The following is a brief excerpt from a larger book.
For a fuller treatment of this subject as well as a better context, see:
I’d Like To Believe In Jesus But..(The harder, less frequently discussed questions) By Bob Siegel
Published by CSN Books Copyright © 2007 by Bob Siegel All Rights Reserved
Published by Campus Ambassador Press Copyright © 1999 by Bob Siegel All Rights Reserved
This article is not to be reproduced without written permission from the author.
“Is Christianity really consistent? It seems that there are many contradictions to the Bible.”
Yes, it does seem that way. We must remember that the Bible was written in other languages by cultures far removed from ours. Most alleged contradictions stem from a misunderstanding of certain terms and phrases. For example, Jesus predicted that He would be in the grave for “three days and three nights”(Matt.12:40). When we read the passion narratives, we see that He was crucified late Friday afternoon and that He rose from the dead, early on Sunday morning. It is impossible to get three days and three nights out of this, and I have seen many atheists refer to Jesus’ prophecy as a “blatant error which completely destroys the credibility of the Bible.”
The solution comes with an understanding of the way ancient Jews spoke. To a Jew any part of a day was viewed as a whole day.1 Describing part of a day as “a day and a night” may seem foreign to us but that is because we live two thousand years later in a completely different culture. We must realize that if the Bible did not contradict itself to the original audience it was written for, it cannot contradict itself to us. This is only one example of the many apparent Bible contradictions that melt away in light of authentic historical interpretation.
“But the Old and New Testament are very different. Isn’t that a contradiction too?”
No, because, again, the Old Testament predicts the new. The consistency we expect is not in the quantity of information but in the accuracy of the facts. For example, if Susan has a vision in which God says, “I love corporate worship,” and Ron has a vision in which God says, “I love private worship,” it is possible that both parties received an authentic vision. God may like both. But supposing Susan heard God say, “I hate corporate worship,” while Ron heard, “I love corporate worship,”? Now somebody is on the wrong frequency. At least one person did not have a true encounter. After all, God is not schizophrenic.
Likewise, if God had warned the Hebrews to never expect another covenant from Him, then any prophet who claimed to institute a new agreement between God and man could be immediately labeled as false. But instead, God said through Jeremiah;
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their forefathers…(Jer. 31:31-32).
Footnotes:
1) Rabbi Eleazar Ben Azariah (ad 100) says “A day and a night are an Onah (a portion of time) and the portion of an Onah is as the whole of it.” (As quoted by H.W. Hoener, Ibid.).
