Today's Biblical Contradiction 1.23.2009

The ten commandments, god's easily understood laws for man to follow. I am sure most of you are familiar with at least a few of them. What do they tell us? The commandments (Exodus chapter twenty, or Deuteronomy chapter five) spell out (what most believers claim) god's most important rules for us to live by. Of course, this god being a jealous god, practically half of them are orders relating to god himself.

Today's contradiction regards these commandments, which were written down by god:

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." ~ Exodus 34:1

Here, in plain English, we see that god himself carved the words into the tablet. The problem here, as with many things in the "Good Book" (a great euphemism, by the way), is that it goes on to say the exact opposite:

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: ... And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." ~ Exodus 34:27

Now, we see that it was Moses that carved the commandments into the tablets! Which is it? Why the confusion in this (supposedly, but obviously not) inerrant book? There are many off-the-wall rationalizations one could probably come up with, but the simplest (and most correct, according to Ockham's Razor) and most correct answer is that the Bible was not written by god, but by fallible, subjective men.

Moving on, we may next ask, "Where was Moses when he was given the commandments by god"? According a number of passages in Exodus (31:18, 34:2, 34:4), Leviticus (26:46, 27:34), and Nehemiah (9:13), the law was handed to Moses at Mount Sinai. Unfortunately, these passages are again directly contradicted in other parts of the book.

"There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt." ~ 1 Kings 8:9

"There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb." ~ 2 Chronicles 5:10

"Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb." ~ Malachi 4:4

Of course, there are rationalizations again, and the most common one is that Mount Horeb is the same mountain as Mount Sinai. Unfortunately, there are passages within the Bible that seem to indicate that this is not the case. There is debate about this. However, we must note that believers generally are the ones stating they are the same, as to indicate otherwise would show a clear scriptural contradiction. Obviously, there is a slight bias there. Wether or not it is one mountain does not clear up the overwhelming number of other contradictions found in the "Good Book."

Subscribe to The Atheist Bible Study by Email



Add this blog to your My AOL, My Yahoo, Google Homepage, or other reader!