Bible contradictions or user error?

quote:

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In 1999, the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published the results of a conversation between scholars and church leaders of the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention. They emphasized limited inerrancy, and rejected the literal inerrancy of Fundamentalist Protestants. The Secretariat wrote:

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"For Roman Catholics, inerrancy is understood as a consequence of biblical inspiration; it has to do more with the truth of the Bible as a whole than with any theory of verbal inerrancy. Vatican II says that 'the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation" (Dei Verbum 11).

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Ah, inerrancy. For the record, the above definition comes close to what I feel when I hear the word. Of course, as usual, it is so ambiguous a statement that every denomination can feel justified in their own interpretations of 'truth'.What truth did God want put into the writings? That is for the individual to discern. Personally, I don't think your famous example of a contradiction is too interesting, because it is sooooo simplistic that it does not even have the element of evolved mythos or comparative mythos that the creation stories have. It is a simple reversal of two events, IMO, easily done when copying or when taking record of verbal communication.

Well...last year I got all dolled up and went to a Handel oratorio, with drinks to follow, and was full of plans for joining a local choral group in the new year.Ironically, this year I had half of my tongue removed due to a tumor. A friend of the family asked if I would be wearing a prosthesis. I AM getting better every day, and finally mentally and physically just about ready to debate it up. Thanks for thinking of me!

Very few people are true literalists. The majority of Bible readers are looking for explanation via symbol, metaphor, historical understanding, cultural understanding, etc. Can you tell me that an allegorical depiction of a truth is less true than a literal one? As far as image, yes. The message will be just as true. If there is a message in the Bible, it is that which is to be believed as literal truth, and inerrant.