Question:  Hello,

            I am an atheist who was once a Protestant Christian.  I adopted atheism because I find the Bible contradictory and full of vague passages that could be interpreted to mean anything.  I have many questions that no one I have ever asked has been able to sensibly explain.  For example, the death of Judas (a very important Bible character) is unclear.  In Matthew 27:5 he dies by hanging (i.e. suicide); Matthew 27:5—throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed and he went and hanged himself.

            Now in Acts 1:18 he dies by falling down in a field and disemboweling himself:

Acts 1:18—“Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.”

            How can this contradiction be resolved?  Judas could have only died once, so at least one of these passages is false.  Thus there is a false statement in the Bible.  I was led to believe that everything in the Bible is perfect and true.  This isn’t the only false/contradictory statement that I have come across in the Bible.  What I would really like to know is if you can explain these contradictions without using Santa Claus/Tooth Fairy/beat-around-the-bush arguments.

            I would greatly appreciate a response from you.

            Stephen

Answer:  Dear Stephen,

            The fact that you were once a Protestant Christian who has now become an atheist is of course a statement of fact.  You state that your experience was that the Bible was filled with vague and contradictory passages that no one you ever asked could explain.  Before answering your question, what can we logically discern from your reality and experience?

            We can counter that there are Protestant Christians who were once atheists.  That is also a statement of fact.  One well-known individual is C.S. Lewis.  One of his most cogent and well reasoned books about his faith as a Christian is titled “Mere Christianity.”  We will send you a free copy is you live in the United States or Canada.

            It is also a fact that there are individuals within Christianity who provide a less than satisfactory example of Christianity (in some ways all Christians do—we are Christians because God is perfect, and we thank him for his mercy).  Poor examples of Christian faith do not speak for the whole, but only for individual examples.  I am sorry you were unable to find an answer for your dilemma.  The answer is simple.

            You cite Matthew 27:5 (Judas hanged himself), Acts 1:18 (Judas fell down into a field and his bowels gushed out).  You state, “Judas could only have died once so at least one of the passages is false.  I was led to believe that everything in the Bible is perfect and true.”

            Matthew says that Judas hanged himself and Acts says that he fell and his body burst open.  You assume this is a contradiction, as you assume the truth must be either.  But the truth is both/and, not either/or.

            Judas hanged himself, his bloated corpse then fell, burst upon impact, and his intestines gushed out.  This is exactly what a criminal investigator would expect from someone who hanged himself on a tree overlooking a cliff, with sharp, jagged rocks below.

            You cite Matthew 27:5 and then say that Judas could not have purchased a field with blood money he threw down at the priest’s feet.  But if you continue to read in Matthew 27, you will read verse 7, telling you that the priests used Judas’ money to buy the potter’s field.  Judas’ betrayal/blood money was used to buy the field, thus it was Judas’ field, not the priests’.  By law the money was “earned” by Judas, thus the field had to be his.

            Elementary literary analysis yields the answer.  There is no “Santa Claus/tooth fairy beat around the bush” argument needed.  We learn to consider the context as we read textbooks, novels, contracts, newspapers, etc.—the Bible is understood the same way.  Any literary work can be made to look silly and contradictory if a portion is removed from the context.  The “contradiction” you note is a human failure to read the Bible within its intended context.  A student critiquing a literary work who fails to read the material within its intended context would not receive a passing grade, for there are objective rules to understanding literature.

            Unfortunately you seem to have had an inadequate experience with Christianity, perhaps with misrepresentation from those who represented God.  Perhaps the same might occasionally happen with atheists?  We humans would be wise to avoid judging God on the basis of our failure to read the Bible within its intended context.  God is God—we are not.

            Atheists and agnostics who were once Christians, regardless of how flawed an experience they may have had with Christendom, must also realize the attractiveness of a philosophy that offers escape.  If we humans can “prove” that the Bible is flawed (to our subjective satisfaction of course, for the Bible is not flawed), then we can reason that the divine author is flawed, and we have our justification not to be accountable to him. 

            Thanks for allowing us to serve you.  Let me know if you would like a copy of “Mere Christianity.”

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht