Truth in Love #5
Posted on Facebook Aug 3, 2020
HELLO, KINGDOM!
Truth in Love Part 5
There are those who say the Bible is riddled with contradictions. They scoff at the idea the Bible is infallible. They claim the Bible was written by mere men, that it is nothing more than a story,
At least they got one thing right. The Bible is a story, but far more than just a story. It is the Greatest Story Ever Told. Yes, it was written by men, but more than mere men, because it was inspired by God. Just as when people speak God’s Word and preach, they don’t all speak with the same physical voice. The voice is their own, but the inspiration comes from God. There may be times when God gives them the exact words to say, but often it’s more the idea and direction He wants them to impart. They frame that idea and direction with their own personal experiences and perceptions. The same can be said for the writers of the Bible.
Four guys are witnesses to a shooting at a street corner. The guy closest to the shooting is just about to round the corner of the building when shots ring out. He drops to the ground and covers his head with his arms. The second closest is in a vehicle with ear buds in, listening to loud music and turns his head as the shots were fired. He sees someone falling to the ground, while a second person, holding a pistol is looking at the person falling, and senses someone running away. The third guy is about ten yards away, walking away from the spot of the shooting, and is knocked over by someone from behind running fast. The fourth guy is on a third floor balcony above the shooting, looking down at the scene. Their testimonies to the responding police will all be different. Only one of the four was an actual eyewitness, another only saw the immediate aftermath, one saw a someone running away from the scene and the fourth saw nothing, but heard the shots. Their testimonies will differ, not just because of what they did or didn’t see, but also because of previous experiences and perceptions. The one rounding the corner served in war and suffered from PTSD. Though he reacted by taking a defensive position, seeing nothing, he was able to testify to the exact number of shots, while the guy in the car barely heard the shots, yet gives a blow by blow description of what happened, embellishing to make himself important, the guy walking away was distracted and suffered a mild concussion when knocked to the ground. The one with the best view and actually saw everything was reluctant to say anything for fear of his life, because he had been assaulted by neighborhood gangs in the past.
The four Gospels in the New Testament were written by four men, each with different backgrounds, but inspired by the same God to write what they had experienced. I want to look at just one apparent contradiction: how Judas Iscariot died. Matthew tells us in Matthew 27:5, “Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.” The author of Acts, most commonly accepted as being Luke, says in Acts 1:18,”(Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.” Matthew was a tax collector and Luke a doctor.
Many point to this contradiction, claiming two different types of deaths are being described. Matthew, the tax collector, simply states Judas hanged himself, then immediately after writes a paragraph on what happened to the money Judas threw down. The Chief priests used the money to by a potter’s field, which became known as the Field of Blood. Luke, not concerned with financial details, credits Judas with buying the field (which by abandoning the silver pieces he technically did) then goes into a medical description of what happened to his body, and identifies the location as the Field of Blood. What he described is what happens to a body left out in the open to decompose and gases build up inside. That condition is intensified when someone hangs his or herself and is left for a time. So if Judas hung himself and someone later discovered him and cut him down, or the rope gave way, he would have fallen to the ground and burst open as Luke, the doctor, described.
Thus no contradiction. And that’s why as believers, we must become knowledgeable of Scriptures, Study these supposed contradictions and let the Holy Spirit guide you through the contradictions with clarity, so you can then speak the Truth of His Word in confidence and accuracy.
Be Blessed!