Subject: Re: FOUND ANY BIBLE ERRORS YET? POST CONTRADICTIONS HERE From: baldeagl@airmail.net (Paul Schmehl) Date: Sun, 17 Sep 1995 06:06:20 GMT
mfish6994@aol.com (Mfish6994) wrote:
[snip]
>The following argument, which I presented in a written debate with a
>Church-of Christ preacher establishes chronological error in the book of
>Genesis. BTW, this debate is sitting unfinished, because the preacher
>dropped out. At any rate, I would appreciate Richard's solution to the
>problem.
>**************************************************************************
>****
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> How Many Went into Egypt?
> Farrell Till
> My task is to prove that "the Bible contains numerical
>contradictions." The word Bible,of course, needs no expla-
>nation, so the only key terms requiring definition are "numerical" and
>"contradictions."Numerical is an adjective that means "relating to or
>having the nature of numbers," and contradictions, as I will be using it,
>means "discrepancies" or "inconsistencies." I am affirming, then, that
>the biblical text is sometimes inconsistent or discrepant in its use of
>numbers.
> The records involving the descent of Jacob's family into Egypt are
>typical of the numerical inconsistencies that characterize many OT
>stories. Genesis 46:26 states that 66 souls "came with Jacob into Egypt,"
>so that Joseph and his two sons who were
>already in Egypt, along with Jacob himself, made a total of 70 Israelites
>who went into Egypt (Gen. 46:27). In his famous speech in Acts 7,
>however, Stephen said that "threescore and fifteen" or 75 souls went into
>Egypt (v:14). Inerrantists have stretched
>imagination to the limits to try to explain this discrepancy, so I suppose
>that Mr. Hatcher will be prepared to give a standard Gleason Archer/John
>Haley "explanation" to the problem.
In Acts 7:14 Stephen speaks of 75 "souls" who were Jacob's "kindred". In Gen 46:26 it speaks of "All the souls......(which came out of his loins),...."(= 66). Joseph, and his two sons would account for 69 of the "souls" of Genesis as follows: Leah - 32; Zilpah - 16; Rachel - 11+Joseph + 2 sons (14); Bilhah - 7. Yet verse 15 clearly says thirty three souls, even though only thirty two are listed there. (See! I found yet another contradiction!) :-) The thirty third (and seventieth) "soul" is Jochebed, who is spoken of in Num 26:59 as the "daughter of Levi, [born] in Egypt." Therefore, the 66 would be the children of Jacob and his sons listed in Gen 46 excluding Joseph and his sons (who were already in Egypt), and the seventy would include the 66 plus Joseph and his sons; Manasseh and Ephraim; and Jochebed who was born in Egypt also.
So where are the missing nine of Stephen's seventy five which Joseph "called"? Gen 46:7 "His sons, and his sons' sons with him, <his daughters> , and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt." But the list of 66 does not include any of Jacob's daughters! The daughters are the missing nine. Dinah (Gen 30:21;34:1) is the only name I could find, but there may be others listed in the OT. I am not as familiar with the OT as I am with the New.
Once again, a careful reading of the scriptures will answer the many "questions" of the scoffers who deny the truth of God's Word.
[snip]
> The problem should be apparent by now. Between the selling of Joseph
>into Egypt and his reunion with his rothers,
>certain events had allegedly transpired in Judah's life that required a
>bare minimum of thirty years, and, as I indicated,
>we have to stretch every detail of the story to confine these events to
>only thirty years.Yet during all of this time only twenty-two years had
>passed in the life of Joseph. How could that have happened?
> The conclusion is inescapable: either the events that the Genesis
>writer recorded in the life of Joseph are not chronologically accurate or
>else the events he recorded in Judah's life are not chronologically
>accurate. It is impossible for his chronology of both lives to be
>numerically correct. Thus, there is at least one historical error in the
>Bible.
Ah, what an inexcapable conclusion! The events recorded in Genesis 38 are in a figure of speech called a Parecbasis or Digression. It is a temporary turning aside from the main story to address another subject. While it is chronologically out of order, there is nothing wrong with this, as it is the author's perogative to do so. In addition, the entire chapter of Genesis 36 is also a Paracbasis! (E.W.Bullinger,D.D., "Figures of Speech Used in the Bible", Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, Sixth printing, p. 906)
While we would certainly allow a human author this leeway, when it comes to God, we immediately cry contradiction, and use this as an excuse to turn away from the truth. How pathetic man is in his unbelief!
>TSR is *The Skeptical Review,* a bimonthly journal that I publish on the
>subject of biblical inerrancy.
The title alone tells you all you need to know about this gentleman. What kind of a person would devote their life to "proving" the Bible was wrong?
>Farrell Till, Editor
>The Skeptical Review
One final thought. I would like to thank Mike for bringing this up. It caused me to go, once again, to the Word, in prayerful consideration. And as the answer became apparent to me, I was once again put in awe of the tremendous truth and accuracy of God's Word.
Even from lemons, we can make lemonade. :-)
Paul Schmehl (baldeagl@airmail.net)
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