Truth and Error

Something I deal with frequently when I talk with unbelievers in person and on the internet, is their concern for what they call contradictions in the Bible. "If the Bible is God's word," they ask, "how can there be mistakes or contradictions?" Well, since the Bible is the word of God, the question needs to be addressed, and when someone asks these kinds of questions, they need to be answered carefully.

The Bible does have a number of passages which contain what look to be contradictions. Knowing that God left us His word in this way, and that it is from Him, we must also know that any such apparent passages can be explained and understood. I can cite as an example, what looks to be an apparent contradiction between Acts 9:7 and 22:9. The problem for some people when they read those passages is whether or not the men who were with Paul at his conversion actually heard the voice that he did.

In the King James Bible, Acts 9:7 clearly states that the men with Paul heard the voice that spoke to him. Acts 22:9 clearly states that those who accompanied Paul did not hear that voice. One common explanation that I've heard is that the men with Paul heard the voice, but did not understand that the sound they were hearing was a voice. I don't really buy that, given their reaction. They were speechless.

I believe this boils down to more of a translational oversight. I looked up those passages in my interlinear Greek New Testament Bible studied them a little bit. I believe that the King James translators overlooked the fact that the Greek word "eekousan" can mean 'hear' and 'understand'. I also believe that they overlooked the fact that the Greek word "fooneen" can mean 'sound' and 'voice'. I think the passages are more correctly translated in some of the recent translations from the Greek.

NASB "The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one." Acts 9:7
NASB "And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me." Acts 22:9

NIV "The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone." Acts 9:7
NIV "My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me." Acts 22:9

I think this one is fairly simple to explain and understand, but I also think there are plenty of things in God's word that we aren't going to "get" this side of heaven, and that can have to do with one's placement in the context of history. If for example, I had lived and believed in God in Old Testament times, and I read in the text the prophetic passages that Messiah would suffer at the hands of men, but that He would also triumph over His enemies, there is probably no way that I would have any clue as to how those passages could be reconciled. It is only in the light of the way that God's wonderful plan for mankind plays out in its entirety, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, that His word be fully understood.