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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.“
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- We can recall the lie they led their father to believe that Joseph was dead.
- 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.
- 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.
- We can say conclusively there is no contradiction here. This interpretation here by the skeptic is embarrassing.
- 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.”
[…] Where did Joseph’s brothers find the hidden money? […]
I’ve actually had questions about this one before. Pointing out Genesis 43:21 is dialogue and not the narrator communicating is very helpful.
Really I didn’t think this one was too hard
Thanks for another thorough debunking of another one of Steve Well’s alleged contradictions. I see from an article that wells claims to have spent 20 years thoroughly studying the Bible, but I’ve yet to see evidence of that.
20 years studying the Bible and the result is countless gross negligent error in interpreting the Bible? I’ve refuted 97 alleged contradictions in his list so far and I’m not done yet. More like 20 years of purposely twisting Scripture! But then I think 20 years of twisting Scripture isn’t as bad as systems with thousands of years twisting Scripture…
I don’t know what constitutes “studying” for Wells but evidently it’s not very rigorous. That’s right, the RCC has been twisting Scripture for centuries and its scholars HAVE been studying rigorously but without the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Yet another good tool brother; thanks for your efforts
Thanks! Does your son’s church has VBS? In an hour or so I’ll be going out to promote VBS near the neighborhood of our church and will be then picking up food and coordinating for our VBS decorations tonight. It’s coming soon, and we have less man power to do everything this year. It will be a VBS prep day all day today!
They do have it, and I may hand around just in case they need some help. But, they are smart and not really inclined to let a non member actually teach. I can appreciate that a lot. I have almost always taught the 5th and 6th graders, Maybe in the future again. I pray you have a good prep day.
TY for this series. The skeptics I know always say the Bible has been written so many times that there is too many errors to be believed. Sigh.
You’re welcome! Its interesting that so many skeptics say the BIble has many errors…yet they make so many errors in the examples they give of alleged errors in the Bible. Isn’t that ironic?
Yes, it is. What makes people think our God cannot preserve His word, in tact, when they know deep down He created a Universe?
Thanks for a great example from my favorite book in the Old Testament.
Wow Genesis is your favorite book? How long has that been your favorite? I’ve been wanting to do a deep and slow study of it sometime…
Genesis is so rich with stories that shape my theology – how the world was created(and food for thought regarding the creation/evolution debate), how humanity fell from grace (Adam, Eve, and the serpent/devil) and the reason we need a Savior, man’s rebellion (Tower of Babel) and how God dealt with it (many languages), God’s judgment (the Flood), His mercy (the ark), Abraham’s faith and the beginning of the Jewish religion, God’s promises and how He kept them, even when Abraham and Sarah tried to find a “short cut” (Ishmael), the son of promise (Isaac), Jacob and Esau, Jacob’s treachery and how it came back on him, Jacob’s twelve sons(the Twelve Tribes of Israel), and of course Joseph’s story, explaining how Israel came to Egypt, where they were slaves until God used Moses to liberate them… but that gets into the next book. I am a story person, and Genesis is not only a fascinating collection of (TRUE) stories, it explains how everything started and hints at how they will end.
LOL, I had meant to say that this was from my favorite STORY of the old Testament (Joseph), but Genesis IS my favorite book of the OT, too. (My favorite New Testament book is Acts, for a lot of the same reasons – lots of exciting stories about how the Church got started, and how they had a lot of the same problems we have today. God didn’t give up on them then, so He’s not going to give up on us now. – That’s good to know!)
You really know your Scripture
Another good one! Thank you for all the hard work.
Thank you for your supporting comments. How was evangelism this week??
Friday’s outreach went well although there was a didgeridoo player not far from us he went after we asked the Holy Spirit to move him out. Praise God !
These skeptics need to read the Scripture better
Agreed Jack
“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”✌Thats the crux of the problem.
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Thanks for one’s marvelous posting! I really enjoyed reading it, I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great writing, have a nice afternoon!
The only thing I see debunked is not the Bible but the skeptic!
If an atheist ever brings this up in person I’m going to laugh to their face.
[…] Where did Joseph’s brothers find the hidden money? […]
I feel sorry for the individuals Christians or non-Christians who fall for the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s claim that this is a contradiction without reading those verses in context. People believe more the words of man than God and if they do, their foolishness shows
You’ve gotta be a special kind of brainwashed stupid advocating for free thought while believing the listing on the Skeptic Annotated Bible without seeing the contradiction for oneself. I mean let’s be honest, what’s the likelihood of many Twitter atheists asking the same question in the same way “Where did Joseph’s brother find the hidden money?” quoting the same passages with the same sentence summaries and quoting from the same KJV version?