Customer Reviews

Self-Contradictions of the Bible (Classics of Biblical Criticism)

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An amazing little book, still raising eyebrows and upsetting fundamentalists 150 years after its publication. While the author is not a scholar and never claims to be, he offers a number of cases where the bible might contradict itself. No attempt is made to put things in context, or to put a spin on them. Just verse for verse contradictions. The Preface is an eye opener, and I have to say this little volume has aged very well. Thought provoking for those who can't be spoon fed their faith.

I consider William Henry Burr's Self-Contradictions of the BibleEa smashing success. Burr truly brings out simple fact that the belief that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and literally true word of God - thrives on ignorance, not just of a general sort, but an ignorance of the Bible itself. Because of critical thinkers like William Burr, the Apologetics are nowadays working evermore harder to explain awayEall the inconsistencies in the bible. For instance, God is kind, merciful, and good. Ps.100:5 "For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting." Yet God is cruel, unmerciful, and evil. Num.25:4 "And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel."

Let try another. Should we rejoice when our enemies suffer? Pr.24:17 says no Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth.EContrast with a resounding yes; Ps.58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wickedE I think I have made my point. For more insight into the many oddities of the bible one should pick up Dan Barker's Losing Faith In Faith: From Preacher To Atheist. As Mr. Burr clearly shows the holy book of multiple choice is truly a curious thing.

This book is basically a laundry list of contradicitons in the bible. I like the book, and thought it would make for a very good conversation starter the next time a religious group knocked on your door, but I really wish the author would have backed up the contradictions with some discussion and historical perspective.

If religious folk would actually read the entire Bible, 99% of them would be agnostic long before the last page.

The review below by Sargus Lockhart is the perfect example. Lockhart clearly has not read the Bible's genealogies; both are explicitly Joseph's family tree. (See, e.g., Luke 3:23 ff.: "Jesus . . . the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli," etc.) It is also laughable to suggest that any organization as sexist as a religion would bother to include a maternal genealogy. Of course, using Joseph's genealogy is another logic buster, since the authors of the gospels purport to believe that Jesus' true father was Yahweh.

I found this book to be most interesting. The contradictions were given without explanation of them. No explanation was needed.
It just shows that the Bible was written by people..and not by the "hand of God". The old testament was written by Jewish clans. And the God that they served was sometimes full of anger as in Numbers 24:5 and He was not always loving. The written word shows a much different understanding of the concept of God than what most Christians claim these days.
The emplications go on and on.
The contradictions are also listed for the new Testament, including that Jesus says he is not equal with the Father, John 14:28. and that he was not all powerful Mark 6:5.
The emplications go on and on, from the text itself.
This is an excellent resource book!
It will make you think.

William Burr documents 144 self-contradictions in the Bible relating to theological doctrines, moral precepts, historical facts, and speculative doctrines. Collectively they provide compelling evidence that the Bible itself is the best evidence that it is not divinely authoritive, but is simply a collection of scriptures by imaginative mythologists which are self incriminating and collectively may be justifiably entitled, with apologies to Dante, as The Divine Comedy.

William Henry Burr had the sagacity of collecting all the contradictions of the Bible. This guy wrote something that 150 some years later still as fresh as morning dew! William, created the basis for converting the bible into a Geometry argument (1-1=0). this small but very powerful book demostrates that the Bible is a self-cancelling idea. The Word of God is self-cancelling and it seems that at the end it amounts to zero. Therefore, if god is the perfect supreme being, he could not have written the Bible no it is his word! NEXT!

By the way this is the perfect source of information to be use for defeating any fanatical argument!

This book was written from the unbelivers point of view. The criticism in this book may backfire, if the unbeliever looks up the Bible verses and reads with an open mind and right spirit. One may be instead be lead to the truth of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

All the contradiction the author mention is not contradiction at all, there are many bible study books written can explain this with very convincing logic, however there are some real contradiction in deep meaning very hard to explain in the bible but the author never mention, those contradiction well known to any person study the bible seriously, in my opinion the author is not qualified to write in such a subject.

Mr. Burr brings up some great points. Unfortunatly, many of the "contradictions" he lists are not contradictions at all. For example, one "contradiction" Burr lists in his book involves the genealogies of Christ. In the New Testament, there are two genealogies of Christ. One is in the book of Matthew, chapter 1, and another in the book of Luke, chapter 3. If you look at them, they look completely different. They don't even agree on Jesus' grandfather. The fact is, however, that these lists are not contradictory, but instead complementary. The genealogy in Matthew is Joseph's family line, while the one in Luke is Mary's.

There are many cases like these. The he doesn't back up his claims...