Since the Bible Can Not Contradict Itself, How Do We Reconcile Parallel Account Discrepancies or Clear Numerical Discrepancies?
1) Direct Answer
There are no contradictions in God’s Word. What people call “discrepancies” are differences of perspective, emphasis, time-reckoning, rounding of numbers, or transmission issues in copies and translations. When you take all the witnesses together, the record harmonizes.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says all Scripture is inspired and cannot be broken (2 Timothy 3:16; John 10:35). God does not contradict Himself.
- God established truth by “two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:15). The Gospels give multiple witnesses. Different details are not denial; they are completion.
Samples of harmony:
- One or two? Demoniacs and blind men: Matthew mentions two (Matthew 8:28; 20:30). Mark and Luke highlight one (Mark 5:2; 10:46; Luke 8:27). Does any verse say “only one”? No. Then two were there; one was emphasized.
- Angels at the tomb: Luke records two (Luke 24:4), Matthew and Mark focus on one who spoke (Matthew 28:2-5; Mark 16:5). Does any verse say there was not a second? No. Then both are true—two present, one speaking.
- Judas’ death: He hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). His body later fell and burst (Acts 1:18). Do these exclude each other? No. They are two stages of one tragedy.
- Hours of the crucifixion: Mark uses Jewish daytime reckoning (third hour ≈ 9 a.m., Mark 15:25). John uses Roman civil time (sixth hour ≈ about 6 a.m. before the final sentence, John 19:14). Different clocks, same day.
- Genealogies: Matthew gives the royal/legal line through Joseph (Matthew 1). Luke traces the bloodline from Mary going back through David’s son Nathan (Luke 3). Two lines, one fulfillment—Jesus is truly David’s Son.
- Census or numerical variations (e.g., 2 Samuel 24:9; 1 Chronicles 21:5): writers may count different categories (men of war vs. valiant men), round numbers, or report at different points in the process. Where numerals in copies vary, that is in the hand of man, not a flaw in God’s revelation; no doctrine is touched.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Silence is not contradiction. If one account mentions one person and another mentions two, the one is not denying the second; it is focusing.
- Different vantage points tell the same truth. Four witnesses around one event will not repeat every detail with the same wording.
- Time can be reckoned differently (Jewish sunrise day vs. Roman civil day). That explains hour differences without any conflict.
- Inclusive counting and round figures were common in Scripture. “Three days” can mean part of day one, all of day two, part of day three, as the Jews counted.
- God inspired the Word; men copied and translated it. If a digit looks different in a later copy, the Spirit still preserves the doctrine, the story line, and the prophetic harmony. The message stands perfect.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, when you ask the simple questions—Does any verse deny what the other affirms?—the supposed contradictions fall away. The Scripture is one voice. Read it with the Author’s Spirit, compare Scripture with Scripture, and the harmony appears every time.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §89
Went right on revealing it, the way He revealed His Word, but dare any one of us to try to put away Him and marry another. Now, surely it's plain why both theories are wrong. You can't make it run this way; it's gone. You make it run that, it'd run plumb past the promise. Here's the promise. Here's the thing right here. The Word is not contradictory; it has to stay in continuity. Now, no more than Matthew 28:19 contradicts Acts 2:38. Now, some of you women, some of you men, I know you're disagreeing with it because...
Perseverance
62-0218 §83
Now, remember, His Word is a sword. The Bible said so. It's a sword. Hebrews, the 4 ... 4:12, if you want to put that down. Hebrews 4:12, said, He's ... "The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword." Let me stop here just a minute. Listen. "The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the asunder of the bone, and so forth, the marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart." Is that right? Let's stop just a minute, think now, "A discerner of the thoughts of the heart." Does the Sc...
The Seed of Discrepancy
65-0118 §20
In the first beginning, the first book of the Bible, God told them not to break one word of that. Every word must be kept. They must live by that Word. Jesus, in the middle of the Book, come along and said that ... in His age, and said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God." And in the closing age of Revelation, foretold to us, that "Whosoever shall take one word out of the Book, or add one word to it, his part will be taken from the book of life." Therefore there...
Hear ye Him
60-0712 §8
I've been in the ministry thirty-one years, and I've offered any kind of a year's wages for anyone that can show me a Scripture that contradicts the other one that cannot be straightened by the Word of God. That's right. When people tell you the Word contradicts itself, you tell them they don't know what they're speaking of. God's wrote it in riddles and parables so that He could hide it from the eyes of the wise and prudent and reveal it to babes such as would learn. Jesus thanked the Father for doing that. Is tha...
Let us see God
59-1129 §52
...man sixty-five years old ... or, before he even ... or, seventy-five years old, before he received the promise. And he took that Word into his heart and kept it there for twenty-five years. But it produced just exactly what the promise was. Is that right? God is in His Word. We all know that. There's not one speck of the Bible contradicts itself. I've offered anybody anything they want; I will preach the Gospel and take up love offerings for a year, and give it, every bit, to a man that can take the Word of God an...