CONTRADICTION · NUMERICAL
Years of famine threatened to David?
2 Samuel 24:13 ⟷ 1 Chronicles 21:12
So Gad went to David and said to him, Shall there come upon you seven years of famine in your land?
...take your choice: three years of famine
The contradiction matters because it involves a direct divine warning. If God’s pronouncement of famine is recorded differently, it questions whether the original revelation was preserved. Such inconsistencies raise doubts about the Bible’s reliability and support arguments that it has been altered, rather than faithfully transmitted as a divine truth.
THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
Christian apologists often attribute such differences to scribal errors or slight variations in textual transmission. They maintain that these numeric inconsistencies don’t negate the overall message: divine discipline was imminent. They see the difference as a minor detail overshadowed by the larger theological narrative.
THE ISLAMIC POSITION
Muslims argue that if a text is truly divine, it should not contain contradictory specifics, especially about God’s direct message. The difference between three and seven years points to human error. The Quran’s meticulous preservation avoids such dilemmas. This discrepancy challenges the claim that the Bible remains an unaltered, inerrant document.
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Years of famine threatened to David?