DOUG
Since we don't discuss the bible much on this list anymore, I decided to take another look at Nanson's (remember him?) Apologia Home Page on the Internet to see what sort of "solutions" he has for various bible problems. Here are a few interesting things.
1) 2 Samuel 24:13 says god offered David 7 yrs. famine as punishment for the census. (See recent posting about this problem in general.)
BUT 1 Chron. 21:11-12 says god offered 3 yrs. famine.
SOLUTION: A copyist's error.
2) 2 Samuel 21:19 says David slew Goliath.
1 Chron. 20:5 says Elhanan did it. (See recent posting on this too.)
SOLUTION: A copyist's error.
3) 2 Samuel 8:4 says the god of love's representative slew 700 horsemen.
1 Chron. 18:4 says it was 7000 horsemen.
SOLUTION: A copyist's error. (Gee, those darned copyists!)
4) Psalm 89:35-37 says David's throne will endure forever.
Psalm 89:44 says the throne was cast down.
SOLUTION: The latter verse is false. The writer was just being poetic.
5) Genesis 6:3 says that the human life span will be 120 years.
Psalm 10 says it will be 70 years, or 80 if you are strong.
SOLUTION: The Psalm verse if false. The writer was just being poetic.
OR, ANOTHER SOLUTION: The Genesis verse is false. It does not mean 120 years. That was just a way of saying that humans are mortal.
6) John 8:18, 14 has Jesus say that his witness of himself is true.
John 5:31 has Jesus say that his witness of himself is not true. SOLUTION: The latter verse really means that "if He alone bore witness of Himself, it would be untrue. Since Jesus did not bear witness of Himself alone, His witness is not untrue." (Quotation from Nanson.)
DOUG'S COMMENT: It's a good thing that we have someone to back up the word of god. Otherwise, it would not just be suspect or unverified, Nanson says that it would actually be false! This also suggests that we cannot trust what Jesus said! Maybe Nanson read 2 Thessalonians 2:11 where it says that god makes people believe lies so he can condemn them.
7) 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture is inspired.
1 Corinthians 7:12 has Paul state that in that verse he speaks for himself, not god. SOLUTION: Nanson's page says: "Paul does not say what he writes is not inspired by god; merely that the Lord has not commanded what Paul says. Paul was almost certainly inspired by god in each word he spoke following his conversion."
COMMENT: According to Nanson, then, when Paul says that he speaks for himself and not for god, and says so explicitly, he is a liar.
8) Proverbs 15:3; Psalms 139:7-10; Job 34:22,21 tell us that god is omnipresent and omniscient.
But Genesis 3:8, 11:5 and 18:20 (especially the latter two) have god saying that he will go somewhere to see what is going on. The last of these three even have god saying that he has heard reports of Sodom and Gomorrah and that he will go and see if things are as bad as he has heard! SOLUTION: "God is not 'coming down' in a physical sense, but in a 'mental' sense, where he turns his attention to the sinful activity of men and invokes judgement."
COMMENT: Nanson, then, claims that god can be inattentive. This implies that god is not omniscient. I guess he had to choose between omnipresence and omnicience, and sacrificed that latter to salvage the former.
What nonsense! There are many more of these gems of irrationality. I encourage list subscribers to go check it out. But only if you have not eaten recently.