How can one believe in a Bible full of contradictions?

It is really surprising how often this question is asked. This question assumes that the Bible is full of contradictions that would make it impossible to believe in the divine origin of the Bible. It is a popular attitude to claim that the Bible contradicts itself, which casts considerable doubt on its credibility.

If the Bible really contains demonstrable errors, it would prove that at least these parts cannot come from a perfect and omniscient God. We do not question this conclusion, but rather the original premise that the Scriptures are full of errors. It is very easy to accuse the Bible of being inaccurate, but it is quite another to prove it.

Certain passages appear at first glance to be contradictory, but closer examination shows that this is not so.

One of the things we demand in the face of possible contradictions is fairness. We should not downplay or exaggerate the problem, and we should always hope to give the author the benefit of the doubt. This is the rule in the rest of the literature, and we demand that it be the rule here as well. We often find that people want to apply different rules when it comes to examining the Bible, and we address this immediately.

What is a contradiction? The principle of excluded contradiction, the basis of all logical thinking, states that a thing cannot be both A and not A at the same time. In other words, it cannot rain and not rain at the same time.

If one can prove a violation of this principle in the Scriptures, then and only then can one prove a contradiction. For example, if the Bible were to say (which it does not) that Jesus died crucified simultaneously in Jerusalem and in Nazareth, then that would be a provable error.

When considering possible contradictions, it is of utmost importance to remember that two statements can differ without being contradictory. Some fail to distinguish between contradiction and deviation.

For example, there is the case of the blind men of Jericho. Matthew records that two blind men met Jesus, while Mark and Luke mention only one. But neither of these two statements negates the other; rather, they complement each other.

Imagine talking to the mayor of your town and the chief of police at city hall. Later you meet your friend Jim and tell him that you spoke with the mayor today. An hour later you meet your friend John and tell him that you spoke with both the mayor and the police chief today.

As your friends exchange opinions, they find an apparent contradiction. But there is no contradiction. If you had told Jim that you had only talked to the mayor, you would have contradicted what you told John.

The statements he actually made to Jim and John are different but not contradictory. Similarly, many biblical statements also fall into this category. Many people think they find errors in passages they have not read correctly.

In the book of Judges we have an account of the death of Sisera. Judges 5:25-27 supposedly says that Jael killed him with a hammer and a stake while he was drinking milk. Judges 4:21 says she did it while he slept. But a closer reading of Judges 5:25-27 will show that it does not say she was drinking milk at the time of the slamming of the door. Then the contradiction disappears.

Sometimes two passages seem to contradict each other because the translation is not as accurate as it could be. Knowledge of the original languages of the Bible can immediately eliminate these difficulties, because both Greek and Hebrew, like all languages, have peculiarities that make them difficult to translate into German or any other language.

It must also be emphasized that it is unreasonable to claim that a passage in the Bible contains a demonstrable error when there is a possible explanation for this difficulty. Some problems in the Scriptures arise from inadequate knowledge of the circumstances and do not necessarily imply error. They simply prove that we do not know the background. As historical and archaeological research progresses, new light is shed on difficult passages and many “errors” have disappeared with new understanding. Some problems require a wait-and-see approach.

Although not all difficulties and contradictions in the Bible have been resolved, we firmly believe that these problems will disappear as more knowledge is gained about the Bible’s setting. The biblical idea of God is that of an omniscient, omnipotent being who does not contradict himself, so we are convinced that his word, properly understood, also does not contradict itself.