Here.
Is the Bible full of contradictions? Were the biblical authors confused about the historical details they report? In this podcast, I interview leading New Testament scholar and New York Times best selling author Dr. Darrell Bock on whether the Gospels contradict one another as skeptics like Bart Ehrman claim.
Here is the MP3.
The title of your blog entry unfortunately is a good representation of the presuppositions often applied to this and similar queris. First, as clear as the Bible is a composite book of 66 different books, so too it contains 1,000s (!) of contradictions. This is the fact, period. This has nothing to do with scepticism, nor one’s religious persuasions. It is oure and simple fact, evidenced by the biblical texts themselves. Sadly, the state of apologetics is to defend one’s personl faith, belief, etc. even at the expense of being disengenous toward the Bible, its many auhtors, its many audiences, etc. In fact, the poor wittle Bible is oftern merely used as a vehicle to propond one’s one personal views, with little to no real concer about the texts, its authors, audiences, and the vastly different historical circumstances that prompted out biblical scribes to write what they did.
Second, the presupposition the biblical scribes were writing or recording history is not only an unfounded presupposition, but is completely ignorant of ancient literature in general, and how it functioned. There are numerous examples from the Bible that display the very fact that the authors themselves knew they were not recording history. That’s not to say there is no history in the Bible, but these are narratives crafted for theological purposes, and a careful reading of how the author of Deuteronomy has Moses renarrate events that are recorded in earlier traditions now in Exodus and Numbers, and how Moses alters and contradicts almost ever detail of these stories.
I am deeply sadened by the state of affairs. Apologetics means defending one’s personal, communial beliefs and worldviews. THe Bible is of no concern here. Shame on you for being disengenuous to the Bible and its authors, for vaunting your personal needs above serious and objective study of the Bible.
(NOTE: Post edited to remove advertising for Steven’s website.)
Steven, you wrote:
“The title of your blog entry unfortunately is a good representation of the presuppositions often applied to this and similar queris.”
How is this a presupposition? Please be specific or your reply will not be published.
My take — Skeptics such as yourself rarely engage with evangelical literature (they typically just a priori dismiss it) thus it would probably be reasonable for me to assume that you have not bothered to engage with the interview with Dr. Darrell Bock? e.g. you are just trolling the Internet and posting this stuff to increase your own blog traffic?