Are there contradictions in the Bible?

Short answer

The Bible claims to be God’s pure and trustworthy Word, and Christians hold that it does not contradict itself. Some passages are hard to understand and some accounts differ in detail, but a difference in what is told is not the same as an error. Most apparent contradictions fade when we read the context.

Many people read the Bible with a list of “contradictions” in mind: one account has two men, another has one; two Gospels give different details. The question deserves an honest answer. It is worth looking first at what the Bible says about itself, then at how difficult passages actually work.

What the Bible says about itself

David describes the words of the Lord in a striking image.

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Ps 12:6 · King James Version (1769)

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown understand the purity of these words as being free of any mixture of error, unlike ore from which dross has to be removed. The New Geneva Study Bible takes the image of silver refined seven times to mean completely purified. John MacArthur adds that the purity of God’s character ensures the purity of His promises.

Jesus Himself treated Scripture this way. Arguing with His opponents, He used a single word of the Old Testament and stated a principle.

If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken;
John 10:35 · King James Version (1769)

MacArthur sees in these words a confirmation of the absolute accuracy and authority of Scripture. William MacDonald adds that the Lord expressed here His faith in the inspiration of the Old Testament.

Paul speaks of the source of Scripture in his last letter.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2 Tim 3:16 · King James Version (1769)

According to the New Geneva Study Bible, the word Paul uses means that God is the ultimate Author of Scripture: people wrote it, but under the Holy Spirit, which is why it carries divine authority. MacArthur says that God usually used the writers’ minds, vocabulary and experience to convey His Word, and that inspiration belongs to the writings, not to the authors as persons. That is why the Bible shows human styles and different viewpoints without ceasing to be God’s Word.

Hard to understand is not the same as contradictory

Peter admits that Scripture has difficulties.

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2 Pet 3:16 · King James Version (1769)

Notice what Peter calls them: difficult to grasp, not mistaken. MacDonald, quoting Albert Barnes, writes that the difficulty lies not in Paul’s way of writing but in the greatness of the truths he taught. MacDonald names examples such as the Trinity, God’s election and human freedom, and the mystery of suffering, and says we should not be troubled to find questions beyond our understanding, since God’s Word is inexhaustible. Peter also puts Paul’s letters on a par with the other Scriptures. The New Geneva Study Bible notes that this agrees with the unity of apostolic authority.

An example: one man or two?

Take a classic case. Matthew says that Jesus met two demon-possessed men in the country of the Gergesenes (Matthew 8:28). Mark and Luke describe one man (Mark 5:2, Luke 8:27). Is this a contradiction?

The old commentators answer that it is not. John Gill points out that Mark and Luke do not say there was only one, and that they probably mention the one who was the fiercest and spoke to Jesus. John Wesley says the same: this “is no way inconsistent” with Matthew’s account. The New Geneva Study Bible adds that for Matthew it mattered that there were two witnesses, and it suggests that Matthew may have arranged events by theme rather than strict chronology. As for the place, the three Gospels use a general name for the region, and the towns lie close to each other.

This is how most differences work. Luke tells us how he wrote: he did careful research, drawing on what eyewitnesses handed down (Luke 1:1–4). MacArthur notes that Luke had time to talk to many who had seen Jesus’ ministry. Several writers, each choosing what mattered for their readers, will not tell the same story word for word. Saying less is not the same as denying.

How to read hard passages

Christians do not claim to have an answer for every detail, and for a few passages believers differ on how best to harmonize them. But in many cases, as with the two men above, careful attention to the context, the audience and the author’s purpose removes the difficulty.

If a passage troubles you, do not stop there. Read the whole chapter, compare the parallel accounts, and see what the commentators say. Bring your question to God and to other believers, and do not be surprised if you learn something. You can start with How to study the Bible, and if you want to know how the books came together, with Who wrote the Bible?.