alleged discrepancies of the Bible
Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:48 pm
Hello. I have a few questions regarding supposed mistakes in the Bible. I am a college student majoring in theology and one of the books my class is reading is Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, written by the Greek scholar Bart D. Ehrman who is chairman of the theology department at the University of North Carolina.
- My first question involves a supposed error in the book of Mark. In Mark 2, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees because his disciples had been walking through a grain field, eating the grain on the Sabbath. Jesus wants to show the Pharisees that "Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the Sabbath" and so reminds them of what the great King David had done when he and his men were hungry, how they went into the Temple "when Abiathar was the high priest" and ate the show bread, which was only for the priests to eat. One of the problems with this passage is that when one looks at the Old Testament passage that Jesus is citing (1 Sam. 21:1-6), it turns out that David did this not when Abiathar was the high priest, but, in fact, when Abiathar's father Ahimelech was. If you can, please explain this supposed error in the Bible?
- My next couple of questions have to do specifically about the supposed inaccuracies in the New Testament only. For starters, in Mark 4 Jesus states that the mustard seed is "the smallest of all seeds on earth," It is a fact that the mustard seed is not the smallest seed on earth. If you can, could you please also address this seemingly minor error in the book of Mark?
- My next question is regarding a seemingly small contradiction in both Mark and John. Mark states that Jesus was crucified the day after the Passover meal was eaten (Mark 14:12; 15:25) and John says he died the day before the meal was eaten (John 19:14) If you can, could you please also address this seemingly minor contradiction in the books of Mark and John?
- Also, Luke indicates in his account of Jesus's birth that Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth just over a month after they had gone to Bethlehem (and performed the rites of purification; Luke 2:39), whereas Matthew indicates they instead fled to Eygpt (Matt. 2: 19-22). What am I to make of this supposed contradiction in Luke and Matthew?
- The last supposed contradiction I want to ask about is this: Paul says that after he converted on the way to Damascus he did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before him (Gal. 1:16-17), whereas the book of Acts says that that was the first thing Paul did after leaving Damascus (Acts 9:26) Could you please explain this supposed contradiction?