict, if the testimonies of two witnesses appear to conflict, then closely compare them and check what they're actually saying. So here the example given is, one witness says that a substance X is commonly used for a particular purpose. Another person says that it is not used. Now, it could be that the second person means to say that similar substances are used, but then this particular substance is not used. So, there could be statements which on first sight appear to directly contradict each other, but on closer examination, the contradiction is not there. So, with this background in mind, let's get into some examples from the Bible.


Contradictions explained by change with time
When you look at a record, which talks about something happening in time, we have to keep in mind that things are a status, or a situation can change with time. The Bible says that when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, there were two thieves who were also crucified on either side. Matthew tells us that these two thieves join the crowds in reviling the Lord Jesus. Look at what Luke says, “One of the culprits revile them but the other rebuked Him, Don't you fear God? We are suffering justly, but this Man has not done anything wrong.” So, skeptics have pointed out this as a contradiction. One gospel writer says that both the thieves reviled Jesus, whereas the other says that only one reviled Him, and the other one was being respectful to the Lord Jesus and rebuking the reviling thief. Well, when you look into the situation, you see that we don't necessarily have a contradiction here because the crucifixion is something which takes several hours. Jesus and the thieves were on the cross for hours together. And it is possible that as time progresses, as people see a turn of events, it is possible that they can have a change of heart. So when we put both these accounts together, without coming to the accounts with a bias, which is looking for contradictions; if you look at both together we can understand them as complementary. So evidently, what must have happened is that in the early stages, the two thieves must have reviled the Lord Jesus. And sometime later, one of those states had a change of heart. The bible says that there were extraordinary things that were going on, there was darkness that took place all around, the sun stops shining according to the biblical record, and that must have influenced one of the thieves, and he had a change of heart. So these accounts are not complimentary. They are not contradictory, but they are complementary.

There is a record of the mighty men, the key people in the army of King David. So one record is in Second Samuel 23. The other is in 1 Chronicles 11. So you have two lists in the Bible of the key people in David's army, and you'll find that the two lists don't match exactly. Many names are common, but all the names don't match. So do we have a contradiction? Well, the answer is that David ruled for 40 years. When a king is ruling for 40 years, one does not expect that the composition of his army remains exactly the same for 40 years. There will be people who are older, and they will retire, and they will be replaced by new people. Age might not even be the only reason for people being removed from the army and new people being brought in. So it's only understandable that the lists are different. In fact, 2 Samuel 23 is describing the end of David's tenure, and 1 Chronicles 11 speaks of the beginning of his tenure. So during his early years and later years, the composition of the army changed somewhat. And this is to be expected. It is not a contradiction.

The Bible says that due to Israel's rebellion, God allowed the people to be taken as captives by their enemies, the Babylonians. And then after 70 years, God made the king of Persia to have mercy on the people of Israel. So he allowed them to return and there is a list of people who returned. How many singers were there among the returning exiles. So the first list in the Bible is in the book of Ezra. And according to that record, there were 200 singers and then a few decades later, there was another person called Nehemiah, and he came from Persia to Jerusalem. And then he says, I found a register of the people who had returned, and then he copies on the same register and the book of Nehemiah that goes by his name and according to this record, there were 245 singers. So skeptics will say there is a contradiction. 200 versus 245. But then, isn't it obvious that it's very much possible that the number could have changed in fact, there could have been more people who enrolled as singers. Perhaps there were some people who decided that they would make the trip to Jerusalem, and they dropped out. There might have been other people who replace them. There might have been a few people who came later on. They may have been people under training and after some time, they must have graduated and therefore their names were also included in the list of singers. So there are many possibilities on many reasons why the two records don't match. In fact, when we look at these differences, it actually speaks of authenticity. If people were cooking up stories, they would just keep looking at what the other person has written, and making sure that everything matches identically. But reality is not like that. Reality is complicated, things change over time. And that change is honestly reported in the Bible.


Paying attention to detail
When we read the Bible, if we are careless, there are many things, many contradictions that seem to appear. But if you look into the passage carefully, you will find some of these contradictions getting resolved. When God liberated his people, and he was about to bring them to the promised land, they were just at the borders, and then they sinned greatly against God and God sent a plague and many of them died. So how many died in this plague? Numbers was written shortly after this incident, and it says that 24,000 people died in the plague. Many years later, after the time of Christ, the apostle Paul is reviewing this incident, and he says that 23,000 people died. So here there seems to be a contradiction. But if you look carefully, the complete worse says 23,000 people died in one day. So there's actually no contradiction. It might have happened that the 24,000 people who died stretched over two days. So perhaps 1000 people died on one day and the remaining 23,000 on the other day.

In Exodus 9, that's when the people of Israel were in bondage in Egypt. Moses, God's appointed leader, told the Egyptian authorities if you refuse to let us free God’s hand will be on your cattle and the Egyptians did not listen. And so in verse 6 it says, all the cattle of the Egyptians died. So God sent a plague on the cattle of the livestock of the Egyptians, and they all died. Now, a few chapters later, and a few plagues later, we have the last plague, and there in Exodus 14 it says that at midnight, God struck all the firstborn of Egypt dead, right from the firstborn of Pharaoh, the firstborn of those in prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. Now, skeptics have pointed this out as the contradiction. In verse 6 of chapter 9 it says, that all the cattle of the Egyptians died. Then how is it possible that in chapter 14, that is a few days later, how is it possible that there was still cattle with the Egyptians whose firstborn could be struck down? If all the cattle died in the 7th or 8th plague, then how is it that there are cattle that are dying in the 10th plague ? Well, the answer is that the Israelites still had cattle, isn't it? In the earlier plague, the Bible says that no cattle of the Israelites died. So it's very much possible that the Egyptians might have either bought or borrowed or confiscated some cattle from the Israelites. And that's why a few days later, they still had cattle that could die in the last plague. Now, these explanations sometimes seem very simple.

So you might think that I'm making up these examples, but these examples are not made up. These are examples of supposed contradictions that actually appear on the websites of atheists and other people who do not believing the Bible. So when we look at the explanation, it seems very simple. Yes, there were other cattle in the land belonging to the people of Israel, and the Egyptians lived in a society in which cattle were very important. So when their cattle died, they must have bought cattle from the Israelites, and that's why they had capital a few days later.

This is one of the most commonly mentioned supposed contradictions in the Bible. They claim the objection is that there are two creation accounts. In Genesis chapter 1, the claim goes like this man and women; woman are created simultaneously, and they are created after the animals whereas in Genesis 2, man is created before the woman and before the animals. So there seems to be a prediction. So let's look into the text. So this is Genesis chapter 1 verse 23 says, the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And verse 24, is now the 6th day and there it says, God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures. So there was cattle and various kinds of animals and so on and so forth. All these things were created on the 6th day. And then after that, in verse 26, God says, Let us make man in our image to have dominion over all these animals. And then in verse 27, it says, that God created man in His own image, He created him male and female. So what we understand from here is that Genesis chapter 1 is giving us a chronological sequence. All 6 days of creation are mentioned one after the other. And in each day, the writer tells us the thing that God created in that day, so there were 5 days and in the 6th day God created animals. And then He said, Let's have somebody to exercise dominion over these animals, and then god created both man and woman. Now what we need to notice here is basically two things. Man and woman were created after the animals but nowhere in this passage, nowhere in Genesis 1 does it say that God created man and woman at the same instant of time. It just says that God created both of them the 6th day.

Now look at Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7 it says that God formed man of the dust of the ground. In verse 19, it says that God created all the animals and then brought them unto Adam to see what he could call them, and Adam gave names to all the animals. And this exercise not only familiarized Adam with all the animals that were there with him in the garden of Eden, but it also helped him to notice that whereas other animals were in pairs, there was no companion for him. And then God caused him to have a deep sleep. God took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh, and then made a woman and brought her unto the man.

So here if you read the whole chapter of Genesis, I've not reproduced the whole chapter here, but reading the whole chapter, that is Genesis 2, we realize that in this chapter, the purpose is not chronologically. The purpose here is to explain the things that mattered to man as a human being, what are the things that mattered to him? So first of all, he says, You know, God created me. And then he says, I was made to name all the animals and there I noticed that there was no companion for me. I cannot relate to the animals. So then God made a woman, a companion that was suitable for me. So there is no contradiction here. Genesis two is a summary of the same creation events that took place, but Genesis 2 gives us more details, more descriptive details. It does not give us chronological detail for the animals. The point here is that Adam had to name all the animals and after that, the woman Eve was created.

From Genesis chapter two, we realize that there was some time gap between the creation of Adam and Eve, Adam must have spent a few hours naming all the animals after that he was created. So this one only tells us that both of them were created on the sixth day, without telling us whether they were created at the same instant of time, or was it a few minutes apart or a few hours apart? But from Genesis 2, we get these additional details. So when you read the passage carefully, you see that the two passages are complementary, they are not contradictory.


Contradictions in Mary anointing Jesus
A few days before the Lord Jesus Christ died, there is an incident that the gospel writers narrate. Jesus was at someone's house, the house of people he knew. There, there was this lady Mary, who poured out a bottle of perfume on the Lord Jesus Christ, and she anointed His feet. You can see the broken perfume bottle in this image. So now that there seems to be a contradiction, if you look at the different narratives in the gospels. The Gospel of John says that 6 days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, that's the village where Lazarus was living. So he came to Bethany to the house of Lazarus they made dinner for him, and then Mary took a pound of costly perfume and anointed the fate of the Lord Jesus. So this is written in the Gospel of John. So this incident evidently took place 6 days before the Passover.

Now look at the Gospel of Mark it says after 2 days was the feast of the Passover, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. Verse 2 says, not
So most Bible students believe that it's the same incident being referred to because there are so many things that are uncommon, and yet there are differences. It says here that it wasn't the house of Simon the leper, whereas there it's now Lazarus was the brother of Mary. Mary is the woman who anointed Jesus. So there was Lazarus, and Mary, and her sister Martha, so two sisters and a brother were living there. Whereas here it says that it's the house of Simon the leper. Again, when you look at the incident, understanding that there is a context these are not just hypothetical stories that somebody is inventing, but these were real people, real places, real houses. It is possible that the house was associated with more than one person. Perhaps these were these, the these two sisters and a brother. It could be that they were orphans, that their father's name was Simon, and perhaps he had passed away, so the house was still known as the house of Simon the leper. Another possibility is that Simon the leper was the owner of the house and these people were staying on rent.

But more interesting for us here is the timing and in the Gospel of John it says that this took place 6 days before the Passover, but here it says, 2 days before the Feast of Passover. But notice something carefully in verse 3 here it says, and being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. The wording here shows that we should not assume that the narrative here is following a strictly chronological pattern. Mark tells us about the plan of the priests, and then he tells us about the anointing that Mary did, then he tells us that the disciples. In fact, Judas was not happy at this supposed waste of perfume. And then Jesus defended this woman. And then in verse 10, it says that Judas, one of the 12, went onto the Chief priests to betray Him onto them. So Mark here is weaving a theme. He is trying to tell us how one thing led to another. The chief priests did not want to crucify Jesus on the Passover, but that's when He actually ended up getting crucified.

So how did it happen? They were just looking for an opportunity, but they were finding it difficult to apprehend Jesus. But then Judas, perhaps partly because of this incident, where he was reprimanded, and the woman was complimented. He went, and he told the chief priests that he is willing to betray the Lord Jesus. So that's how Judas ended up betraying the Lord Jesus, and that's how Jesus ended up getting crucified on the Passover day. So Mark is not trying to give us a chronological account here. He's trying to explain why certain events took place the way that they did. So he includes a flashback and those of us who have read novels and watch movies, we know that even in novels and movies, we sometimes have a flashback. And so although it is two days before the Passover, Mark is narrating an incident that have actually taken place six days earlier, because that incident explains certain other things that happened. So it's not contradictory, but it's multiple eyewitnesses, giving an account of the sequence of events from different points of view with different objectives in mind. In fact, these are the hallmarks of authenticity. This is not the work of people sitting together and conjuring up a story, but this is a hallmark of multiple eyewitnesses independently writing an account of what they have observed

A lot has been written about contradictions in the resurrection accounts, all the four gospels say that on the morning of the first day of the week, there were people, mostly women, who went to the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then they did not find His body there, but they found that they were told that He was risen. So how many women went ? Some Gospel accounts say one went, some give multiple women. There are some Gospel accounts that say they bought their spices. There are others which says they prepared the spices and then brought them. Some Gospel accounts don't mention the women's seeing any angel. Some say one angel, some say two angels.

I had not noticed it from the Bible, but it was an atheist website that reminded me that in one case the angel was sitting and in the other case, the angel was standing. Well, it's not rocket science to figure out that the same person who is sitting can also stand after some time. It's also not rocket science to figure out that there must have been multiple groups of women going there to the tomb. Perhaps even making multiple trips when you go somewhere with great fear and great anticipation. And if you find something that frightens you, you may get away from that place, but then again, if you're driven by the motivation to go and fulfill your purpose or if you're driven by curiosity, you might even go back there. And putting all the accounts together it seems as if there was at least one person who might have made multiple trips and that is Mary Magdalene. So when you understand that, reality is complicated, you have many people involved, many trips, involve them all the accounts fit into each other. So when you read the Bible, try to read it with this understanding.


Understanding complete picture of the truth
Now, what does Jesus have to do with peace? It says that when Jesus was born, they were shepherds who were grazing their sheep out in the countryside, and suddenly the night sky lit up, and there were many angels and heavenly beings that appeared. And they sang glory to God and the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill towards men. So Jesus is supposed to bring peace. That's what the angels are telling the shepherds at His birth. And the shepherds went; they went to the place that the angels told them, they found Jesus lying there, and they worshiped Him. Then Jesus, of course, He grew up, then look what He says, just don't think I have come to bring peace I've come to bring division.

Now that seems to directly contradict what was said at his birth. In fact, there's yet another twist on a later occasion he told his disciples, I'm giving you My peace. So it sounds confusing. Is He come with peace, or is He come to take away peace? Those of us who have had some experience with dealing with reality, and perhaps all of us have, although we perhaps have not noticed it, or paid much attention to it, we know that truth is often complex and multifaceted. There are often different sides to the truth. In Matthew chapter 10, the Lord says, I've come to bring division. So Jesus is not politically correct. He says certain things, He takes a stand and this can offend many people, so there will be division. At the same time, He also says, I have come to give you peace.

The angel said, He has come for peace. Now, before we before the angels mentioned peace and goodwill, they mentioned Glory to God in the highest. So that perhaps is the clue for us to understand it. Isn't it? The first priority is glory to God. And only second comes peace and goodwill towards men. So yes, the Lord Jesus Christ can bring peace to you and to me and to anyone who submits to Him, but that peace will only come as we receive Him on His terms, as we humble ourselves and give glory to God. So there will be peace from Jesus if God is given the glory. There will be peace if you receive Jesus Christ for whom He claimed to be. But there will always be people as long as people have free will, and they will always have free will because God has given that to them, there will always be people who refuse the Lord Jesus. So there will always be division. The truth can bring peace, but then the truth is well-defined, then there will always be some people who disagree and that's why there can be division.


Should we answer fools ?
Should you answer people who are fools ? Sometimes we feel motivated to, you know, set some people straight, and sometimes we feel that you know, there's there's no point talking to such people. So here you have a contradiction. One verse says, Don't Answer a fool, and the very next verse says, Answer a fool.

This might sound very simple when I explain it, but these are actual examples that you can find online if you search for Bible contradictions. Well, the verse is not just this short, there's something more that is said. Not Answer a fool, lest you also be like him, and answer a fool lest he be wise in his own conceits. So, there is a case for not answering fools, that is a case for answering them also. We have to exercise our discernment to understand which case is applicable when, and we have to act accordingly. So there is no contradiction here. This is just wisdom.


Can man see God?
Moses was one of the greatest prophets in the Bible, and the Bible records Moses telling Jehovah, please show me your glory. And Jehovah replied, You cannot see my face no one can see me on live, stand on a rock, I will pass by cover you with a hand while I pass by, and then I will take away my hand, you will see my hind parts, but my face may not be seen. So much of caution has to be exercised for a man to just get a glimpse of God, and then he can just get a glimpse after God has actually passed by. And just a few verses before this, the Bible says Jehovah would speak to Moses face to face, like a man speaks his friend. As contradictory as it gets.

There are various explanations that have been offered for this, but the one that I favor is as follows. Even in the Old Testament, and more explicitly in the new, the Bible presents the truth of God being one being and multiple persons. So in Exodus 33 Chapter, verses 19 to 23. The truth being communicated is that God in all His glory, God the triune, God in all His glory cannot be seen. But at the same time, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, who is also God, who came down to the earth later as Jesus Christ, he appeared at many times in the Old Testament is even a name given for that it's called a theophany, or a crystal funny. So, the Lord Jesus appeared, He is eternal, and he appeared in the Old Testament many times, but the Triune God in all His glory, not be seen.

Before you jump at a passage like this and say that this is a contradiction, you need to understand that this is being written by a man called Moses, who was a very learned and an intelligent man. He would not write something like this and give away a contradiction. If he writes something which seems to contradict each other, you need to look for something behind the lines, you need to look for something that is behind the scenes, there will be an explanation.


Contradictions on Judas Iscariot’s death
One of Jesus’s disciples was called Judas Iscariot, and he is a villain in the Bible. Because he's the one who betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, later on, he regretted what he did. So the question is, how did he die? The Gospel writer Matthew says that Judas threw the silver coins, that is, the priests had given him the silver coins as a bribe or reward for betraying the Lord Jesus. He threw those silver coins in the temple. left from there and among himself. This is what Matthew records. Now see what Luke records, he bought a field with a reward for his evil deed. And then he fell headfirst in the middle, all his entrails came out. What exactly happened? Did he throw the money in the temple, or did he use the money to buy a failed? And did he die by hanging, already die by falling?

Well, if you put all the accounts in the Bible together, we understand that all these things happened. Well, he bought that field. Now, anyone who has done a real estate transaction knows that everything may not be paid at once. So what must have happened is that he expressed his intention to buy this field, he must have paid a token amount and then later on, he had regrets about what he did to the Lord Jesus Christ, then he went and threw the silver coins in the temple. And then another gospel writer also informs us that the chief priests saw the money in the temple, and they said that you know, it's not right to put this money in the temple treasury. So they went and bought the field. So, evidently, they completed the real estate transaction that Judas was thinking of abandoning. And then what did Judas do ? He went and hung himself in that field. Then what happened?

From the narrative in Acts, we can understand that something went wrong in his hanging. Perhaps the rope came loose, or somebody else tried to rescue him, but it went horribly wrong. Something happened, and he fell, and he fell first headlong, and all his entrails came out. So all these things are true. It's true that he hung himself, and it's true that he fell down. One does not exclude the other. There is a Jewish tradition that Judas suffered a very painful death. He had a slow death because his entrails came out, but he did not die immediately. So when we put all the accounts together, we get a full picture. No account gives the full picture because it would be too large for us to read if it actually gave us the full picture.


Reporting procedures
This is a picture of Solomon's temple and there is the there is a sea that it's actually a big basin, which is supported by oxen, that's made of metal. It says that it was 10 cubits from end to end, and a line of 30 cubits went around it. So the diameter was 10 cubits and the circumference was 30 cubits. Now, the problem here is that 30 divided by 10 is three. Whereas we know that when you divide the circumference of a circle by the diameter, you were supposed to get a special number called PI, whose values 3.1419 and these decimals go on. So there seems to be an error here because the biblical data is not matching with the precise mathematical value.

Yeah, but if that's the objection you're making, there's another thing you need to remember. Not from math's from physics or from engineering. Every measurement and every observation or recording is approximate. Whenever you measure any value, the length of an object, its mass, or anything else, every reading in an experiment, or an observation that is made is always approximate. And when we present data or when we present results, we have to present it rounded off to an appropriate number of significant figures. So for the purpose of argument, suppose we take it back the circumference was exactly the quits are very close to 30 cubits what when you divide 30 by PI, you get 9.5493. Well, all the measurements given in the account of Solomon's temple are in integers. So the obvious thing to do is to round up 9.54 And when you round it up, you'll get 10. So the writer of Kings was only doing what engineers do today. And that is round off his data or his response to the appropriate number of significant figures. This is not an error.

This is from the Gospel of Matthew, it says that what Jeremy the Prophet said was fulfilled: they took the 30 pieces of silver and so on, Jeremy is probably a Greek version of Jeremiah. But then the statement that is written here they took the 30 pieces of silver is actually not from the prophet Jeremiah, but it's actually from the prophet Zechariah. So the gospel writer seems to be making a mistake here. He is attributing to Jeremiah something that actually is Zechariah. Well, what is the explanation for that?

In those days, all the prophetic scrolls were kept together and Jeremiah is one of the longest books not the longest, but one of the longest books in the Old Testament and Zechariah is one of the Minor Prophets. So it was customary to name the whole set of Prophetic scrolls just by one prophet, and that is Jeremiah. So when Matthew writes, he is just employing the colloquial term. You know, this is from that scroll. It is for what Jeremiah the prophet said. Of course, there is yet another possibility that Jeremiah the prophet may have made this statement, although it is not recorded in his book. Perhaps it was known to Matthew from another source, that's also a possibility; hat these are things to look into when we look when we find apparent contradictions in the Bible.


Translation and Semantics
There are some issues because of translation and semantics. The Bible says the hare is unclean for the Jews to eat, although it chews the curd. Now, hairs don't chew the curd. So here we seem to have an obvious mistake or an error.

There is a possibility that the identification of the species is not precise. This is written in Hebrew, 3500 years back, and it's possible that every species that was there in the Middle East at that time is not there now. So there can be some problem with the identification of species. There's also another possibility here, in English, we use the term chew the curd for a very specific activity of some animals bringing up again, the things that they have eaten, it comes back from their stomach to the mouth, and they chew it again. But in Hebrew, it's not a specific term like that. Chew the cut the expression in Hebrew just means, it takes up again, that which was put away. It takes up, again, that which was put away. Now, hairs do eat their feces. This is part of their digestive routine. They eat their feces, so it fits with the Hebrew expression, they pick up again what was put away. So when you understand that this Bible was not originally written in English, there is no real contradiction.

In the Old Testament, the Bible says that a fish swallowed Jonah the prophet, if you read the English Bible, and then in the New Testament, the word whale is used at least and the King James. So the skeptics would love to tell us that whales are not fishes. But then these are terms in ancient languages, in Hebrew and Greek there was a general term for large aquatic creatures. So they wouldn't make the distinction that we make today about whales. Being mammals and just laying eggs and all that kind of stuff.

Similarly, the Bible has a list of unclean birds. And in that list bats are also mentioned. Well, birds are not mammals, but the bat is a mammal, so the bat is not a bird. All that is true. But ancient Hebrew. There was one word used in general for anything that flies in the air with wings. So there is no contradiction when you examine the Bible, in its original language.


Understanding spiritual meanings to the text
Some things in the Bible may not appear the way we expect it to appear, because the Bible is a spiritual book. And let's see an example of this. How long did it take from the exodus to the building of the temple? in First Kings, we read that it took 480 years. That was during the 4th year of King Solomon's reign, when he began building the temple. Many years later, the apostle Paul is narrating all this history to his audience. And he says like this, God brought our ancestors out of Egypt for 40 years, they were wandering in the wilderness, and then they enter the Promised Land, and He gave them judges for 450 years. After that, He gave King Saul to rule over them for another 40 years. So now we already have 40 plus 450 plus 40. That's already 530 years, isn't it. Then after King Saul, there was David who rule for another 40 years and then after that, in the fourth year of King Solomon, the temple was built. So according to information in Acts it was more than 530 years. It was more than 500 years from the exodus to the temple building, whereas kings tells us that it's only 480 years, you have a major discrepancy.

So, this table summarizes the problem. On the one hand, you have for 480 years. On the other hand, you have 40, that is wilderness wanderings 450 years of judges, then the first king the second king David, 40 years each. Fourth year of Solomon, so three complete years. So that leads us to 573 years. So two events, according to one narrative, are separated by 480 years and, according to another passage, separated by 573 years. So there's a 93-year mismatch.

In the Bible, God speaks about last days and lost years. The people of God they followed God fervently sometimes, and there were other times when they were away from Him. And when God speaks of those years as lost years. So you'll find these kinds of years in the lives of individuals and also in Israel as a nation. If you look at the time of the judges, there are various times mentioned when the people of Israel were in rebellion, and therefore God gave their enemies dominant. So this is a time when the nation was away from God. And if you add all the number of years that are mentioned, you get 93 years. So it turns out, interestingly, that 573 minus 93 is 480. That is, if you subtract these lost years in which the Israel away from God, then you get 480 and this matches with the other account. So God's major dealings with the people of Israel, one was getting them out of Egypt, liberating them, liberated them so that they could worship Him. And the climax of them worshiping Him is in the building of the temple. So these are spiritual things. And God is looking at them from a spiritual point of view in connection with His relationship with the people of Israel. So here, the writer in Kings does not include the lost years, and that explains the discrepancy.

So we hope that this video will help you to take the Bible more seriously. Give it a close look. It's not an ordinary book. It may sound superficial, it may sound wrong, it may sound contradictory at first sight, but that's not how it is. It is God's word, and we hope that this video helps you to understand that. Thank you very much.