Expert: J.M.J. West - 3/7/2008

Question
Every word in the bible is true, thus I have heard. However, I have a
list of verses from the Bible itself that have erros in it.  I really
hope that you can help me with this, and explain these errors to me:

Genesis:

God says that if Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, then the day that he does so, he will die. But later Adam eats the
forbidden fruit (3:6) and yet lives for another 930 years (5:5). 2:17

As a punishment for killing Abel, God says Cain will be "a fugitive and
a vagabond." Yet in just a few verses (4:16-17) Cain will settle down,
marry, have a son, and build a city. This is not the activity one
would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond. 4:12

God promises Abram and his descendants all of the land of Canaan. But
both history and the bible (Acts 7:5 and Heb.11:13) show that God's
promise to Abram was not fulfilled. 13:15, 15:18, 17:8, 28:13-14

How long was the Egyptian captivity? This verse says 400 years, but
Ex.12:40 and Gal.3:17 say 430 years. 15:13

"In the fourth generation they [Abraham's descendants] shall come
hither again." But, if we count Abraham, then their return occurred after
seven generations: Abraham, Isaac (Gen.21:1-3), Jacob (Gen.25:19-26),
Levi (Gen.35:22-23), Kohath (Ex.6:16), Amramn (Ex.6:18), and Moses
(Ex.6:20). 15:16

God promises Abram's descendants the land of Canaan from the Nile to
the Euphrates. But according to Acts 7:5 and Heb.11:13 God's promise to
Abram was not fulfilled. 15:18

God promises to make Isaac's descendents as numerous as "the stars of
heaven", which, of course, never happened. The Jews have always been,
and will always be, a small minority. 26:4

God renames Jacob twice (32:28, 35:10 ). God says that Jacob will
henceforth be called Israel, but the Bible continues to call him Jacob
anyway (47:28-29). And even God himself calls him Jacob in 46:2. 32:28,
35:10

Exodus:

God promises to cast out many nations including the Canaanites and the
Jebusites. But he was unable to fulfill his promise. 33:2

In this verse God says he will write on the stone tablets, but in 34:27
he tells Moses to do the writing. 34:1

Deuteronomy:

God promises to cast out seven nations including the Amorites,
Canaanites, and the Jebusites. But he was unable to fulfill his promise. 7:1

God says that the Israelites will destroy all of the peoples they
encounter. But according to Joshua ( 15:63, 16:10, 17:12-13) and Judges
(1:21, 27-36, 3:1-5) there were some people they just couldn't kill. 7:24

Joshua:

God promises to give Joshua all of the land that his "foot shall tread
upon." He says that none of the people he encounters will be able to
resist him. But later we find that God didn't keep his promise, and that
many tribes withstood Joshua's attempt to steal their land. 1:3-5

Joshua tells the Israelites that God will "without fail" drive out the
Canaanites and the Jebusites. But later, the Bible tells us that he
could not drive them out. 3:10

This verse says that Ai was never again occupied after it was destroyed
by Joshua. But Nehemiah (7:32) lists it among the cities of Israel at
the time of the Babylonian captivity. 8:28

God promised the Israelites that he would drive out all the inhabitants
of the lands they pass through. But this verse shows that he didn't
keep his promise since he couldn't drive out the Jebusites. 15:63

"And they drave not out the Canaanites." Once again God fails keep his
promise to destroy all the people the Israelites encounter. 16:10

Samuel 2:

God says that Solomon's kingdom will last forever. It didn't of course.
It was entirely destroyed about 400 years after Solomon's death, never
to be rebuilt. 7:13, 16

Chronicles 2:

God puts lies into the mouths of his prophets and speaks evil about
people. 18:21-22

Josiah died from an arrow wound in battle, not "in peace" as is
promised in 2 Kg.22:20. 35:23

Isaiah:

God told Isaiah to tell Ahaz, the King of Judah, not to be concerned
about Rezin (the king of Syria) or Pekah (the king of Israel). But
according to 2 Chr.28:5-6 "God delivered him [Ahaz] into the hand of the king
of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of
them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered
into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great
slaughter." 7:3-7

The King James Version mistranslates the Hebrew word "almah", which
means "young woman" as "virgin". (The Hebrew word, "bethulah", means
"virgin".) In addition, the young woman referred to in this verse was living
at the time of the prophecy. And Jesus, of course, was called Jesus --
and is not called Emmanuel in any verse in the New Testament. 7:14

These verses falsely predict that Babylon will never again be
inhabited. 13:19-20

Dragons will live in Babylonian palaces and satyrs will dance there.
13:21-22

This verse prophesies that Damascus will be completely destroyed and no
longer be inhabited. Yet Damascus has never been completely destroyed
and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities. 17:1

The river of Egypt (identified as the Nile in RSV) shall dry up. This
has never occurred. 19:5

"The land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt." Judah never invaded
Egypt and was never a military threat to Egypt. 19:17

This verse predicts that there shall be five cities in Egypt that speak
the Canaanite language. But that language was never spoken in Egypt,
and it is extinct now. 19:18

These verses predict that the Egyptians will worship the Lord (Yahweh)
with sacrifices and offerings. But Judaism has never been an important
religion in Egypt. 19:18-21

These verses predict that there will be an alliance between Egypt,
Israel, and Assyria. But there has never been any such alliance, and it's
unlikely that it ever will since Assyria no longer exists. 19:23-24

Jeremiah:

Jeremiah prophesies that all nations of the earth will embrace Judaism.
This has not happened. 3:17

Apparently, prophets that preach good news and tidings anger God. So he
will kill them. 5:12-13

"The prophets prophesy falsely." 5:31

God will make Jerusalem "a den of dragons." 9:11

Judah will become a desolate den of dragons. 10:22

"The prophets prophesy lies" in God's name. 14:14

God will destroy by famine and sword those who are misled by the
prophets, as well as the prophets themselves. 14:15-16

Matthew (1:12) lists Jeconiah as an ancestor of Jesus -- which,
according to this prophecy, disqualifies Jesus as the Messiah. 22:28-30

All those who move to Egypt will die by the sword, famine, or
pestilence. None "shall escape from the evil" that comes directly from God. But
many, including Jews, have moved to Egypt and most seem to have escaped
from God's promised evil. 42:15-18, 22

Jeremiah predicts that humans will never again live in Hazor, but will
be replaced by dragons. But people still live there and dragons have
never been seen. 49:33

God prophesies that Babylon will never again be inhabited. But it has
been inhabited constantly since the prophecy was supposedly made, and is
inhabited still today. 50:39

God says that Babylon will be desolate and uninhabited forever. He says
that only dragons will live there. But Babylon has been dragon-free
and continuously inhabited since then. 51:26, 29, 37, 43, 62, 64

God promised Zedekiah (Jer.34:5) that he would die peacefully and be
buried with his fathers. But here we see that he died a miserable death
in foreign land. 52:10-11

Daniel:

"I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." (If Daniel
couldn't understand his visions, then how could anyone else?) This is the
one true prophecy in the book of Daniel: "none understood it." 8:27

Zechariah:

The gospels (especially Mt.21:4-5 and Jn.12:14-15) claim that Jesus
fulfils the prophecy of Zech.9:9. But the next few verses (9:10-13) show
that the person referred to in this verse is a military king that would
rule "from sea to sea". Since Jesus had neither an army or a kingdom,
he could not have fulfilled this prophecy. 9:9

Israel shall never again be oppressed. Another obviously false
prophecy; Israel has been occupied many times since the time of Zechariah. 9:8

The river of Egypt (identified as the Nile in NIV, NASB, and RSV) shall
dry up. This has never occurred. 10:11

Malachi:

The gospel of Mark claims that John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy
given in Malachi. But the Malachi prophecy says that God will send
Elijah before "the great and dreadful day of the LORD" in which the world
will be consumed by fire. Yet John the Baptist flatly denied that he was
Elijah (Elias) in John 1:21 and the earth was not destroyed after
John's appearance. 3:1, 4:1, 5

Matthew:

The devil kidnaps Jesus and takes him up to the top of the temple, and
then to the top of "an exceedingly high mountain," high enough to see
"all the kingdoms of the world." Was the world flat?

Mark:

Jesus is incorrect when he says that the mustard seed is the smallest
seed. (The smallest seeds are found among the tropical, epiphytic
orchids.) 4:31

In those days ... the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of
heaven shall fall."  The billions of stars will never fall to earth and
the moon does not produce its own light. 13:24-25

When Jesus was crucified, there was three hours of complete darkness
"over the whole land." It is strange that there is no record of this
extraordinary event outside of the gospels. 15:33

_________________________________________________

I hope that you can take a look on this, and explain these errors to
me. Thank you so much. God bless.  

Answer
Because this isn't an original question, but merely a copy-paste job from http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/proph/long.html I'm not going to give a full answer, but I will answer a few to help you understand that in the same manner an answer can be found to each.  

"God says that if Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, then the day that he does so, he will die. But later Adam eats theforbidden fruit (3:6) and yet lives for another 930 years (5:5). 2:17 "

God warns that "on that day you will be doomed to die", not "you will die on the spot", and at that moment death entered into human history, and man and woman knew that they could be selfish, hence before they were "naked without shame", but after "they saw that they were naked and sought to cover themselves for they were ashamed."

Moreover, while Genesis is describing an actual moment in our primordial human history, that does not mean that all of it's language is meant to be taken as a literal play by play (genesis 1 and 2 present a contradiction on WHEN man was created, if they're both understood literally.  But assuming that nobody caught this is just ignorant).

"How long was the Egyptian captivity? This verse says 400 years, but
Ex.12:40 and Gal.3:17 say 430 years. 15:13 "

Why does this seem like a contradiction?  It's only a contradiction if you're assuming that people cannot round numbers, which is just plain ignorant.

"Jesus is incorrect when he says that the mustard seed is the smallest
seed. (The smallest seeds are found among the tropical, epiphytic
orchids.) 4:31 "

First off, know that Hebrew and the Hebrew mindset are very idiomatically inclined (given to hyperbole and exaggeration to make a point - e.g. "you must hate your spouse and mother and father to follow me"), and so at times things will be stated in a way that just don't translate well into another language and mindset.

However, Jesus says "the smallest of seeds", and even in English this doesn't have to mean that there is none smaller, but only that this seed belongs to the category of very small seeds.

"God prophesies that Babylon will never again be inhabited. But it has
been inhabited constantly since the prophecy was supposedly made, and is inhabited still today. 50:39 "

The land is inhabited.  But Babylon (and Assyria and Phoenicia and Philistia and [ancient] Egypt and any other country that oppressed the Jews) no is no more.  Babylon as a nation held together by a distinct ideological/political/religious distinction is no more.

All of these are based upon trying to twist the scriptures to make them say what they don't, and takes no fair attempt to understand them in context.

Many of these are just as baseless; some are a bit sticker, but all are answerable.

I hope that helps.  

Peace of Christ,

-J.M.J. West