Scientific and Historical Errors in the Bible

Bible errors & mistakes overview

Antique Bible
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The Bible is filled with errors and mistakes. Other ancient texts also have errors and mistakes, but this isn't a problem because people don't expect the authors of those texts to be perfect. The Bible, in contrast, is claimed by many believers to be infallible, inerrant and perfect. Many base their entire religious ideology around the presumption that the Bible is free from errors or mistakes, so demonstrating the presence of errors is key to rebutting their religious claims.

Are There Errors & Mistakes in the Bible?

Of course there are errors and mistakes in the Bible; the only people who deny the presence of errors and mistakes are those with a strong ideological commitment to a belief that the Bible is somehow infallible, inerrant, or perfect. We can find errors and mistakes everywhere we look in the Bible because it's a collection of texts written centuries and millennia ago. Not all of the writers agreed and they were all ignorant of things humans have learned since then.

Scientific Errors in the Bible

Scientific errors — statements that conflict with facts about reality we have learned through scientific investigation — can be found throughout the Bible because the biblical texts were written at times when human knowledge about our world was quite limited. We can't blame ancient writers for knowing less than we do now, but we can blame people alive now for preferring the errors of ancient writers over the reliable knowledge developed today.

Historical Errors in the Bible

Historical errors are mistakes in the historical record: claims about events happening or which happened but which never did and claims about events that would happen in the future but which never transpired. One might expect an ancient text to have an accurate record of ancient events, but historians, as we know, have not always been completely honest with their representation of events. In the past, records were written with an ideological agenda behind them, not for the sake of pure actual accuracy. Historical mistakes and errors are only to be expected.

Do Bible Errors & Mistakes Matter?

Under other circumstance, the presence of scientific and historical errors wouldn't be a big deal in an ancient text. They exist in all ancient texts, including religious scriptures, and no one invests a lot of time trying to point them out. The Bible is different, though, because so many people base their lives around the proposition that it is actually free from errors, infallible, and perfect. If so many Christians and Jews weren't trying to force civil society and civil laws to conform to their Bible, pointing out its errors and mistakes wouldn't be necessary.

Lists of Bible Errors & Mistakes

Large numbers of Bible errors and mistakes are collected here. Organized according to the individual books in the Bible, each document explains what the error or mistake is and presents the relevant verses from the Bible so it can be examined. The King James Version of the Bible is used for copyright purposes. It's not the best translation available, but it is a popular Bible translation among those who think the Bible is perfect and error-free, so it is worth using for that reason alone.

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Your Citation
Cline, Austin. "Scientific and Historical Errors in the Bible." Learn Religions, Sep. 20, 2021, learnreligions.com/scientific-historical-errors-mistakes-in-bible-248627. Cline, Austin. (2021, September 20). Scientific and Historical Errors in the Bible. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/scientific-historical-errors-mistakes-in-bible-248627 Cline, Austin. "Scientific and Historical Errors in the Bible." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/scientific-historical-errors-mistakes-in-bible-248627 (accessed March 19, 2024).