Bible Contradiction? When was the woman who touched Jesus’s robe cured?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: When was the woman who touched Jesus’s robe cured?

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

She was cured the instant she touched Jesus’s robe.

“‘A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— 27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.” (Mark 5:25-29)

“‘And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. 45 And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.”” (Luke 8:43-45)

She was cured within an hour after touching Jesus’s robe.

“‘And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; 21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.” 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well.’” (Matthew 9:20-22)

 

(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. The skeptic tries to pit Mark 5:25-29 and Luke 8:43-45 as affirming the claim “The woman was cured the instant she touched Jesus’s robe” against Matthew 9:20-22 as affirming “The woman was cured within an hour after touching Jesus’ robe.”
4. Just by taking the skeptics’ claims at face value we already don’t see a necessary contradiction.  Let’s say those verses do teach “The woman was cured the instant she touched Jesus’s robe” and also Matthew 9:20-22 do teach that “The woman was cured within an hour after touching Jesus’ robe.”  Technically if she was healed instantly no doubt she would be healed within the duration of that hour.  It’s not a contradiction.
5. We must look at both verses in its context to see if the skeptic cited it properly.
6. The skeptic’s accurately cited both Mark 5:25-29 and Luke 8:43-45 as affirming the claim “The woman was cured the instant she touched Jesus’s robe.”
   1. Mark 5:29 mentioned the term “Immediately” to described what happened: “the flow of her blood was dried up.”  So we this passage definitely affirm the woman was cured instantly.
   2. Luke 8:44 mentioned the term “Immediately” to described what happened: “her hemorrhage stopped.”  So we this passage definitely affirm the woman was cured instantly.
7. The skeptic did accurately cited Matthew 9:20-22 as affirming “The woman was cured within an hour after touching Jesus’ robe.”  However there needs to be some nuanced as observed from the Greek grammar of the passage.
   1. What the NASB translated as “At once the woman was made well” is also literally translated in the footnote as “from that hour.”
   2. But we must then ask what does the Greek word for “hour” means.
   3. The Greek word for “hour” is ὥρα.  It can have more than one meaning besides a literal hour of sixty minutes.  While it refer to literal sixty minutes hour as the most frequent use of the term in the New Testament (84 times), nevertheless it can also mean a moment, time , or while.
   4. It seems in the Greek the combination of the relative pronoun “that” with “hour” actually refer to the idea of instant rather than sometime during the range of a sixty minute hour.  For example in Mark 13:11 the phrase “that hour” occur there in which Jesus taught His disciples that when we are persecuted the Spirit will help them speak the right thing; what is the result?  They speak within that hour.  I don’t think its teaching us that almost an hour later you when someone ask you a question you finally know what to say to those persecuting you; rather the better sense is that “that hour” in the Greek can literally mean at that moment instantly since Mark 13:11 is hinting at a spiritual ability God has given to respond amazingly.
   5. So if “that hour” is better understood as “instant” than we don’t have a Bible contradiction.
8. For those who think they can dismiss point 7 about the Greek term “hour” can have a meaning of something different than a sixty minute hour, think of how even in the English language “hour” doesn’t always mean a literal sixty minute time period.  People talk about Great Britain in World War fighting the Nazis as their finest hour.  In fact Church even gave a speech and said “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.””  But he doesn’t mean the war is finished in sixty minutes as if World War Two is just an hour long documentary or movie.  Likewise the Greek word for hour can have more meaning than a sixty minute time unit.
9. There is no contradiction here.
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.”

 

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