An Internal Miracle
It is claimed by many that there are many contradictions in the Bible. If you do a Google search ‘contradictions of the Bible’ you will find literally hundreds of websites dedicated to showing that the Bible is loaded with contradictions. One author claims that the Bible has at least 144 obviously irreconcilable passages from Genesis to Revelation. However, many of these supposed contradictions are quite obvious. For instance a huge number of them surround the character of God, and how many of His attributes seem contradictory such as the trinity, even more are not contradictory they just don’t state all the same facts, and others still can be quickly solved when we look at the customs of the day.
For instance according to Mathew 27:5 Judas went and hung himself, while Acts 1:18 gives the impression that Judas jumped off a cliff. The solution is fairly simple. Around Jerusalem there are many trees that grow out over the edge of cliffs, and it was the common practice of suicidal individuals to hang themselves by jumping over the edge with the rope around their neck and around the tree then jumping off the cliff. This is probably what Judas did.
Another example is in the genealogies of Christ. In the book of Mathew a genealogy is given that seems completely contradictory to that given by Luke. The problem is solved, however, by realizing that Mathew traces the genealogy of Christ through Joseph to Abraham while Luke traces the genealogy of Christ through Mary to Adam. Both of which make sense. In Jewish tradition genealogies where traced from father to son, so we would expect Mathew the Jew to trace Jesus’ genealogy through Joseph. The Gentiles where not so strict so it made more sense to trace it through Mary, seeing that she was the only person related to Jesus, for Luke the Gentile.
The list of possible contradictions and their refutations could go on and on, as could every other ancient document (though not necessarily with refutations). The fact of the matter is that the Bible has not even one contradiction that cannot be explained. Even though it was written over a period of 1500 years by more than 40 authors, it is by far one of the most internally consistent books in all of ancient history.
