Bible Contradiction? Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:

God

“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”” (Exodus 3:4)

“But regarding the fact that the dead rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” (Mark 12:26)

An angel

“Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed.” ( Exodus 3:2)

“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.” (Acts 7:35)

(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 two passages (Exodus 3:4 and Mark 12:26) as affirming the claim “God appeared to Moses in the burning bush” against two other passages (Exodus 3:2 and Acts 7:35) as affirming “An angel appeared to Moses in the burning bush.”
4. It is true that both Exodus 3:4 and Mark 12:26 affirm the claim “God made people deaf and blind.”
   1. Exodus 3:4 mentioned it was God as the subject who called out from the burning bush.
   2. Mark 12:26 is Jesus referencing Exodus 3:4 and Jesus points out that it was God speaking.
5. Both Exodus 3:2 and Acts 7:35 does affirm “an angel appeared to Moses in the burning bush.”
   1. Note both verses mentioned “Angel.”
   2. Both verses also states the Angel was in the midst of the bush or in the bush.
6. But the answers “God” and “Angel” are not mutually exclusive concerning the question “Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush?” The term “Angel” literally means messenger or someone who makes an announcement; it can have more than one referent.
   1. There of course the obvious reference of angels to heavenly beings that are servants of God.  The Greek word “angelos” is used to translate “sons of God” in heaven before God in Job 1:6.
   2. There are times the term is used to refer to human messengers with messages on behalf of another human being; see Luke 7:24, 9:52 and James 2:25.
   3. Still there are times there is a “Messenger/Angel of Yahweh” who is a Divine Member of the Trinity.  An example of that is found in Judges 6:11-24.  Note how verse 22 record Gideon’s reaction to seeing the Messenger/Angel of Yahweh is that he didn’t die from seeing God (versus seeing a creaturely heavenly being).
7. Given that there can be the Divine “Angel of Yahweh” which is a Divine appearance by God in a Theophany, we would not be surprised there are instances which God appear in a physical way and in fact we would expect them in Old Testament times in various points in redemptive history. So when we see this Messenger/Angel appear in the Bush to Moses and other passages also state that it was God who appeared to Moses, they are not mutually exclusive but rather these four passages together indicate it is the Divine Messenger of Yahweh.
8. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
9. 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.”