One of The Biggest Contradictions In The Bible With Bart Ehrman

Now, that's something that I did want to

speak to you about, because in in our

previous podcast, we we spent about 6

minutes talking about the birth

narratives, and it's good to go into

more detail here. And one of the things

you said that that's, you know, people

have responded to, and I've seen people

on YouTube commenting on this, is is

specifically about this point. Now, now,

we should be clear for our listeners

what we're what we're talking about

here.

We've sort of got two chronologies, like

you say,

surrounding the birth of Jesus, and

specifically specifically to do with the

flight to Egypt. You think that there's

a contradiction here. So, maybe you can

lay out what the two stories are and why

it is that they contradict each other.

And I I and perhaps I can put to you

some of the criticisms that I've heard

of the position since then.

>> point out, this isn't like my idea.

>> [laughter]

>> This has been around forever. Because if

you just read the two accounts, you've

got a problem. Um in Matthew's account,

um

the uh

in Matthew's account, King Herod finds

out that the child has been born in

Bethlehem from the wise men.

And he finds out, uh you know, how and

he find he finds out. And so, he sends

out the troops to kill the children in

Bethlehem, but Joseph is warned in a

dream that this is going to happen. And

so, he's told to take the child and his

mother and go to Egypt. So, if they go

to Egypt, it's about 100 miles or so, I

suppose, or over 100 miles uh when they

go to Egypt. So, they go down to Egypt.

Um and uh the normal route would be on

foot, which would take a week or so. And

they go down there, and they stay there

until Herod dies.

Whenever that is. Then when Herod dies,

they learn then word comes down that

Herod has died. And uh then they they

return, but they they learn that they

can't return to Judea,

which is where Bethlehem is, because

Archelaus is now the king, and he's

worse than his father Herod was. So,

they have to relocate to Nazareth.

Okay? So, that's So, that's the sequence

of things. And so, there's a there's a

lot of time going on between trips to

Egypt, staying there, Herod dying, work

coming there and then coming back and

all that. Luke Luke also gives a pretty

specific chronology,

even more specific. In Luke's account,

uh Mary gives birth uh in Bethlehem.

They're there temporarily because

they're actually originally from

Nazareth, according to Luke.

They've made a trip down to register for

a census because

um Joseph is from the lineage of King

David, who was born in Bethlehem. So,

they have to register for the census in

Bethlehem. While they're there, she uh

she goes into labor, she gives birth.

Eight days later, they have Jesus

circumcised.

33 days later,

they fulfill the requirement of

Leviticus chapter 12 for her to perform

a little sacrifice in the temple for her

purification, and then they return to

Nazareth.

So, in Luke's account, they return to

Nazareth for They're in Jerusalem for 40

days, and then they return to Nazareth

after 40 days.

In Matthew's account, they go down to

Egypt.

And for months, years, I don't know how

long, but, you know, months at least.

And so So,

um this is this has been widely, you

know, this is again, this isn't just

kind of a crazy criticism. This is like

this is a widely held view among

historical critics that this just

doesn't work. And the reason it doesn't

work is because Matthew wants Jesus to

fulfill the scripture about about Egypt.

And so, he's got to get him down to

Egypt.

>> Yeah, now I asked you about this before.

I said, "Well, what what does a

Christian What's the answer to this?" I

mean, how how do people respond to this?

And you said, "I don't know. You just

have to make something up."

>> Yeah.

>> Now, it seems to me that the the most

common criticism of of this view that

that you're espousing here is that yes,

we we've got uh in

in Luke's narrative, eight days after

Jesus's birth, he's circumcised. And

then when the time came for the

purification rights,

uh

Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem,

which Okay, 33 days

>> Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

>> 33 days. I mean, some people might want

to say

well, it doesn't specify the time, but

we know we know how long it was supposed

to be. I mean, maybe there's

in the New Testament, I mean, it says

when the time has come and if you look

at the look at the

um

look at the amount of time that you're

supposed to wait, it's it is specified,

right? So, we know it's 33 days, in

other words.

>> Yes.

>> Now, some people might want to say that

the language here when the time when the

time came for purification rights by the

by the law of Moses. I mean, I don't

know if there were some kind of

circumstances that prevented somebody

from from getting to the temple, would

there perhaps be some kind of exception

made such that they could say, "Look,

the time has come

uh means once all this business in Egypt

is over."

>> But, in Luke, they don't return to

Jerusalem.

I mean, from when when they I mean,

Matthew, when they come back from Egypt,

they precisely it it's it says precisely

they don't come back to Judea.

>> Sure.

>> That's where Jerusalem is.

>> That can't be right. Which means that if

there is going to be some kind of flight

to Egypt, it's going to be after the

purification rights. So, it's going to

be eight days after

eight days after Jesus is born,

uh circumcised, 33 days after taken to

the temple, purification rights, and

then you say that in Luke, after this

happens,

it says that they go

uh to Jerusalem.

>> No. No. After it happens, they go

>> They they go they go to they go to

Nazareth.

And

why is it that it can't be

that the flight to Egypt happens in

between these?

That is

>> At what point

>> it seems strange that it doesn't it

doesn't get mentioned, but how why why

couldn't it be the case that Jesus

undergoes the purification rights,

then the flight to Egypt happens,

then the move to Nazareth?

>> You mean, so that when

when it says

uh so after they performed the

purification rites, then they returned

to Nazareth. What it really means is

after they performed the purification

rites, they went on to Egypt for some

months and then returned to Nazareth.

>> Yeah, that that is exactly what I mean.

>> Okay.

But if [laughter] you want you can

reconcile anything. I mean, yeah. So

like if you want to say it doesn't mean

what it says, that's fine. It What it

really means is they went to Egypt.

>> [laughter]

>> So So some people some people who said