To the believer, the Bible is a book written by many authors, over about a 1500 year period. An unbeliever may not agree with this but will have to accept that it was written over at least a 300 year period, from nearly 200BC for the earliest Septuagint translations and Dead Sea Scroll documents to the later first century. All scholars accept a multitude of authors. I hope to show here that the internal consistency between different authors, at different times, would be almost impossible to achieve by human means. We will look at four examples, but there are many many more.
Deuteronomy 3 tells of the battle between Og the King of Bashan, and Israel. Bashan is all that area east of the Jordan river between the Dead sea and Galilee, even up toward Mt Hermon. This territory was allotted to the tribes of Gad and Manasseh.
Deuteronomy 3:8-9 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon (the Sido′nians call Hermon Si′rion, while the Amorites call it Senir).
The aside here, that Mt. Hermon has two names, seems innocuous enough. Looking at a map, it is plain to see why it would have an Amorite name, as it is in their territory.
The red dot under the word Hivites is Mt. Hermon. It Lies within the Amorite territory, hence it has an Amorite name.
The green dot on the sea coast is Sidon. It is nowhere near Mt Hermon – so why mention Mt Hermon’s Sidon name? In fact, we may expect a Hivite name maybe, as it is close to the Hivite border. But, why a Tyre/Sidon name? It’s a bit like saying that Ularu is called Seni by the Alice Springs people (close by), and Sirion by the Port Macquarie people (who live hundreds of kilometers away). Why?
The answer lies in the history recorded many decades later. Judges 18 records a story of a group of five Danites who travelled north to find better land as they could not displace the inhabitants of the land alloted to them. This exploratory team, after an iteraction with a young Levite at the house of Micah, came to the foot of Mt. Hermon. “ 7 So the five men left and came to Laish, (ancient name of Mt. Hermon), where they saw that the people were living in safety, like the Sidonians, at peace and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. Also, they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.”
A different author, at a different time, tells us that a group of Sidonians lived at the foot of Mt Hermon – hence the record of the Sidon name for Hermon in Deuteronomy. Both comments in Deuteronomy and judges seems to be inconsequential asides – but they show that the records, by different authors, at different times, are consistent.
Another strange apparent contradiction.
We have two seemingly contradictory descriptions of the same person in the books of Kings and Chronicles. 1 Kings 7 13 And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. 14 He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naph′tali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze.
2 Chronicles 2 13 “Now I have sent a skilled man, endued with understanding, Huram-abi, 14 the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron.
These clearly represent the same person, as can be seen from the context. But one says that the mother was from the tribe of Naphtali and the other says she was from Dan. A contradiction? Many critics have jumped on these verses supposing that they represent a conflict. But, again, the problem is solved from Judges 18.
The red spot on the map represents the city of Dan (formerly Laish) which the Danites took from the Sidonians which was in the territory allotted to Naphtali. So, any woman who was a widow from Naphtali may well live in the Danite city and so be both ‘from Naphtali and Dan’.
Not only that, but the city of Laish (Dan) was formerly a colony of Trye and Sidon, so the Nathtali / Dan woman may well have married a Trye man. Conflict resolved. Again, two different authors write a self-consistent story.
Yet another story:
The Bible records that a couple of Israel cities fell to the invading armies of The Philistines and the Syrians.
1 Kings 15:27 Baasha son of Ahijah from the tribe of Issachar plotted against him, and he struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine town, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging it.
1 Kings 22 3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” 4 And he said to Jehosh′aphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?”
Again … a simple story of ancient battles. Both the cities of Gibbethon and Ramoth were cities of Israel, but they had fallen to the Philistines and the Syrians. In fact, both were special cities. Even though they were in tribal allotments (Dan and Manasseh), they were given to the Levites as Levite Cities. The Levite cities were equally scattered throughout Israel to ensure that the people had access to God’s representatives.
So, what went wrong? A completely unrelated verse puts it all into context. After the death of King Solomon of Israel, the Kingdom of Israel split in two. The northern most 10 tribes separated under King Jeroboam and kept the name Israel, but the southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah united under king Rehoboam as the Kingdom of Judah. The southern Kingdom had Jerusalem and the Temple. Afraid that his people would go south to worship, Jeroboam instituted golden calf gods for the people to worship. Later, King Ahab instituted Baal worship. This caused the Levites in the northern Kingdom to flood south to worship the true God.
2 Chronicles 11: 13-17 The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him. The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, following the ways of David and Solomon during this time.
So, suddenly, the Levite cities were abandoned. No garrisons, no defense. This is why the Levite cities of Gibbethon and Ramoth fell. Again, an unrelated story adds veracity to other narratives.
One last undesigned co-incidence
This takes a little concentration –
| Exodus 12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. |
The plagues on Egypt were in the first month of the Jewish calendar. |
| Exodus 9 31 (The flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bloom. 32 But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they are late in coming up.) |
So, at this time, in the first month, barley and flax were ready for harvest, but not wheat or spelt. |
| Joshua 3 15 and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), 16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off… | When the people of Israel arrived at the Jordan, it was harvest time, and the Jordan was in flood. |
| Joshua 4 19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. | So, it was the time of harvest in the first month i.e. the time of harvest of barley and flax
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| Joshua 2 6 But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. | A different author at a different time matched the record in Exodus. It was flax that was harvested – not wheat or spelt. |
Just imagine if the record in Joshua had said that Rahab hid the spies under wheat. We could say…wrong! Wheat was not harvested in the first month. But, no, the record says flax, exactly matching the record of the other writer at another time.
Proof of Bible truth?
No – but just added weight that the record we have is true.
Renewed 