Bible Contradiction? When did Absalom rebel against David?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: When did Absalom rebel against David?

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

After forty years

“Now it came about at the end of four years that Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow which I have made to the Lord, in Hebron. 8 For your servant made a vow while I was living in Geshur in Aram, saying, ‘If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord.’” 9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he got up and went to Hebron. 10 But Absalom sent spies throughout the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’” (2 Samuel 15:7-10)

Less than forty years since David only ruled for a total of forty years.

“David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.” (2 Samuel 5:4)

(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 2 Samuel 15:7-10  as affirming the claim “Absalom rebel against David after forty years of adjudicating at the gate” against 2 Samuel 5:4 as affirming “Absalom rebel against David under forty years of adjudicating at the gate.”
4. The skeptic rightly cited 2 Samuel 5:4 as affirming “Absalom rebel against David under forty years of adjudicating at the gate.”
   1.  This passage states David reigned for forty years.  David’s son Absalom’s rebellion against David happened when David was reigning so it must obviously be within those forty years.
   2. Note how in this verse it states that David was thirty years old when he started his reigned.  
5. The skeptic citing 2 Samuel 15:7-10 as affirming “Absalom rebel against David after forty years of adjudicating at the gate” is based upon a faulty textual issue.  It should be translated as “four” instead of “forty.”  If the translation is “four years” then it is compatible with 2 Samuel 5:4.  Point 6-8 will consider the internal evidence, the external evidence and also explain how the “forty” reading appeared. 
6. The reason why 2 Samuel 15:7 should be translated as “four” instead of “forty” is from the context of the rest of the book of 2 Samuel itself.
   1. One thing that lead me to think it is not “forty” years but “four years” is the observation that there is not a change of different named officials with their billet before 2 Samuel 15:7 and after 2 Samuel 15:7 that suggests its more likely four years have passed instead of forty.  The reason for that is because it is less plausible to explain the amount of officials that stayed in their office and didn’t die or retired due to age.
   2. The high priest before 2 Samuel 15:7 was Zadok according to 2 Samuel 8:17. After Absalom’s rebellion Zadok was still the high priest, see for example 2 Samuel 15:24-25, 27, 29, 35-36, 17:15, etc.
   3. The commander of David’s army before 2 Samuel 15:7 was Joab according to 3:23-24, 8:16, 10:7, 11:1, etc.  After Absalom’s rebellion Joab was still the commander, see for example 17:25, 18:2, 18:5, 18:16, etc.  What is significant here is that leading an army is going to require someone not too elderly for field expeditions and yet Joab was able to lead the army before and after 2 Samuel 15:7 suggesting four years is more likely than forty years.
   4.  Hiram was king of Tyre before 2 Samuel 15:7 according to 2 Samuel 5:11.  The same Hiram was king even after David’s death during Solomon’s reign according to 1 Kings 5:1.  So if 2 Samuel 15:7 is forty years that means Hiram lived and reign longer than David did and must have been very old.
   5. The fact that queen Bathsheba and Saul’s son Mephibosheth was alive before and after Absalom’s rebellion suggests too that this can’t be 40 years during before the rebellion.
   6. Taken together the fact that there’s still the same individuals all living and still in their position and relations to David suggests that its more plausible to understand that Absalom waited a shorter time before he rebelled rather than forty years.
7. The reason why 2 Samuel 15:7 should be translated as “four” instead of “forty” is fortified from the witness of ancient translations.
   1. According to the Textual Critical Apparatus of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia for this verse the reading of “four” is attested by the Greek Septuagint, specifically the Luciani text and Codex Coislinianus.
   2. This isn’t just some one shot but there’s diversity of the additional witness for the reading of “four” since that is what is translated in the Syria Peshitta and the Latin Vulgate which the Textual Critical Appartus also noted.
   3. Josephus also see this is “four.”
8. The explanation why 2 Samuel 15:7 it accidently went from “four” to “forty” for some of the manuscripts is that it is the result of a scribal error.
   1. Four in Hebrew is אַרְבַּע.
   2. Forty in Hebrew is אַרְבָּעִים.
   3. The difference between the two is the ending: ים.
   4. I think what happened is Absalom in Hebrew is אַבְשָׁלוֹם֙ and its near proximity to “four” if one doesn’t look carefully can be confusing for an careless scribe; note the two words begin with the same letter and the second letter if one doesn’t look carefully can seem the same and the third character for the name can look like the last character in “four” and then the ending of “forty” and ending for Absalom is both ם.   
9. Thus there is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
10. 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.”