The Christian DILEMMA
- The New Testament is either the word of God or historically accurate
- Anything that is the word of God or is historically accurate cannot have contradictions
- The New Testament has contradictions
- Therefore, The New Testament is not the word of God
- Therefore, the New Testament is not historically accurate.
This is the Christian Dilemma in a nutshell. Whether a Christian upholds that the New Testament is the word of God or historically accurate (i.e., the stories told in the New Testament are accurately telling the events of the life of Jesus for instance), the Christian falls into a big issue because if there are contradictions in the Bible, then it cannot be the word of God or historically accurate.
A point on contradictions. Why is it the case that the word of God or history cannot have contradictions? Well, a contradiction is something that cannot exist. A square triangle cannot exist, it actually makes no sense. A square has 4 sides necessarily, and a triangle has 3 sides necessarily. Therefore, it is a contradiction to say that there is a 4 sided triangle.
If someone tells you that book A is the book of God (i.e., it contains exact sayings and ideas from God and it was sent from God to us) and book A has contradictions, then well we can call into question whether this book is the word of God. For instance, imagine if this apparent book of God says in the first chapter that one of this God's Prophets was on a journey and upon seeing a fork in the road, he chose to go right instead of left. Now imagine if this story was told again in chapter 3. The exact same story, exact same Prophet, exact same date, exact same everything. However, the book says that he went left instead of right. This is a contradiction; either the Prophet made a right turn or made a left turn but he could not have made a right left turn (that makes no sense). If it is the case that there is a contradiction, then we can easily point to this contradiction and call into question whether this be the actual word of God. Because how can God, the all-knowing, mess up so much to leave an apparent contradiction in his book?
It is also a contradiction to state that the first president of the United States of America is Abraham Lincoln. The first president was George Washington; it cannot be the case that both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington be the first president. Saying someone else was the first president other than George Washington is a contradiction in history (i.e., someone telling you Lincoln was the first president is stating a contradiction based on historical records). If a book said Lincoln was the first president, then well that book is not entirely historically accurate because it presents a historical contradiction.
Now many people will agree with what I just said on contradictions. However, many Christians will not uphold that the New Testament is not historically inaccurate or not the word of God. They will claim that the New Testament is not filled with contradictions and it is historically accurate or the word of God.
However, let us take a look at some passages of the New Testament and see how the New Testament does in fact have many contradictions
Contradictions
Here I will show 3 examples of clear cut contradictions in the New Testament. Any type of contradiction, whether they be big or small, has an effect on the New Testament, or any book for that matter, being either the word of God or historically accurate. If it is shown that there are contradictions, then it really does call into question the authenticity of the New Testament.
1: The Final Words of Jesus
What was the last word Jesus said before he died? Well, let us see what the New Testament says.
In the book of Mark Jesus' final words were: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:33-34). There is a similar reporting of Jesus' final words in the book of Mathew as well.
However, in Luke's Gospel Jesus' final words were: "Father into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke 23: 46).
Furthermore in the Gospel of John Jesus' final words were "It is finished." (John 19: 30).
Once again, what was the last words Jesus said before he died? I mean what was Jesus' final words HISTORICALLY? If both Luke and John differ from Mark and Mathew, then which iteration is the actual historical final words of Jesus before he died? It is impossible for all of these to be the final words of Jesus before he died, so it must be one of them. However, if it is one of them, then which one is it?
This is what I mean when I saw that New Testament has contradictions. It is impossible for all of these to be the final words of Jesus before he died. If it is the case that the New Testament is the word of God, why would God allow for a clear cut contradiction to be prevalent in his book? Why not make it clear which was the final word of God? Or if it is the case that the New Testament is historically accurate, then how is it that there are 3 entirely different reports to his final words? How could the people who were writing down the New Testament claim to have witnessed Jesus or claim to have sound reports if 3 of the 4 books all have different iterations of Jesus' final words?
2: When did Jairus come to Jesus?
In the book of Mark, Jairus comes up to Jesus and tells Jesus that his daughter has been sick for a while. Jairus pleads with Jesus to go and see her and help save her. Jesus agrees to go and when Jesus arrives there with Jairus, another poor woman who was suffering with intense bleeding comes to Jesus for help. Jesus goes and helps her and while he is helping her, a man comes to Jairus informing him that his daughter has just died. Jesus tells Jairus do not worry and he ends up resurrected Jairus' dead daughter.
What is important to note in this story is that when Jairus comes to Jesus to talk about his daughter, she was sick and not dead. Jairus' daughter dies after Jesus arrives to the place with Jairus and after Jesus aids another woman with her bleeding issue (Mark 5: 21-24).
Now let us look at the exact same story in the Gospel of Matthew. In this Gospel, Jairus comes to Jesus telling him that his daughter is dead. Jairus tells Jesus if he can raise his daughter back from the dead (Mathew 9:18-20).
Now the question is: was Jairus' daughter dead when Jairus went to Jesus or did she die when Jesus arrived? These two cannot be true at the same time. It is either the case that she was dead or that she was alive but eventually ended up dying. Was it that Jairus went to Jesus because his daughter is sick or because his daughter was dead? If someone appears in court and was accused of murder and he said that the person who was murdered died BEFORE he went to the house would have a very different reaction by the jury than if he were to say that the murdered person died AFTER he arrived at the house. One might show his innocence, the other might show his guilt.
3: Ripping of the curtain in the temple
In the book of Mark (Mark 15: 37-39), at the end of the Gospel, Jesus dies and the current of the temple rips in half. Now this current is the current that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. God was in the Holy of Holies and no regular person can enter into the temple. However, with the current being ripped right after Jesus died, then everyone has access to the temple through the death of Jesus. In Mark's Gospel, it is the death of Jesus that allowed for people to have access to God essentially.
In the Gospel of Luke the same story unfolds; except, there is a small, yet significant, difference. In the Gospel of Luke, the curtain rips BEFORE Jesus dies (Luke 23:45-46). Now the meaning and significance of the curtain being ripped could be the same thing; however, in this story, the curtain was ripped before and not after (like in Mark's version).
Now was it the case that the curtain was ripped BEFORE or AFTER Jesus died? It cannot be both. Only one is right. The question is, which one is the right one according to the actual events of history? If a Christian chooses one over the other, then they will have to keep choosing one over the other in every instance of contradictions
Conclusion
Now these are just three examples of contradictions found within the New Testament. During my Bachelors in theology, we were told by our teachers to read the New Testament horizontally instead of vertically. What that means is to get all 4 Gospels, take the same story, and lay them out horizontally and see how they differ. Sometimes the stories differed only slightly to where there were no contradictions; other times, there were clear contradictions. Upon asking my teacher if there is a way to combine all of the stories found in the 4 Gospels she flat out said "no you cannot."
What is evident is that there are contradictions found in the New Testament. If there are contradictions found, then the New Testament is neither the word of God (for the word of God cannot have contradictions) nor is it historically accurate (for if it were historically accurate it would not have so many contradictory telling's of the same story).
The Christian is then stuck: they must either accept that there are contradictions but still somehow uphold that it is the word of God or it is historically accurate, or they must try merging all of them together (even though they are contradictions), or they must pick one of these events to be the 'true' historical event over the other ones that are contradictory to it. If they choose the later, then they must do this for every single story found in the New Testament that has a contradiction and show which Gospel is more accurate in those specific stories.
This is the Christian Dilemma. And even though I have studied 4 years of Christian theology and am currently studying Religion at Harvard University Extension School, no one has given me a good way out of this dilemma.