this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
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Contradictions in the Bible (lemmy.ml)
submitted 23 hours ago by cm0002@lemmings.world to c/dataisbeautiful@mander.xyz
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[–] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 2 points 28 minutes ago

Is this in response to a thing going around Christian circles where they say the Bible contains 65,000 hyperlinks, and humans couldn't have done that so it must have been God?

This "hyperlink" business is based on a similar graphic that someone put together and it really is pretty. Each "hyperlink" is supposedly a part of the Bible that references another part of the Bible. But I could never find their data, although they sell a print of the graphic.

I did once find a website that documented 100,000 Bible "hyperlinks" and the data there is absolutely a joke. Like, any verse that mentions the word "good" is a hyperlink to every other verse that uses that word

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 11 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Truly is mind boggling that any intelligent human could consider the Bible as anything more than pure fiction/fantasy.

[–] usernameusername@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 hours ago

Yeah unfortunately when you tell the same lie a gazillion times some will actually start believing it, specially if you inject it into the minds of kids at such a young age, even if it's the dumbest shit ever

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 7 points 7 hours ago

[–] asg101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 11 hours ago

You would think a all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent entity would be better at proofreading his main document. 4 accounts of crucifixion/resurrection, only 1 mentions zombies (Matthew 27:52-53). I would think that event would be newsworthy enough for all of them to mention it.

[–] Aneb@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago

There is no greater commandment than to love your neighbor as yourself. That pretty much contradicts the entire Bible

[–] waddle_dee@lemmy.world 87 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

So, I have a background in religious history and texts, I took five random contradictions and checked them out, just for fun. Every single one of those either, missed the context from neighboring passages, or missed the point completely. I'm not here to say that there are no contradictions in the Bible, but the work here is shoddy at best.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 points 47 minutes ago

I have a background in having been raised by religious nutjobs, but I did the same and was very disappointed by how badly these get it wrong. I’d love a handy meme guide of actual contradictions that I can casually share, but this is not it.

[–] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for sharing your expertise with us!

Are there any major contradictions that come to mind off the top of your head?

[–] waddle_dee@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Haha, thanks for saying expertise! I would decline the compliment though. I minored in religious histories and actually was one credit away, but didn't finish. Mostly because I was ready to be done with Electrical Engineering, my major. I regret that, now. So, in my humble opinion, the contradiction/discussion on whether G-d does evil is the most fascinating. Isaiah 45:7 depicts G-d as the creator of all, peace, chaos, light, and darkness. But multiple times, especially in the new testament which generally switches over to G-d being a god of mercy, depicts G-d as someone who does not do evil. Some theologians blame the council of Rome for the inaccuracies, but I think it's more complicated than that, as the old testament is not without a merciful G-d.

I think it might come from that, and I do feel like there's something missing in the canon. There's honestly so many missing texts, that it's a shame. But I think G-d is in a superposition, almost. He is all, at the same time. However, this is just my personal explanation that comes with my own personal biases. This is just the example that came to mind, because it's one that can't be brushed off. Looking into the definition of the Hebrew words for light, darkness, chaos, peace, leads to discussion as to the actual meaning behind it. Is it allegorical? Is it definitionally exact? Who knows!

But yeah, in a nutshell, that's my favorite one and I like all the discussion by folks, much much smarter than me with Doctorates in the subject. I'm actually friends with a Doctor whose focus is on whether G-d does evil, so that might bias me again lol. But it really is so fascinating. As society, especially in the western Christian Church, G-d is thought of as this one dimensional character. But in reality, He is multidimensional, varied, and extremely complex. I hope this dump wasn't too much. I highly recommend reading through some dissertations on any subject/contradictions you find, as it is incredibly complex and fascinating to read through.

[–] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Info dumps by nerdy folks who are passionate about stuff are my favorite!! ☺️☺️

That's super interesting, thanks for explaining! And yeah that's a pretty central contradiction, I can see how that'd drive a lot of theological debate/discussion. Even within the public consciousness it feels like you have the two versions of the christian god, the "turn the other cheek" and the wrathful god you must learn to fear.

I get not wanting to accept the compliment, there's often a really big difference between a true expert within a field of study and someone with "expertise" in the more coloquial sense of someone having significantly more specialized knowledge than a layman. Regardless, you know a lot more than me or most other folks in this thread and I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and perspective with us ☺️

[–] WallsToTheBalls@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

You can say god on the internet, the fuck?

[–] waddle_dee@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

So, that comes from a Jewish tradition where G-d's name should never be destroyed. I've subscribed to that theology myself, because I like it. If you'd like more information on my religious beliefs, it could be easily summed up as, I believe G-d is in everything. The air, our pencils, our food. He is all encompassing. I believe there is great truths in all religious texts and to dismiss any, is of great detriment to one's personal spiritual journey. So, yeah. When referencing G-d's name, I do not write it. But that's just my own personal journey, no need to get hot about it lol

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 54 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Modern Christian Nationalism is more than enough of a contradiction for me to not even take this dumb cult seriously

[–] DreamAccountant@lemmy.world 27 points 22 hours ago

There's another side to the cult. The one that gets people to join. They preach love and peace and tolerance. All while holding a hate book of fiction and pretending their god isn't a made-up genocidal religious maniac terrorist.

They can do that because they ignore reality. They end up funding the radical religioius terrorists, and any radical terrorists that join and want more hate - it's all waiting and set up for them.

It's not just one cult. They're all cults, and in almost the exact same way. They've been doing this crap for thousands of years, and they're good at lying.

[–] Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 17 hours ago

It's even more frustrating when you read older tests which are often collages of even older stuff and sometimes contradict themselves from one paragraph to the other. I guess it is what it is, people thousands of years ago really wouldn't formulate things the way we do. Also the emphasis on things having to be factually true, and logically consistent, is surprisingly modern.

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

What's the total?

[–] SacralPlexus@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

The list is numbered up to 439. However at least one item was duplicated (263 & 264).

[–] zout@fedia.io 20 points 22 hours ago

Since two people already commented on 7 and 9; 263 and 264 as well as 323 and 324 are duplicate! Thank God these are the only ones...

[–] chelatna@sh.itjust.works 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

what's the source?

[–] porcoesphino@mander.xyz 10 points 17 hours ago

I found this and it says it links to the original (but the HTTPS cert is old so I didn't click through):

https://onthelineministries.com/are-contradictions-in-bible/

Its not the source but it goes through each contraction and I think for all of them argues they're not a contraction. Their arguments seem convoluted but might make sense. They're obviously committed to saying they're not contradictions so a pretty biased source but I'm guessing so was the original.

They also said some things that are in comments on the OP:

One of the funny things I noticed about this is that some (many) are actually duplicate questions and questions of such a similar nature that it is almost pointless to answer them one by one as I could group many together into one single answer.

But the fact that question #7 and question #9 are EXACTLY the same, word for word, I believe it gives a clear testimony to the deception the image attempts to give

[–] JeSuisUnHombre@lemmy.zip 10 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

(asking as an atheist)

Does this include laws that are no longer applicable because of Jesus' covenant?

[–] waddle_dee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

I'm surprised I didn't see this comment earlier, but I'd like to respond, if I may. Jesus says, "I did not come to abolish the old law, but to fulfill it.". We can take this at, relatively, face value and look at Jesus' life and works and see it as a perfect representation of G-d's plan.

The abolishment of the old law is a "new" concept. It is formed from Paul's letters and interpreting them in such a way that is self-referential. In that, modern theologians use it to justify itself. In the research community, this is a big no-no, as I'm sure you can understand. The old laws specifically, are so nuanced and historical based, that it's a joy to research!

E.g. Eating pork. This is something that is debated currently. Is the law there to prevent people from getting sick, as handling pork in those times was ripe for disease? (You would end up with more meat than you could eat quickly enough). Or was it for health reasons? But why then, was there so much pork eaten in the BCE?There's so much interpretation that isn't explicitly said, that it's fun to delve into. This is also an example of contradiction, using historical analysis and anthropology research.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

According to Jesus none of the old laws changed. He was very clear on that.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 1 points 28 minutes ago* (last edited 11 minutes ago)

He also strongly implied that a not-insignificant part of the old “law” were cultural traditions and compromises, rather than directives from god.

First see, this.
Matthew 22:34-40

Then this.
Mark 7:1-13

And then this.
Matthew 19:3-8

He was very clear that what he laid out in Matthew 22:34-40 was the summary of all law, and that any and all others must be derived from that. If they do not, it is just a tradition.

[–] lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (7 children)

This "beautiful" dataset contains duplicate entries (#7 and 9). There may be others, stopped reading after that.

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Thank you for the due diligence, I almost cross posted this unknowingly

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[–] zeet@lemmy.world 9 points 22 hours ago

7 and 9 are duplicates

[–] DreamAccountant@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Not a holy book. Just fiction thrown out by stupid people thousands of years ago that had zero idea how anything at all works other than farming, fishing, and war. Not even written by the same people, or at the same times.

TLDR: You're a fucking idiot if you follow any of those bullshit lies and hate..

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

that had zero idea how anything at all works other than farming, fishing, and war.

They wrote these stories 2000 years ago, what should had they know about? IDK about the whole bible but in the life of jesus story there are some good passages such as preventing a woman from being stoned. The bible wasn't entirely invented out of anything, it draw influences from other traditions and philosophies that merged in the area

[–] chronotron@lemmy.world 1 points 29 minutes ago* (last edited 29 minutes ago)

that story isn't in the earliest copies we've found

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 0 points 7 hours ago

Going out of your way to reach the fringes of society is a pretty good thing to do. So is forgiveness and extra chances. Not seeing anyone as irredeemable.

You are spreading hate.

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

tl;dr: You're a fucking dangerously infectious idiot if you follow any of those bullshit lies and hate. We, as a species, need you to get better.

FTFY

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 5 points 21 hours ago

That looks like a overlay map of solar flare activity. Coincidence? I think not.

[–] jared@mander.xyz 5 points 21 hours ago

GOD made this too small to read!

[–] D@piefed.social 4 points 22 hours ago

God works in mysterious ways

/s