What is a contradiction?

A contradiction is when two mutually exclusive statements are said to be true in the same sense and at the same time. For example, "I am exactly 20 years old" and "I am exactly 40 years old" are mutually exclusive statements, and so if they were spoken by the same person on the same day, that would be a contradiction. 

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Are there contradictions in the Bible?

You won't be surprised to hear it on a Christian site, but the answer is absolutely no, there are no contradictions in the Bible. This is because for a contradiction to occur, you must have a mutually exclusive pair/set of statements occurring at the SAME time, and in the SAME sense.

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Above, I gave the example of someone claiming to be exactly 20 and exactly 40. To be exactly 20 and 40 is mutually exclusive, however it should be noted that the time and sense were never specified. Someone can claim to be 20 when they are 20, then at 40 claim they are 40. If those claims were both to end up in a book, there would be no contradiction, simply because the statements did not occur at, or refer to, the same time. Similarly, it is possible to be 20 and 40 in a different sense. I'm not talking about being 4o in dog years or anything like that, but there are other senses. Role play, gaming, acting, and several other things can change the sense in which one claims to be a certain age.

 

When it comes to Scripture, a large amount of so-called contradictions occur when the accuser has misunderstood either the sense, or the timing, of the mutually exclusive statements. This is assuming the statements are even mutually exclusive. A lot of the time, they aren't.

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It needs to be further noted that error is not the same as contradiction. I rather wish this did not have to be stated, but I find that atheists in particular do not understand this concept. Several atheist sites in particular purport to list contradictions in Scripture, but instead cite what they believe to be errors. It's one thing to charge the Bible with error, it's another thing entirely to claim that error is a contradiction. The fact that this does need to be pointed out should tell you a lot about the contradictions argument. 

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General strategy

Though it is theoretically possible to deal with most, if not all, of the alleged contradictions in Scripture, this is typically a fruitless endeavor. This is because after you've spent a significant amount of time reconciling allegedly contradictory verses, the critic will undoubtedly have several more for you to waste yet more time on.

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This is analogous to chopping down a tree by snapping the branches first. It makes far more sense to swing for the trunk. To do this, simply ask for two or three of the critic's "best" examples. By asking for the best examples, you have effectively placed your David before their Goliath. When Goliath falls, the Philistines flee. Why? Because if you can reconcile the most difficult contradictions, why would the other, more trivial examples be more likely to stand up to scrutiny? Once the best examples have been reconciled, you could go on reconciling more, but only the least rational of critics will ask you to. But at that point, you know that they are neither reasonable, nor are they presenting the real reason for their unbelief. Rather, it is merely one of the excuses they will use. and you can be assured they will continue to use it. Sadly, exposing an unbeliever's irrationality doesn't tend to remove, or even reduce it, but it does potentially sow a seed, and if the conversation is observed, the observers will see that you have the more rational argument.