Bible Contradiction? Who was Laban’s father?

For more of our posts responding to alleged Bible contradictions check out our Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.

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

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

Laban was the son of Bethuel.

“Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.” (Genesis 28:5)

Laban was the son of Nahor.

“He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they said, ‘We know him.’’” (Genesis 29:5)

(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. When dealing with alleged Bible contradictions it is important to understand the context of the verses that the skeptics cited.
   1. In Genesis 28:5 Isaac sent his son Jacob to search for a wife (Genesis 28:2).   Here in Genesis 28:5 we see Jacob’s destination was to head towards Laban.  Within Genesis 28:5 we see descriptions about Laban including the fact that Laban was the “son of Bethuel.“
   2. In Genesis 29:5 we see Jacob asking a question to the “sons of the East (Genesis 28:1) who were watering their flock of sheep at a well (Genesis 28:2).  The question Jacob asked them was “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?“
3. The skeptic has tried to pit Genesis 28:5 against Genesis 29:5 since Genesis 28:5 stated Laban was the “son of Bethuel” while Genesis 29:5 stated that Laban was the “son of Nahor.”  But what is the relationship between Bethuel and Nahor?  Nahor is actually the father of Bethuel.  There are many passages before Genesis 28:5 that indicate Nahor is the father of Bethuel through Nahor’s wife Milcah.
   1. “Now it came about after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel the father of Aram 22 and Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.” 23 Bethuel became the father of Rebekah; these eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.” (Genesis 22:20-23)
   2. “Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder.” (Genesis 24:15)
   3. “She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”” (Genesis 24:24)
   4. “Then I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him’; and I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists.” (Genesis 24:47)
4. If Nahor is the father of Bethuel who then is the father of Laban it is not a contradiction in the use of Hebrew vocabulary to say Laban was both the son of Nahor and the son of Bethuel.  The Hebrew word for “son” in both Genesis 28:5 and Genesis 29:5 is בֵּן.  The range of meaning for בֵּן include “son” but also what we translate in English as “grandson.” So there is no contradiction here if we understand that the word can mean both “son” and “grandson.”
   1. 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.
   2. We have also seen instance of this Hebrew word meaning “grandson” in the Old Testament in our previous post “Who Was Achan’s father?“
5. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the BIble by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”

There is no Bible contradiction here.