29
votes
Accepted
Does Jesus Judge or Not?
The answer to the question does not lie in the statement but in the time/period. The first time Jesus was sent into the world His duty was to spread the Word of God to all men and not to judge anyone:
...
- 406
26
votes
How could King Herod have killed John the baptist in Matthew 14?
There are three Herods in scripture.
1 The one that killed the infants at the time of Jesus' birth - 'Herod the Great'.
2 The one that killed John the Baptist - 'Herod Antipas'. (Also 'the Tetrarch'....
- 28.5k
21
votes
Accepted
How could King Herod have killed John the baptist in Matthew 14?
Here is an extract from Wikipedia about the Herodian family (source):
Herod the Great (born c. 74 BC, ruled 37–4 BC), client king of Judea who built the Second Temple (in Jerusalem) and in the New ...
- 85.6k
20
votes
Accepted
Jesus was tempted, but God cannot be tempted. How, then, do we reconcile James 1:13 and Heb. 4:15?
Human nature can be tempted.
Divine nature cannot be tempted.
These two passages indicate the duality of nature possessed (uniquely) by Jesus of Nazareth.
These two natures cannot 'merge' or 'mingle'. ...
- 28.5k
17
votes
Accepted
How can we reconcile 2 Samuel 6:23 & 2 Samuel 21:7-9?
As a commenter notes, there is a text-critical issue here.
The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible plainly reads "Michal" at this point. However, as the textual notes to the Biblia Hebraica ...
- 24.6k
16
votes
Accepted
Is there a numerical contradiction between Ezra and Nehemiah?
As other answers have noted, there are a number of discrepancies between the lists of Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 which are, largely, duplicate passages.
In the case of Ezra 2:65 and Nehemiah 7:67, there ...
- 24.6k
16
votes
Accepted
Why did God choose circumcision and Paul cancel it?
Succinctly stated, as Christ himself was circumcised,1 all those who are “in Christ” are also circumcised with Christ,2 just as all those who are in Christ:
suffer with Christ3
are crucified with ...
- 10.6k
15
votes
Accepted
1 Cor 15:5: Jesus "was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve" - why "twelve" and not eleven?
Background Points
First, Paul is not writing an exact accounting of every instance of Christ being seen in 1 Cor 15:5-8. He does run through an ordered list of instances, which are leading to his ...
- 19.9k
15
votes
Answer not a fool, or answer a fool?
I think the thing which is causing you to see a contradiction is the use of the imperative. Rephrase using conditionals:
If you answer a fool according to his folly, you risk becoming like him.
...
- 468
14
votes
Is there any ambiguity in Luke 2:5 to whether Mary and Joseph were already married?
There are three variants of the Greek text here:
(a) ... τῇ μεμνηστευμένῃ αὐτῷ γυναικί ... ("his betrothed wife")
(b) ... τῇ μεμνηστευμένῃ αὐτῷ ... ("his betrothed")
(c) ... τῇ γυναικί ...
- 11.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Are 1 John 1:8 and 1 John 3:9 contradictory?
There are several matters here that are crucial -
First, 1 John 1:8 should never be read without also reading 1 John 1:10 -
8 If we say we have no sin [noun], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is ...
- 85.6k
13
votes
Accepted
How many children did Hannah have?
The phrase "seven children" in the poem is almost certainly poetic and not intended to indicate that Hannah actually bore seven children. The number seven was a number of completion in the ancient ...
- 36.2k
12
votes
Why did God choose circumcision and Paul cancel it?
Simply put, the law of circumcision was given by God to the Hebrew people who made up the physical, geographical nation of Israel and to all the foreigners who would live in the nation of Israel. ...
- 121
12
votes
Accepted
How can Isaiah 42:8 possibly be true, if John 13:31-32 is true?
The question misses the point of glory when God is concerned.
Jesus IS the glory of God!
... the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the ...
- 6,836
12
votes
Accepted
Why would God create vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Romans 9:21-22) if He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11)?
Paul was drawing an illustration from an Old Testament passage of Scripture, Jeremiah 18:3-6. In that passage, God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house to learn a lesson. The potter was making a vessel;...
- 7,813
11
votes
Can we harmonize the two meetings of David and Saul?
Interacting with Frank Luke's response, I like the theory proposed by E.W. Bullinger, however it does not seem to fit with what immediately follows in Chapter 18.
First of all I believe that ...
- 111
11
votes
Is this a contradiction in the first sentence of Genesis 1?
The Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1–2 states,
א בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ ב
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל ...
- 10.6k
11
votes
Accepted
Leviticus says animal sacrifice will cleanse you from your sins. Hebrews says it's impossible. What does "clean" mean?
'Clean' (טָהֵר) in Leviticus 16
The Hebrew verb טָהֵר / taher is used consistently throughout the Hebrew Bible in terms of cleansing or purifying, and so in the context of Leviticus 16 the stated ...
- 5,529
11
votes
Answer not a fool, or answer a fool?
The contradiction is intended, and rhetorical—and present in the Hebrew. However, there may be a slight play on the use of the preposition כ which means "according to, like" as in "according to his ...
- 9,304
11
votes
Should we put God to test or not?
The two scriptures (Deut. 6:16 and Malachi 3:10) should be read differently because the original Hebrew words for "test" are different in the two verses. In the King James version, the words ...
- 136
11
votes
Jesus says mustard seeds are the smallest but they are not actually
When someone says "I was at the party last night and everyone was there", and then a questioner objects "No, 7 Billion people weren't there", then the objector is being ...
- 8,036
10
votes
1 Peter 1:20 says Christ was "foreknown". How was he then preexistant?
No contradiction
There is not really anything contradictory about stating it this way just because Christ is understood to be pre-existent.1 This can be understood looking at it from two perspectives....
- 19.9k
10
votes
Accepted
How can we understand the contradiction in Hebrews 11:5 and 13?
Well, hardly a "contradiction" as that term is normally understood. But there is a potential misunderstanding, as OP notes, which can be addressed in two ways:
(1) To assume that ἀπέθανον "[these] ...
- 24.6k
10
votes
How can Jesus say that Jews are the children of the devil (John 8:44) and provide salvation (John 4:22)?
"Salvation is from the Jews" doesn't mean that Jews give salvation to everyone. The word "from" (εκ) here is used in the sense that salvation arises from among Jews, and not the Samaritans, of which ...
- 9,304
10
votes
Accepted
Why did God bless Abraham's marriage with Sarah if she was his sister and incestuous relationships are categorically prohibited in Scripture?
There are two matters here:
Marrying siblings was not always a problem but became a problem (as we now know) because of biological problems. Adam and Eve's children must have (almost) all married ...
- 85.6k
10
votes
Accepted
God promised a peaceful death to Zedekiah, so why did he die horribly?
Actually, Zedekiah did die in peace - he died in Babylon of natural causes and was not killed.
However, there is more to this story - Zedekiah was warned several times. This is the brief history of ...
- 85.6k
10
votes
How can Isaiah 42:8 possibly be true, if John 13:31-32 is true?
This question is really only an apparent contradiction if one begins with the assumption that Jesus is not and never was YHWH of the OT. If this is a contradiction, then there are many more of them - ...
- 85.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Does everyone know God or not?
There is a noteworthy distinction of verbs: the lemma γινώσκω versus ἐπιγινώσκω, as listed in the following table:
Word
Verse
Lemma
γνωστὸν
Rom. 1:19
γινώσκω
γνόντες
Rom. 1:21
γινώσκω
ἐπιγινώσκει
...
- 10.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Why is there dust on the ground if there was a mist watering the ground?
The watering of the ground was imperfect in aspect because of the waw consecutive appears here with the perfect tense (and so “flips” the aspect from perfect to imperfect in alignment with the ...
- 16.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Could there be a chronological discord in Genesis 37, 38 & 39?
They could have
(NOTE: Judah did not meet Joseph again until chapter 42, not chapter 39; but the 22 year time frame noted by the OP is reasonably calculated).
Not much is given in the exact ...
- 19.9k
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