Biblical Errors

On this page, I will point out some very fundamental problems of the Bible for which there can be no answer. In other words, Biblical errors.

1. Paul on Jesus

Acts 20:35 - I have shown you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

The only problem with this is that Jesus did not say this anywhere in the New Testament. We can know that Paul never met Jesus while Jesus was alive as a human. We can also know that from Jesus and Paul's interchange on the road to Damascus that Jesus never spoke these words. (Acts 9:4 -16). The only other possibilities would be someone telling Paul that Jesus spoke them, which would be hearsay, or Paul making up words for Jesus. The latter is clearly the case as can be seen in how common of a practice this was from the varying accounts in the Gospels.

2. The Messiah or the House of David

Verse 1 of Matthew 1 says that it is the Book of Generations of Jesus Christ who is the son of David and Abraham. It then proceeds to list the geneaology of Jesus back to Abraham. David is included. A completely different geneaology of Jesus is found in Luke, chapter 3 but also contains David, King of Israel. A comparison of the two geneaologies can be found here. Both list Joseph as the father of Jesus.

Ancient Israel in the time of Jesus was a patriarchal society and all geneaologies were handed down through the male parent. So, if Jesus were to have a geneaology that does not go up one level to God and then stop, he could not be the son of God in the sense that he would be the Messiah or the Christ.

A much stronger case can be made that the Christian myth-makers went after a very common theme in the Greco-Roman world at the time. Octavius Caesar became Augustus (revered one) Caesar in 27 C.E. He claimed for himself the all-powerful title, "Son of God".

The apologetic stance that one of the geneaologies belongs to Mary is easily disproven. Matthew 1:16 mentions Mary as the mother of Jesus but only as the wife of Joseph. Luke 3 never mentions Mary's name, but says that Jesus was supposedly the son of Joseph.

3. Jesus on Scriptures

Here we see the author of John pulling a common trick on his reader. That is the one of inventing scripture.

The erroneous verse is found in chapter 7 of the Gospel of John.

John 7:38- He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of flowing water.

Unfortunately, the words, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" are not found anywhere else in the Bible. This poses two immediate problems.

The first problem is this begs the question as to whether there was some scripture in Jesus' time that it not in our canonized Bible or not. If there was and it is no longer in scripture then it goes against Revelation 22:19 which says that any man who subtracts from scripture would be subtracted from the Book of Life.

The second problem with this is the one of addition to scripture and the penalty for such an act. If Jesus added the verse which is not found then he is guilty. If it was John who ascribed the words to Jesus then it is John who is guilty. Revelations 22:18 states, "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book."

4. Jesus was the messiah that Isaiah prophecied?

Isaiah 7-9 is supposedly the telling of the coming messiah. While it is my opinion (and that of many other more learned people than I) that the famous "virgin prophecy" of Isaiah 7:14 and the following chapter and a half are about a child of Isaiah's time, that is not the common Christian belief.

The common Christian belief in regards to these chapters is that they are messianic prophecy. They believe that the mistranslation of the hebrew word almah in chapter 7 means virgin, when in fact it means young woman. The hebrew word for virgin is betulah. For all of the trouble that this creates, there is something more that can not be explained away.

Isaiah 9:6-7 says:

{6}For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

{7}Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to estacblish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

What we see here is that this Prince of Peace, the Messiah, will bring with him endless times of peace. Needless to say, there was not a time of endless peace when Jesus made his first appearance on earth.

According to Revelations, the messiah will return at the end of time accompanied by an army to wage the worst imaginable war. Clearly this contradicts the notion that the Messiah of Isaiah and the Messiah of Revelations are one and the same guy.

More coming soon!