For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who was Uzziah’s father?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
Joram was Uzziah’s father.
“Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, and Joram fathered Uzziah.” (Matthew 1:8)
Joram was Uzziah’s [Azariah’s] great-great-grandfather.
“Now Solomon’s son was Rehoboam, then Abijah was his son, Asa, his son, Jehoshaphat, his son, 11 Joram, his son, Ahaziah, his son, Joash, his son, 12 Amaziah, his son, Azariah, his son, Jotham, his son,” (1 Chronicles 3:10-12)
(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 Matthew 1:8 as affirming the claim “Joram was Uzziah’s father” against 1 Chronicles 3:10-12 as affirming “Joram was Uzziah’s [Azariah’s] great-great-grandfather.”
- One must always if the skeptic is referring to the same person since the skeptics has in other instance made the error of confusing different people with the same name. In this instance the skeptic is right to refer to the same person Uzziah [spelling can differ as Azariah] since in the context both 1 Chronicles 3:12-13 and Matthew 1:9 this individual fathered Jotham who then fathered Ahaz.
- It is clear that 1 Chronicles 3:10-12 does affirm “Joram was Uzziah’s [Azariah’s] great-great-grandfather.” From this passage we learn that in between Joram and Uzziah was “Joash” and “Amaziah” (v.11-12).
- Matthew 1:8 does not contradict with 1 Chronicles 3:10-12 if we understand the Greek word that is translated “fathered.”
- The verb for “became the father of” is ἐγέννησεν. ἐγέννησεν is a form of the verb that lexical root is γεννάω.
- γεννάω often has the meaning of “begat, give birth to.”
- However γεννάω does not always mean being the direct biological parent to a child. The verb simply mean direct descent.
- If γεννάω simply mean direct descent then that mean it doesn’t need to conflict with the claim in 1 Chronicles 3:10-12 that “”Joram was Uzziah’s [Azariah’s] great-great-grandfather.”
- We see even within the context of Matthew 1 that γεννάω doesn’t necessarily mean being a direct biological parent of a particular child. Matthew 1:16 states “Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born.” A form of the verb γεννάω appears here (ἐγεννήθη). We know Jesus wasn’t born physically through Joseph. Yet Jesus’ descent from Joseph is what’s being referred to in some other sense (legal).
- See Who was Jesus’s paternal grandfather? that further substantiate that γεννάω doesn’t necessarily mean being a direct biological parent of a particular child but can at times mean simple direct descent. One can be “grandfathered” and “great-grandfathered” to someone using this verb.
- See also Was Jeconiah the son or grandson of Josiah? that further substantiate that γεννάω doesn’t necessarily mean being a direct biological parent of a particular child but can at times mean simple direct descent. One can be “grandfathered” and “great-grandfathered” to someone using this verb.
- 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.”
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It does help to understand Hebrew and Greek. Thanks for the insight. Immensely helpful.
Blessings.
Yes thank you brother.
Thanks for reading this blog all these years Michael
Confusing, yes, but not contradictory. But that confusion is cleared up very well here. Thank you, Jimmy. Praying for you going into the Christmas week ahead!
Pax,
Dora
Dora thanks for commenting! I appreciated you make the point that we need to distinguish between confusion and contradiction! What appears confusing to us and the skeptics don’t necessitate it’s a contradiction. This is a profound point that transcend this immediate contradiction I’m dealing here. Yet we see in so many of these alleged contradictions that’s a mistake the skeptics are making don’t we? Dora your thoughts are so welcome here!!!
Good point that “γεννάω doesn’t necessarily mean being a direct biological parent of a particular child but can at times mean simple direct descent.” The logical error seems to be using a word with multiple meanings out of context as if it had one meaning.
You correctly identified the error being committed! The skeptics act as if words can’t have more than meaning at all but then they go ahead and use natural language where words have more than one semantic range all the time. It seems rather crude and simplistic with the skeptics doing this with the Bible and also logically fallacious and even more so when context gives us reasons to see one preferred meaning over another. I appreciate you reading this, hopefully it’s not too “Greeked” that others think this post is only for Bible Geeks!
Hey thanks this for responding to that book so we don’t have too =)
I don’t understand how someone who obviously has spent some time in the Scriptures, can then deliberately go about to mislead others and not detect a pattern that should question his own faulty interpretation method.
[…] Who was Uzziah’s father? that further substantiate that γεννάω doesn’t necessarily mean being a direct biological […]
Thanks for this thorough refutation. Steve/Stephen Wells likes to camp out under this “son-descendent” false-contradiction tree. I’m not familiar with the writings Bart Ehrman. I wonder if he at least has enough knowledge of ancient Israel genealogy to not propose something like this as a contradiction.
Erhman is obviously in a different league than Steve Wells. But it does seem to me when he talks about why he rejects the Bible there is a component where there’s emotions and not just “pure reason” (in my opinion). I mean man he argues very rigorously Jesus existed in history, one of the best I’ve seen but his comments off tangent in his book when it describes Conservative Christians and biblical beliefs seems so…ignorant and uninformed especially with the straw man and fallacies. I don’t remember anymore but were you reading this blog when we went over Ehrman’s books and arguments a few years back??? I’m getting old I suppose I’m forgetting!!!
RE: remember
I can remember 50 years ago pretty well, but not last week! Yup, I think your blog posts introduced me to Ehrman.
I was thinking the same thing that neither in Hebrew nor Greek does a genealogy have to be a “direct biological parent of a particular child.” I was reading this last week in my own quiet time and am not surprised the skeptic has a contradiction for this. God help you in your resolve to refute these alleged contradictions! Are you driving today for ministry?!
Thanks for your input! I should be driving today! Not too far though for this week; but I”m still waiting to hear back from the guy I think he might have forgotten we were going to meet this week lol. If it don’t work out that will give me more time to read and study especially with a retreat coming up I’m speaking for in Janaury! How are you? DO you drive daily just curious!
Hey, did you see the remaining Christian hostages in Haiti have been released? Praise God! I do drive daily! There are some days however where I decide to just stay at home if that makes sense. We live more toward the southern end of Lancaster county which means that to get to a Target, Walmart is a 20-25min drive. I NEVER imagined I would have to drive that far!! Glad you will be close to home! I do pray for you and Nancy as you drive around the LA area!!!
Good Job brother Jim. A lot of work.
Wow thanks for those kind words. I hope you are doing well??
These posts are always helpful
Thanks for dropping by with your love and support for these; are you done for the semester??
Yes, done until January 10th.
Forgot to add. I don’t get out in the blogosphere much but I do stop by your place fairly regularly. Always worth a read.
Thanks for clearing up another skeptic’s attempt at producing confusion about God’s Word, Jim!
You are welcome! Love doing these as it seems there are people searching for answers and the search engines have been good to our blog so far! How are you enjoying this Christmas season?
Good for the most part! We only get to celebrate it with half the grandkids though. My son in law doesn’t believe in celebrating Christmas.
Uhm what?
Your argument from γεννάω shut down the skeptic.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
You thoroughly fact checked this alleged contradiction. You were very reasonable so I completely agree with you
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And the curse on Ahab’s family line is complete. even erasing them from the genealogy. I have had this argument at our church, but you have the advantage by knowing the Greek language being used. Thanks.
Thanks for reading this Mark. How did your Christmas weekend go??
It was okay. We wanted to visit the grandchildren in TN, but doctor visits and procedures that were postponed into January prevented it. But then our son in TN got a mild case of COVID, we would have been stuck in the hospital in Memphis away from the grandchildren so my wife could have dialysis if we were there. Son okay, just quarantined. Bummer. But we had quality time together.
[…] Likewise with the Greek the skeptic isn’t aware that γεννάω doesn’t necessarily mean being a direct biological parent of a particular child but can at times mean simple direct descent. One can be “grandfathered” and “great-grandfathered” to someone using this verb. See Who was Jesus’s paternal grandfather?, Was Jeconiah the son or grandson of Josiah?, and Who was Uzziah’s father? […]
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