Bible Contradiction? Where did Joseph’s brothers find the hidden money?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Where did Joseph’s brothers find the hidden money?

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

At home.

“When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly with us, and took us for spies of the country. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’ 33 The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households, and go. 34 But bring your youngest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies, but [k]honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’” 35 Now it came about as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were dismayed.” (Genesis 42:29-35)

At the inn.

“As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money; and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.” (Genesis 42:27)

“and it came about when we came to the lodging place, that we opened our sacks, and behold, each man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full. So we have brought it back in our hand.” (Genesis 43:21)

(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. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. It is important to know the context of what is going on with the passages the skeptic cited here.  Joseph at this point was second to the King of Egypt while his brothers continued their lives as shepherds but due to a famine the brothers went to Egypt to acquire food but they didn’t recognize that they were talking to Joseph (Joseph did recognize them).  Joseph gave his brothers food but messed with them by putting the money they paid for food back into their sack of grain.  After departing Egypt the brothers discovered their money used to pay for the food were in their bag, to their dismay and horror.
4. We want to be fair with the skeptic and allow them to speak instead of us making a straw-man of their arguments.  The Skeptic Annotated Bible do not always do this but here the author does provide further explanation of why they think these passages are a problem: “When the brothers get back to Canaan, they find their money in their sacks and are (again) surprised.”  The brother’s surprise are found twice, first in Genesis 42:27 and then in Genesis 42:35.  Usually surprise and awe occur for someone at the moment of discovering something unexpected.  So the skeptic is reasoning here that if there’s twice a surprise and the surprises occurred at two separate location then this must mean there is a contradiction concerning where Joseph’s brothers found the hidden money.
5. However Genesis 42:27 (hidden money found in a bag at the inn) does not contradict with Genesis 42:29-35 (hidden money found in bags at their home).  While both passages mentioned Joseph’s brothers and both passages mentioned the emotion of surprise with the discovery of hidden money nevertheless a more careful reading indicates the two surprises are responses to two different facts.
   1. Notice in Genesis 42:27 the discovery of money occurred when “one of them opened his sack.” Note the singular individual mentioned since it says “one” both in the English and in the Hebrew.  Verse 28 describe the brother’s reactions: “their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another.”  The surprise here is a response to what was found in ONE of the brother’s sack.
   2. On the other hand Genesis 42:35 describe the discovery of what’s in all the brothers’ bag.  In the Hebrew the verb “empty” is plural and we see can see that even in our English translation: “as THEY were emptying their sacks.” Note also “their ” in “their sacks.”  What was dismaying for the brothers’ was how “every man’s bundle of money was in his sack.“
   3. To summarize, what were the two different facts that led the brothers to be surprised?  First fact was in Genesis 42:27 with the discovery that one of the brothers had his money still in his bag of food.  The second fact was in Genesis 42:35 with the discovery that all the brothers’ had his money still in their bag of food.  There’s no contradictions here with their surprises.
6. The skeptic’s question “Where did Joseph’s brothers find the hidden money?” doesn’t acknowledge the fact that Joseph’s brothers discovered hidden money in two different instances involving different individual brothers (one brother versus all the brothers) discovering different sets of money (money in first sack versus money in all the sack of food). Failing to take this into account the skeptic then see two different locations mentioned as evidence of a contradiction.  But that’s a faulty assumption that is not based upon the passage.
7. Furthermore one might ask why they didn’t discover all the money in the bags at the inn before they got home.  Don’t forget what was going on at this time was a famine and food was scarce.  They wouldn’t be haphazardly opening all the sack of food.  The reason why one of the brothers opened his sack before they got home was explained: “to give his donkey fodder” (Genesis 42:27).  He opened his bag because he had to.
8. One might point out that in Genesis 43:21 the brothers stated that they (plural) found the money at the inn.  But I think it is important to note that Genesis 43:21 is what the brothers said while the other passages we saw earlier is the narrator.  And the brothers have not necessarily had a good track record of speaking the truth in the story:
   1. We can recall the lie they led their father to believe that Joseph was dead.
   2. Notice the brothers in Genesis 43:21 said concerning the money “we have brought it back in our hand.”  But that’s a half truth.  Genesis 43:2 states that it was because they finished their grain and being forced by their father to go back to Egypt to get more food is why they came back and not to bring back the money per se.  That’s a hint of the bend of truth in this speech.
   3. Genesis 43:21 can also be seen as nervous and hungry men speaking and who were caught in a difficult situation.  We should take it with a big grain of salt.
9. We can say conclusively there is no contradiction here.  This interpretation here by the skeptic is embarrassing.
10. 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.”