Bible Contradiction? Who was Bashemath’s father?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who was Bashemath’s father?

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

Elon the Hittite.

“also Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.” (Gen 36:3)

Ishmael.

“Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3 also Basemath,, the sister of Nebaioth.” (Genesis 36:2-3)

(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. One need to as if the skeptics cited the passages properly.
   1. Gen 36:3 was cited correctly to support the claim “Bashemath’s father was Elon the Hittite.”
   2. Genesis 36:2-3 was cited correctly by the skeptic to establish the claim “Bashemath’s father was Ishmael.”
4. Yet I don’t believe there is a contradiction.  These refer to different individuals that have the same names.
   1. These different fathers should suggest to us its different individuals with different fathers and not a contradiction.
   2. The Bashemath with Ishmael as her father seems to also have another name: Mahalath. That’s because this Bashemath is described as “the sister of Nebaioth” in Genesis 36:3.  In Genesis 28:9 Esau’s wife named Mahalath was also described as “the sister of Nebaioth” (in addition to being “Ishmael’s daughter“).  These two descriptions doesn’t seem probable to be coincidental but rather more likely its the same person. 
5. There are other instances in the Bible of different individuals with the same name so we shouldn’t be surprised that there are more than one Bashemath.
   1. There were also other Bashemath in other times in Old Testament history.  1 Kings 4:15 mentioned that there’s a Bashemath that’s a daughter of King Solomon.
   2. For another example see our post “Who was Anah?“
   3. There is more than one individual name Dodo in the Bible.  First one is a child of Issachar according to Judges 10:1 while another Dodo was one of David’s three mighty men according to 2 Samuel 23:9 and 1 Chronicles 11:12.  Still there is another Dodo who was from Bethlehem, and father of Elhanan, who was one of David’s thirty heroes per 2 Samuel 23:24.
   4. There is also more than one Saul; there’s the first king of Israel and Saul who appear in the New Testament as a persecutor of Christians that later converted and was renamed Paul.
6. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
7. 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.”