In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent

Bible Contradictions
PAUL SAID, "God is not the author of confusion," (I Corinthians 14:33),  
yet never has a book produced more confusion than the bible! There are  
hundreds of denominations and sects, all using the "inspired Scriptures"  
to prove their conflicting doctrines.  
Why do trained theologians differ? Why do educated translators disagree  
over Greek and Hebrew meanings? Why all the confusion? Shouldn't a  
document that was "divinely inspired" by an omniscient and omnipotent  
deity be as clear as possible?  

"If the trumpet give an uncertain sound," Paul wrote in I Corinthians  
14:8, "who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except  
ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be  
known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air." Exactly! Paul  
should have practiced what he preached. For almost two millennia, the  
bible has been producing a most "uncertain sound."  

The problem is not with human limitations, as some claim. The problem is  
the bible itself. People who are free of theological bias notice that  
the bible contains hundreds of discrepancies. Should it surprise us when  
such a literary and moral mish-mash, taken seriously, causes so much  
discord? Here is a brief sampling of biblical contradictions.  
   

Should we kill? 

•Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill." •Leviticus 24:17 "And he that 
killeth any man shall surely be put to death." 
vs. 
•Exodus 32:27 "Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his 
sword by his side, . . . and slay every man his brother, . . . 
companion, . . . neighbor." •I Samuel 6:19 " . . . and the people 
lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great 
slaughter." •I Samuel 15:2,3,7,8 "Thus saith the Lord . . . Now go and 
smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them 
not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, 
camel and ass. . . . And Saul smote the Amalekites . . . and utterly 
destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword." •Numbers 15:36 
"And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him 
with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses." •Hosea 13:16 
"they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, 
and their women with children shall be ripped up." 
   
Should we tell lies?  
•Exodus 20:16 "Thou shalt not bear false witness." •Proverbs 12:22 
"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." 
vs. 
•I Kings 22:23 "The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all 
these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." •II 
Thessalonians 2:11 "And for this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie." 
Also, compare Joshua 2:4-6 with James 2:25.  
   
Should we steal?  
•Exodus 20:15 "Thou shalt not steal." •Leviticus 19:13 "Thou shalt not 
defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him." 
vs. 
•Exodus 3:22 "And ye shall spoil the Egyptians." •Exodus 12:35-36 "And 
they spoiled [plundered, NRSV] the Egyptians." •Luke 19:29-34 "[Jesus] 
sent two of his disciples, Saying, Go ye into the village . . . ye shall 
find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him 
hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say 
unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. . . . And as they were 
loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the 
colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him." 
I was taught as a child that when you take something without asking for  
it, that is stealing.  

Shall we keep the sabbath?  

•Exodus 20:8 "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." •Exodus 31:15 
"Whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to 
death." •Numbers 15:32,36 "And while the children of Israel were in the 
wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 
. . . And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned 
him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses." 
vs. 
•Isaiah 1:13 "The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I 
cannot away with; it is iniquity." •John 5:16 "And therefore did the 
Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these 
things on the sabbath day." •Colossians 2:16 "Let no man therefore judge 
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the new 
moon, or of the sabbath days." 
  
Shall we make graven images?  
•Exodus 20:4 "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any 
likeness of anything that is in heaven . . . earth . . . water." • 
Leviticus 26:1 "Ye shall make ye no idols nor graven image, neither rear 
you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone." • 
Deuteronomy 27:15 "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten 
image." 
vs. 
•Exodus 25:18 "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work 
shalt thou make them." •I Kings 7:15,16,23,25 "For he [Solomon] cast two 
pillars of brass . . . and two chapiters of molten brass . . . And he 
made a molten sea . . . it stood upon twelve oxen . . . [and so on]" 

Are we saved through works?  

•Ephesians 2:8,9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith . . . not of 
works." •Romans 3:20,28 "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall 
no flesh be justified in his sight." •Galatians 2:16 "Knowing that a man 
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus 
Christ." 
vs. 
•James 2:24 "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not 
by faith only." •Matthew 19:16-21 "And, behold, one came and said unto 
him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal 
life? And he [Jesus] said unto him . . . keep the commandments. . . . 
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth 
up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go 
and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
treasure in heaven." 
The common defense here is that "we are saved by faith and works." But  
Paul- [laanati allahi]real founder of christianity) said "not of works."  

Should good works be seen?  

•Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your 
good works." •I Peter 2:12 "Having your conversation honest among the 
Gentiles: that . . . they may by your good works, which they shall 
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." 
vs. 
•Matthew 6:1-4 "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be 
seen of them . . . that thine alms may be in secret." •Matthew 23:3,5 
"Do not ye after their [Pharisees'] works. . . . all their works they do 
for to be seen of men." 

Should we own slaves?  

•Leviticus 25:45-46 "Moreover of the children of the strangers that do 
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, . . . and they shall be your 
possession . . . they shall be your bondmen forever." •Genesis 9:25 "And 
he [Noah] said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto 
his brethren." •Exodus 21:2,7 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years 
he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. . . 
. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go 
out as the manservants do." •Joel 3:8 "And I will sell your sons and 
your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall 
sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken 
it." •Luke 12:47,48 [Jesus speaking] "And that servant, which knew his 
lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his 
will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did 
commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." • 
Colossians 3:22 "Servants, obey in all things your masters." 
vs. 
•Isaiah 58:6 "Undo the heavy burdens . . . let the oppressed go free, . 
. . break every yoke." •Matthew 23:10 "Neither be ye called Masters: for 
one is your Master, even Christ." 
Pro-slavery bible verses were cited by many churches in the South during  
the Civil War, and were used by some theologians in the Dutch Reformed  
Church to justify apartheid in South Africa. There are more pro-slavery  
verses than cited here.  

Does God change his mind?  

•Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord; I change not." •Numbers 23:19 "God is 
not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should 
repent." •Ezekiel 24:14 "I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to 
pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, 
neither will I repent." •James 1:17 " . . . the Father of lights, with 
whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
vs. 
•Exodus 32:14 "And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do 
unto his people." •Genesis 6:6,7 "And it repented the Lord that he had 
made man on the earth . . . And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I 
have created from the face of the earth . . . for it repenteth me that I 
have made him." •Jonah 3:10 ". . . and God repented of the evil, that he 
had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." 
See also II Kings 20:1-7, Numbers 16:20-35, Numbers 16:44-50.  
See Genesis 18:23-33, where Abraham gets God to change his mind about  
the minimum number of righteous people in Sodom required to avoid  
destruction, bargaining down from fifty to ten. (An omniscient God must  
have known that he was playing with Abraham's hopes for mercy--he  
destroyed the city anyway.)  

Are we punished for our parents' sins?  

•Exodus 20:5 "For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
generation." (Repeated in Deuteronomy 5:9) •Exodus 34:6-7 " . . . The 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, . . . that will by no means clear the 
guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon 
the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." • 
I Corinthians 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, . . ." 
vs. 
•Ezekiel 18:20 "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father." • 
Deuteronomy 24:16 "The fathers shall not be put to death for the 
children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: 
every man shall be put to death for his own sin." 

Is God good or evil?  

•Psalm 145:9 "The Lord is good to all." •Deuteronomy 32:4 "a God of 
truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." 
vs. 
•Isaiah 45:7 "I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these 
things." See "Out of Context" for more on Isaiah 45:7. •Lamentations 
3:38 "Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?" • 
Jeremiah 18:11 "Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, 
and devise a device against you." •Ezekiel 20:25,26 "I gave them also 
statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. 
And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass 
through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them 
desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord." 

Does God tempt people?  

•James 1:13 "Let no man say . . . I am tempted of God: for God cannot be 
tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." 
vs. 
•Genesis 22:1 "And it came to pass after these things, that God did 
tempt Abraham." 
   
Is God peaceable?  
•Romans 15:33 "The God of peace." •Isaiah 2:4 ". . . and they shall beat 
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more." 
vs. 
•Exodus 15:3 "The Lord is a man of war." •Joel 3:9-10 "Prepare war, wake 
up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: 
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let 
the weak say, I am strong." 
   
Was Jesus peaceable?  
•John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." •Acts 
10:36 "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching 
peace by Jesus Christ." •Luke 2:14 " . . . on earth peace, good will 
toward men." 
vs. 
•Matthew 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came 
not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance 
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the 
daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be 
they of his own household." •Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, . . . 
he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." 
Jesus also said  "I came to set the earth on fire, and how i wish that 
it were already kindled."    "Do you suppose that I came to bring peace 
to the world? NO, not peace but division"   Luke 12:49 & 51 
  
Was Jesus trustworthy?  
•John 8:14 "Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true." 
vs. 
•John 5:31 "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." 
"Record" and "witness" in the above verses are the same Greek word  
(martyria).  

Shall we call people names?  

•Matthew 5:22 "Whosoever shall say Thou fool, shall be in danger of 
hellfire." [Jesus speaking] 
vs. 
•Matthew 23:17 "Ye fools and blind." [Jesus speaking] •Psalm 14:1 "The 
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." 
  
Has anyone seen God?  
•John 1:18 "No man hath seen God at any time." •Exodus 33:20 "Thou canst 
not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." •John 6:46 
"Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God [Jesus], 
he hath seen the Father." •I John 4:12 "No man hath seen God at any 
time." 
vs. 
•Genesis 32:30 "For I have seen God face to face." •Exodus 33:11 "And 
the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his 
friend." •Isaiah 6:1 "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the 
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the 
temple." •Job 42:5 "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but 
now mine eye seeth thee." 

How many Gods are there?  

•Deuteronomy 6:4 "The Lord our God is one Lord." 
vs. 
•Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image." •Genesis 
3:22 "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to 
know good and evil." •I John 5:7 "And there are three that bear witness 
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are 
one." 
It does no good to claim that "Let us" is the magisterial "we." Such  
usage implies inclusivity of all authorities under a king's leadership.  
Invoking the Trinity solves nothing because such an idea is more  
contradictory than the problem it attempts to solve.  
  
Are we all sinners?  
•Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." 
•Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one." • 
Psalm 14:3 "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." 
vs. 
•Job 1:1 "There was a man . . . who name was Job; and that man was 
perfect and upright." •Genesis 7:1 "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come 
thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous 
before me in this generation." •Luke 1:6 "And they were both righteous 
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord 
blameless." 
   
How old was Ahaziah?  
•II Kings 8:26 "Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to 
reign." 
vs. 
•II Chronicles 22:2 "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began 
to reign." 
   
Should we swear an oath?  
•Numbers 30:2 "If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath . . . 
he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth." •Genesis 
21:22-24,31 " . . . swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal 
falsely with me . . . And Abraham said, I will swear. . . . Wherefore he 
called that place Beersheba ["well of the oath"]; because there they 
sware both of them." •Hebrews 6:13-17 "For when God made promise to 
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself . . . 
for men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to 
them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew 
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it 
by an oath." 
See also Genesis 22:15-19, Genesis 31:53, and Judges 11:30-39. 
vs. 
*Matthew 5:34-37 "But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by 
heaven . . . nor by the earth . . . . Neither shalt thou swear by thy 
head . . . . But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for 
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." •James 5:12 ". . . swear 
not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: 
but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into 
condemnation." 
   
When was Jesus crucified?  
•Mark 15:25 "And it was the third hour, and they crucified him." 
vs. 
•John 19:14-15 "And about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, 
Behold your King! But they cried out . . . crucify him." 
It is an ad hoc defense to claim that there are two methods of reckoning 
time here. It has never been shown that this is the case. 
  

Shall we obey the law?  

•I Peter 2:13 "Submit yourself to every ordinance of man . . . to the 
king, as supreme; Or unto governors." •Matthew 22:21 "Render therefore 
unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." See also Romans 13:1,7 and 
Titus 3:1. 
vs. 
•Acts 5:29 "We ought to obey God rather then men." 
   
How many animals on the ark?  
•Genesis 6:19 "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort 
shalt thou bring into the ark." •Genesis 7:8-9 "Of clean beasts, and of 
beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that 
creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the 
ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah." •Genesis 7:15 
"And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, 
wherein is the breath of life." 
vs. 
•Genesis 7:2 "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, 
the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the 
male and his female." 
   
Were women and men created equal?  
•Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God 
created he him; male and female created them." 
vs. 
•Genesis 2:18,23 "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man 
should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. . . . And Adam 
said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be 
called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." 
   
Were trees created before humans?  
•Genesis 1:12-31 "And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding 
seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in 
itself, after his kind: . . . And the evening and the morning were the 
third day. . . . And God said, Let us make man in our image . . . And 
the evening and the morning were the sixth day." 
vs. 
•Genesis 2:5-9 "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, 
and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not 
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the 
ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground . . . 
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the 
man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow 
every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." 
  
Did Michal have children?  
•II Samuel 6:23 "Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto 
the day of her death." 
vs. 
•II Samuel 21:8 "But the king took the two sons of Rizpah . . . and the 
five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul." 

How many stalls did Solomon have?  

•I Kings 4:26 "And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his 
chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen." 
vs. 
•II Chronicles 9:25 "And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and 
chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen." 
  

Did Paul's men hear a voice?  

•Acts 9:7 "And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, 
hearing a voice, but seeing no man." 
vs. 
•Acts 22:9 "And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were 
afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me." 
(For more detail on this contradiction, with a linguistic analysis of 
the Greek words, see "Did Paul's Men Hear A Voice?" by Dan Barker, 
published in the The Skeptical Review, 1994 #1) 
  
Is God omnipotent?  
•Jeremiah 32:27 "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there 
anything too hard for me? 
•Matthew 19:26 "But Jesus beheld them, and 
said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are 
possible." 
vs. 
•Judges 1:19 "And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the 
inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of 
the valley, because they had chariots of iron." 
  
Does God live in light?  
•I Timothy 6:15-16 " . . . the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who 
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach . 
. ." 
•James 1:17 " . . . the Father of lights, with whom is no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
•John 12:35 "Then Jesus saith 
unto them, . . . he that walketh in darkness knoweth not wither he 
goeth." 
•Job 18:18 "He [the wicked] shall be driven from light into 
darkness, and chased out of the world." 
•Daniel 2:22 "He [God] knoweth 
what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him." See also 
Psalm 143:3, II Corinthians 6:14, and Hebrews 12:18-22. 
vs. 
•I Kings 8:12 "Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in 
the thick darkness." (Repeated in II Chronicles 6:1) 
•II Samuel 22:12 
"And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick 
clouds of the skies." 
•Psalm 18:11 "He made darkness his secret place; 
his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the 
skies." 
•Psalm 97:1-2 "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice . . . 
clouds and darkness are round about him." 
   
Does God accept human sacrifice?  
•Deuteronomy 12:31 "Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for 
every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto 
their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in 
the fire to their gods." 
vs. 
•Genesis 22:2 "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom 
thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there 
for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee 
of." 
•Exodus 22:29 "For thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy 
ripe fruits, and of thy liquors; the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou 
give unto me." 
•Judges 11:30-39 "And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, 
and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into 
mine hand, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors 
of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of 
Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt 
offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon . . . and 
the Lord delivered them into his hands. . . . And Jephthah came to 
Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him 
with timbrels and with dances: . . . And it came to pass at the end of 
two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her 
according to his vow which he had vowed." 
•II Samuel 21:8-14 "But the 
king [David] took the two sons of Rizpah . . . and the five sons of 
Michal . . . and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and 
they hanged them in the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven 
together, and were put to death in the days of harvest . . . And after 
that God was intreated for the land." 
•Hebrews 10:10-12 " . . . we are 
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ . . . But 
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down 
on the right hand of God." 
•I Corinthians 5:7 " . . . For even Christ 
our passover is sacrificed for us." 
  
Who was Joseph's father?  
•Matthew 1:16 "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was 
born Jesus." 
vs. 
•Luke 3:23 "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, 
being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli." 
  

I have received numerous replies from Christians who think that these  
contradictions are either trivial or easily explained. Yet not a single  
"explanation" has been convincing. Most of them do little homework,  
inventing off-the-cuff defenses of what the bible "could have meant," or  
devising creative explanations that actually make the problem worse. For  
example, one Christian, agreeing with Eusebius, explained that "Thou  
shalt not bear false witness" does not prohibit lies, and that God  
actually wants us to tell falsehoods if it will further the kingdom of  
heaven.  

Many of the defensive attempts are arguments from silence. Some  
apologists assert that since the writer of John does not say that there  
were not more women who visited the tomb with Mary, then it is wrong to  
accuse him of contradicting the other evangelists who say it was a group  
of women. But this is a non-argument. With this kind of thinking, I  
could claim that the people who accompanied Mary to the tomb included  
Mother Teresa, Elvis Presley, and Paul Bunyan. Since the writer of John  
does not specifically exclude these people, then there is no way to  
prove that this is not true--if such fragile logic is valid.  

All of the above contradictions have been carefully studied, and when  
necessary the original languages have been consulted. Although it is  
always scholarly to consider the original languages, why should that be  
necessary with the "word of God?" An omnipotent, omniscient deity should  
have made his all-important message unmistakably clear to everyone,  
everywhere, at all times. No one should have to learn an extinct  
language to get God's message, especially an ancient language about  
which there is much scholarly disagreement. If the English translation  
is flawed or imprecise, then God failed to get his point across to  
English speakers. A true fundamentalist should consider the English  
version of the bible to be just as inerrant as the original because if  
we admit that human error was possible in the translation, then it was  
equally possible in the original writing. (Some fundamentalists do  
assert that the King James Version is perfect. One preacher reportedly  
said, "If the King James Version was good enough for the Apostle Paul,  
then it's good enough for me.") If a contradiction exists in English,  
then the bible is contradictory.  

The above list of thirty-three contradictions is a very small portion of  
the thousands of biblical discrepancies that have been catalogued by  
scholars. See "Leave No Stone Unturned" for seventeen additional  
contradictions specific to the resurrection of Jesus.  
Even if a defender of the bible were to eliminate all of the  
above (and no one has come close), we are still only scratching the  
surface. The bible is a flawed book.  

   DO THEY NOT CONSIDER THE QURAN (WITH CARE) HAD IT BEEN ANY 
OTHER THAN ALLAH 
          THEY WOULD HAVE 
          FOUND THEREIN MANY 
          A DISCREPANCY 
           HOLY QURAN 4:8