Are there contradictions in the Bible?
By Will Bourne · Question 28
The direct answer
There are real differences and tensions between biblical accounts. Some differences can coexist; others are harder to reconcile. We should examine the specific texts rather than promise that every difficulty has an obvious solution or assume that every difference proves a contradiction.
Fuller explanation
A contradiction involves claims that cannot both be true in the same relevant sense. One account mentioning a person while another names two people is not automatically a contradiction: mentioning one does not always mean there was only one. But if a text explicitly rules out the other account, the problem is different.
Consider Judas’s death. Matthew 27:3–10 describes hanging and the priests purchasing a field. Acts 1:18–19 connects Judas with acquiring a field and describes a fall in which his body bursts open. One proposed reconciliation combines hanging with a later fall and distinguishes direct purchase from acquisition through his money. Those connecting events are a reconstruction; the passages do not themselves narrate the combined sequence.
Christians differ about what inspiration requires. Some defend the factual compatibility of every detail in the original writings. Others understand Scripture’s authority without requiring identical precision or agreement on every historical detail. These positions carry different implications. A ministry should explain which it holds rather than quietly switching standards between passages.
The honest procedure is to read both accounts in context, identify the exact conflicting claims, and distinguish what the texts state from what a proposed harmonization supplies. A possible reconciliation is not the same as a demonstrated one. An unresolved tension also does not, by itself, decide the reliability of every other passage.
The objection we still need to face
If the Bible speaks for God why should any important detail be uncertain?
That question depends partly on the kind of book we believe God has given. I receive Scripture as authoritative and inspired, while recognizing that inspiration does not remove genre, perspective, translation, or the need to interpret apparent differences honestly. A list of possible reconciliations is not enough if it avoids explaining what kind of truth a passage is claiming.
Scripture and its use
Matthew 27:3–10; Acts 1:15–20; Luke 1:1–4; 2 Timothy 3:14–17
Read these passages in their surrounding chapters alongside the explanation.