The New Testament Contains No Genuine Contradictions of Consequence

As the rules say, I will be staying in the New Testament alone and will be using the ESV as my opponent requested. Contradiction 1: From which of David's sons did Jesus descend? A. SolomonMatthew 1:6-7 (ESV), "and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah. .. . (eventually to Jesus). B. NathanLuke 3:31, "the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David," There is a discripancy with which of David's sons was the ansestor of Jesus. This is important as the messiah will come from Solomon, not Nathan. Therefore, the whole of Christianity rests on the messianichood of Jesus. If Jesus fails to meet this requirement, then he is no messiah! Contradiction 2: Was Jesus born of a virgin? A. No Romans 1:3, "Concerning his Son [Jesus], who was descended from David according to the flesh" Some translations put it as the "seed" of David according to the flesh. The word seed, in this passage literally means "Sperm. " Take, for example, what Strong's has to say: 1) from which a plant germinates a) the seed i. e. the grain or kernel which contains within itself the germ of the future plants 1) of the grains or kernels sown b) metaph. a seed i. e. a residue, or a few survivors reserved as the germ of the next generation (just as seed is kept from the harvest for the sowing) 2) the semen virile a) the product of this semen, seed, children, offspring, progeny b) family, tribe, posterity c) whatever possesses vital force or life giving power 1) of divine energy of the Holy Spirit operating within the soul by which we are regenerated . http://www.blueletterbible.org...It is interesting to note that according to the flesh seems to indicate an ordinary book. In his book, The Atheist Bible Companion to the New Testament, Mike Davis, a historian, notes: "Paul here declares that Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh. This connection with David was necessary in order to support Jesuss claim to be the messiah. (See, for example, Jeremiah 23:5-6. ) However, to say that Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh ontradicts the virgin birth stories of Matthew and Luke. Both Matthew and Luke, though they trace the ancestry of Joseph back to David in their conflicting genealogies, break off at Joseph and relate that Jesus was sired by the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus has no father in the Davidic line, and is thus not descended from David according to the flesh. "B. YesI will not get into much detail here. However, according to Matthew chapter 1, the virgin birth is vital in order to fulfill Isaiah 7:14 (which, by the way, was fulfilled in the next chapter! ). Contradiction 3: What year was Jesus born A. 6-7 BCEMatthew states that Jesus was born during Herod the Great's reign (Matthew 2:1, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,")We know that Herod died in March of 4 BC. Therefore, Jesus could not have been born any later than 4 BCE. B. 6-7 CEThe problem arises in Luke 2:2, Qurinius was govenor of Syria, but that is impossible because Herod died in March of 4 BC and this census took place in 6-7 CE, about 10 years after Herod's death! . http://www.infidels.org...;We can concludet hat there is a contradiction between the two texts. To summarize:1. Which of David' son's did Jesus descend from?2. Was Jesus born of a virgin? and3. When was Jesus born? Please clear some of these up. Thank you.