Posts Tagged King David

Q. Does the Bible say that human life doesn’t begin until a baby draws its first breath, as Kermit Gosnell and others have asserted?

A. No. The Bible describes humans as living beings in the womb.

“If breath is the biblical measure for life, then anyone on a ventilator is biblically dead,” Dan Arsenault, creator of the television show Church for Skeptics, remarks to Live Action News. He continues:

Presumably the life that God breathed into Adam is not the same as Adam breathing it back, nor is there any indication that God breathes equally on every person born. Life in the womb does not require breathing. Life outside the womb does. Since when is the function of lungs the measure of life? Why not a functioning heart, or kidneys? I’m guessing that neither of those were functioning in Adam before God put life into the clay He had molded, either.

Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (NASB). The Hebrew word used for “breathed” is נָפַח naphach, which in Strong’s Concordance means:

a prim. root; to puff, in various applications (lit., to inflate, blow hard, scatter, kindle, expire; fig., to disesteem): – blow, breath, give up, cause to lose [life], seething, snuff.

Furthermore, the word translated as “breath” in that passage is נְשָׁמָה neshamah, among the definitions of which is “divine inspiration, intellect, soul, spirit.”

These obviously indicate that something different from natural inhaling was happening. Yahweh expired some of His very own divine nature into the first human being, and that nature has been imparted to all of Adam’s descendants in our DNA. In Psalm 139, David famously describes personhood in the womb.

Some have mistaken Exodus 21:22 for not equivocating abortion with murder. A closer look at the original wording, however, indicates that the topic in that part of the law is premature birth, not miscarriage.

And when men fight, and they strike a pregnant woman, and her child goes forth, and there is no injury, surely he shall be fined. As much as the husband of the woman shall put on him, even he shall give through the judges. But if injury occurs, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, branding for branding, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exodus 21:22-25, literal translation)

The keyword there is יָצָא yatsa, “to bring or go out.”

But if there is any remaining doubt concerning where Scripture stands on the personhood and beginning of human life, the first chapter of Luke removes it. Elizabeth, six months pregnant with John the Baptist, felt him leap within her womb in response to the voice of Mary, who had just conceived Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Note: This article is an expansion upon an article Amanda Read wrote for Live Action News on September 29th, 2015, titled, “Gosnell believes the Bible excuses his infanticide.”

Q. How many valiant men drew the sword for Israel as counted by Joab?
A. Joab concluded that 1,100,000 men of Israel drew the sword – 800,000 of which were “valiant”.

If we go by the verses cited as contradictory, that seems to be the obvious answer.

“And Joab gave the number of the registration of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.” (2 Samuel 24:9)

“Joab gave the number of the census of all the people to David. And all Israel were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword; and Judah was 470,000 men who drew the sword.” (1 Chronicles 21:5)

The record of the men of Judah was simply rounded to the nearest hundred thousands’ place by the author of 2 Samuel, but recorded more precisely by the chronicler of 1 Chronicles.

Sounds too simple to be an explanation for a supposed Bible contradiction, doesn’t it? Well, maybe that leaves us some time to study Occam’s Razor…

Q. How many Aramean soldiers did David kill?
A. Apparently 40,000 foot soldiers and 7,000 charioteers in 700 units of 10.

The passages cited as containing a contradiction are the following:

“But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 700 charioteers of the Arameans and 40,000 horsemen and struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there.” (NASB)
– 2 Samuel 10:18

“The Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed of the Arameans 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers, and put to death Shophach the commander of the army.” (NASB)
– 1 Chronicles 19:18

Some scholars attempt to dismiss the difference in the numbers as a “copyist error”. However, that seems unnecessarily shallow. The books of Samuel and Chronicles contain details from the battlefield that the different scribes found significant to the record or the record’s audience of that moment. Different audiences have different degrees of understanding and communication lingo. It could be that a “charioteer” in the 2 Samuel verse refers to a group of charioteers, just as “troop” sometimes refers to a group of troops. The books of Chronicles tend to be more specific with genealogies, numbers, etc. than the narrative books of Samuel.

Perhaps the writer of Chronicles saw a need to count the Aramean charioteers individually in his record. {Hint: scrolling over the hyperlinked verses reveals that the translators of the King James Version (William Tyndale and his intellectual successors) noticed that the numbers did refer to different aspects of the Syrian militia – 2 Samuel refers to the men of 700 chariots, while 1 Chronicles refers to 7,000 men who fought in chariots. We don’t know for certain what type of chariots they were or how many men each chariot could hold, or if every man skilled in chariot fighting was necessarily in a chariot at the time he was killed.}

But in quarreling over the minute details, the obviously non-contradictory point is conveniently missed: Israel kicked some Aramean butt.

The debate over the numerical value of the Aramean charioteers illustrates an interesting trend amongst Bible critics. Usually the apparent contradictions they point out are found within the minuscule details. This manner of critiquing overlooks the reason why the Bible has proved so compelling throughout history. The Bible lays claim to uniqueness because of the unity of its overall message, which exists despite being written down in the midst of different cultural atmospheres and generational changes that took place over at least a millennium.

This is why it passes the internal test of historical science.

Q. How much did David pay for the threshing floor?
A. Some fraction of 50 shekels of silver.

The verses cited as contradictory are the following:

“However, the king said to Araunah, ‘No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” (NASB)
– 2 Samuel 24:24

“So David gave Ornan [another name of Araunah] 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.” (NASB)
– 1 Chronicles 21:25

King David purchased the entire property for 600 shekels of gold. He then included 50 shekels of silver in the payment in order to buy the oxen and the threshing floor. Assuming that the threshing floor (or threshing sledges) was worth more than the oxen, probably a greater portion of the 50 shekels was expended on the threshing floor. However, we can’t be certain how many yokes of oxen were included in the package, so figuring out exactly which fraction of the 50 shekels covered the oxen and which covered the threshing floor is virtually impossible.