But, before we tackle this question, we need to ask and answer the following questions honestly.

Are there challenging passages in the Bible? Yes, some readings are easy to understand, and some are tough.  Are there Biblical challenges? Yes, but any verified contradictions? Absolutely not.

This is perhaps the best approach to answering anyone’s question on the bible contradictions. Many readers wrongly conclude that just because there are tough passages, this means that there are contradictions.

To understand these differences / tensions in the Gospels, we should consider the following two essential points: 

First, we must have the ability to distinguish between a ‘Difference’ and a ‘Contradiction.’

• A contradiction would be a definite / absolute error with no means of reconciling. For example, take the famous story of the Titanic ship sinking, if some survivors said that the ship broke in half and another group stated it went down in one piece then would be classified as an apparent contradiction.

• A difference for example would be if you went home and your spouse comes to you and says “a man showed up at the door and said that I won a cheque for a million dollars.” But an hour later when they call their parents, the story goes like this “two men showed up at the doorstep one with a cheque and other with a camera saying I am going to be on television.” This scenario would illustrate a difference and not a contraction. One scene just had more information, while the other was not exhaustive.

Many of the alleged contractions we have in the Bible are actually differences and not contradictions.

Secondly, we should also understand that the genre in which the gospels were recorded were according to the ‘Greco Roman Biography’ and much like today’s literature some liberties were allowed such as time compression and lack of precision when it came to minor chronological details.

For example, one common disputed argument is about the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness where the authors Mathew and Luke invert the first and second temptation in their books.

This in no way disregards the authenticity of the Bible as they both give out the same message.

In conclusion, there are no apparent contradictions in the Bible.

People often hold on to the minor differences as if to say this would destroy the message of the Gospel.

Regardless, the fact that the Titanic ship being broken in two or sank as a whole does not nullify the story that the Titanic sank.

In the same way, we cannot historically disregard that Jesus was born into this world and was crucified on a cross and on the third day he rose from the grave and appeared to numerous people around.

All scriptures uniquely testify to this.