Are There Errors in the Bible and if so, How do We Explain Them?

Are there errors in the Bible and if so, how can we explain them? Many skeptics will claim that the Bible that we have today has errors in them. Very few people can point to these alleged "contradictions." However, every so often someone will point to a few alleged "inconsistencies." In this video I share exactly what these are and how to answer them.

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[haroldmcbroom]

When people open the Bible to read, they will find whatever they are looking for, if it's something to argue about, they'll find it, if they are looking to find the Truth, they'll find that as well.  Many people who have problems with the Bible, aren't looking for the Truth, but only to find something for which to judge God, the only One through Whom their Salvation depends.

[jayveeespinoza]

Thank you for this Bro.

Greetings from the Philippines

Don't stop this Videos please, you are helping in moving Lives here in my country ❤️

[MisterItchy]

What do you mean, "alleged contradictions"? There are very clear and blatant contradictions in the bible. The happenings at Jesus' tomb, Judas' death just to name a couple. They are not alleged. Two different passages saying two different things that are mutually exclusive of each other is not alleged.
Weak apologists ... making more atheists every day.

[octaviousmckenzie]

Could you do more of this and this has help me alot and it help me understand more

[Valdagast]

Here are two question I would like answered: 1) Why did God not make sure we got his pure uncorrupted word?; 2) Why is God's word so full of _apparent_ contradictions that he needs men to defend it?

[rakim]

This is a great topic to discuss. There’s plenty of information to cover. This gives brothers and sisters in the faith the ability to defend the word and enlighten others.

[marcaldrete]

This was so good. God is so good. Yesterday when I was reading my daily scripture God prompted me to read the story of the stoning Stephen. While I reading I came across an incinsistency that said that Moses was a strong speaker. But in Exodus Moses made an excuse to God, when he told him to rescue His People, that he was a terrible speaker, so God told him he would use Aaron. I was very perplexed, but I trusted God and left it in his hands. God showed me the notification of this video when I was in a wifi zone. As I was reading the title I accidentally clicked it, so I just let God do his work. What a Great God We Serve. God Bless you and your family.

[benjamindover]

So this all-powerful, all-knowing God of yours had the power to give mankind his most important message of eternal salvation but not preserve his word?
Why call him God?

[melissaspencer]

Notifications are on I'm a new subscriber love your channel💕

[TheDruusk]

In the video's explanation about the scribes copying the Old Testament he says the phrase: "Often times they would miss a [detail on a letter resulting in changing a word]". I understand he's just trying to quickly communicate a point, but In an effort to be clear, this was not, in fact, 'often'. It was incredibly rare. So rare that after the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Old Testament were found (written c. 125 BC) and compared to our then-best Old Testament manuscripts (written c. 900 AD) they were nearly Identical; with less than a 0.5% deviation - and most of those only deviating in common use of spelling (much like how we do not spell the same way as ye olde English) and not a single deviation that changes the meaning of a given passage. After 1000 years of copying and re copying, nothing changed. This is unheard of in all other works in human history.

When you contrast the Bible against EVERY OTHER classical work in human history, it is more accurate than the next 10 works of literature COMBINED. Do your philosophy professors teaching Plato or Aristotle mention that there's many errors and we don't even know for certain if those men wrote the works we have with their names on them? Seriously. We have ~250 surviving manuscripts of Plato's work (originally written ~400 BC) and our oldest copy of it is from ~900 AD; we're talking 1, 300 years off from the original writings. Or Aristotle? less than 50 manuscripts of his works 1400 years off from the originals. A lot can happen in that much time, but their authorship or accuracy are not questioned. The most well-preserved work in history aside from the Bible? Homer's Illiad with around 1750 manuscripts and 500 years off from the Bible. It contains around 5% deviation (10x more than the Old Testament) resulting in whole paragraphs-worth of error. This is the best we have of all ancient works, yet its reliability is not called into question.

The Bible? We have nearly 6, 000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament written around 25-50 years after the originals (eye witnesses could still have been alive to confirm the contents of the manuscripts we have in our possession) We have another 18, 000 translations into other local languages from that same time (they were getting the gospel out after all). 24, 000 copies and they all agree. With the Old Testament, thanks to finds like the Dead Sea Scrolls we have 42, 000 scrolls, codices and fragments all saying the same thing. They're 300-1300 years off from the originals (the Old Testament was written over a very long time span after all); with tangible proof that due to their copy methods it had not changed for 1000 years (125 BC-900 AD). Therefore we have confidence it did not change prior to that either. No one created methods and calculations to count every letter of every page, or to be able to name the middle letter in a given row of a given page for Homer's works, but the Jewish scribes did so with the Bible. No one would throw away months of painstaking work if a word was found in error when copying Plato's writings, but the Jewish scribes would with the Bible. No other book was so revered that when its age showed, with ink fading and pages degraded to a point where it risked being read incorrectly that they would hold something akin to a funeral service and bury it (so as to preserve the accuracy of the text at all costs). Yet The same people who teach classical literature today - with their widely-divergent and few in number manuscripts - will question the Bible for its accuracy.

The Bible is even more accurate/reliable than the works of Shakespeare (which were written AFTER the invention of the printing press) - yet in every single one of his plays there are gaps in the printed text where scholars have literally no idea what was written and have actually made 'conjectural emendations' (a fancy way to say "best guess") to fill them.

The Bible is the most reliable & accurate ancient literary work in all of human history, and that is a verifiable, undeniable fact. Those facts do not necessarily prove the contents and claims of the Bible (though there are internal and external tests which can do so), but it is out of pure ignorance if someone tells you that the Bible is inaccurate due to its age or copy methods. So yes, scribal errors exist, but they are rare, known, categorized, listed, etc. and we have thousands of other manuscripts to compare them against. None of them change the message or meaning of any passage. The original writings were the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and what has been preserved over time is supremely accurate and reliable to those originals by every standard we have. God Bless!

[robertgiffin]

GOD biess those who heip others to understand the bible.You have helped me, Amen.

[blessedbyhisword]

I always get, "How can you believe a Bible written by men, with so many translations and so many interpretations?" My answer always is, "The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and I get my understanding from that same Holy Spirit. So even if a mistake or a contradiction is found due to man's error. I get my revelation and clarification from the same Person who spoke it to the writers." Lastly I add, "spiritual things are spiritually discerned so ask the Holy Spirit to help you, because without Him you are never going to understand the Bible if you are reading it via your intellect." love the video, thanks!

[kpflush]

The bible is free of mistakes, because scribes making copies made mistakes, and those mistakes got continued INTO THE BIBLE?! How does that make any sense?

[kevintoomer]

Great topic! Especially for evangelists and Christian apologists. We need more teaching like this in the church. Well done, brother!

[sweettalkinghippie]

So an all powerful God couldn't make sure that his divinely inspired word was reproduced and translated without error? It's irrelevant that the original texts may have been inerrant if we don't have them. Our understanding of the scripture is based on the scriptures that we do have. If the copies that we have have errors then so does our understanding of them.

[santicruz]

So God is so weak that he cannot prevent scribes to make mistakes on his Holy book?
Why did you lie about what it says in Mark? Lying is not very christian

[cristyvillarreal]

I am always blessed by your videos bro! I always share your channel with anyone who will listen! 🙌🙏 God bless u, your family and your ministry bro!

[tonytuttle]

You admit that there exist scribal errors. And we detect the ones we know about by noticing discrepancies between what is said in one book versus what is said in another book. What about scribal errors that exist where there is only one account contained in the Bible? We have no way to detect such errors. There is no other book to compare to in order to see the discrepancy. Therefore, we really have no idea how many of these errors have proliferated throughout the Bible as a whole. This is a problem.

[izroshaulov]

One justification I found in the 700 vs 7000 argument was that these observations could've been taken at different points in battle

[chrisinidaho]

I's LOVE to hear answers to the following errors -

NEW TESTAMENT (partial listing)

Matt.3:17/Mk.1:11, Lk.3:22 - To whom did the Father speak?
Matt.4:12-17/Jn.3 (v.22-24) - Did Christ begin to preach before or after John's imprisonment?
Matt. 20:20-21/Mark 10:35-37 - Did James and John ask Jesus a favor or did their mother ask for them?
Mk.6:8/Lk.9:3 - Should the apostles take a staff (staves)/walking stick on their journey?
Mk.16:1/Lk.23:56 - Were the spices purchased before or after the Sabbath?
Jn.15:15/Jn.16:12 - Did Christ tell the Apostles all He knew?

NEW TESTAMENT / OLD TESTAMENT (partial listing)

Matt. 23:35/2 Chron. 24:20-21, Zech. 1:1 - Which Zechariah was killed by the alter of the temple
Matt. 27:9-10/Zech.11:12-13 - Zechariah, not Jeremiah wrote it!
Jn.3:13/2 Kings 2:11, Heb.11:5 - Elijah and Enoch ascended into Heaven bodily, Elijah came back. - Matt.17:3
Acts 7:15-16/Gen.50:13, 23:16-20 - Was Jacob buried in Sychem, 30 miles north of Jerusalem, or in Hebron, 20 miles south of Jerusalem?
Tit.1:2, Num. 23:19/1 Kings 22:20-23, 2 Chron.18:22 - Can lies come from God?

OLD TESTAMENT (partial listing)

Gen.6:4, 7:21/Num.13:33 - Were there Nephilim after the Flood?
Ex.2:21-22/Judges 18:30 - Who is Gershom's father? (changed in ASV, NIV, NRSV, RSV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT, DBY, NEB, DRB, & NWT)
Lev.19:34/Deut.23:20 - Were the strangers to be treated as fellow Jews?
Num.20:28, 33:30-38/Deut.10:6 - Where did Aaron die? (Mt. Hor is 7 days from Mosereth)
2 Sam.6:23/2 Sam.21:8 - Was Michal barren or did she have sons? (changed in NASB, RSV, NRSV, NCV, NLT, TEV, DBY, CEV, NEB, & NIV)
2 Sam.17:25/1 Chron.2:13-17 - Who was Abigail's father?
2 Sam.21:19/1 Chron.20:5 - Who did Elhanan kill? (changed in KJV, NLT & YLT)
1 Kings 7:24/2 Chron.4:3 - Did oxen or knops (plants) encircle the molten sea? (changed in RSV, NRSV, DRB, NEB, & NWT)
2 Kings 8:26/2 Chron.22:2 - How old was Ahaziah? (see Hebrew, changed in NIV, NASB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT, DBY, YLT, & NWT)
2 Kings 24:8/2 Chron.36:9 - How old was Jehoiachin? (changed in NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT, DBY, & NWT)
2 Kings 25:27/Jer.52:31 - What was Jehoiachin's day of deliverance?

TRANSLATION & TEXTUAL VARIANCES (partial listing)

Num.11:25 - Did they continue to prophesy? KJV-Yes, NASB-No
1 Sam.8:16 - What will he take? KJV-Young Men, NIV-Cattle
1 Sam.13:1 - What was Saul's coronation age and length of reign? DRB-1/2; NIV, NLT, NCV-30/42; NASB-40/32; NEB-50/22; ASV-40/2; NWT, KJV, KJV2, RSV, DBY, YLT, CEV -?/2, TEV, NRSV-?/?
Isa.59:19 - Who will come like a flood? KJV-The Enemy, NASB-The Lord
Jer.27:1 - Who reigned? KJV-Jehoiakim, NIV-Zedekiah
Matt.21:31 - Which did his father's will? KJV, NRSV, NCV, NIV-1st; NASB, NWT- 2nd
Lk.14:5 - Who is pulled out? KJV-Donkey, NIV-Son
Phil.2:6 - Did Christ deem it appropriate to consider Himself God due to His being in God's form? NASB, NIV, ASV, RSV, NRSV, NCV, CEV, TEV, NWT-No; NLT, DRB, NEB, YLT, DBY, KJV-Yes
Rev. 8:13 - Who flew in the midst of heaven? KJV, KJV2, YLT-An Angel; ASV, NIV, NASB, RSV, NRSV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT, DRB, NEB, DBY, NWT- An Eagle
Rev.13:1 - Who stood on the shore? KJV-John, NIV-The Dragon
1 Cor.7:36 - Who is the virgin? KJV, RSV, NRSV, NCV, DRB, TEV, CEV, NLT, YLT, NIV-His Fiance; NEB, NASB-His Daughter; KJV2, DBY, NWT-He Himself
Regarding 1 Cor.7:36, the ASV says, "But if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself unseemly toward his virgin [daughter], if she be past the flower of her age, and if need so requireth, let him do what he will; he sinneth not; let them marry." This allows a man to marry his own daughter once she is past her child bearing years (incest).