Bible Contradiction? Who Was Achan’s father?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who Was Achan’s father?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

Achan’s father was Carmi.

“But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.” (Joshua 7:1)

Achan’s father is Zerah.

“Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.” (Joshua 7:24)

“Did not Achan the son of Zerah act unfaithfully in the things under the ban, and wrath fall on all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.’” (Joshua 22:20)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. The skeptic pits Joshua 7:1 on the one hand against Joshua 7:24 and Joshua 22:20 on the other hand, claiming that the former teach Achan’s father was Carmi while the latter teaches Achan’s father is Zerah.  Actually Joshua 7:1 also affirm that Achan was “son of Zerah” also since it explicitly state “son of Zerah.”  Thus all three passages the skeptic cited all acknowledge  that Achan was the “son of Zerah” in some sense.  They are not conflicting with each other but instead they are actually the truth that Achan was the “son of Zerah.“
3. The skeptic sees a problem with the fact that Joshua 7:1 mentioned that Achan was “the son of Carmi” while the other passages did not say “the son of Carmi” (Joshua 7:24, 22:20).   But we shouldn’t see a problem that both Joshua 7:24 and 22:20 did not mention Achan was “the son of Carmi” if the very first verse of the chapter in Joshua 7:1 mentioned already the details that Achan directly was “the son of Carmi” who was “son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah.”  There’s no need to repeat all the details when it was already given in the beginning.  Both Joshua 7:24 and 22:20 gave an abbreviated lineage of Achan’s descendants.
4.  Why would both Joshua 7:24 and 22:20 refer to Achan being the “son of Zerah?”  What is prominent about being the “son of Zerah?” Recall that in Joshua 7 Achan is from the Tribe of Judah.  Zerah was Judah’s son through Tamar in Genesis 38:30.  Zerah would have been better known by all even outside of the tribe of Judah than the other descendants after Zerah such as Zabdi and Carmi.  Thus the reference to Achan being a descendant of Zerah makes sense.
5. Some might make an issue of Achan being the “son of Zerah.”  Technically Achan is the grandson of Zerah.  The Hebrew word for “son” here is בֵּן.  The range of meaning for בֵּן include “son” but also what we translate in English as “grandson.”  We see this in Genesis 31:55 where Laban kisses his grandchildren though it uses the Hebrew word בֵּן.  The Hebrew word for son allows for its use to include grandson.

There is no contradiction here.