The Bible’s reliabilityDraft · awaiting advisor review
Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?
In short
The Bible contains many differences between parallel accounts, but most alleged contradictions ease when read in context, with attention to genre and to how ancient writers summarised events. A few remain genuinely hard, and Christians differ over how to explain them. The differences mostly concern details, not the core events the accounts agree on.
The Objection
The Bible was written by dozens of authors over many centuries, and it shows. Parallel books give different numbers for the same events. The Gospels disagree over who went to Jesus’ tomb and what they saw, and Matthew and Acts describe Judas’ death differently. If God inspired it, it should not contradict itself. Many Muslims, recalling Qur’an 4:82, see freedom from contradiction as a mark of divine origin, and argue the Bible fails that test.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Philosophical argument
A difference is not the same as a contradiction. Two statements contradict only if both cannot be true in the same sense at the same time. Proverbs places “Answer not a fool according to his folly” beside “Answer a fool according to his folly” on purpose: wisdom depends on the situation. The first question is whether two passages are really answering the same question.
- Historical evidence
Ancient biographers such as Plutarch often compressed events, changed their order or named only some of the people present. Historians expect independent witnesses to differ on details. The resurrection accounts vary over which women and how many angels are mentioned, yet all agree that women found the tomb empty early on the first day of the week.
- Historical evidence
Some differences in numbers are best explained as copying slips. 2 Kings says Ahaziah became king at 22. The Hebrew of 2 Chronicles says 42, which would make him older than his father. Some translations, such as the NIV, follow early Greek and Syriac versions of Chronicles that read 22, and they say so in a footnote.
- Scripture
Paul says a person is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. James says a person is justified by works, “and not by faith only”. Read in context, Paul rejects earning God’s favour through the law, and James rejects a “faith” that never changes how someone lives. Most Christians read the two as complementary, though Luther found James hard.
- Christians differ
Many Christians hold to inerrancy, as set out in the Chicago Statement (1978). On this view the original writings contain no errors, and apparent conflicts are explained by harmonisation or copying. Others, in several traditions, say Scripture is fully trustworthy in all it teaches but allow minor discrepancies of detail, such as numbers or order. Both take the hard passages seriously.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
Some explanations are strained. There are proposed solutions for Matthew’s and Luke’s different genealogies of Jesus, for the two accounts of Judas’ death, and for whether John places the crucifixion on a different day from the other Gospels. None of these solutions has won general agreement. Copying-error explanations are sometimes used too quickly. Honest readers should admit that some puzzles are not neatly resolved.
Arguments to Avoid
- Claiming every alleged contradiction has been fully solved, or that the Bible has no difficult passages at all.
- Reaching for a “copying error” whenever harmonisation is hard, without any manuscript evidence for it.
- Treating long online lists of “contradictions” as equally serious: many rest on mistranslation or ignore context, but a few are real and deserve honest answers.
- Implying that people who raise contradictions are dishonest or have not read the Bible; many have read it carefully.
Read for Yourself
Luke 1:1–4
1Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; 3It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Proverbs 26:4–5
4Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. 5Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Matthew 28:1–10
1In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 3His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 4And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 5And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 6He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 8And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. 9And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. 10Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
James 2:14–26
14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Further Reading
- Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography · Michael R. Licona (2017)
- The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (2nd edition) · Craig L. Blomberg (2007)
- Jesus, Interrupted · Bart D. Ehrman (2009)A sceptical case that the differences are real contradictions.
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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