From: baker@ROBOCOP.NYU.EDU (Jonathan Baker)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Contradictions in the Bible
Date: 17 Apr 92 16:43:39 GMT
Organization: New York University

A. Abdalla writes:

>Someone asked me if there are any contradictions in the Bible, and I
>could not answer.  Can anyone point out some to me (if, in fact, they
>do exist)?  I'm looking for two different types of contradictions, the
>first being far more important:

>1.  A self-contradiction:  some fact described in one place in the Bible
>is described in unambiguously different, mutually exclusive terms in another 
>place in the Bible.

>2.  A contradiction with empirical fact/science:  some fact about the
>natural world is described in the Bible which is unambiguously contrary to 
>modern scientific knowledge.

Ha. Ha. Hm. I can just see the netters turning up the gas for the flames
this could generate.  OK.  Here goes.

The text of the Bible (Torah) contains some items that fit into each category.
However, since the Torah must, by Orthodox doctrine, be a coherent, consistent
Divinely composed document, the sages have found ways to explain each 
apparent contradiction in a consistent manner.  I will give the two best-known
examples, one of each type (actually, the first fits into both categories).

1. Creation.

The Book of Genesis contains two very different accounts of Creation.  The
first, divided into "days" (stages of creation), is in 1:1-2:3.  The
second lumps most of creation into an initial instant, creates Man, 
and then populates the Earth with plants & animals.  The two stories are
quite different in style and in content.  According to the first story,
man and woman were created together (1:27 - "male & female created He them").
In the second story, man was created, then plants, then animals, and finally
the woman as an afterthought, from a useless part of the man's body.  The
first story can be seen as serial creation of things of increasing complexity,
with human beings, male and female, created equal, while
the second can be seen as a justification for androcentrism in Jewish culture.

The traditional justification for the inclusion of two stories is that the
second is a detail of the first.  From a not-too-close reading, this is
patently wrong, or at least simplistic.  Rashi, the greatest commentator
on the Bible explains this apparent contradiction as follows: since both
stories are included, and both are equally divine, it must be to teach us
that anyone who takes the order of creation literally as written in either
account is a fool, since the other account will contradict them.  Obviously,
there is some different order, some deep mystery of creation, that lies 
behind the pair of accounts.  

This opinion that order doesn't matter resolves the apparent contradiction
with current scientific knowledge of cosmogony.  If one were to swap
the 3rd and 4th days in the seven-day account, the ordering matches
the accepted order of cosmogony: chaos, matter&energy, formation of
stars & planets, formation of continents, plant life, sea & air animals,
land animals, human beings, civilization (symbolized by the Sabbath - giving
order to human life).

2. Fourth Commandment (of the Ten)

In Exodus 20:8, it says "remember the Sabbath day".  In Deuteronomy 5:12,
it says "Observe the Sabbath Day".  Both are supposed to be accounts
of the giving of the Ten Commandments.  Why the contradiction in the main
verb of the command?  This is traditionally explained through a miracle:
God pronounced both words, Remember and Observe, at the same instant.
This explanation seems eminently reasonable, as it is just one small aspect
of the much greater miracle of God's giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.
Against the tremendous miraculous backdrop of that seminal event, with
lightnings and horn-blasts and the Heavenly Voice, the added miracle of
the simultaneous pronunciation of the two verbs only adds to the glory of
the occasion.  

To summarize then, yes there are textual contradictions in the Bible, but
they do not detract from the overall meaning and Truth of the Law, rather
they enhance it.

I hope that this has been edifying.

                             Jon Baker
                             baker@robocop.nyu.edu