Recently, I came across a popular statement circulating online:

The Bible:
• 0 errors
• 66 books
• 40+ authors
• 0 contradictions
• 3 different languages
• 3 different continents
• 63,000+ cross references
• written over 1,500 years
• all telling the same story

I understand the heart behind statements like this. They are usually attempting to defend Scripture and inspire confidence in the reliability of the Bible. Yet, if I am honest, I sometimes find these formulations a bit flat. Not because the Bible is less remarkable than advertised, but because the real beauty of Scripture is actually more profound than these simplified apologetic claims often allow. Take the phrase “0 contradictions.” What exactly do we mean by contradiction? Scripture certainly contains tensions, diverse emphases, and differing perspectives that require thoughtful interpretation. The Gospel writers occasionally arrange events differently for theological purposes. Chronicles recounts Israel’s history differently than Kings. Paul and James emphasize distinct pastoral concerns when speaking about faith and works.¹ None of this weakens Scripture. If anything, it reveals a text robust enough to invite wrestling rather than demand shallow certainty.

ADDRESSING DIFFICULT PASSAGES

If we are going to speak honestly about Scripture, it is worth acknowledging that there are passages readers have wrestled with for centuries. These are not reasons to abandon confidence in the Bible. Rather, they are invitations to deeper study. More often than not, there are meaningful literary, historical, theological, or textual explanations worth considering.

Who Killed Goliath?

In 1 Samuel 17:50, David famously kills Goliath with a sling and stone. Yet 2 Samuel 21:19 appears to state that Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittite. At first glance, this can feel like a contradiction. However, 1 Chronicles 20:5 clarifies that Elhanan killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath, leading many scholars to conclude that 2 Samuel reflects either a textual transmission issue or an abbreviated wording preserved in an earlier manuscript tradition.

How Did Judas Die?

Matthew records that Judas, overwhelmed with remorse, hanged himself (Matt. 27:5). Luke, writing in Acts, describes Judas falling headlong and his body bursting open (Acts 1:18). While some see contradiction, many interpreters understand these accounts as complementary rather than conflicting: Judas hanged himself, and later the body fell or decomposed in the field, resulting in the gruesome scene Luke describes.

How Many Animals Entered the Ark?

Genesis appears to provide two different numbers. Genesis 6:19–20 says Noah brought two of every kind, while Genesis 7:2–3 instructs Noah to bring seven pairs of clean animals and birds. The tension is typically resolved by recognizing the distinction between clean and unclean animals. Two of unclean animals entered the ark, while additional clean animals were preserved for sacrifice and sustenance.

Who Incited David to Number Israel?

2 Samuel 24:1 says that the Lord incited David to number Israel, while 1 Chronicles 21:1 attributes the incitement to Satan. Rather than contradiction, many theologians understand this as a reflection of divine sovereignty and secondary agency. God permits what Satan carries out, a pattern not unfamiliar elsewhere in Scripture (cf. Job 1–2).

Can Anyone See God?

In Exodus 24:9–11, Moses and the elders of Israel are said to have “seen God.” Yet John 1:18 states, “No one has ever seen God.” The common theological distinction here is between seeing a manifestation or mediated appearance of God (a theophany) and beholding the fullness of God’s divine essence.

Faith or Works? Paul and James

Paul writes that a person is justified apart from works of the law (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 2:16), while James famously says that a person is “justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). At first glance, the tension feels sharp. Yet many scholars argue Paul and James are confronting different problems. Paul addresses legalism and ethnic boundary markers, while James critiques dead, inactive faith. In this reading, they are not enemies but conversation partners emphasizing different dimensions of authentic covenant faithfulness.

The Genealogies of Jesus

The genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 differ significantly, especially concerning Joseph’s father (Matthew names Jacob; Luke names Heli). Proposed explanations vary. Some see Matthew tracing Jesus’ royal/legal lineage while Luke preserves a biological line. Others suggest one genealogy reflects Joseph’s ancestry and the other Mary’s. Still others emphasize the theological shaping of genealogies in the ancient world, where symbolism and covenant identity often mattered alongside biological precision.

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ENGAGING THE TEXTS

These texts deserve to be wrestled with. In fact, I have found that when we genuinely engage the difficult passages of Scripture rather than avoid them, it often strengthens our confidence in the Bible’s accuracy and trustworthiness rather than weakens it. Mature faith is not built by pretending hard questions do not exist; it is formed by learning how to faithfully wrestle with them.

More often than not, there are thoughtful historical, literary, theological, or contextual ways to work through these areas. Even where complete certainty remains elusive, the process itself deepens our understanding of Scripture, expands our theological maturity, and ultimately produces a more resilient faith. A Bible that cannot withstand honest questions is far too fragile, but thankfully Scripture has endured millennia of scrutiny, wrestling, and examination and still continues to transform lives. Perhaps a better metaphor is to think of the Bible not as a flattened monologue but as a symphony. Over centuries, dozens of authors wrote from different social locations, literary genres, political crises, covenant moments, and theological concerns. Moses does not sound like Ecclesiastes. Isaiah does not write like Luke. Paul’s argumentation differs dramatically from John’s symbolic imagination. Yet somehow, amidst this diversity, a coherent story emerges: creation, covenant, exile, redemption, kingdom, and restoration centered ultimately in Christ.²

The miracle of Scripture is not mechanical uniformity. The miracle is coherence within diversity.

In many ways, the Bible feels deeply incarnational. Just as Christ is understood as fully divine and fully human, Scripture bears both divine inspiration and unmistakably human fingerprints. God did not erase personality, historical context, or literary diversity. He worked through them.³ Ancient Near Eastern contexts shaped Genesis. Exilic realities shaped prophetic literature. Second Temple expectations shaped the New Testament world. The biblical authors were not passive stenographers but faithful witnesses participating in God’s unfolding story.⁴

Pastorally, I sometimes worry that oversimplified claims unintentionally set people up for disappointment. If someone is taught that the Bible contains no complexity, no difficult passages, and no interpretive tensions, then their first encounter with textual difficulty can become destabilizing. But if believers are discipled to expect depth, literary richness, historical context, and theological development, faith often becomes more resilient, not less.⁵ The Bible has never feared scrutiny. For millennia, it has endured questions, challenges, criticism, and debate while continuing to shape civilizations and transform lives. Perhaps this should not surprise us. After all, Israel itself means “one who wrestles with God.” Maybe mature faith was never meant to avoid wrestling, but to trust that God often meets us within it.⁶

At the end of the day, difficult passages should not scare us away from Scripture; they should draw us deeper into it. A faith that never wrestles is often a faith that never matures. God has never been intimidated by honest questions, and neither should we be. In fact, I have often found that walking through the harder texts of the Bible has strengthened my trust in its truthfulness rather than weakened it. Avoidance rarely produces maturity, but humble wrestling often does. So when we encounter tension, complexity, or passages we do not immediately understand, perhaps the invitation is not to retreat in fear, but to lean in with curiosity, prayer, and trust that the God who revealed Himself in Scripture is still faithful enough to meet us in the wrestling.

Dr. Will Ryan

Notes

1. N. T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God (New York: HarperOne, 2013), 89–95; Craig L. Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007), 111
2. Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 17
3. Peter Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015), 13
4. John H. Walton, The Lost World of Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 41; Michael F. Bird, Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), 25
5. Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018), 52
6. Richard Bauckham, The Bible in the Contemporary World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 1