For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who hardened the Pharaoh’s heart?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
God did.
“The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” (Exodus 4:21)
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:3)
“Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.” (Exodus 7:13)
“And the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.” (Exodus 9:12)
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have [a]hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may [b]perform these signs of Mine among them” (Exodus 10:1)
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.” (Exodus 10:20)
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go.” (Exodus 10:27)
“Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.” (Exodus 11:10)
“Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.” (Exodus 14:4)
“The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.” (Exodus 14:8)
“Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.”” (Exodus 14:18)
The Pharaoh did.
“But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.” (Exodus 8:15)
“But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.” (Exodus 8:32)
“But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the [a]thunder had ceased, he sinned again and [b]hardened his heart, he and his servants.” (Exodus 9:34)
“Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow [a]the people to go, and they departed?” (1 Samuel 6:6)
(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 eleven verses (Exodus 4:21, Exodus 7:3, Exodus 7:13, Exodus 9:12, Exodus 10:1, Exodus 10:20, Exodus 10:27, Exodus 11:10, Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:8, Exodus 14:18) as affirming the claim “God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart” against four verses (Exodus 8:15, Exodus 8:32, Exodus 9:34, 1 Samuel 6:6) as affirming “Pharaoh hardened his own heart.”
- One must always ask if the skeptics properly interpreted the verse they cited.
- The eleven verses (Exodus 4:21, Exodus 7:3, Exodus 7:13, Exodus 9:12, Exodus 10:1, Exodus 10:20, Exodus 10:27, Exodus 11:10, Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:8, Exodus 14:18) were properly interpreted by the skeptics as affirming “God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart” since those verses shows either God speaking in the first person that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart or verses states God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the third person.
- The four verses (Exodus 8:15, Exodus 8:32, Exodus 9:34, 1 Samuel 6:6) does affirm “Pharaoh hardened the Pharaoh’s own heart.”
- Still we don’t see a Bible contradiction since the Bible elsewhere teaches that man’s will is concurrent with God’s will
- “The plans of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:1)
- This verse shows that man does have a heart that is “real,” in which the person can plan things which presuppose a will, a mind, etc.
- Yet at the same time the Lord is involved and can control what man says.
- “The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
- Here we see again that man has a mind.
- Yet God is still sovereign over the person’s direction and decision.
- “Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the Lord will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)
- Here we see that man can consider many choices in his heart.
- Yet still the Lord is sovereign still with His counsel and plan.
- “The plans of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:1)
- Given that the BIble teaches the compatibalism of human will and God’s will we don’t have a contradiction if some passage shows “God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart” while others taught “Pharaoh hardened his own heart.”
Technically in light of the Bible’s teaching of compatiablism these verses would be contradictory if the verses taught “ONLY God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart” or “ONLY Pharaoh hardened the Pharaoh’s heart.” Or another set of possibilities in order for the Bible to be contradictory here is if these verses taught “God DID NOT hardened the Pharaoh’s heart” or “Pharaoh DID NOT hardened his own heart.” But none of those verses supply these claims. - Thus 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.”
[…] Who hardened the Pharaoh’s heart? […]
“The skeptic tries to pit” the Creator with the created. GOD is sovereign with His plans and purposes for His glory. On the otherhand, the pharaoh perceived that he hardened his own heart in his own accord. That, the hardened skeptic cannot see without knowing GOD. We are grateful to GOD for not hardening our hearts that we get to know and worship Him.
Amen Gersom we are grateful for God saving us from a hardened heart. Though we deserve it because of our sinfulness. Yet in our own sinfulness without God’s grace we would desire to harden our own heart instead of obeying God. So grateful for His sovereign grace! I don’t want salvation to ultimately depend on me, I know I am so wretched, true ain’t it?
Yes you are pastor, we all definitely are, right, Jim? Yes, we are very grateful to GOD’s amazing grace alone, through the atoning sacrifice of our GOD and Savior, JESUS CHRIST that we accept humbly as undeserving sinners by faith alone. Blessings to you and your family!
You’re comment is always preaching the Gospel with Gospel richness!
We thank GOD for enlightening us; giving us the words to say as an empty vessel for His message. Also, thank you for replying; you did go beyond and I’m thankful. 🙂
I must admit that this one is a bit harder to explain. You have done a great job and I am grateful.
Thank you sister! I agree with you this one is a bit harder than some of the other ones the skeptics have listed. Praying for your evangelism coming up soon! Please keep me posted yeah?
I sure will pastor Jim .
Amen
The three verses from Proverbs help illuminated these passages
Thanks for your examination of this contradiction. Steve/Stephen Wells has hit upon one of the most debated topics in Gospel Christianity; man’s free will vs. God’s sovereignty. I’m curious if he made any kind of comment about the Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate?
RE: “man’s will is concurrent with God’s will” and “the Bible teaches the compatibilism of human will and God’s will”
Yes, the Bible certainly teaches both. Somehow God works it all out and I am happy to leave it to the theologians to debate the details.
Hope your day’s off to a good start! I had to run some errands which put me behind on WordPress.
I went to the skeptic annotated Bible website just now, typed under search the word “Calvinism” and there’s nothing. I’m not surprised. For all that the author Steve Hays say about his background being religious his interviews and his website shows almost like an extreme atheist version of a “fundie,” not in the sense of holding to the fundamentals of the faith but the sterotype of cultural fundamentalism of being simplistic, ignorant and illogical…except its a secular atheistic version of that. I’m not trying to be mean but stating what I’ve been noticing from reading Steve’s materials and hearing audios of him speak the last 5 years or so. The discussion about Arminianism and Calvinism has gotten very deep and sophisticated and Wells seem altogether unfamiliar with them, its like he wrote this list back in the 80s and never looked back again. What were some errands you had to run earlier?
Thanks for checking Wells for “Calvinism.” Right, he hasn’t shown any signs of sophisticated Biblical knowledge that one would automatically assume the author of SAB would possess.
Well, I cut half the backyard before it rained, exchanged books at the library, and picked up some stuff at the grocery. I also stopped at Don’s Original burger joint for a couple of jars of my favorite meat hot sauce, but once again they were all out. How’s your day going?
Hi, Jim and Tom! I hope it is ok if I comment. I have spent A LOT of time studying this issue. There are two different words in these passages that English refers to as hardened. חזק truly means harden or hardened this form is found in Exodus 4:21; 7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:12,35; Ex 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:4,8,17 (the Hebrew verses are different numbering than English). The Lord is hardening Pharaoh’s heart in these verses. These verses are a mixture of stems and aspects, but God is the Agent causing the hardening. Now, in Ex 8:15, 32; 9:7, 34; 10:1; 1 Sam 6:6 the verb is כבד which means heavy or weighty. Pharaoh made his heart heavy or weighty because he did not obey Yahweh. Samuel is saying to Israel why are you making your hearts heavy or weighty as Pharaoh and the Egyptians? In 8:15 and 32 Pharaoh’s hardened heart is in the hiphil stem which is a causative verbal form. Pharaoh is literally the Agent causing his own heart to be weighty. The Lord is literally making Pharaoh’s heart hard while Pharaoh (and Israel) is more metaphorical. I personally think that this if one wanted to enter the Calvin Arminian debate would lean toward Calvin in the sense of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. No doubt about it, God made Pharaoh’s heart hard. Pharaoh made his own heart weighty. There is way more that I could say; however, I will reign in my passion and enthusiasm for Hebrew!! There is ALOT going on with Pharaoh in the Hebrew and our English translations just do not capture this well.
Grateful sister whenever you share your insight especially with the Hebrew which is always insightful! Especially with pointing out the causative idea of the verbs. Thank you for bringing your study and exegesis to bear. You should write a post from your study! I have an outline that consider the gardening of heart biblically and the ANE/Egyptian background that I used to teach for an oversea seminary earlier this year that I need to still edit and hope to maybe post on the blog sometime and your comment now convince me I should make that a priority (I’m often editing my outlines because of my grammar or to make it more logically better in my presentation).
Thank you so much for your encouragement!!! I was thinking of writing a blog on this, either for your site or mine. There is a lot going on with Pharaoh, there are piel (distributive/factitive) verbs, hiphils (causation) and what Dr Meyer called qal narratives (they are waw consecutive imperfects, largely seen in Hebrew narrative, moving the story along. Lots of times when you read in English and Moses said that is a qal narrative. Not always but more often than not). If I can help you with grammar I am seriously willing!
I searched “Arminianism” on the Skeptic Annotated Bible and nothing showed up either.
Thanks for the insight. Contradictions can be resolved sometimes by “yes/and” rather than “either/or”. That seems to be the case here.
Blessings.
Thank you. This man is null and void.
So many of these skeptics act like Jonah with running away from God. They will swallow any lies to escape the Lord
I agree.:)
“Still we don’t see a Bible contradiction since the Bible elsewhere teaches that man’s will is concurrent with God’s will” A good way to put it Jim.
1)Two truths: Man has a free will and is (eternally) accountable for his decisions
2)God has total sovereignty
These are eternal truths and we are trying from our end to reconcile how that works with a finite mind.
Some day we will understand.
Amen Gary. Thank you for reading this by the way. May the Lord bless your Friday
I think both Arminians and Calvinists can agree, amen brother
When I read the story of Noah to my grandchildren and the author calls the creature that swallowed Noah a Big Fish….my grandson corrects me and says, “It was a whale grandma.”
Whether we call it a whale or a big fish or anything else does not matter as much as the rest of the story: …a huge fish to “swallow” Jonah, and “Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”. It had to be something alive that swallowed Jonah, allowing him to remain alive and in one piece for 3 days and nights. My grandson may have been contradicting an author, yet the story ended up the same. Details only seem to matter with the atheist, yet the defender of the faith, the Apologetic, lives by faith. Results matter…..Jonah ended up in the place God meant for him to be and he obeyed. Jonah just did things the hard way. He tried to run from God.
Funny you brought up about Noah’s fish or whale conversation with your grandson. The author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually listed that as one of their example of the Bible contradicting and I’ve responded to that a couple of years ago on this blog.
Like you said it seems the skeptics focus on the details only to attack the Scripture but even then I think they don’t pay attention enough or where it counts such as the semantic range of the Hebrew word we translate as “fish” and “whale” or “sea creature.”
For us the details makes us love Jesus more! Jonah is probably my favorite Old Testament book here’s my series going over some details that might be interesting to read about: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/exposition-of-jonah-series-table-of-content/
How are you with your part of the country?
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Br you sunk his battleship
Thanks for examining this alleged “contradiction.” Patience required! Love the bullet point method. The skeptics isn’t concerned for the truth and their rage against truth is ramping up.
Glad I noticed this on google .
Reblogged this on Averagechristiannet.
[…] God? Pharaoh? Who hardened the heart of Pharaoh? […]
[…] few months ago, I was looking at The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible (SAB) in light of Jimmy’s post “Who Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart?” In my browsing, I happened to see the SAB said that Psalm 29 was […]
Atheists: Here is an odd thought. Why not let the Bible mean what it says, let it mean what it meant to the people who first read each book, instead of reinterpreting the book in novel ridiculous fashion?
To go in-depth with Scripture is harder work than many are able and most are unwilling to do. Exploring the depths of the Word brings more humility, repentance, worship, obedience, fellowship, and service for the sake of Christ’s honor and glory. More importantly it lead one to Christ as Savior. There is a great reward when the light of understanding dawn on those wading in the shallows.
[…] Who hardened the Pharaoh’s heart? […]