If the Skeptic Annotated Bible think these are Bible contradictions then the Bible Contradiction list itself is a Contradiction

 

Yesterday’s post “What was Solomon’s payment to Hiram?” got me thinking about how ridiculous the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s claim was that there was a Bible contradiction with the two verses the website cited.  Two passages with overlapping truths in which one verse happen to mention additional details than the other verse is a far stretch from it being a Bible contradiction.  

This isn’t the first time the listing from the Skeptic Annotated Bible pull off a similar mistake.  When I surveyed my Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions) I noticed the skeptic did the same thing with “What did the sign over Jesus’s head say?”  

There’s a whole bunch of alleged Bible contradictions the Skeptic Annotated Bible claimed based upon various account stating how many individuals there were for several events; see as examples the following (though not exhaustive): How many women came to the sepulchre?, How many men were possessed with demons at the country of the Gadarenes?, How many were from the tribe of Simeon?

Perhaps the most ridiculous is What is God’s name?  Here the skeptics even think that a shortened form of God’s name means its a contradiction with the longer form of God’s name and other titles of God!

It seems the method of interpretation (what is called hermeneutics) that the skeptic uses to say there’s a contradiction is based upon the observation that there are slightly different wordings and additional details in one of the verses and then extrapolating that there then is a Bible contradictions.

Sometimes the best way to refute bad hermeneutics is to apply the same hermeneutics back to its advocate and demonstrate how it is self-refuting.  We are not saying we agree with the skeptics that there’s actually a contradiction but the chief focus in this post is show if the skeptics are consistent then they are forced to being reduced to absurdity.

So using the skeptics hermeneutics does that mean the skeptics’ own wordings are also contradicting?

 

On the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s listing (archived just in case here) we see that the wordings are sometimes different than the wordings found in the actual specific Bible contradiction page.  Other times we also see additional information either on the listing or on the specific Bible contradiction page.

• The lists asks “Did God kill all the Egyptian cattle in the sixth plague?” but the actual page itself says “Did God kill all the Egyptian cattle in the fifth plague?” Note the disagreement with the numbering.
• The lists asks “How many animals of each kind did Noah take into the ark?” but the actual page itself says “How many of each clean animal did Noah take into the ark?” Note the extra addition of “clean” animal in the actual page while the listing just said animal.
• The lists asks “Did God give Gehazi leprosy?” but the actual page itself says “Did God give Gehazi (Elisha’s servant) leprosy?” Note the extra addition of “(Elisha’s servant)” in the actual page.
• The lists asks “Did Paul go to Jerusalem from Damascus immediately after his conversion?” but the actual page itself says “Did Paul go to Jerusalem immediately after his conversion?” Note the extra addition of “Damascus” in the listing.

The following are even more ridiculous differences, similar to how the skeptic thinks short form and long form of the name of God is a contradiction (its ridiculous):

• The lists asks “Were the disciples frightened or gladdened when they saw Jesus?” but the actual page itself says “Were the disciples frightened or glad when they saw Jesus?” The list used the verb “gladdened” but the actual page says “glad.”
• The lists asks “Should believers discuss their faith with non-believers?” but the actual page itself says “Should believers discuss their faith with nonbelievers?” Note the skeptic calls nonbelievers differently whether with a hyphen or not.
• The lists asks “Were the disciples frightened or gladdened when they saw Jesus?” but the actual page itself says “Were the disciples frightened or glad when they saw Jesus?” The list used the verb “gladdened” but the actual page says “glad.”

I know there’s more differences and discrepancies I’ve noticed over the years on the Skeptic Annotated Bible; when I see more I’ll add them here to the list. 

Again note that I’m not saying all of these are necessarily actual difficulties.  I’m making the point that if the skeptics want to argue in this fashion this also applies to the list, yet some of these aren’t actually any problems in the first place with sound hermeneutics and logical reasoning.