Some contradictions in the Bible

The Bible is an anthology written over a period of more than a thousand years, which means that it has had many authors. Some of these authors differ from each other, while others contradict each other on matters of fact. Some contradictions are harder to resolve than others are.

The Old Testament

Contradictions in the Bible The Old Testament was compiled from oral traditions and writings over a period of a thousand years. It is divided into historical books, where some contradictions occur on wisdom books and prophets. Genesis One contradiction is that there are two stories of Noah's flood. The older account - the Yahwist account - has Noah taking two of every animal into the ark, but the later account - the priestly account - has him taking two of every unclean animal and seven of every clean one. Historical books sometimes give different versions of the same story. In the book of Genesis, the same tale about Abraham is repeated in different contexts. This is the result of its circulating as an oral tradition for a long time before being committed to writing. Contradictions in views of God Some biblical texts display God as fierce and vengeful, but others display him as kind and loving. These contradictions are the result of the Bible have being composed of the different works by writers who did not always fully share each other's views.

New Testament

The crucifixion There is less in the New Testament than the Old Testament, and much of it is letters from Paul and others. The area where there are contradictions of fact is the gospels, where there are sometimes discrepancies. The crucifixion stories have some differences about Jesus' words on the cross, and there are some elements in one gospel that are not present in another. However, the crucifixion is not a major area of biblical contradictions. The resurrection
The resurrection accounts are problematic. They are very short and disjointed and no one has ever been able to harmonise them into a single account without leaving anything out. The reason for this is that they recount separate experiences by individuals, so there is no framework of time into which they can be fitted. Jesus' words Other New Testament contradictions are more minor. Jesus' words might be differently reported in various gospels. For example, Matthew has Jesus saying "Blessed are the poor in spirit" [Matthew 5:3, whereas Luke has him saying "Blessed are you who are poor"[Luke 6:20]. The differences might result from Jesus' having said different things on different occasions, from discrepancies in memory or from the differences in the evangelists' theological standpoints.