Does the Bible contain errors? Often the
answer depends on the eye of the be
-
holder. For those determined to
undermine
Scripture, yes, it does contain
errors and no
answer will satisfy them. For others,
though,
careful study and patience usually
resolve any
problems.
As noted author Josh McDowell
explains
regarding the Bible: “It is a mistake
for the
critic to assume .
.
. that what has not yet
been explained never will be
explained. When
a scientist comes upon an anomaly in
nature,
he does not give up further
scientific exploration. Rather, he uses the unexplained as a motivation to find
an explanation .
.
.
“Likewise, the Christian scholar
approaches the Bible with the same presumption that
what is thus far unexplained is not
therefore
unexplainable. He or she does not
assume
that discrepancies are
contradictions. And
when he encounters something for
which he
has no explanation, he simply
continues to do
research, believing that one will
eventually be
found .
.
.
“Like his scientific counterpart, the
Bible
student has been rewarded for his
faith and
research. Many difficulties for which
scholars once had no answer have yielded to the
relentless pursuit of answers through
history,
archaeology, linguistics, and other
disciplines.
For example, critics once proposed
that Moses
could not have written the first five
books of the
Bible because there was no writing in
Moses’
day. Now we know that writing existed
a couple
of thousand years or more before
Moses.
“Likewise, critics once believed that
the
Bible was wrong in speaking of the
Hittite people, since they were totally unknown
to historians. Now historians know of
their
existence by way of a Hittite library
found in
Turkey. This gives us confidence to
believe
that biblical difficulties not yet
explained do
have an explanation, and we need not
assume
that there is a mistake in the Bible”
Contradictions in the Gospels?
As an example of resolving supposed
contradictions, let’s consider how the four Gospels record the words that
Pontius Pilate, the
Roman governor, ordered to be placed
above
Jesus’ head at His crucifixion.
Matthew 27:37 reads,
“This is Jesus the
king of the Jews.”
Mark 15:26 says,
“the king of the Jews.”
Luke 23:38 reads,
“This is the king of the J e w s .”John
19:19 states, “Jesus of Nazareth, the
king of the Jews.”
At first glance it might appear none of
the
authors copied the words on the sign
properly.
But, when we read each account, we
find
every one adds a bit more information
to the
rest. From John we find that Pilate
composed
the message. From Luke we have
additional
information as to why these words are
different: The inscription was originally written
in three languages, Greek, Latin and
Hebrew
(Luke 23:38).
So the variation of the wordings
logically
would have to do with the three
languages
used as well as the different point
of view of
each biographer, stressing slightly
different
aspects of Christ’s life and
ministry. Adding
up the wording of the different
accounts, we
see that the complete message
recorded by
the signs was “This is Jesus of
Nazareth, the
king of the Jews.”
None of the Gospel accounts
contradicts
the others; they complement each
other to
provide increased understanding. A
helpful
tool for studying Christ’s life and
ministry is
A.T. Robertson’s
A Harmony of the Gospels,
which provides all four Gospel
accounts side
by side in chronological order.
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