Why the Doctrine of Inerrancy Contradicts the Gospels

Many modern Christians view the Bible as the inspired, inerrant word of God. Is that what its own authors thought? Did the author of Matthew, for example, think the Gospel of Mark was infallible? If so, why did he change it? In this episode we look at the views of the Gospel writers about the inerrancy of other Gospels -- even those also found in the New Testament.

Megan asks Bart:

- When someone speaks about the “inspiration” of the bible, what do they mean?

- Are there any verses of the Bible that indicate it is inspired?

- What, exactly, do we mean when we talk about inerrancy?

- Are there ways to think about inspiration apart from inerrancy?

- Does someone have to believe in inerrancy in order to be a Christian?

- How to believe in inspiration without inerrancy?

- Were there church fathers who thought there could be mistakes in the Bible?

- What kinds of methods of interpretations developed to explain difficulties in the biblical texts?

- Is there any way to know whether the biblical authors themselves believed in the inerrancy of their own works?

- Let’s talk about the Gospel writers. How would we go about deciding if they themselves thought the Gospels were inerrant?

- Do we have negative evidence about this?

- Do you have any examples of these changes?

- Are there other ways these stories get explained?

- More examples of gospel writers changing accounts?

- Do we even need an inspired Bible for Christianity?

- What then is the point of the Bible?

[cardcounter]

I like the Emo Philips joke: "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked him to forgive me."

[markrichter]

The fact that Mattiew and Luke took the writing of Mark and changed it…is biblical proof that the gospel writers themselves at least didn’t believe in inerrancy…

[johnsimca]

Jesus doesn’t carry his cross in Mark, Matthew and Luke, Simon the Cyrenean did. In John Jesus carried his own cross

[markadams]

If Origen thought that the scriptures inconsistency was Gods way to get us to find deeper meaning then wouldn't that mean God deliberately lies in order for us to find deeper meaning?

[dancahill]

My favorite fundamentalist action on Inerrancy comes from the Editors of the NIV. According to them, the Bible is so inerrant, that they changed the Bible multiple times, to make sure it is inerrant.

[russellmiles]

The Christian Bible is nothing but a muddle of Contradictions.

What is your favourite

Mine is that there is no list of 10 Commandments in the Bible, despite this being said in the Bible.

[RobertSmith-gxmi]

The bible is a perfect book (for forty five thousand different denominations to cherry pick from)

[stevebaylot]

This was a great program. I'm glad I signed up to be notified by email when these programs are available.

[BunnyWatson-kw]

Inerrancy at 12:56. One of the reasons why Christians see the Bible the way they do is many denominations falling under the "evangelical" umbrella teach their followers the Bible is "complete". This means there are no changes, no false authorship, no text left out of what we have in 2024, and certainly no missing books. Yet modern scholarship tells us the Bible does mention missing books by name. It does have questionable authorship (some of the books attributed to Paul, the four gospels, and others), and has inconsistencies.

[JamesRichardWiley]

Wikipedia:
"The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy is a written statement of belief formulated by more than 200 evangelical leaders at a conference convened by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy] and held in Chicago in October 1978. The statement was designed to defend the position of biblical inerrancy against a trend toward liberal conceptions of Scripture."
My comment:
The arrogance of this statement alone would discredit the Bible and it's evangelical supporters, in my view.
The claim that "scripture in the ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact", is useless, since we don't have the original manuscripts.
Do these people even think?

[NielMalan]

What, exactly, are "scriptures", anyway? The word seems to mean "things that are written down". Does that not include my shopping list from last week? Why is my shopping list from last week not Scripture? Or is it? Is the Pope's shopping list scripture? If we discovered Paul's shopping list, would it be scripture. Why is Moses's shopping list for the tabernacle considered scripture?

[brianmulholland]

I am convinced that Megan Lewis spends her entire monthly budget on glasses every month. Always a new pair from what I can tell.

[mrasterio]

I'm 99% here for the free Bart Ehrman lecture and 1% here for the free Bart Ehrman laugh. 😂👌

[davidwimp]

The inerrancy of the Bible rests upon the inerrancy of the people making that determination.

[stephenwodz]

Why would an ominpotent, all-wise God pass on essential information using literature, written in languages that only a tiny fraction of the world's population understands.

[AaronGardner]

Wow! Even though I’ve recognized for a long time that the Bible cannot be inerrant, I’d never previously considered the evidence that the authors of Matthew and Luke changing the narrative/content of Mark is proof positive that *they* didn’t consider it to be inerrant. Scripture is a conversation, and it isn’t static or univocal.

[SixSevenPodcast]

With verses like Jeremiah 8:8 and chapter 2:8, I don't see how the idea of inerrancy can still stand. Jeremiah 7:22 and Amos 5:25 (among others) are in direct opposition of the greater chunk of Leviticus. I'm sure people can dump a zillion other minor micro contractions, but some of these are major, and undeniable. Constantly saying "but it's inerrant" while admitting inconsistencies, is a form of cognitive dissonance playing out in slow motion. 

Over time the glue of inerrancy will melt away... a glue, according to Bart, that's only been set for barely 100 years. Man its crazy how quickly a concept can sweep a generation and folk think its been one way for ever and ever amen...

[Ethribil]

Megan’s swag go crazy, I’m not sure I’ve come across another personality that accessorizes as well as she does 👌🏿👌🏿👌🏿

[johnrangi]

Bart as an atheist I agree with you, the Bible does inspire a lot of people to be and do good.
It's not always being used for the right purposes and can lead people to do the wrong thing, but that can be said about next to anything if we take a close look at history.
Thank you very much for your opinion.

[kahlilbt]

22:14 This is a question I have as well! When Paul is writing 1 Timothy for example, , it's he referring to his OWN LETTERS as scripture???