Biblical/Jesus errors

by way of Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Sat, 02 Jan 1999 00:06:11 -0800 (00915285971, 2.2.32.19990102080611.008b8340@midwest.net) 



M.McGill <email@domain.com> wrote:

>MCGILL

>In _Beyond Fundamendalism_ by James

>Barr, Barr cites two

>such cases which would be sufficient to completely undermine the

>fundamentalist claim for both the infallibility of the scriptures as well as

>the infallibility of Jesus himself. Both cases involve Jesus making errors

>when referring to what are now considered OT scriptures.


MARK 
I would suggest that they are not errors, but rather your
misunderstandings. 

MCGILL

>The first is found

>in Mark 2:25-26 when Jesus relates a story from 1 Sam. 21:1-6. The story

>involves the high priest Ahimelech. But Jesus incorrectly calls the high

>priest Abiathar (who happens to have been Ahimelech's son).


MARK
And likely within weeks, Ahimelech was dead, because Saul killed him.
Abiathar was possibly better known. It was a memory aid:
"Remember the time when ... and the next day ..."
It's like saying, something happened when so-and-so was 26 in 1996.
Well, it doesn't matter that the even happened in January, and the
actual birthday was in February, does it? You don't see people walking
around saying, "I'm 26 41/365.25th years old." And who is going to
complain, "I don't care if you are 17.5 years old. We don't round in this
household, and you are still a child!"? I think your microscope is best
suited for cases claiming accuracy to the Nth decimal place. This was
just a casual conversation, and to be that literal is nuts.
(which I guess is the intent of your post)

MCGILL

> The second case

>can be found in Matt. 23:35 where Jesus is talking about the death of

>Zacharias as related in 2 Chron. 24:20-21. The only problem with Jesus'

>recounting of this story is that he mistakenly refers to Zacharias as the

>son the Barachias when he is really the son of Jehoida.


MARK
And did Jehoida have any ancestors named Barachias?
Hebrews didn't aim for scientific accuracy in their language.
If I were a grandfather, is not "grand" just an indictor?
I technically would have fathered any of my descendents.

Just some thoughts,
Mark Tompsett