Written by: Christopher Sernaque
Question:
What does the opening verse of John have to do with alleged Bible contradictions?
Answer:
Everything. Let's take a look at John 1:1.
The Bible says:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."-John 1:1
Believe it or not, but this Bible verse holds an important key to debunking the skeptical claim the Bible contains hundreds of contradictions.
Are you ready for the key?
What does the word "Word" mean in this verse?
The Greek word for Word is "λόγος" or Logos.
Now, while we all know that this passage is referring to Christ Jesus, there is another meaning that we cannot afford to miss.
This Greek word can mean "reasoning (the mental faculty)", "a computation", and to "reason and reckon."
In fact, we get our English word, "Logic" from the Greek word "Logos."
Herein lies the key to resolving most alleged Bible contradictions.
More often than not, the skeptic is committing a logical fallacy, an error in their reasoning.
Take for example the oft-touted criticism, "The Bible is loaded with contradictions. For instance, how many demon-possessed men were there in Gadarenes? Matthew indicates that there were two men in his gospel, while Mark and Luke indicate there was only one. (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:2-16, Luke 8:26-37)"
This is a classic example of the "X and only X fallacy."
Mark and Luke did not say that there was only one man, they simply said that there was one man.
Matthew indicated that there were two men, and so if there were two, then there has to be at least one.
The only way for the skeptic to make this passages contradictory is for him or her to commit the "X and only X fallacy" by forcing the texts in Mark and Luke to read as if they explicitly taught that there was only one man, when the text is written to allow for more.
What is the conclusion of the matter?
Logic is the key to resolving most supposed Bible contradictions.
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