Bible Contradiction? Should we rend our clothes?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Should we rend our clothes?

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

Yes.

“since your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become an object of horror and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have indeed heard you,’ declares the Lord.”” (2 Kings 22:19)

“Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I have indeed heard you,” declares the Lord.” (2 Chronicles 34:27)

“A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak.” (Ecclesiastes 3:7)

No.

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping, and mourning; 13 And tear your heart and not merely your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in mercy And relenting of catastrophe.” (Joel 2:12-13)

“Now it happened, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why did you tear your clothes? Just have him come to me, and he shall learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:8)

(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 three passages (2 Kings 22:19, 2 Chronicles 34:27, Ecclesiastes 3:7) as affirming the claim “We should rend our clothes” against two passages (Joel 2:12-13, 2 Kings 5:8) as affirming “We should not rend our clothes.”  By “rend” the skeptic means ripping one’s clothes.  The skeptic is using the language of the King James Version here.
4. Taking the skeptics’ two stated claims of what the Bible teaches at face value we don’t have a Bible contradiction  to begin with.
   1. In order to contradict the first claim “We should rend our clothes” logically the contradictory claim would have to be “We should never rend our clothes.”  The skeptic self-admits the second opposing claim is “We should not rend our clothes” but that is not the same thing as the claim “We should never rend our clothes.”  It is not contradictory because there can be times we should rend our clothes and other times we should not rend our clothes.
   2. In order to contradict the second claim “We should not rend our clothes” logically the contradictory claim would have to be “We should always rend our clothes.”  The skeptic self-admits the first opposing claim is “We should rend our clothes” but that is not the same thing as the claim “We should always rend our clothes.”  It is not contradictory because there can be times we should rend our clothes and other times we should not rend our clothes.
5. My point that there is not a Bible contradiction because biblically there can be times when people should rend their clothes and other times when they should not rend their clothes is supported by the Ecclesiastes 3:7 which the skeptic cited.  I know the skeptic cited Ecclesiastes 3:7 as supporting the claim “We should rend our clothes” but the actual passage states “A time to tear apart and a time to sew together” which technically support both claims “We should rend our clothes” and “We should not rend our clothes.”  Of course when we do either depends upon the context and the situation.  Just as the second half of the Ecclesiastes 3:7 states there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” so there is “A time to tear apart” and times we shouldn’t tear them apart.
6. The other four passages that the skeptics cited should be interpreted as different moments of when people should or should not tear/rend their clothes.
7. Note 2 Kings 22:19 is not a command to tear our clothes though God approved King Josiah tearing his clothes.  In the context this is a prophetess having a message for King Josiah (v.14-18).  Earlier Josiah heard God’s Word being read in verse 10.  King Josiah’s response was to tear his clothes (v.11) out of his distress for the sins of his people which prompted him to search for God (see verse 13).  God in verse 19 states to Josiah that “you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have indeed heard you” and God said to him directly he knew the motivation for the tearing of the clothes was because “you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants,“
8. 2 Chronicles 34:27 is a parallel account of King Josiah and the event recorded in 2 Kings 22 so everything in point 7 applies here.
9. Joel 2:12-13 does not contradict both 2 Kings 22:19 and 2 Chronicles 34:27.  Joel 2:12-13 shows that tearing one’s clothes as an act of genuine repentance from one’s heart is something God approves of in agreement with 2 Kings 22:19 and 2 Chronicles 34:27.  Note how verse 12 explicitly mentioned “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”  When verse 13 talks about tearing one’s clothes it doesn’t even condemn tearing one’s clothes per se, in of itself but it exhorts that one should also “tear one’s heart” in the sense of having a contrite spirit before the Lord.
10. In 2 Kings 5:8 we have Elisha the prophet rebuke a king who tore his clothes.  But one must account for the reason why the king tore his clothes.  In 2 Kings 5:7 it states the king tore his clothes when the letter from Syrian Army captain name Namaan asked to meet with the prophet Elisha in order to be healed of his leprosy.  The problem was the king tore his clothes out of lack of faith in God.  So obviously that motivation to tear his clothes is a problem.  Thus Elisha is used by God to voice disapproval with the king tearing his clothes.
11. Thus there is no contradiction here.  Seems like the skeptics need to learn from our post How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
12. 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.”