The Bible Exposed

Section: Critical Commentary

  • Israelites: Ezekiel 16:28

    The prophets often describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God in the language of an unfaithful wife, and this entry collects those passages. Ezekiel 16:28 says Jerusalem played the whore with the Assyrians and still was not satisfied. Ezekiel 23 retells the story as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, standing for Samaria and Jerusalem, who give themselves to foreign lovers. Hosea 4:12 says a spirit of whoredom has led the people astray so that they left their God, and the theme returns in Hosea 6:10 and 9:1.

    The argument reads these as a record of Israel’s repeated rebellion, and also asks whether such explicit imagery is fitting in a book offered as the word of God.

    You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied.

    Ezekiel 16:28

    My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

    Hosea 4:12

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 17, p. 16).

  • Jeremiah: Jeremiah 1:5

    Jeremiah 1:5 has God say that before he formed Jeremiah in the womb he knew him, and that he appointed him a prophet to the nations. The argument sets this beside Jeremiah’s complaint in Jeremiah 20:7 that the LORD has deceived him and that he was deceived. A prophet chosen before birth is hard to reconcile with a God who is said to deceive that same prophet.

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

    Jeremiah 1:5

    O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.

    Jeremiah 20:7

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 18, p. 16).

  • Jesus: John 2:9

    A string of observations about Jesus in the Gospels, gathered as questions about how the Gospels present him. His first miracle in John 2 is turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. He speaks sharply to the religious leaders in Matthew 16:4 and Matthew 23, calling them hypocrites, whitewashed tombs and a brood of vipers. He addresses his mother as “woman” in John 2:4, the same word he uses to the woman brought before him in John 8:10, and says in Luke 12:49-51 that he came to bring fire and division, not peace.

    He turns away the man who calls him good in Matthew 19:16-17, saying that only God is good. His authority is something he was given (Matthew 28:18); he says he can do nothing on his own (John 5:30); he casts out demons by the finger of God (Luke 11:20); and before raising Lazarus he thanks the Father for hearing him, saying he speaks aloud so the crowd may believe (John 11:41-43). Peter calls him a man whom God attested by the miracles God did through him (Acts 2:22). Finally, in Matthew 26:7-11 he defends the woman who poured costly ointment on him against his disciples’ complaint that it should have gone to the poor.

    Taken together, these sayings show a figure who speaks of his power as given and his words as the Father’s, which bears on how the Gospels understand his relation to God. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 19, p. 17).

  • Jesus: power and knowledge: John 5:30

    The points collected here concern the humanity of Jesus in the Gospels, and are offered as reasons to doubt that he is God. In John 5:30 he says he can do nothing on his own. In Mark 13:32 he says that no one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son, but only the Father. In Mark 11:13 he goes to a fig tree looking for fruit, and finds none because it was not the season.

    He says he is thirsty in John 19:28, he weeps in John 11:35, and in Mark 1:13 he is tempted by Satan for forty days. The argument asks how someone who lacks knowledge, tires, thirsts, weeps and is tempted can be the all-knowing God who cannot be tempted. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 20, p. 20).

  • Jesus: the mission to Israel: Matthew 10:5-6

    In Matthew 10:5-6 Jesus sends out the twelve and tells them not to go to the Gentiles or enter a Samaritan town, but to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Matthew 15:24-26 he tells the Canaanite woman who asks him to heal her daughter that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, and that it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

    The argument takes these sayings as plain evidence that his mission was to the Jews alone, which is hard to square with a message to all nations. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 21, p. 21).

  • God: seeing God: John 1:18

    The Bible says in John 1:18 and 1 Timothy 6:16 that no one has seen God or can see him, and Exodus 33:20 says no man can see God’s face and live.

    Yet other passages say the opposite. In Exodus 33:11 the LORD speaks to Moses face to face as a man to his friend; in Exodus 24:10 Moses, Aaron and seventy elders saw the God of Israel; and in Genesis 32:30 Jacob says he has seen God face to face and lived. Exodus 33:23 adds that God would let Moses see his back. The argument sets these side by side as flat contradiction about God’s nature.

    But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

    Exodus 33:20

    Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

    Exodus 33:11

    and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.

    Exodus 24:10

    So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

    Genesis 32:30

    Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

    Exodus 33:23

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 12, p. 9).

  • Contradictions (b): 2 Samuel 10:18

    After the same battle 2 Samuel 10:18 says David killed the men of 700 chariots and 40,000 horsemen, while 1 Chronicles 19:18 says 7,000 chariots and 40,000 foot soldiers. The numbers and the kind of troops both differ.

    And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed of the Syrians the men of 700 chariots, and 40,000 horsemen, and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there.

    2 Samuel 10:18

    And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed of the Syrians the men of 7,000 chariots and 40,000 foot soldiers, and put to death also Shophach the commander of their army.

    1 Chronicles 19:18

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 8, p. 7).

  • Contradictions (c): 1 Kings 7:26

    The bronze sea in Solomon’s temple holds two thousand baths in 1 Kings 7:26 but three thousand in 2 Chronicles 4:5.

    Its thickness was a handbreadth, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.

    1 Kings 7:26

    Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths.

    2 Chronicles 4:5

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 8, p. 7).

  • Contradictions (d): 2 Chronicles 9:25

    Solomon’s stalls for horses number 4,000 in 2 Chronicles 9:25 but 40,000 in 1 Kings 4:26, a tenfold gap between two accounts of the same king.

    And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

    2 Chronicles 9:25

    Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

    1 Kings 4:26

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 8, p. 7).

  • Contradictions (e): 1 Samuel 28:6

    Did Saul ask the LORD for guidance? 1 Samuel 28:6 says he inquired of the LORD and was not answered, so he went to a medium. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 says he did not seek guidance from the LORD, and that this is why he died. The two accounts of the same episode seem to say he did and he did not.

    And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.

    1 Samuel 28:6

    He did not seek guidance from the LORD. Therefore the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.

    1 Chronicles 10:14

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 8, p. 7).