Below is a brief comparison of how Jesus Christ refuting Scripture Inerrancy.
Scripture
Christ’s Words
Moses & Elders saw God
Exo 24:9-11 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.
No one has seen the Father
Joh 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only He has seen the Father.
Joh 5:37 “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.
Yahweh appeared to Abraham as a man
Gen 18:1-2a Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood near him.
John 8:57-58 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
(Christ’s visit of Abraham was wrongly attributed to His Father)
Yahweh has no form
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
(Moses also confirms Yahweh has no form in Deut 4:12,15-16)
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven
2Kgs 2:11 Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
No one has ascended into heaven
John 3:13 No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
Manna is bread of heaven
Exod 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
Ps 78:24 Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven.
Manna is not the bread from heaven
John 6:32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
As we had seen above, Jesus clearly refutes Scripture Inerrancy.
E.g., Did Abraham know God by name Yahweh?
Gen 22:14 Abraham called the name of that place “Yahweh Will Provide”. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.”
Exod 6:3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.
Both Genesis 22:14 and Exodus 6:3 cannot be true at the same time. Hence, scripture itself refutes Scripture Inerrancy.
The Crisis
It is not my intention to tabulate all errors and contradictions in Scripture but to show the truth behind these contradicts so that we can have a better understand of Torah and Scripture.
2Kgs 22:8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
2Kgs 23:4-5 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
It is important to understand that the kingdom of Judah faced a crisis in its history that even the book of the law itself was completely lost and only one copy was found during the reign of Josiah in 623 BC. As we read, the temple of Yahweh was filled with idols and idolatrous priests. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was no more during the reign of Josiah. The sad part is, this crisis in Judah was even before the exile.
Documentary Hypothesis
Based on the definition on Wikipedia, documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of three models used to explain the origins and composition of the first five books of the Bible, called collectively the Torah. According to the documentary hypothesis, it is made up of four sources (“documents”), each originally a separate and independent book but joined together at various points in time by a series of editors (“redactors”).
Documentary hypothesis (DH) or the JEDP hypothesis, where each letter represents the source (groups of authors) who are identified as the Yahwist (J), the Elohist (E), the Deuteronomist (D), and the Priestly (P).
Here are some of the characteristics of each source.
J source usually refers God as Yahweh, associated with Judah.
E source usually refers God as Elohim. It favours Israel over Judah
P source primarily deals with priestly works
D source is the author of nearly the entire book of Deuteronomy.
R is the redactor who edited in between in the formation of Torah.
As we saw earlier, the remaining kingdom of Judah lost its law and found it only in 623 BC. The Kingdom of Judah itself went into exile in 586 BC for 70 years. Hence, sometime after the exile, the remnant (Redactor) gathered all information they had in scrolls to recreate the long forgotten stories with appropriate additions for missing pieces and clarifications.
Contrary to traditional views, Moses did not author all parts of the 5 books in Torah. He neither wrote about his own death, nor he wrote Genesis 13:7 for him to be in the promised land. However, Moses did write significant parts of Torah. Because of scribes copying independently in each kingdom, different versions of what is significant to them were passed on and preserved. What is really amazing is the extraordinary effort of the Redactor harmonising multiple versions of the same story and bringing all pieces together for us to have a complete picture of what happened in the Torah. This is similar to the multiple New Testament manuscripts all carefully referred to create our New Testament translation. Hence, Documentary hypothesis shows the struggle and effort of Redactor who brought all scroll together and crisis the scrolls themselves faced in the process of the making of what we now call as Torah.
You can download theWord bible module with coloured highlighting showing the different sources from the below download location.
Screenshot for coloured highlighting in Documentary Hypothesis. Jahwist (Navy), Elohist (Teal), Priestly (Gold), Deuteronomist (Black), Redactor (Maroon)
Note: The download is based on World English Bible (WEB). While WEB is in public domain, the name is copyrighted and cannot be redistributed under the same name. Hence, it is named as Research Study Bible (RSB). The Bible also contains Septuagint years in Genesis 5 & 11 in red colour and the wrong years struck out for clarity. No texts of the World Bible Translation was changed.
Jesus acknowledges all sources
Gen 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (P-Source)
Gen 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (J-Source)
Matt 19:4-5 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
Jesus Christ beautifully merged both Priestly Source and Jahwist Source as one single statement.
Exod 3:6 Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. (E-Source)
Luke 20:37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
Jesus refers the passage where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush which is from Elohist Source.
Deut 6:4-5 Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. (D-Source)
Matt 22:37-38 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.
Jesus refers to Shema which is from the Deuteronomist Source.
Conclusion
The kingdom of Judah faced a crisis in its history that even the book of the law itself was completely lost and only one copy was found during the reign of Josiah in 623 BC. Following this crisis and post-exile, the Redactor took extraordinary effort in gathering all information they had in scrolls to recreate the long forgotten stories with appropriate additions for missing pieces and clarifications. This intertwining of multiple versions of the same story by the Redactor usually referred as Documentary Hypothesis sometimes causes confusions on certain details for many but these actually shows the history of how the Torah was made and proves the crisis it went through. While Jesus Christ acknowledged all sources that make up the Torah and Scripture, He also corrected some of the mistakes in it refuting Scripture Inerrancy.
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