Isn't the Bible full of errors?

When I have been asked this question my usual response is to answer with a one word question “Full?” The fact of the matter is, that the vast majority of people who have asked me this question have little or no knowledge of the Bible. They are just repeating what other people have said. Many have not so much as picked it up. It is the norm these days, especially among young people. If they are more familiar with it, I will ask them to give me a half dozen or so alleged errors. So far no takers (perhaps I have spoken to the wrong people!).

I don't know if you the reader, will allow me as a Christian to be skeptical. But in any case I am skeptical about a lot of research into the Bible. I have a post graduate diploma in Biblical studies, as well as a Masters in Theological studies (please don't hold it against me :) ). I did the former degree over thirty years ago, and since that time I have seen many of the so called “assured gains” of Biblical study, crumble in the light of further research (and in some cases in the light of sanity). I could see at the time that it had also happened and was happening to so called earlier “assured gains”, a lot of which, quite frankly were quite spurious. One of the big problems for me, is that a lot of scholars start off their research with the assumption that miracles don't happen (see coming post). So if miracles don't happen then we have to discount every miracle story in the Bible, and if not even God can predict the future, then any prophecy has to have been written after the event it “predicted” had already taken place. So that part of the Scripture that predicted the rebirth of Israel in a day (Isaiah 66:8), has to have been written after 1948 right? All such things are of course explained away, but there are just too many of them. In fact, if you have eyes to see it, the very existence of modern day Israel is a strong proof that the Bible is true. But on top of this there are multitudes of prophecies of Messiah that Jesus fulfilled, that He would have had no way of manufacturing (i.e. Micah 5:2). There are books written on these things!

Please note it is not that the things the above mentioned scholars say have been proved, but rather that they are the starting point of their study. It's called circular reasoning and it's all over the place in the discipline of Biblical studies. But of course it presents itself as truth (even if we don't believe truth exists). However, as any mathematician can tell you, if your assumptions are in doubt you can have no assurance about your conclusions. We need to be as skeptical about the type of statement that comes out of this kind of research as they are about the Bible. We need to doubt their doubts!

So is the Bible full of errors? Some Christians back themselves into a corner and declare loudly and firmly that the Bible is without error period. I found some printing errors recently in the version of the NIV that I was reading. But this of course is not what they mean. I know it wasn't the King James version :). Don't get me wrong, my short answer to the question of the title of this post is “no.” But in longer answers I want to avoid putting myself in the position of having to come up with plausible explanations of things that puzzle me. It may well be the case (I am not saying it is not) that these things that puzzle me were not in the original manuscripts. My problem though is that we are far from completely sure we what we have is the exact originals.

Again please don't get me wrong, there is enough evidence to strongly suggest that we are close enough to the originals that no major orthodox Christian doctrine is in doubt. Part of my problem is that I don't want to find myself trying to explain away things which in the end might just boil down to not having the originals. As I say there is remarkable agreement on what does indeed constitute the original tex. On the other hand there are things that puzzle me. How many blind beggars were there that Jesus healed at Jericho? Was Jairus's daughter dead before or after Jairus came to Jesus? I am supremely confident that Jesus healed at least one blind beggar at Jericho, that Jairus's daughter died, and Jesus did raised her from the dead.

I am aware that for some raising the sort of issue I just raised, is the wrong thing to do. But we don't need to be afraid of the truth. We are not real if we pretend that we have all the answers when we don't. The Scriptures tell us about two equal and opposite errors here. The first is never arriving at a knowledge of the basics (see 2 Timothy 3:7 and Hebrews 6:1,2), the second is presenting ourselves as if we know everything (1 Corinthians 8:2). This last error is a real turn off for many. There is an interesting point about the sort of issue the last paragraph raises, and it is this: in the law court if two witnesses' testimony agree too closely, it is usually considered to have been corroborated. Part of what I am saying is that we need to learn not to go beyond that which is written (1 Corinthians 4:6). Not giving past and shallow answers to complex questions is part of this.

We are to love the Lord with all or our minds! When we do this there will be things we hold firmly (the basics), there will be things we are not sure of, and there will be things we do not know. It's alright to admit that we don't know when we don't. And we will not be seen to be real if we do not learn first to know when we don't know, and secondly to admit it.

So let me lengthen my short answer of “no.” At some level I am into the Bible every day, and have been for nearly 40 years. While I do not claim to fully understand it, I do trust it, and strongly affirm the “unique divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness and authority of the Bible”. This is part of the faith statement of Intervarsity Christian fellowship, a non-denominational student lead Christian organization associated with the larger World wide International Fellowship of Evangelical students. I have seen too much, and experienced too much of the Kingdom to allow some unbelieving Professor (or other unbelievers) to undermine that trust with statements and questions that proceed out of his (or her) underlying presuppositions that God does not exist. I needed to check it all out for myself, and not simply accept somebody else's opinion for example that it is “full of errors.” We are all sinners, we are all biased, and we all see through a glass dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Jesus gave us a promise “If you continue in my Word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31). If you want to know if the Bible is true, try reading it. I will say more later, but the proof comes through reading and doing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).