Wrested Scriptures

Alleged Contradictions and Inaccuracies

Inspiration
Partial
Contradictions
& Inaccuracies

  Preliminary
  Exodus 6:3
  Exodus 33:11,20
  1 Samuel 15:35
  1 Kings 15:14
  2 Kings 18:5
  2 Kings 24:6
  Matthew 2:1
  Matthew 17:1
  Matthew 19:16
  Matthew 20:29
  Matthew 27:6,7
  Matthew 27:37
  Matthew 28:7
  Mark 2:26
  Mark 16:7,8
  John 2:13-16
  James 1:13

Science
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Carbon Dating

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Soul
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"Saved"
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Resurrection
Antichrist

Unique
Catholic
Mormon
SDA
JW
British Israel
Church
of Christ
Pentecostal
Islam

Matthew 27:6,7
"And the chief priests took the silver pieces, . . . and they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in."

Acts 1:18
"Now this man {Judas} purchased a field with the reward of iniquity . . . "

Problem:
If the Bible is a divinely inspired record, why does Matthew state that the chief priests bought the field, whereas in the Acts account, Judas is said to have purchased the field?

Solution:
  1. Two different purchases are involved. The word for "field" in Matthew's account is "argros",1 which is the usual word for field in the New Testament. The chief priests purchased this field with the 30 pieces of silver. Judas purchased a different field a "little space of place", (Greek: chorion).2 The money for this purchase need not have come from the 30 pieces of silver, but from money Judas had stolen from the bag. (John 12:6). The account merely states that the field was purchased "with the reward of iniquity" without specifying where the money came from.

  2. "This man purchased a field" might be elliptical for the more lengthy explanation that the money Judas had obtained from the betrayal of the Master was used to purchase a field, although the actual transaction was effected by the chief priests. In everyday speech ellipses of this kind are used. The emphasis in Acts lies in the fact that the field purchased by Judas' money was obtained by the reward of iniquity.

Footnotes:
  1. Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible, (London: Lutterworth Press, 1965). Return

  2. Ibid. Return