Bible Contradiction? Did Moses fear the king?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Did Moses fear the king?

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

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Moses feared the king.

“But he said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known!” 15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.“ (Exodus 2:14-15)

Moses did not fear the king.

“By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as though seeing Him who is unseen.” (Hebrews 11:27)

(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 Exodus 2:14-15 as affirming the claim “Moses feared the king” against Hebrews 11:27 as affirming “Moses did not feared the king.”
4. The skeptic rightly interpret Exodus 2:14-15 as affirming the claim “Moses feared the king.” Verse 14 states Moses was afraid. Verse 15 then said he fled the king.
5. The skeptic rightly interpret Hebrews 11:27 as affirming “Moses did not feared the king.” It directly states “not fearing the wrath of the king.”
6. Still both of these verses are not contradicting. They are two different time period when Moses feared and did not fear the king.
   1. Exodus 2:14-15 was before Moses fled from Egypt the first time and during that time “Moses feared the king.”
   2. Hebrews 11:27 I take it as after forty years later when Moses was leading the Hebrews out of Egypt.
      1. Note “he persevered” instead of him leaving in despair.
      2. Note this instance Moses was focused on God: “as though seeing Him who is unseen“
7. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
8. 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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