Inconsistencies in the Bible

Inconsistencies and Biblical Contradictions

1. If you must accept Jesus as your Savior in order to be saved (John 14:6), what about the billions of beings that die as fetuses, infants, and mentally deficient, etc.? For them to accept Jesus would be impossible. So they are condemned to hell because of conditions over which they had no control. Deut. 32:4 says God is just, but where is the justice?
2. Why are we being punished for Adam's and Eve's sin? After all, they ate the forbidden fruit, we didn't. It's their problem, not ours, especially in light of Deut. 24:16, which says children shall not be punished for the sins of their fathers.
3. God created Adam, so he must have been perfect. How then, could he have sinned? Regardless of how much free will he had, if he chose to sin, he wasn't perfect.
4. How can Num. 23:19, which says God doesn't repent, be reconciled with Ex. 32:14, which clearly says he does?

1. How can 2 Kings 8:26, which says Ahaziah began to rule at age 22, be reconciled with 2 Chron. 22:2, which says he was 42?
2. How can Ex. 33:20, which says no man can see God's face and live, be squared with Gen. 32:30, which says a man saw God's face and his life was preserved?
3. Rom. 3:23 says "all have sinned." All means all. Yet, Gen. 6:9 says Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. Job 1:1 & 1 :8 say Job was perfect. How could these men have been perfect if all have sinned?
4. How could Moses have written the first five books in the Bible (the Pentateuch) when his own death and burial are described in Deut. 34:5-6 ("So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab ... and he buried him in a valley. . . .")?
5. Did Solomon have 40,000 stalls for his horses (1 Kings 4:26) or 4,000 (2 Chron. 9:25)? Did Solomon's house contain 2,000 baths (1 Kings 7:26) or 3,000 (2 Chron. 4:5)?
6. Paul says Christianity lives or dies on the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:14,17). Yet, why would it be of any consequence since the Widow at Nain's son, Jairus's daughter, Lazarus, and many others rose before Jesus? By the time he rose this was a rather common occurrence. I would think it would have been met by a resounding yawn rather than surprise followed by: So what else can you do. Adam's act of coming into the world as a full grown adult is more spectacular.
7. Was Jehoiachin 18 years old when he began to reign in Jerusalem and did he reign 3 months (2 Kings 24:8), or was he 8 years old and reigned 3 months and 10 days (2 Chron. 36: 9). Did Nebuzaradan come to Jerusalem on the 7th (2 Kings 25:8) or 10th (Jer. 52:12) day of the 5th month?
8. How could we follow the 6th Commandment, even if we wanted to, when the authors of the various versions of the Bible can't agree on whether the key word is "kill" or “murder”? Surely they recognize the difference?
9. We are told the Bible has no scientific errors, yet it says the bat is a bird (Lev. 11:13,19), hares chew the cud (Lev. 11:5-6), and some fowl (Lev. 11:20-21) and insects (Lev. 11:22-23) have four legs.
10. Matt. 27:9-10 quotes a prophecy made by Jeremy the prophet. Yet, no Bible believer has ever been able to show me where it lies in the Book of Jeremiah.
11. Heaven is supposed to be a perfect place. Yet, it experienced a war (Rev. 12:7). How can there be a war in a perfect place and if it happened before why couldn't it happen again? Why would I want to go to a place in which war can occur? That's exactly what I'm trying to escape, aren't you?
12. Believers are told in Mark 16:17-18 that they can drink "any deadly thing" and "it shall not hurt” them. But I don't think you would be naive enough to drink any arsenic offered. Perhaps I'm wrong and you would be willing to test the Book's veracity-"lay it on the line" so to speak?
13. We are told salvation is obtained by faith alone (John 3:18,36) " yet Jesus told a man to follow the Commandments-Matt. 19:16-18 (saving by works)-if he wanted eternal life.
14. According to the text there are 29 cities listed in Joshua 15:21-32 (RSV). One need only count them to see that biblical math is not to be trusted. The total is 36.
15. Surely you don't believe Eccl. 1:9 RSV ("What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun")? How many cities had an atomic bomb dropped on them prior to 1945, and how many people walked on the moon before 1969?
16. If the Bible is our moral guide, then how can it make pornographic statements such as: “...they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you" (2 Kings 18:27)? Is that what you want your children reading on Sunday?
17. If God created everything, (Col. 1:16, Eph. 3:9, Rev. 4:11, John 1:3), then he did create the world's evil (Isa. 45:7, Lam. 3:38). Thus, he is responsible.
18. In Psalm 139:7-11 we are told God is everywhere. If so, why would God need to come down to earth to see a city (Gen. 11:5) when he is already here? And how could Satan leave the presence of the Lord (Job 1: 12, 2:7)?
19. For justice to exist, punishment must fit the crime. No matter how many bad deeds one commits in this world, there is a limit. Yet, hell's punishment is infinitely greater. It’s eternal.
20. In Acts 20:35 Paul told people “to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Since Jesus never made such a biblical statement, isn't Paul guilty of deception?
21. While on the Cross Jesus said, "My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Mark 15:34). How could Jesus be our savior when he couldn't even save himself? Those aren't the words of a man voluntarily dying for our sins; those are the words of a man who can think of a hundred other places he would rather be.
22. Jesus said, "whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matt. 5:22). Yet, he himself did so repeatedly, as Matt. 23:17, 19 and Luke 11:40 and 12:20 show. Shouldn't he be in danger of hell too?
23. Except those of biased Christian writers, there isn't one writing outside the Bible in all of ancient history that clearly refers to Jesus of Nazareth.
24. Isn't Jesus a false prophet since he wrongly predicted in Matt. 12:40 that he would be buried three days and three nights as Jonah was in the whale three days and three nights? Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning is only one and a half days.
25. Jesus' prophecy in John 13:38 (“The cock shall not crow, till thou [Peter] hast denied me three times”) is false. Mark 14:66-68 shows the cock crowed after the first denial, not the third.
26. How could Jesus be our model of sinless perfection when he denies he is morally perfect in Matt. 19:17 ("And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God")?
27. In 1 Cor. 1: 1 7 ("For Christ sent me [Paul] not to baptize but to preach the gospel”) Paul said Jesus was wrong when he said in Matt. 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them....” So how could Jesus be the fountain of wisdom?
28. How could Jesus, whom the New Testament repeatedly refers to as the son of man, be our savior when this is clearly forestalled by Psalm 146:3 ("Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help") and Job 25:6 ("How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm")?
29. How can Jesus be God when he repeatedly said he was not God's equal, wasn't God? Obvious examples are: John 14:28 (“...for my Father is greater than I”), John 20:17 ("I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God"), and John 7:16 ("My doctrine is not mine but his that sent me").
30. While on the Cross Jesus said, "Forgive them Father they know not what they do.” To whom was he speaking? They say, "God.” But I thought he was God. How can God speak to God if there is only one god? That's two gods.
31. Jesus told us to "honor thy father and mother” (Matt. 15:4), but contradicted his own teaching in Luke 14:26 ("If any man comes to me and does not hate his father and mother ... he cannot be my disciple").
32. In John 3:13 ("And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man...) Jesus erred because 2 Kings 2:11 (“. . . and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven") shows Elijah went up earlier.
33. In Matt. 16:28 Jesus said, “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Yet, they all died and he never came.

1. Jesus told us to "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you,” but ignored his own advice by repeatedly denouncing his opposition. Matt. 23:17 ('Ye fools and blind"), Matt. 12:34 ("O generation of vipers"), and Matt. 23:27 (". . . hypocrites ... ye are like unto whited sepulchres...”) are excellent examples of hypocrisy.
2. Even many of the staunchest defenders of Jesus admit that his comment in Matt. 10:34 ("I came not to send peace but a sword") contradicts verses such as Matt. 26:52 ("Put up again thy sword into his place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword").
3. The Messiah must be a physical descendant of David (Rom. 1:3, Acts 2:30). Yet, how could Jesus meet this requirement since his genealogies in Matt. 1 and Luke 3 show he descended from David through Joseph, who was not his natural father (the Virgin Birth)?
4. Jesus told a man in Mark 8:34 that "whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." The obvious question is: What cross? He hadn't yet died on the cross. There was nothing to take up. That man would have had no idea what he was talking about.
5. In Mark 10:19 Jesus told a man to follow the Commandments. Yet one of those listed by Jesus was "defraud not," which isn't even an Old Testament commandment.
6. In Luke 12:4 Jesus told his followers to "Be not afraid of them that kill the body." But Matt. 12:14-16, John 7:1, 8:59, 10:39, 11:53-54, and Mark 1:45 show that he hid, escaped, and slunk around often.
7. In Luke 23:43 Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." But how could they have been together in paradise that day if Jesus lay in the tomb for three days?
8. For Jesus to be executed for our sins makes about as much sense as my son telling a judge that he would accept execution for my crimes. Although a nice gesture, it has nothing to do with justice. What judge worthy of the title would agree?
9. In Matt. 15:24 Jesus said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," but later told his followers to "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" (Matt 28:19). To whom, then, are they to go--only to the Jews, or everyone?
10. Psalms 82:1 is very interesting: "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods." This directly contradicts many other areas suggesting there is only one god.
11. Deuteronomy 28:14 says, "And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them." God acknowledges there are other gods?
12. What are Jesus' last words?
    • Mt 27:46,50: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
    • Lk 23:46: "Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit."
    • Jh 19:30: "It is finished."

Contradictions In Scripture

Is God merciful?

Testimony:

Who is in charge?

Judge or not judge?

Does one's early work matter?

Can one "see God?"

Love or fear God?

See also

• Arguments against scripture
• Bible rules
• Bad Bible Advice
• Crazy Bible
• Good Bible Advice
• Magic Bible
• 101 Contradictions in the bible

Offsite links

• SAB Bible Contradictions
• Errancy.com Bible Errors and Contradictions