When I was a teenager, I received a book titled: “Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible,” authored by John W. Haley. The volume was written in response to a pamphlet claiming to expose contradictions within the Word of God.
Mr. Haley said the tract was “cunningly adapted to deceive the ignorant and unwary.” While responding to the supposed contradictions, Haley noted that he came to see clearly “the flimsy and disingenuous character of the objections alleged.”
Through the centuries, men have tried to discredit the Scriptures. However, the Bible is like an anvil upon which skeptics blunt many hammers.
Paul wrote: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Yet, Luke wrote that Zacharias and Elisabeth “were both righteous before God” (Luke 1:6). Is this a bona fide contradiction? No. When taken out of context it might appear so, but Luke was complimenting this godly couple for being relatively “blameless” (Luke 1:6), while Paul’s discussion dealt with righteousness in the absolute sense.
Mark recorded that when Jesus was crucified “it was the third hour” (Mark 15:25), while John wrote that the trial before Pilate was still in progress at “about the sixth hour” (John 19:14). The apparent contradiction vanishes when we realize that the Jews began each day counting hours from six in the morning, while the Romans reckoned time more as we do, beginning from midnight. So at about 6 a.m. Jesus was before Pilate, and by 9:00 a.m. our Lord was nailed to the cross. John’s account was written sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), so it makes sense he would use Roman time.
Many casual readers have difficulty harmonizing the four accounts of the life of Christ (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) because they assume that each is given in chronological sequence. However, Matthew frequently follows a thematic approach, and John’s purpose is to provide a sampling of the miraculous signs Jesus performed to produce belief (John 20:30-31).
Mr. Haley’s book and others like it are filled with answers to a multitude of alleged Bible contradictions. Peter admitted that some of Paul’s writings were “hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3:16), so we shall make the same admission. However, with diligent study, a reader can dispel whatever might appear at first glance to be a contradiction. It seems that the ones who cry against the Bible the loudest have read it the least.
