Counterexamples to the Bible

There are no Counterexamples to the Bible (See: Biblical inerrancy).

This is in contrast with:

• 70 Counterexamples to an Old Earth
• 54 Counterexamples to Evolution
• 52 Counterexamples to Relativity
• 5 Counterexamples to an Ice Age
• 3 Counterexamples to String Theory
• Numerous Counterexamples to Global Warming

Opponents of the teachings of the Bible have tried mightily to prove statements in it to be false, but every attempt has failed. In a highly quoted passage Professor Bernard Ramm wrote in his work Protestant evidences concerning the Bible:

“

Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. With their massora they kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph. They had special classes of men within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity – scribes, lawyers, masoretes. Concerning the New Testament, there are about 13,000 manuscripts, complete and incomplete, in Greek and other languages, that have survived from antiquity. A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and the committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put. No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line, and tenet? The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions."

”

Here is a growing list of disproved counterexamples:

• that the wall of Jericho described in the Bible never existed and that people did not live there as described in the Old Testament; 19th century archaeologists could not find evidence of that civilization in the biblical time period.

Disproof: archaeologist John Garstang discovered an intricate (collapsed) wall of Jericho during digging in 1930-36.

• that Pontius Pilate, described in the Bible as a Judean Roman Prefect who ordered the Crucifixion of Jesus, never held that powerful position.

Disproof: archeologists excavating an ancient amphitheater in Palestine discovered in 1961 a massive limestone having the inscription, "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea."

• that there was only weak evidence for the existence of the high priest Caiaphas, who according to the New Testament turned Jesus over to Pilate for Crucifixion

Disproof: in 1990, archaeologists discovered a burial cave dating from around 50 A.D., only 20 years after the Crucifixion, which contained a stone ossuary engraved with his formal name "Jehosaph son of Caiapha."

• that the Hittites—mentioned more than 50 times in the Old Testament, did not exist because no trace of this ancient civilization could be found for many years.

Disproof: Archeological discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries proved that the Hittites existed as the Bible describes.

• that theories of modern physics proved there was no creation, and thus the Genesis account could not possibly be correct.

Disproof: the Catholic priest Georges-Henri Lemaitre proved, against the resistance of anti-Bible scientists, that modern theories of physics themselves required the occurrence of a singular creation; this was first ridiculed by the term Big Bang but then later accepted by the atheists.

• that the pool of Siloam described in John 9:7, where Jesus restored sight to a blind man and told him to wash the mud from his eyes, and the pool of Bethesda with five covered colonnades, described in John 5:2 , did not exist because no one had previously found them.

Disproof: the pool of Bethesda was discovered in 1957-62, just as described in the Gospel of John with the five covered colonnades, and the pool of Siloam was also discovered, in 2004.

• that a census could not have occurred around 6 B.C., shortly after Jesus's birth, as described in the Gospel of Luke.

Disproof: In 1912, W.M. Ramsey discovered a fragment proving that a new seat of government was established in Syria, which included Palestine, between 10 and 7 B.C., which would have necessitated one or more censuses shortly thereafter. There is additional evidence of a census in Palestine at this time in the writings of Tertullian.

• that genetics disproves the 30th chapter of Genesis

Disproof: There is no inconsistency.

• that the Bible incorrectly states the number of feet on an insect

Disproof: Once the meaning of "leg" is correctly understood, it is seen that the Bible is right.

• that biblical inerrancy does not hold true because in James 5:12 , as well as during Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:33-37 , swearing oaths are forbidden, but elsewhere in the Bible prominent figures take such oaths (Paul in 2 Cor. 1:23 and Gal. 1:20, and Jesus himself in Matthew 26:63 )

Disproof: The passages in James and in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount refer to a different kind of swearing.

(add to list)

See also

• Bible prophecy
• Biblical archaeology
• Biblical scientific foreknowledge