Q&A: Contradictions in the Torah
Contradictions in the Torah
Question
I am a Haredi yeshiva student studying electrical engineering at Ariel University. Recently I got into an argument with a secular atheist who claimed that there are contradictions in the Written Torah; what he said referred to the Torah itself, not to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) as a whole. Some of the contradictions are well known, such as the hare, which the Torah says chews the cud, and likewise the hyrax. I do not have a satisfactory answer to that, and I would be glad to hear your response.
But other contradictions were also raised: in Genesis chapter 1, man is created after the animals, while in chapter 2 before the animals. In chapter 1, Adam and Eve were created together, and in chapter 2 the woman comes after the man. In chapter 1 the plants are before man, and in chapter 2 after man.
Another contradiction: if Adam and Eve were the first people, and they had Cain and Abel, how were all the other human beings created?
So I went to look at the verses themselves and thought of a somewhat radical interpretation which, in my view, follows from the verses: “And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
In my view, it says explicitly that “the man” was created, and other people were also created, male and female, and they multiplied and filled the earth. That answers the second contradiction and the last one. “The man” He made in the Garden of Eden, and the rest of the people He made in the world itself. And that explains the matter of the animals too: perhaps animals were created in the Garden of Eden, and animals were also created in the world itself, as the verses themselves say: “And the Lord God formed from the ground every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them” — meaning that additional animals were created in the Garden of Eden. In other words, there are two separate stories in the creation narrative: one takes place in the Garden of Eden and the other in the world itself.
Is that interpretation reasonable?
Answer
Hello,
The question of how the rest of humanity came into being is not a contradiction, but simply something that is not explicit in the Bible. Rashi writes that the other people were created separately (“and the sons of God came to the daughters of man…” ). As for the hare, that too is not a contradiction but a statement that appears incorrect. Search online and you will find quite a few answers to this (any Google search will bring it up; even Seridei Esh dealt with it).
As for contradictions, there are many contradictions in the Torah, and the question whether to accept reconciliations for them — as with reconciliations for the earlier difficulties I mentioned — depends on your empathy for the text. If you trust its reliability, that it is from Sinai, then you will find reasonable answers. If you do not trust it, you will not accept those reconciliations. After all, regarding the Hebrew slave who has his ear pierced, in Parashat Mishpatim it says that he serves forever, while in Parashat Behar it says until the Jubilee. And there are countless contradictions like that. The accepted assumption is that these are two different aspects that the Torah describes separately. I recommend Hanska’s article in the journal HaMaayan, 5737 (I am attaching here in the files what I have. It is a series of three articles: link to the first, link to the second, link to the third). Your explanation seems possible to me, like many others. But there is no doubt that your friend will not accept it, because his starting point is different, and the same applies here.
I do not really deal much with these contradictions, so although I can give you my opinion, it is better to consult people who work on the Bible: Rabbi Elhanan Samet, Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun, Rabbi Medan, Rabbi Amnon Bazak, and others.