For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How many of Arah’s offspring returned from Babylon?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
775
“the sons of Arah” (Ezra 2:5)
652
“the sons of Arah, 652” (Nehemiah 7:10)
(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.
- The skeptic tries to pit Ezra 2:5 as affirming the claim “775 of Arah’s offspring returned from Babylon” against Nehemiah 7:10 as affirming “652 of Arah’s offspring returned from Babylon.”
- One must always figure out the context of the verses the skeptic cited.
- The book of Ezra was written before the book of Nehemiah. The purpose of the book of Ezra records God’s fulfillment of bringing back the nation of Israel after 70 years of captivity. The first six chapters of Ezra record Zerubbael’s leadership in leading the exiles to return to build the alter in Jerusalem. Chapter 7-10 record how 80 years after Zerubbabel’s first trip Ezra journeyed to Jerusalem with a second group and how God used Ezra to bring about reform (William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary, 482).
- The book of Nehemiah record the third great leader of the Jewish return and restoration to the Promise Land after the Exile. Nehemiah was originally a cup bearer to the Persian King who thirteen year after Ezra’s expedition he was burden for the conditions of Jerusalem (William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary, 482). So God use Nehemiah to restore the city walls of Jerusalem and also other spiritual and moral reforms.
- Knowing the background of both books we can see that the time between Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 is about a period of 93 years or so.
- Knowing there is a 93 years period between Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 help us to understand the possible reasons for the differences of both chapters’ listing.
- First off In Ezra 2:1 it seems to indicate the list is giving an account of those who decided to depart Babylon in order to return to the promise land: “Now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city.“
- The purpose of listing the first generation’s return to the Jerusalem in Nehemiah 7 seems to be for the reason of organizing a new genealogy in Nehemiah’s day by first basing it upon the template of the first genealogy of the first generation. Note Nehemiah 7:5: “Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogies. Then I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up first in which I found the following record:” The different purposes must be remembered.
- Considering that Ezra 2:1 mentioned that the list in Ezra 2 are those who left the captivity in Babylon to return to Jerusalem we must remember that it is situated in a context in which Ezra 1 the people have not arrived yet to Jerusalem while the people arrived in the end of chapter 2 and beginning of chapter 3 of Ezra. It is reasonable to understand the listing of names and numbers in Ezra refer to those who departed Babylon. But just because one departed from Babylon for the promise land does not mean everyone would have arrived. Even with modern military units when we walk on foot hiking somewhere it doesn’t mean 100% of us arrive at our destination especially if there’s some incredible distance to travel; why won’t be surprised with civilians and families traveling that some will not arrive at their final destination for whatever reason?
- Thus Nehemiah 7’s listing might be of those who actually did arrive in Jerusalem and the promise land and not just a listing of those who attempted to return back to Jerusalem and the promise land.
- Also even upon their arrival to the promise land that doesn’t mean there’s a census done right away; there’s lots to do to settle in and the work of census for a genealogy might be a significant time later when things are more stable.
- Also given there’s 93 years between the two listing we can understand the latter listing in Nehemiah 7 might be a count of the population at a given specific time. Don’t forget population changes up and down for many reasons: death, births, young men coming of age in which they are now counted as adults, etc.
- Usually a population increase rather than decrease. So one might ask why is it the Arah’s offspring is less over time than more since it went from 775 to 652. I think 1 Chronicles 7:39-40 is helpful. Here Arah is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:39 and in the context it is part of the genealogy of Asher that began in 1 Chronicles 7:30. After mentioning Arah by name in 1 Chronicles 7:39 notice in 1 Chronicles 7:40 how it mentioned descendants of Arah along with other descendants from Asher’s line were warriors: “All these were the sons of Asher, heads of the fathers’ houses, choice and mighty men of valor, heads of the princes. And the number of them enrolled by genealogy for service in war was 26,000 men.” In the Jewish return to Jerusalem it would no doubt be a dangerous journey in more than one ways including hostile enemy forces. It is more than possible for Arah’s numbers to go down from 775 to 652 due to military operations and some of them might have been killed.
- There is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- 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.”
[…] How many of Arah’s offspring returned from Babylon? […]
Thank you for shedding light on these two different statistical data, Jim! Like any other long and dangerous march to the homeland, others might prefer settling along the way other than the intended place.
Good point Gersom! Some people would have settled somewhere else instead of Jerusalem along the way during the journey. That’s definitely something that Contribute towards making the point that there is no contradiction here! God’s Word still stand as true amen? Also reading any comics lately?
Thanks to WordPress, only part of Marvel’s Empyre crossover; maybe I should check on DC again. GOD has a way to lessen my mind with superheroes.
My first thought was they were written at different times. GREAT job with explaining this! I would not have thought in any great detail of point number 6! As always thank you for the effort you give to refuting the skeptic!!
Point 6 was a last minute point I was about to go to sleep but thought about searching the name Arah to see if something can illuminate this problem. I am thankful to God for last minute insight before I clock out! Going tangent where you live do you see midshipmen hanging out from the nearby Naval Academy?
Oh no, we are 2 hrs from there.
I give Steve/Stephen Wells “credit” in this case for not presenting a totally absurd claim. Thanks for the reasonable rebuttal!
Yeah this one isn’t as absurd as the other ones. Actually this one was kind of hard for me and I had to look at the context of both Ezra and Nehemiah more carefully of what’s going on. And point 6 was a last minute, fee minutes before I go to sleep kind of help from the Lord! Context, context, context! Just like with RC apologist or cultist even with the skeptics we must always go back to the context to refute the twisting of God’s Word amen?
Amen! There’s some weeks when rebutting Broussard is a breeze and other weeks his arguments require some serious research.
I would not have been able to figure this one just by glancing at it. Thanks for the background of both chapters
Thanks always for these!
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Always good to remember the history behind these verses as well as the order of which they are written. Good post. So, I decided to just give my thoughts with some of my notes on my blog about Calvinism vs Arminianism if you want to go read it. Of course, I’m pretty sure I have plenty of things to continue to ponder over with the Bible and deep issues like those. I hope you are doing well.
I’ll get to them sometime today! Wow you spent quite some time on this. I’m doing well but wondering if you can pray for a wildfire near us that last night was a mile from nearby city residential area and the fire fighters setup another fire to cancel out the advance of the wildfire. Haven’t read the news yet since 3 AM but the fire is heading west towards our city.
Thanks. Ya. I’ve spent some time on it. Reading different scriptures, listening to different Calvinist and Arminians. Of course I may be wrong, but my post is where I’m currently at in my thinking. And of course I’ll pray for the fires. Sorry to hear about that. I hope y’all stay safe
Very thorough response compared to the thin bone presentation by the critic
Very thorough discussion! Peeling away the many layers of data brings forward a truthful response. In comparison, we have difficulty in gathering 100% accurate census figures.
Reasonable explanation Jim. Makes sense.
I thought it was reasonable too
Does it not seem like the more you study Scripture the more God’s Word is vindicated and what seems as problematic at first evaporates?
So true. And it’s amazing how you can read certain verses or chapters over and over and suddenly something brand new jumps out that is pertinent to something you are experiencing or holds the key to a problem you are facing.
Trying to prove a contradiction based on 123 individuals seems like a flimsy argument to begin with.
Agreed; more ridiculous ones will be coming up in my posts in the next few weeks! Thanks for your comments and hope you are doing well with your health?
Well, it seems I have nodules on my liver close to the gall bladder, and on my stomach as well. At this point, we don’t know if it’s cancer, an infection, or an autoimmune disease. So, more tests.
My wife does have cancer, and will start radiation treatments soon. Turning it all over to The Lord. In Him we trust.
Praying for you and your family’s safety, too.
1 Chronicles 7:39-40 does make an interesting point about the sons of Asher being warriors and how that would affect their population.
Decimated it
2 Timothy 3:16 is true
We are all going to be judged. I wouldn’t want to be the skeptics slandering the Bible and dying with trusting in Christ on judgment day
Excellent answer of how to answer the skeptics
How many of Asaph s offspring returned from Babylon? Ezra 2:41 says 128 but Nehemiah 7:44 says 148. Is this a contradiction in the Bible?
I did a search and didn’t seem like this website address it. But the blog has been posting refutations of a contradiction on a regular basis so I hope they address it
[…] How many of Arah’s offspring returned from Babylon? […]
I love the way you explained the background and meaning of the biblical text regarding the return to Babylon. This text is taken out of content and most folks even Christians don’t know enough of the Old Testament. Thank God you are studied and showed yourself approved. Whoever wrote the skeptics anointed Bible certainly did stretch those texts way beyond it’s exegetical boundaries!