Are There Contradictions in the Bible?

What is a Contradiction? A Difference Does Not Make a Contradiction!

What is a Contradiction? Law of Contradiction: “Nothing can both be and not be.” (Jevans, 1928, p. 117)

What is a Contradiction? “That the same thing should at the same time both be and not be for the same person and in the same respect is impossible.” (Aristotle)

What is a Contradiction? Is the same thing or person under consideration? Is the same time period in view? Is the language that seems self- contradictory employed in the same sense?

What is a Contradiction? “John is rich.” “John is poor.” Is it the same person? Is it the same time period? Is it the same sense?

What is a Contradiction? It is never proper to assume a contradiction exists until every possible means of harmonization has been fully exhausted!

Same Thing/Person The Ark (Genesis 6:13ff) The Ark (Joshua 3:1ff)

Same Thing/Person James 2:14,17 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? …(17) Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

Same Thing/Person Philippians 2:12 So then, my be-loved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

Same Thing/Person Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Same Thing/Person Romans 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. (cf. 4:2ff)

Same Time Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Same Time Genesis 6:5-6 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Same Time Matthew 10:1-2 Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: …Judas Iscariot…

Same Time John 17:12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

Same Time John 12:6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.

Same Time John 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

Same Time Mark 15:25 It was the third hour when they crucified Him.

Same Time John 19:14-15a Now it was the day of preparation for the Pass-over; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!" So they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!"

Same Sense Matthew 11:13-14 For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.

Same Sense John 1:21 They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No."

Same Sense Luke 1:17 "It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Same Sense Philippians 3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

Same Sense 1 Timothy 1:15 It is a trust-worthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

Opposites are not necessarily contradictory! Logical Implications “…nothing can have at the same time and at the same place contradictory and inconsistent qualities.” (Jevons, 1928, p. 118) Opposites are not necessarily contradictory!

Opposites John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only be-gotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Opposites Psalms 119:104 From Your pre-cepts I get understanding; There-fore I hate every false way.

Opposites Psalms 45:7 You have loved righteousness and hated wicked-ness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy above Your fellows.

Opposites Romans 11:22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

Opposites Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Opposites Philippians 3:15 Let us there-fore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;

Opposites 1 Corinthians 14:20 Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

Opposites Ephesians 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Don’t confuse Supplementation with Contradiction Logical Implications Don’t confuse Supplementation with Contradiction

Supplementation “John is a husband.” “John is not a husband.”

Supplementation “John is a husband.” “John is a father.”

Supplementation Blind Men of Jericho Matthew 20:29-34 Mark 10:46-52 Luke 18:35-43

Conclusion No Contradiction Exists Between Passages Involving Different Persons or Things

Conclusion No Contradiction Exists Between Passages Involving Different Time Elements

Conclusion No Contradiction Exists Between Passages That Employ Words or Phrases in Different Senses

No Contradiction Exists Opposites are Not Necessarily Contradictory Conclusion No Contradiction Exists Opposites are Not Necessarily Contradictory

Conclusion No Contradiction Exists Supplementation is Not the Same as Contradiction

No Contradiction Exists Conclusion No Contradiction Exists One Need Show Only the Possibility of Harmonization Between Two Passages

Conclusion Differences in Various Bible Accounts of the Same Events Demonstrate the Independence of the Writers!

Conclusion 1 Corinthians 14:33 for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

Conclusion Hebrews 6:18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.