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Many non-Christians who say that the Bible is not the Word of God, but only the word of men, like to refer to its so-called discrepancies and errors. By doing so, they hope to cast doubt on the Bible in the minds of those who do believe it to be the Word of, or in the minds of those who might be leaning in that direction.
But there are also genuine Christians who believe the Bible to be God's Word written, but who, strange as it may seem, also believe the Bible has discrepancies and errors. And they do not mean errors in translations, but errors in the original words of the Bible which, they say, continue to be passed down from one generation to the next in the translations we use, and in the original-language manuscripts upon which those translations are based.
Bible-believing Christian theologian Charles Hodge addressed this subject in his systematic theology in the 1800's. What follows (in red) is a quote from Hodge. It is found in Volume 1 of his systematic theology, under the subject of the inspiration of the Bible, under the section called “Discrepancies and Errors.” Here is part of what Hodge wrote: “It is enough to impress any mind with awe, when it contemplates the Sacred Scriptures filled with the highest truths, speaking with authority in the name of God, and so miraculously free from the soiling touch of human fingers. The errors in matters of fact which skeptics search out bear no proportion to the whole. No sane man would deny that the Parthenon was built of marble, even if here and there a speck of sandstone should be detected in its structure. Not less unreasonable is it to deny the inspiration of such a book as the Bible, because one sacred writer says that on a given occasion twenty-four thousand, and another says that twenty-three thousand, men were slain. Surely a Christian may be allowed to tread such objections under his feet. Admitting that the Scriptures do contain, in a few instances, discrepancies which with our present means of knowledge, we are unable satisfactorily to explain, they furnish no rational ground to deny their infallibility.” A few sentences later Hodge wrote the following: “So the Christian need not renounce his faith in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, although there may be some things about it in its present state which he cannot account for.”
Charles Hodge was right. Just because we cannot answer all questions we might have about certain statements in the Bible does not mean it originally had discrepancies and errors. Many qualified Bible scholars have done us a great service by studying and finding answers to many such questions. Gleason L. Archer did just that in his excellent book of nearly 500 pages. It is called "Encyclopedia Of Bible Difficulties." Get it. Read it. Have your faith strengthened by it. And tell others about it.
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