Many apparent contradictions can be explained simply by reading the context. Some are copyists errors and many others can be explained if only we knew how to read the original languages. It helps often to use more than one translation because Hebrew and Greek have their peculiarities that make them difficult to render in English or other languages.
"The peculiarities of the Oriental idiom are another prolife source of discrepancies. The people of the East are fervid and impassioned in their modes of thought and expression. They think and speak in poetry. Bold metaphors and startling hyperboles abound in their writings and conversation. The shepherd," says Eichhorn, "only speaks in the soul of the shepherd, and the primitive Oriental only speaks in the soul of another Oriental. Without an intimate acquaintance with the customs of pastoral life, without an accurate knowledge of the East and it's manners, without a close intimacy with the manner of thinking and speaking in the uncivilized world,.....you easily become a traitor to the book, when you would be it's deliverer and interpreter."
 Professor Stuart: "I do not, and would not, summon them [the books of scripture] before the tribunal of Occidental criticism. Asia is one world; Europe and America, another. Let an Asiatic be tried before his own tribunal. To pass just sentence upon him, we must enter into his feelings, views, methods of reasoning and thinking, and place ourselves in the midst of the circumstances which surrounded him."
 Lowth, on Metaphors: "The Orientals are attached to this style of composition; and many flights which our ears-too fastidious, perhaps, in these respects-will scarcely bear, must be allowed to the general freedom and boldness of these writers."
 Again, he speaks of the difficulties which arise in reading authors "where everything is depicted and illustrated with the greatest variety and abundance of imagery; they must be still more numerous in such of the poets as are foreign and ancient-in the Orientals above all foreigners; they being the farthest removed from our customs and manners, and, of all the Orientals, more especially in the Hebrews." pp. 14, 15, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible by John W. Haley

Lets take a look at some examples that have floated around the internet via email.

David took seven hundred (2 Sam. 8:4), seven thousand
(1 Chron. 18:4) horsemen from Hadadezer;

Answer: It is a fact there are about 20 numerical discrepancies between the Samuels,
the Kings and the Chronicles. Why? It seems to be a problem with numbers.
The sopherim, instead of writing out the numbers completely, would just
write a letter, like ALEPH and include dots over it. An ALEPH with 2 dots
indicated 1000. But over time, the manuscript became worn, brittle or moth-eaten, so the dots were hard to distinguish. Other ways  were tried, like the Egyptian heriatic style, but that produced smudging.This was a problem also with the way decades were marked.  The original text had the right numbers, it was the copyists and their limited resources that are to blame.(Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties- Archer)

If Jesus bears witness of himself his witness is true
(John 8:14), is not true (John 5:31);

Answer: In John 5, his witness would not be true if he was without the Father.
In John 8 his witness is true because he acknowledges whence he came
from(which is the Father in heaven of course).

Saul's daughter, Michal, had no sons (2 Sam. 6:23), had 5 sons
(2 Sam. 21:6) during her lifetime;

Answer: Merab, the sister of Michal, was the wife of Adriel and bore him the
five sons mentioned. But Merab dying early, her royal sister Michal, having
been rejected by David, brought up the five boys. Because
of this they were spoken of as the children of Michal rather than of Merab.
In agreement with this the Isaac Leeser translation (7th Ed., 1922, Bloch
Publishing Co.) reads a 2 Samuel 21:8: “And the five sons of Michal the
daughter of Saul, whom she had brought up for Adriel.” A footnote reads:
“As Michal was David’s wife; but the children were those of Merab, the
oldest daughter of Saul, who were probably educated by her sister.”

Lot was Abraham's nephew (Gen. 14:12), brother (Gen. 14:14);

Answer: Both are true. Lot was Abrams' "spiritual brother". "for we are brethren" Genesis 13:8 Abram says of Lot(NKJV)

Joseph was sold into Egypt by Midianites (Gen. 37:36), by
Ishmaelites (Gen.39:1);

Answer: Midianites are Ishmaelites, both are mention frequently in context to
each other in Genesis 37.

Saul was killed by his own hands (1 Sam. 31:4), by a young
Amalekite (2 Sam.1:10), by the Philistines (2 Sam. 21:12);

Answer: Saul killed himself while in battle with the philistines, so it is a
direct result of the Philistines that he died. The Amalekite bragged that he
killed Saul to garner favors for himself.

The earth does (Eccle. 1:4), does not (2 Peter 3:10) abideth
forever;

Answer: 2 different uses of earth in 2 different languages with 2 different
contexts. Peter also says the heavens will pass away, so this scripture
is figurative, the former scripture deals with a literal earth.

Josiah died at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29-30), at Jerusalem
(2 Chron. 35:24);

Answer: After Josiah was fatally wounded in Megiddo, “his servants took him
down from the chariot and had him ride in the second war chariot that was his
and brought him to Jerusalem. Thus he died and was buried in the graveyard
of his forefathers; and all Judah and Jerusalem were mourning over Josiah.”
(2 Chron. 35:22-24)There is a timeline and distance here of about 60
miles.  It is all a matter of perspective.

Jesus led Peter, James, and John up a high mountain after
six (Matt. 17:1, Mark 9:2), eight (Luke 9:28) days;

Answer: Apparently Matthew and Mark did not count the first and last days;
rather, they counted six whole days as intervening between the promise of the
Lord Jesus to his apostles and the transfiguration itself. (Matt. 17:1; Mark
9:2) Luke, we should note, does not profess to give the exact interval. He
reports that the transfiguration occurred “about eight days after these
words.” (Luke 9:28) Since Luke counts portions of the first and last
days as whole days, he prefers to give the period in round numbers—“about eight
days.” Thus Luke reported the number of days from a different viewpoint,
and there is really no contradiction.

Nebuzaradan came unto Jerusalem on the seventh (2 Kings 25:8),
tenth (Jer.52:12) day of the fifth month.

Answer: The Soncino Books of the Bible (Volume of Jeremiah, p. 353) states:
“The interval of three days may be accounted for as representing the date of
Nebuzaradan’s arrival on the scene and the commencement of operations.”
It would appear that Nebuzaradan arrived at Jerusalem on the seventh day
and made his survey from his camp outside the city walls. Finally on the
tenth day he actually entered the city.

Should we kill?

    Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill."
    Leviticus 24:17 "And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death."

    vs.

    Exodus 32:27 "Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, . . .
    and slay every man his brother, . . . companion, . . . neighbor."
    I Samuel 6:19 " . . . and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the
    people with a great slaughter."
    I Samuel 15:2,3,7,8 "Thus saith the Lord . . . Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy
    all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox
    and sheep, camel and ass. . . . And Saul smote the Amalekites . . . and utterly destroyed all
    the people with the edge of the sword."
    Numbers 15:36 "And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him
    with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses."
    Hosea 13:16 "they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their
    women with children shall be ripped up."

Answer: The word "kill" is mistranslated here. It should be (ratsahh) Murder. The fact is that the Bible never uses the term ratsahh (murder) regarding any of those wars. When the Israelites warred at God's command, they weren't acting illegally. They were authorized by and were being directed by the Supreme giver of Laws. (Isa. 33:22; Ps. 19:7)

Should we tell lies?

    Exodus 20:16 "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
    Proverbs 12:22 "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord."

    vs.

    I Kings 22:23 "The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the
    Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee."
    II Thessalonians 2:11 "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
    should believe a lie."

    Also, compare Joshua 2:4-6 with James 2:25.

Answer:  "God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false." Are we to understand, then, that God originates the strong delusion to make them believe falsehood? No; he is not the source of any lie. Referring to his prophecy and his covenant, his Word says: "God is not a man that he should lie, neither a son of man that he should feel sorry. Hath he said it and will he not do it, and has he spoken and will he not carry it out?" "The Eminence of Israel will not deceive." (Num. 23:19 and 1 Sam. 15:29, NWT, ASV) So Jehovah is not the source of the "strong delusion" or "operation of error."
 How, then, does he "send" it upon them? In that he does not prevent it but permits it to go to them, just as he did in the case of King Ahab. In the Scriptures the Hebrew verb meaning "send" is many times translated "let go," as when Jehovah said to Pharaoh: "Send my people away" (NWT; Young); or, "Let my people go." (KJV; ASV; RSV; at Ex. 5:1; 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3) Therefore the NWT vindicates Jehovah in rendering 2 Thessalonians 2:11: "So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them that they may get to believing the lie." God does not make them believe the lie any more than he originates the lie, but he lets it go to them because they prefer the mistake for the real thing. So he lets them use their own free will and become responsible for their own destruction.

Should we steal?

    Exodus 20:15 "Thou shalt not steal."
    Leviticus 19:13 "Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him."

    vs.

    Exodus 3:22 "And ye shall spoil the Egyptians."
    Exodus 12:35-36 "And they spoiled [plundered, NRSV] the Egyptians."
    Luke 19:29-34 "[Jesus] sent two of his disciples, Saying, Go ye into the village . . . ye shall
    find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man
    ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of
    him. . . . And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye
    the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him."

Answer:Do you notice that they will only use other versions of the Bible when it suits their purposes, other than that they will stick to the awkwardly worded King James. If you actually read the entire context in the NRSV you will notice that the items were "asked" for. That is alot different than stealing.
As for Luke 19:29-34-Again...read the context. There was no argument from the owners, especially since the colt "had never been ridden." It sounds like a previous arrangement to me, and it is very likely the colt was returned to its owner as there was no need to keep it for any great length of time.

Shall we keep the sabbath?

    Exodus 20:8 "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy."
    Exodus 31:15 "Whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to
    death."
    Numbers 15:32,36 "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a
    man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. . . . And all the congregation brought him
    without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses."

    vs.

    Isaiah 1:13 "The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it
    is iniquity."
    John 5:16 "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he
    had done these things on the sabbath day."
    Colossians 2:16 "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
    holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days."

Answer: Again, if you read the context at Isaiah chapter 1  you will see that the observances of the "sinful nation" was akin to hypocracy. "They have become a burden to me" NRSV. The entire chapter was dedicated to the "Wickedness of Judah."

As for John 5:16, Jesus was well aware of how the Pharisees abused the law, especially the sabbath. He said,"The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath, so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath." Mark 2:27,28 NRSV There is no prohibition for doing good.

As for Colossians 2:16, this is after the death of Jesus. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." NRSV
Christians are no longer under the law of Moses, so the old holy days, observances and sabbaths were no more as they were part of the law. "But we are now discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit." 1Cor 7:6 NRSV

Shall we make graven images?

    Exodus 20:4 "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything
    that is in heaven . . . earth . . . water."
    Leviticus 26:1 "Ye shall make ye no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing
    image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone."
    Deuteronomy 27:15 "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image."

    vs.

    Exodus 25:18 "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make
    them."
    I Kings 7:15,16,23,25 "For he [Solomon] cast two pillars of brass . . . and two chapiters of
    molten brass . . . And he made a molten sea . . . it stood upon twelve oxen . . . [and so on]"

Answer: Again, the contexts of the above verses show that these idols and images were not to be worshipped.(Exodus 20:5; Leviticus 26:1)The entire scriptures are never mentioned because that would expose how they have twisted the scriptures. Remember that Moses made a copper (bronze) serpent so that the Isrealites that looked at it were healed of their snake bites.( Numbers 21:8,9) But as soon as this copper serpent became and object of worship, it was destroyed-2 Kings 18:4

Are we saved through works?

    Ephesians 2:8,9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith . . . not of works."
    Romans 3:20,28 "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
    sight."
    Galatians 2:16 "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
    of Jesus Christ."

    vs.

    James 2:24 "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."
    Matthew 19:16-21 "And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good
    thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he [Jesus] said unto him . . . keep the
    commandments. . . . The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my
    youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou
    hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven."

Answer: The top three scriptures pertain to the Jewish Law of Moses(See "Shall we keep the Sabbath" above). In Paul's time, the Christian consisted of mainly Jewish members, so the transition from the old Jewish law to the new Christian way was not always easy. The context of the Ephesians 2 mentioned above dealt with circumcision, which was a work of the Law of Moses(Jewish), but no longer a requirement for Christians.

Should good works be seen?

    Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works."
    I Peter 2:12 "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that . . . they may by your
    good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."

    vs.

    Matthew 6:1-4 "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them . . . that
    thine alms may be in secret."
    Matthew 23:3,5 "Do not ye after their [Pharisees'] works. . . . all their works they do for to
    be seen of men."

Answer: The bottom two verses deal with hypocrital Pharisees and the superficiality of their works. And what works are those? The context at Matthew 23 will tell you."They make their phylacteries long and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.
How does this compare to the light in Matthew 5? Ephesians 5:9 says, "The fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
The pharisees were self-serving as opposed to Christians who help others to come to the good news(gospel) of Christ. Matt 24:14;28:19,20
Also, the exemplary conduct of Christians should make them stand out noticeably from among those who are not acquainted with the Bible's message. Their kindness, generosity, self control, love and other fine qualities should make them appear as lights in a cruel, loveless world. Galatians 5:22

Should we own slaves?

    Leviticus 25:45-46 "Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of
    them shall ye buy, . . . and they shall be your possession . . . they shall be your bondmen
    forever."
    Genesis 9:25 "And he [Noah] said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto
    his brethren."
    Exodus 21:2,7 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh
    he shall go out free for nothing. . . . And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she
    shall not go out as the manservants do."
    Joel 3:8 "And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,
    and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it."
    Luke 12:47,48 [Jesus speaking] "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared
    not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that
    knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes."
    Colossians 3:22 "Servants, obey in all things your masters."

    vs.

    Isaiah 58:6 "Undo the heavy burdens . . . let the oppressed go free, . . . break every yoke."
    Matthew 23:10 "Neither be ye called Masters: for one is your Master, even Christ."

Answer:First off, Isaiah 58 had to do with FASTING because it was at this time that the nation of Isreal had let FASTING slip by.
Matthew 23:10 has to do with religious titles....and of course all this can be found out by simply reading the WHOLE scripture or the surrounding context.
Servitude continued even in early christian times. But we are thinking of slavery in the modern sense. The Hebrew word for "slave" comes from "evedh" which can mean people owned by others(Gen 12:16; Ex.20:17), subjects of a king(2Sam. 11:21; 2Chr. 10:7) subjugated peoples who paid tribute (2Sa 8:2, 6), and persons in royal service, which includes cupbearers, bakers, seamen, military officers, advisers etc whether owned by others or not (Ge 40:20; 1Sa 29:3; 1Ki 9:27; 2Ch 8:18; 9:10; 32:9). In respectful address, a Jew, instead of using the first person pronoun, would at times speak of himself as a servant ('e'vedh) of the one to whom he was talking. (Ge 33:5, 14; 42:10, 11, 13; 1Sa 20:7, 8) 'E'vedh was used in referring to servants, or worshipers, of Jehovah(Yahweh) generally (1Ki 8:36; 2Ki 10:23) and, more specifically, to spokesmen for God, such as Moses. (Jos 1:1, 2; 24:29; 2Ki 21:10) Even if you did not worship Jehovah, one who performed a service that was in harmony with the divine will could be spoken of as God's servant, an example being King Nebuchadnezzar.-Jer 27:6.
The Greek term dou'los is the equivalent to the Hebrew word 'e'vedh. It is used with reference to persons owned by others (Mt 8:9; 10:24, 25; 13:27); devoted servants of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, whether human (Ac 2:18; 4:29; Ro 1:1; Ga 1:10) or angelic (Re 19:10, where the word syn'dou·los [fellow slave] appears); and, in a figurative sense, to persons in slavery to sin (Joh 8:34; Ro 6:16-20) or corruption (2Pe 2:19).

Does God change his mind?

    Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord; I change not."
    Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should
    repent."
    Ezekiel 24:14 "I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go
    back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent."
    James 1:17 " . . . the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
    turning."

    vs.

    Exodus 32:14 "And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
    Genesis 6:6,7 "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth . . . And the Lord
    said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth . . . for it repenteth
    me that I have made him."
    Jonah 3:10 ". . . and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them;
    and he did it not."

    See also II Kings 20:1-7, Numbers 16:20-35, Numbers 16:44-50.

    See Genesis 18:23-33, where Abraham gets God to change his mind about the minimum
    number of righteous people in Sodom required to avoid destruction, bargaining down from
    fifty to ten. (An omniscient God must have known that he was playing with Abraham's hopes
    for mercy--he destroyed the city anyway.)

Answer: As for omniscience, his fore-knowing is an ability he has...but does not exercise in many cases. That is why he the Bible says at 2Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

God has not changed...he is still the same God as he was thousands and millions of years ago. His standards are the same as are his justice and mercy. The word "repent" is of course from the King James. The word has a broader meaning of "was sorry" NKJV, "regrets" NWT, "relented" NASB. It is this passion and mercy for his subjects that lead him to say, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that they turn from their ways and live? Ezekiel 18:23
"He...showed compassion("repented" KJV) according to the abundance of his steadfast love." Psalms 106:45

Are we punished for our parents' sins?

    Exodus 20:5 "For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
    upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." (Repeated in Deuteronomy 5:9)
    Exodus 34:6-7 " . . . The Lord God, merciful and gracious, . . . that will by no means clear
    the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's
    children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."
    I Corinthians 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, . . ."

    vs.

    Ezekiel 18:20 "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father."
    Deuteronomy 24:16 "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the
    children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin."

Answer: Both Ezekiel and Deuteronomy concern the death penalty, while the other scriptures apply to idolatry, for "God is a jealous God." Another example of this might be taken from the NT. "Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven." Matthew 18:21-22 ASV
But we find that sinning against God's spirit bears NO forgiveness. Matt 12:31

Is God good or evil?

    Psalm 145:9 "The Lord is good to all."
    Deuteronomy 32:4 "a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

    vs.

    Isaiah 45:7 "I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things."
Again, the King James is used here...try, "I form light and create darkness."NRSV
    Lamentations 3:38 "Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?"
This is in keeping with, "Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?" James 3:11 ASV
    Jeremiah 18:11 "Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device
    against you."
By reading the rest of the scripture you will see that Jehovah(YHWH) wanted them to turn from their evil ways.
    Ezekiel 20:25,26 "I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they
    should not live. And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the
    fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might
    know that I am the Lord."

Answer: We are all free moral agents. Ezekiel 20:25 can best be explained by Psalms 81:12:"So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN COUNSELS."

Does God tempt people?

    James 1:13 "Let no man say . . . I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil,
    neither tempteth he any man."

    vs.

    Genesis 22:1 "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham."

Answer: Here you have 2 different words in 2 different languages again. Modern accurate translations like the NRSV have "tested" instead of "tempted."

Is God peaceable?

    Romans 15:33 "The God of peace."
    Isaiah 2:4 ". . . and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
    pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
    more."

    vs.

    Exodus 15:3 "The Lord is a man of war."
    Joel 3:9-10 "Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let
    them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the
    weak say, I am strong."

Answer: It is a fact that the nation of Israel fought in wars(see Exodus above), but Isaiah points to a time when "he makes wars cease" Psalms 46:9. It is after this point that "he will wipe out every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." You have to look at the Bible as a cohesive whole, instead of picking scriptures at random.

Was Jesus peaceable?

    John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."
    Acts 10:36 "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus
    Christ."
    Luke 2:14 " . . . on earth peace, good will toward men."

    vs.

    Matthew 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace,
    but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
   against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes
    shall be they of his own household."
    Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, . . . he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and
    buy one."

Answer: In Luke 22, obtaining a sword was for reasons of self defence as he was to be delivered up to die. But when he came up against a large group, he instructed his follower to "Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword perish by the sword." Matthew 26:52
For Matthew 10:34, Jesus' ministry work brought divisions within families (Lu 12:51-53), but it was because of his adherence to, and proclamation of, God's righteous standards and truth. These division resulted because many individuals were sour and critical against these truths while others accepted them. (Joh 8:40, 44-47; 15:22-25; 17:14)
But it is after all this that we have peace. Revelation 21:3,4

Shall we call people names?

    Matthew 5:22 "Whosoever shall say Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire." [Jesus
    speaking]

    vs.

    Matthew 23:17 "Ye fools and blind." [Jesus speaking]
   Psalm 14:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

Matthew 5:22 refers to those wrongly judging a brother(see Romans 14:10-12; Matthew 7:1,2), while Jesus was able to back up his statements.(See Matthew 17-22; Matthew 15:3)

Has anyone seen God?

    John 1:18 "No man hath seen God at any time."
    Exodus 33:20 "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live."
    John 6:46 "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God [Jesus], he hath
    seen the Father."
    I John 4:12 "No man hath seen God at any time."

    vs.

    Genesis 32:30 "For I have seen God face to face."
    Exodus 33:11 "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his
    friend."
    Isaiah 6:1 "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high
    and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."
    Job 42:5 "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee."

Answer: When an angel of God appeared to Manoah and his wife they viewed this representative as God himself: “Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”—Judg. 13:3-22. The Bible does not hide this fact. Exodus 3:2 says,"And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thorn-bush: and he looked, and behold, the thorn-bush burned with fire, and the thorn-bush was not being consumed." But later it says,"And he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.(Darby) God uses angels to represent him, and he has also used Jesus to reveal the "God no man hath seen." John 1:18
Also, Matthew 18:10 states that "angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven." So face to face simply means to speak to angels.

How many Gods are there?

    Deuteronomy 6:4 "The Lord our God is one Lord."

    vs.

    Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image."
    Genesis 3:22 "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know
    good and evil."
    I John 5:7 "And there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
    Holy Ghost: and these three are one."

Answer: The scripture at 1John 5:7 isn't in any reliable Bible version. It was added later by an unscrupulous scribe. Of course, infidels.org knows this since the have the New Revised Standard Version(NRSV). As for the other scriptures in Genesis, the rabbi's have always understood this to be God talking to the angels. The sons of God were with him at creation, as is stated at Job 38:4-7 "Where wast thou when I founded the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who set the measures thereof--if thou knowest? or who stretched a line upon it? Whereupon were the foundations thereof sunken? or who laid its corner-stone, When the morning stars sang together, and all the SONS OF GOD shouted for joy?(Darby)

Are we all sinners?

    Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one."
    Psalm 14:3 "There is none that doeth good, no, not one."

    vs.

    Job 1:1 "There was a man . . . who name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright."
    Genesis 7:1 "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for
    thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."
    Luke 1:6 "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and
    ordinances of the Lord blameless."

Answer: The word "perfect" in Job 1:1 comes from the hebrew word TAM which also means "plain, undefiled and upright." Most versions choose UPRIGHT for even Job says that he is not perfect at Job 7:1.
In Luke 1 Zechariah is said to be blameless, but Zechariah, the father of John the Baptizer, manifested lack of faith to the angel Gabriel. (Lu 1:18-20)So the word blameless is a relative term in the original languages.

Should we swear an oath?

    Numbers 30:2 "If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath . . . he shall do
    according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth."
    Genesis 21:22-24,31 " . . . swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with
    me . . . And Abraham said, I will swear. . . . Wherefore he called that place Beersheba
    ["well of the oath"]; because there they sware both of them."
    Hebrews 6:13-17 "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
    greater, he sware by himself . . . for men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for
    confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew
    unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath."

    See also Genesis 22:15-19, Genesis 31:53, and Judges 11:30-39.

    vs.

    Matthew 5:34-37 "But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven . . . nor by the earth
    . . . . Neither shalt thou swear by thy head . . . . But let your communication be, Yea, yea;
    Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."
    James 5:12 ". . . swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath:
    but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation."

Answer: Jesus Christ, in his Sermon on the Mount at Matthew 5, was correcting the Jews in the practice of making light, loose, and indiscriminate taking of oaths. It had become common among them to swear by heaven, by the earth, by Jerusalem, and even by their own heads. But since heaven was "God's throne," earth is his "footstool," Jerusalem is his kingly city, and one's head was dependent on God-giving life, making such oaths was the same as taking oaths in the name of God. It was not to be treated lightly. Jesus did not hereby prohibit the making of all oaths, for he himself was under the Law of Moses(Mosaic Law), which required oaths under certain circumstances. In fact, when Jesus himself was on trial he was put under oath by the high priest, and he did not object to this, but gave an answer. (Mt 26:63, 64) Jesus was simply showing that a person should not have two standards. It is that better standard that was carried thru to James 5:12

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September 30 1999
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