CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE?: Resources for Study

Many people believe that there are so many contradictions in the Bible that it simply cannot be trusted. Having examined these for myself over the past 35 years, I have found that most of these are quite easily answered and the others have solid answers if you are willing to look for them. Here are my recommendations for resources for finding the answers to those seeming contradictions in the Bible.....

Click on the title links to find the great resources listed below 
(and then check out my growing MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES)....

INTRODUCTORY
Videos
*Wretched. "No, the Bible Doesn't Have Mistakes." (4 minutes)
*The One Minute Apologist. "How Should We Handle Apparent Bible Contradictions?" (3 1/2 minutes)
*Inspiring Philosophy. "Alleged Bible Errors Refuted" (A series of 4 videos: 3-6 minutes each)
*Inspiring Philosophy. "Bible Contradictions Refuted" (A series of 10 more videos: 2-6 minutes each)

INTERMEDIATE
Videos
*"Answering Bible Contradictions" (66 minutes) by Lenny Esposito

Books
*Watson, Richard. An Apology for The Bible. (1880) FREE! at title link. "An Apology for the Bible is Bishop Watson’s answer to Thomas Paine’s book The Age of Reason, Part II, which is a sort of catalogue of standard gripes about both the Old and the New Testaments. Watson's Apology is surprisingly timely, as many of these objections are still circulating today on the internet. In a series of ten letters, Watson answers Paine’s criticisms virtually point by point. His answers are generally quite successful; he has little difficulty demonstrating that many of these criticisms arise from ignorance or demonstrably unfair interpretations of the text of Scripture." - Dr. Timothy McGrew
*Haley, John W. An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible. (1875) FREE! at title link. "Haley has done a great deal of research and presents some valuable references and information from earlier works. The organization of the book is simply awful, but good indices allow the reader to find material by chapter and verse or by topic." - Dr. Timothy McGrew
*Torrey, R.A. (1856-1928). Difficulties in the Bible: Alleged Errors and Contradictions. FREE! here.
*Whately, Richard. Essays on Some of the Difficulties in the Writings of the Apostle Paul and Other Parts of the New Testament. (1865) FREE! here. And here (second series).
*Winnington-Ingram, Arthur Foley. New Testament Difficulties. (1903) FREE! here.
*Spalding, Thomas. Scripture Difficulties Explained by Scripture References. (1877) FREE! here.
*Kaiser, Walter and others. Hard Sayings of the Bible. 
*Archer, Gleason. Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. 
*Geisler, Norm. The Big Book of Bible Difficulties.
*McDowell, Josh and Sean McDowell. The Bible Handbook of Difficult Verses.

*Thiele, Edwin R. The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. A summarized version of this book: A Chronology of the Hebrew Kings.

ONLINE RESOURCES
*Apologetics Press has an extensive list of articles organized by book of the Bible.
*"Bible Difficulties and Suggested Solutions" is a Facebook discussion group with nearly 1400 members (including some expert apologists). The group also hosts documents with answers to dozens of questions about Bible difficulties.


STILL LOOKING?....
there is AN EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY here and ANOTHER ONE here.



INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE
One of the main sources of seeming contradictions is simply faulty interpretation (taking things out of context, etc.). Here are some solid resources for getting better at interpretation.

Books
*Exegetical Fallacies: Common Mistakes Every Student of the Bible Must Avoid by William D. Barrick (an 11 page ebook) FREE!
*Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart. How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth.
*Schultz, Richard. Out of Context: How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible. Currently only 99 cents on Kindle.
*Sire, James W. Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible.
*Carson, D.A. Exegetical Fallacies.
*Virkler, Henry A. and Karelynne Ayayo. Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation.
*Unlocking the Scriptures by Hans Finzel. Currently only 99 cents on Kindle.
*The Bible In Its Context: How to Improve Your Study of the Scriptures by Dr. Craig Keener. An 82-page Word document that is FREE!


Online Courses
*Stein, Robert. "Biblical Hermeneutics." (18 hours) FREE!
*Understanding and Choosing Bible Translations: A FREE course covering how we got our English Bible, what the major translations are, two different approaches to Bible translation, why literal translations aren’t always more accurate, how we can be certain the Bible we possess is really God’s Word, four guidelines for choosing Bible translation.


STILL LOOKING?....
Check out this extensive bibliography by William Harness.