New Testament Contradictions Invalidated Introduction For centuries the evangelical church and other orthodox Christian denominations positions regarding the inerrancy of the Bible have been challenged. Skeptics.org has chosen to call us fundamentalist idiots because we hold to the fact that the Bible is the word of God. Henry Burr in 1859 published this or a variation of the document that Skeptics.org is using to insult Christians and the Christian faith. To see the document and their comments click this link http://www.skeptically.org/bible/id6.html. I have taken their document and pasted it into this document and then carefully evaluated every single one of the 194 proposed contradictions. I have to admit I was shocked at the level of Biblical ignorance put forward and mortified that Skeptics.org would publish this document without even bothering to critically analyze these supposed contradictions. If it appears Skeptics.org was not seriously looking for real objections. When I saw this list for the first time, it shook me. I said to myself, are there 194 contradictions in the New Testament. My desire for the truth drove me into this document. If there were legitimate contradictions in the Bible I had to know. I have evaluated all 194 proposed contradictions and of the 194 there is perhaps 1 contradiction that I could not invalidate I used a blue highlighted title to illustrate that the contradiction has been invalidated. Green means I could not satisfy the contradiction to my standard of proof. Orange means I accept the argument but cannot prove it 100%. Below you will find the contradiction by number as published in skeptics.org document and below that, you will find my comments. Some comments are short and some are long, the answer depends on the complexity of the explanation. I have to thank skeptics.org, they forced me to dig in and look at the scriptures like never before. Thank you skeptics.org, you have caused my faith in the scriptures to grow exponentially. 1. Lineage Jesus' lineage was traced through David's son Solomon. Mt.1:6. Jesus' lineage was traced through David's son Nathan. Lk.3:31. Comments: This is an apparent contradiction that the skeptic put forward, that I could not solve 100%, For me, the most important factor regarding Jesus’s lineage is found In Jer 22:24-30 where we see that Jeremiah pronounces judgment against the line of Solomon when he said no descendant of Jehoiakim (Jer 36:30) would sit on the throne of David. So many argue that Jesus could not be the Messiah based on this curse. However this curse was reversed in Haggai 2:20-23 … O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like signet ring for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of Host.” This proves the Messiah Jesus can indeed come from the direct lineage of Solomon to be the Messiah... 1. One theory regarding the differences in genealogies is that Luke genealogies are Mary’s lineage and Matthew genealogy is Joseph’s, I think contextually this could be possible based on Jewish law which is validated In 1 Chron 2:34-35 “ where it says 34Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters, but Sheshan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha.35So Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha his slave, and she bore him Attai. 36Attai fathered Nathan, and Nathan fathered Zabad.”. Here we see the Hebrew lineage being carried forward from the daughter but the father is named in the lineage. 2. Another theory is the Matthew genealogy is the royal lineage of Jesus. This theory is put forward because we do see a list of Kings. It should also be pointed out that Matthew is using a Davidic formula when he gives three sets of 14. He uses 14 because the name David is 14 numerically in Hebrew. He even uses the same name twice to make this work. Matthew is simply trying to prove Jesus is a royal son of David. Both these theories lack credible evidence to say they are correct. Then how do we explain Joseph’s two fathers, in Matthew, his father is called Jacob and in Luke, he is called Heli. There are several proposed explanations like: 1. Mary did not have any brothers to carry on the father’s name so Heli adopted Joseph as his son, so he would have two genealogies. 2. In Dt 25:5 it says a brother must marry the widow of his brother and then carry on the brother's name and produce an heir for him. The first son would continue as the heir of the son who died. So if this is the case then Joseph and Heli were either full brothers or half-brothers. This would leave Joseph with two fathers a natural one and a legal one. From the text we have no idea which one was his natural and which one was his legal father. This does solve the problem with Matthew tracing one father and Luke tracing the other. In Num 27 & 36 we saw the law of inheritance showing when the daughter gets the inheritance. Both of these theories also lack credible evidence to say they are correct. There are also many other genealogical issues in Luke’s gospel coming from the 77 names that cannot be resolved. There is an extra Cainan, Arnic and Admin are untraceable, Joseph, Judah, Simeon, and Levi don’t fit as these names were not used during this period and no one knows who Neri and Rhesa are. A lot of questions and no answers. This was an issue for me, but not any longer. It appears to me we may be looking at this all wrong. Some scholars now believe the genealogies are theological and were never intended to be taken literally. In Matthew we see the repeat the history of Israel with Jesus as the new Israel. For example: Only Matthew says out of Egypt I call my son, showing Jesus as the new Israel. Jesus’s father is called Joseph who receives dreams. Joseph in the old covenant was the prophet associated with dreams. We also see the infancy of Christ as a retelling of the origin of Israel. Only in Matthew are we told the story of the massacre of infants by Herod the Great which is a retelling of the story associated with Moses. We see Jesus being baptized passing through the waters which are a retelling of Israel passing through the Red Sea. We see the Jews spent 40 years in the wilderness and in Matthew we Jesus spending 40 days and nights in the wilderness being tempted. The last comparison in Matthew is Jesus climbing the mountain and giving the Sermon on the Mount, giving the laws of the Kingdom and in the Old Covenant we see Moses coming from the mountain with the law of God. The parallels are too similar to be coincidental. I believe no one can resolve the genealogies because they are theological lessons and not actual genealogies. Luke likewise tries to make every 7th person in his list of 77 significant. Here is the list of every 7th person. Enoch, Selah, Abraham, Admin, David, Joseph, Jesus, Shealtiel, Mattathias, Joseph, Jesus. Much research is required, but I believe scholars are on to something. I no longer look at the genealogies like I did before. I believe we are on the verge of uncovering exciting things we never expected from the genealogies. I now look at the genealogies as a mystery and not as an unsolvable contradiction. 2. Conception The announcement of the special birth came before conception. Lk.1:26-31. 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. The announcement of the special birth came after conception. Mt.1:18-21. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, f because he will save his people from their sins.” Comments: This is not a valid contradiction, in Lk the announcement is made to Mary, and in Mt the announcement is to Joseph in a dream that validated his decision to take Mary as his wife. T 3. Potential Jesus' parents were told of their son's future greatness. Mt.1:18-21; Lk.1:28-35. Jesus' parents knew nothing of their son's potential. Lk.2:48-50. Comments: This is not a valid contradiction, Mt says he will save his people, Lk 1 says and Lk 2 discusses the parent’s astonishment at the way he treated them not at the teachings. This is eisegesis reading into the text to try to validate a point. 4. Angel Declarations of Birth The angel told Joseph. Mt.1:20. The angel told Mary. Lk.1:28. Comments: This is not a valid contradiction. It assumes that only one announcement was made and an angel could not talk to Mary and Joseph separately. 5. Generation Tally There were 28 generations from David to Jesus. Mt.1:17. There were 43 generations from David to Jesus. Lk.3:23-31. Comments: There are 42 generations listed in Mt 1:17, not 28 and in Lk 3 does have 43, not 42 but it is a different lineage, so this cannot be counted twice as a contradiction. Their statement 0f 28 is factually incorrect. Some think that Biblical lineage is an exact science but they are interpreting record-keeping through modern and western eyes.