In this post, I am not arguing against the Bible, but for it. If we believe the Bible is inspired by God himself, we should receive its words as they are rather than as we wish they were. When you deny the contradictions and errors in the Bible, you are not defending it but changing the message God sent to us.

I have been reading through the Gospels, and once again the contradictions between the birth stories in Matthew and Luke stand out. Matthew has Joseph and Mary living in Bethlehem. When the wise men arrive, they go to Joseph’s house, not to a manger. When they leave without visiting Herod, Herod has all the children under 2 years old in Bethlehem put to death. Joseph and Mary avoid this by going to Egypt. When Herod dies, they return to Israel, but when they find out Herod’s son is reigning, they go to Nazareth. This prompts Matthew to say that this trip to Nazareth fulfills a prophecy, one which is unknown to us, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

Luke, on the other hand, has Joseph and Mary living in Nazareth when she become pregnant. They only go to Bethlehem because of a census. The census is another historical item that is unknown to us. The census Luke describes happened in A.D. 16, some 20 years after Jesus was born. After he is born, they wait the requisite 33 days to offer their sacrifices, and then they go back to Nazareth.

There is no reconciling these two stories despite all the efforts to do so. Christian historians have looked under every rock to find historical evidence that there was a census ordered by Quirinius during Herod’s reign. They’ve found nothing more than speculation.

Most pastors and teachers will never bring up these facts to you, but I love and honor and believe the Bible more than they do. I will not change it, not even to be delicate with your faith. I want to believe, and I want you to believe, the Bible as God gave it to us. If you do, here is what you can learn.

The Bible is not for carnal minds. God was not and is not trying too get hardened, lost souls to be so impressed by the scientific and historical accuracy of the Bible that they have to believe. The Bible is for spiritual minds. It is infused with spiritual truths that rush into the heart of his own and burst forth in revelation and power. That power drives away sin and produces obedience. The Bible was written so that we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work,” not so that we can get a theology degree.

In the early third century, Origen was widely regarded as the greatest Christian teacher of his time. He had this to say about “impossibilities and incongruities” in the Bible:

But if in all instances of this covering the logical connection and order of the Law had been preserved, we would certainly not believe … that anything else was contained in it except what was indicated on the surface. So for that reason, Divine Wisdom took care that certain stumbling blocks—interruptions—to the historical meaning would take place. He did this by introducing into the middle [of the narratives] certain impossibilities and incongruities. (De Principiis, Bk. IV, ch. 1, par. 14)

Origen’s argument is that God does not want to reveal the deep mysteries of his word to lazy Christians, but only to those hungry to learn. Thus, he introduces a historical narrative impossibilities and contradictions in the text to indicate to the spiritual and diligent that we need to dig deeper and find the the spiritual mysteries God wants us to know.

The reality we must face is that as hard as Christians and their pastors, theologians, and scholars have tried, there is no sensible way to reconcile the birth stories in Matthew and Luke. Origen (and I) would argue that this is not a mistake that you need to help God correct. You should accept the Bible for what it is, not what you wish it were. God has something deeper or more to tell us than where Joseph and Mary lived before he was born.

I would suggest that he wants us to understand the fullness of what Joseph and Mary went through. I think he wanted us to focus on the fact that Jesus is the Savior of the wise and ignorant alike. The wise may seek him by signs, by research, by insight. The poor and ignorant, on the other hand, get a majestic revelation from heavenly messengers glowing with unearthly light.

Jesus focused on the poor, declaring that revealed his praise through babies and nursing children. He confounded the wise, and Paul announced that God uses the foolish of the world to confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27). The rich and wise can seem to be left out, and in the Epistle of James can even seem to be condemned. Matthew’s birth story, though, gives hope that if the wise are diligent, and if they can divest themselves of their riches for the Christ, then they too can be saved (cf. Matt. 19:23-26).

There is probably much more to be discovered beneath the contradicting birth stories of Matthew and Luke but, unfortunately, I have little help in finding it because my brothers and sisters are wasting their time trying to rectify historical details that God has no regard for.

We must not be so faithless as to think that we must hide or be deceitful in order to defend God or the Scriptures. We do not.