As you know, only insecure religious organizations prohibit their members from asking questions. And no wonder - there is simply nothing to answer! For unscrupulous preachers, a critical look at tradition becomes a challenge that threatens to expose them. Orthodoxy takes a different position and is always open to dialogue.
A favorite target of opponents is contradictions in the Bible. But every Christian must be patient and know how to explain away contradictions when possible. Let's talk here about contradictory and supposedly contradictory passages in the Holy Scriptures.
Water and vegetation
If we consider the formation of the earth's crust and titanic plates from the point of view of archaeology, then this time is calculated in a millennium. What kind of days can we talk about, the atheists will cry? And we will remind you of the phrase about one day and a thousand years for God. This has already been written above.
When the earth first appeared, it “worked” in enhanced mode. There was practically no sushi, mostly water. And we see this echo of the past to this day. More than 90% of the water on our planet. But God said that dry land was needed. And the earth obediently obeyed.
But the picture again does not add up for atheists. The Bible and science contradict each other according to their worldview. It is impossible to create and separate land from water and create vegetation in one day. And the plants, if you believe archaeological excavations, were simply huge, but now they are small.
This is all true, but the era of the plant world fell on the next millennium. Even archaeologists say this. And the plants, in fact, were very large at first. But the Lord was preparing the earth so that it would be comfortable for man to live on it. Several thousand years pass, plants acquire almost the same forms as we see now. Everything happens under the influence of climatic conditions.
Summing up
What can you say about what is written in the article? Everyone has the right to draw their own conclusion. Some will not believe what is told, while others will become interested and begin to dig deeper.
For those interested, we can advise getting acquainted with the works of the Holy Fathers, as well as with modern theologians. This could be Alexey Osipov, whom we mentioned above. Priest Alexander Satomsky talks very well about Christianity, whose lectures are on YouTube. This young priest has a gift for storytelling. And for those who are just starting to go to church, striving to know the Lord, Father Alexander talks about faith, approaching this issue from a philosophical and psychological point of view. The lectures are easy to listen to, and there is an explanation of the creation of the world in his videos.
You can also recommend the lectures of the Orthodox Christian, former physicist, current lawyer Anna Khrenova. She talks very vividly and takes the listeners' breath away. The lectures are rich and open up other facets of seeing the world.
Many contradictions are far-fetched, for example, that Adam and Eve could not have grandchildren
Cain killed Abel and then became a victim of exile. And then their parents had another son named Sif. Critics of Christianity often say that this is obvious nonsense in the Bible, because women are needed to procreate, but they were not mentioned in the text.
But there are contradictions, imaginary and real. In this case, it is not even imaginary, because those who claim that Adam and Eve had no children have not read the Bible. Adam had both sons and daughters, so the story about his descendants is not contradictory:
“The days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred [700] years, and he begat sons and daughters. All the days of Adam’s life were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died."
Gen 5:4–5
For some reason, this passage from the Bible is stubbornly ignored. Either on purpose, or they don’t actually read it.
Fifth day
What is the role of the Bible in historical science? It is enough to recall the evidence of scientists about the veracity of this Book. Meanwhile, we will consider the fifth day of creation. God created the first living creatures. These were reptiles, birds, fish.
One of the most interesting and strong clues for atheists, because at first there were dinosaurs on earth. By the way, we can still see these creatures alive. These are harmless lizards and reptiles, somewhat modified. Although the crocodile can hardly be called a harmless reptile, it is a direct descendant of dinosaurs that inhabited the seas and oceans.
Dinosaurs have ruled the earth for more than one era. But God understood that the crown of his creation - man - would meet with a huge lizard, and nothing would be left of him. A predator will eat a person, and huge herbivores will simply trample him. It was then that the huge lizards were destroyed. According to history, a large meteorite fell to the ground, destroying some of the dinosaurs. And the second part died out due to changes in weather conditions. The earth was preparing for man to set foot on it.
By the way, about birds, in the literal sense of the word. The harmless birds we are familiar with are descendants of flying dinosaurs, no matter how strange it may sound. They have changed due to evolution.
Book of Mixed Atheism
When talking about religion, one cannot fail to mention atheist books. It is impossible to count how many of them came from the pens of Soviet authors. But in their works they disputed the existence of God without affecting other religions.
We will touch on the book “The Bible, the Koran and Science” by Maurice Bucaille. Nowadays, you can hardly surprise anyone with an atheistic worldview. How many people, so many opinions. The author of the book “The Bible, the Koran and Science” does some research in which he explains the complete similarity of the Muslim book with scientific facts. At the same time, blaspheming the Bible and claiming that this is his point of view.
In fact, many Western religious scholars have a similar point of view. In the book “The Bible, the Koran and Science” the author talks about those things that others simply did not have time to talk about. And if it weren’t for Bucaille, there would have been another person who did such a study.
It is noteworthy that this French doctor converted to Islam. The first publication of his book, in which Maurice argues that the Bible is in conflict with science and Islam, was in 1976.
Many contradictions in the Bible can be explained by the merging of several sources into one text.
Many books of the Bible arose from mergers. For example, compare this passage:
“Bring also into the ark [of every livestock, and of every creeping thing, and] of every living creature, and of every flesh, two by one, so that they may remain alive with you; let them be male and female. Of [all] birds according to their kinds, and of [all] livestock according to their kinds, and of every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kind, of all of them two by two will come to you, so that they may remain alive [with you, male and female]. "
Gen 6:18–20
and this passage
“And take seven of every clean animal, male and female, and two of every unclean animal, male and female; also from the birds of the air [clean] in sevens, male and female, [and from all unclean birds in twos, male and female].”
Gen 7:18–20
That is, in chapter 6 of Genesis, God calls on Noah to take two of each animal, and in the seventh he says that clean animals must be taken in the amount of seven.
There are plenty of these contradictions in the Pentateuch: the route of the exodus, the sequence of the creation of the world, etc. And there is only one reason: the Pentateuch was collected from 4 different sources:
- Yahwist;
- Elohist;
- Priestly book;
- Deuteronomy.
In this picture you can see that there are more than two sheep.
This is not surprising, because in chapter 7 of the book of Genesis, God requires Noah to take 7 clean animals onto the Ark. This contradicts the version from chapter 6. All this is due to the fact that the book was written on the basis of several sources. If two sources had conflicting versions, both were often retained. Fortunately for the Orthodox, all the facts that have suffered as a result of these discrepancies do not relate to recommendations important for a righteous life.
There are over 100 conflicting Bible quotations, some of which may be obvious errors.
It is impossible to list all the controversial Bible quotations in one article. Let's list just a few:
Contradiction 1. The origin of the mother of the possessed girl differs among the Evangelists:
“And he departed from there and came to the borders of Tire and Sidon; (...) For a woman whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet; and that woman was a pagan, a Syrophoenician by birth; and asked Him to cast out the demon from her daughter.”
Mark. 7:24–26
And in the Gospel of Matthew it already has a different origin:
“And Jesus departed from there and departed into the countries of Tire and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman, coming out of those places, shouted to Him: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is cruelly raging.”
Matt. 15:21–22
Contradiction 2. Number of women and names at the tomb of Jesus:
“And after the Sabbath had passed, at dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.”
Matt. 28:1
“When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought spices to go and anoint Him.”
Mark. 16:1
“It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and others with them, who told the apostles about this.”
Onion. 24:10
“On the very first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early, when it was still dark, and sees that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb.”
John 20:1
Everywhere there are different names and different numbers of people. And we are talking about the same event. Of course, these are obvious errors in the Bible.
Contradiction 3 . God's Ability to Repent:
“And the Faithful of Israel will not speak a lie, nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent.”
1 Samuel 15:29
“And the Lord repented that he had created man on earth, and was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said: I will destroy men from the face of the earth (...) for I have repented that I created them.”
Genesis 6:6–7
“The Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.”
1 Samuel 15:29
Controversy 4 : Did Jesus go to heaven immediately after his crucifixion?
“Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Onion. 23:43
“I have not yet ascended to My Father.”
John 20:17
All four Evangelists tell the story of the Myrrh-Bearing Women's visit to the Tomb of Jesus in different ways. This painting depicts a version of the Gospel of Matthew: two women and one angel. Other Evangelists talk about two angels, or do not mention them at all
These are completely random examples, and there are more than a hundred of them in the Bible, here are some:
- Was there only one angel of the Lord in the tomb of Jesus Christ, and was there any at all?
- Is it possible to see God?
- How many sons did Abraham have?
- What did Jesus say about his omnipotence: can the Son of God create on His own?
- If the Lord said that He did not faint, then why did He rest on the seventh day after creation?
- What did Jesus say before his death: “It is finished” or “Father! “Into Your hands I commend My spirit”?
- Was John the Baptist (Forerunner) the prophet Elijah?
Etc. Not all of these questions are up in the air. Answers to contradictions in the Bible are a separate category of literature in Christianity.
Day four: luminaries
Are there any contradictions between science and the Bible? If you want, you can dig into everything. But scientists have already proven that the Bible is true, the creation of the world happened exactly as described in this Book.
On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon and stars. And then the atheists will rejoice: “This is a contradiction!” For the light was created on the second day. Basil the Great answers this question well in his works. He says that the Sun is not the only source of light. God is who is Light from Light.
The Bible Has Answers to Many Controversies
Although many contradictions between the Old and New Testaments do exist, some of them can be explained from a theological and scientific point of view. Let's consider this using the example of the question, did anyone other than Jesus Christ ascend to heaven?
In the Gospel of John, the Lord says that only He did this:
“No one ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven...”
John 3:13
But there seems to be other information in the Word of God. The prophet Elijah visited both heaven and earth:
“...and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.”
2 Kings. 2:11
Many supposed contradictions arose due to translation errors.
Outwardly, there is a contradiction here, but interpreters explain that this is not necessarily the case. "Lopukhin's Explanatory Bible" is of the opinion that the phrase from the Gospel of John should be understood in the literal sense - Jesus is really the only person who ascended to heaven:
“The meaning of verse 13 can be conveyed as follows: “no man (Angels are not meant here, since they “always see the face of the Heavenly Father” - Matthew 18:10) has ascended into heaven - and therefore has not been to heaven before living on earth - except for that Son of Man (see John 1:51), who came down from heaven and even now, with the divine side of His being, remains in heaven" (the expression "who is in heaven" is not found in all codes, but the newest critics are more inclined to recognize it as genuine rather than inserted after.”
A. P. Lopukhin
church writer
But if so, then what about Elijah? Deacon Peter (Mikhalev) gives an answer to this contradiction:
“The fact is that to translate the book of the Old Testament into Russian (the so-called Synodal translation), the Masoretic text was taken as a basis. The text that the Masorite Jews edited until the 10th century after the Nativity of Christ, “cleaning up” prophetic and messianic passages in every possible way.
But in the Church, another translation of the books of the Old Testament had the greatest authority - the translation of 70 interpreters. This work was carried out in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC. Jewish sages. This text was used by the apostles and holy fathers who lived in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. It was this translation that was taken as a basis by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Let's see what it says about Elijah's ascension to heaven: “And he came and walked and spoke: and behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and they divided between both. And Elijah was taken like a whirlwind into heaven.”
Petr Mikhalev
deacon
In the Bible, the prophet Elijah did not die, but ascended on a chariot of fire. This would contradict the words of Christ “No one ascended to heaven,” but the ancient manuscripts do not say that Elijah went specifically to heaven - there is a comparative phrase “how”
That is, the “contradiction” comes down to poor-quality translation. And if you turn to the Fathers of the Church, it will become clear that they have been talking about this for a long time:
Saint John Chrysostom:
“Elijah ascended, as it were, into heaven, because he was a slave, but Christ ascended into heaven itself, because He was Lord.”
John Chrysostom
archbishop
Saint Photius:
“And Elijah, like a slave, was taken up into the air, but not into heaven, but “as into heaven.”
The Lord, as the Lord of all, did not ascend into heaven, but actually ascended into heaven.”
Photius
patriarch
Thus, there are contradictions in the Bible, but not as many as opponents of Christianity sometimes try to present. The right way is to take specific verses from the Bible and study the interpretations of them in order to get to the bottom and understand why the Holy Scriptures are written this way and whether it is worth talking about an error.
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