Does the Bible Contradict Itself?

The Answer Depends of What You Think the Bible Actually Is

Does the Bible contradict itself? That’s a question I’ve heard asked and debated my entire life. One’s answer to that question usually depends on the axe they have to grind. For someone who holds to the doctrine of inerrancy (meaning they believe the Bible contains no errors), any inconsistencies that *seem* to be present in the text can (and must) be explained away. To be sure there ARE inconsistencies in the text. For example, who killed Goliath? Easy question, right? The answer is the David. Except, that’s not what it says in 2 Samuel 21:19. There we read that someone named Elhanan, and not David, was responsible for Goliath’s defeat. Some translations have gone so far as to say that it was Goliath’s brother that was killed by Elhanan. After all, if you begin with the premise that there are no errors in the Bible, and you build the entirety of your faith on that being true, you will creatively explain away anything that doesn’t align with that perspective. You have to; it’s about survival.

On the other hand, if you are skeptical of the Bible, if you think we have no business in 2022 giving any weight to words written thousands of years ago, then even the smallest scribal error becomes proof that this whole thing is a silly superstition that shouldn’t be given any serious consideration.

So, if we’re asking about the contradictions in the Bible, the answer we give will shaped by what we think the Bible actually is. Is it the inerrant, infallible Word of God? Is it a collection of ancient superstitions that have far outlived their usefulness?

I don’t think it’s either of those things. The Bible is a library, not a book, and it contains stories and songs written by an oppressed community of people over the period of around a thousand years. That means the oldest parts of the Bible are three thousand years old, and the most recent are closing in on two thousand years old.

Question: How much has changed in the last thousand years? What have we learned? What have we left behind? What have we changed our minds about? A lot, right?

And that changing of our minds because we’ve learned and grown over time is a good thing, right?

That’s what we see happening in the Bible. It’s a collection of voices and perspectives interacting over time. We shouldn’t expect all of the writers of the Bible to agree, because that would mean they stopped learning and growing. The issue isn’t that the Bible has contradictions, because the Bible isn’t presenting a single voice or perspective, but many voices over the course of generations. We actually would have a huge problem if they did all agree!

In the pages of the Bible we see the evolution of a people and a tradition in real time. How did we ever come to assume that this wouldn’t also be our experience today? The truth is that it is far easier to codify and worship previous interpretations than it is to take up the invitation and responsibility to continue to push the boundaries of previous understandings. Yet, it is just that task, to continue to adapt and reimagine our faith, that we have inherited from those who came before us.

The issue isn’t whether there are contradictions or no contradictions in the Bible. The real issue is whether or not we will enter into this long story of wrestling with who God is, what it means to be human, and how we can facilitate human flourishing for all in the world. That will require something more than just repeating the interpretations of the past. It will ask us to enter into the conversation and to offer a fresh take for our own contexts.