Plagues without a trace? Missing commandments? Two different origins of the Earth itself? For all its complexity, some stories in the Bible just don't add up. Stay tuned to learn more.
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00:00Plagues without a trace? Missing commandments? Two different origins of the Earth itself?
00:05For all its complexities, some stories in the Bible just don't add up. Stay tuned to learn more.
00:10The New Testament begins with the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew shares stories in common
00:14with all subsequent Gospels, so it might be reasonable to assume it was written earliest.
00:19While biblical scholars tend to disagree, they overwhelmingly attribute first dibs to Mark,
00:24who leaves a little to be desired as far as concluding the resurrection tale.
00:28In the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John, Jesus' tomb is visited by women who want to
00:32tend to his corpse. However, in the place of a body, they find shining angels, or men in,
00:37quote, "'dazzling peril.'" Filled with joy and fear, they run to tell the disciples of Jesus.
00:41Jesus himself wastes no time in making an appearance, either, reassuring the women and
00:46letting them in on his upcoming travel plans. Mark's story, however, ends with a cut-to-black
00:50moment that would make Inception jealous. The women arrive at the heavy tombstone,
00:54which they have been fretting about moving themselves, only to find it already rolled
00:58aside. A young man inside the tomb calmly tells them that Jesus has risen and is on his way to
01:03Galilee, that they shouldn't be afraid, and that they should inform the disciples of what they saw.
01:07Unfortunately for that guy, they don't tell the disciples, and they definitely don't rejoice.
01:12They flee, terrified out of their minds, and tell no one. And then the Gospel ends.
01:17Why do I chill here? I feel like people avoid me because I'm God's son or whatever,
01:21but I'm actually, like, a pretty laid-back guy."
01:23If Mark is the earliest Gospel, maybe we can assume the rest of the authors saw his version
01:27and opted to take a more comforting approach. But the question remains as to how the resurrection
01:32aftermath really went down. The death of Jesus is a harrowing story. Betrayed by his own disciple
01:38and sentenced to an agonizing death by crucifixion, it is held by Christians as the ultimate sacrifice.
01:43But when did it actually happen? Considering all we know — who betrayed him, who sentenced him,
01:48that it all went down over Passover — it's surprising that biblical accounts still disagree
01:53on what day Jesus died. Jesus' death takes place in Jerusalem, which gives us a clue.
01:58According to Bart Ehrman and his book Jesus Interrupted, revealing the hidden contradictions
02:03in the Bible, Jerusalem celebrated Passover on one specific day, with no allowances for different
02:08Jewish denominations. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is crucified at 9 in the morning on the
02:12day of Passover, and dies at noon the same day. The previous day, called the Day of Preparation,
02:17he shared a Passover meal with his disciples before his arrest by the Roman authorities.
02:21However, the Gospel of John winds the clock back about one full day. Jesus is sentenced
02:26to crucifixion by Pontius Pilate at noon on the Day of Preparation, making it the day of,
02:31well, everything. It's another classic case of he said, he said in the Gospel.
02:36The Son of God had a human father figure in Joseph. The Bible is not super clear,
02:40however, on who Joseph's father is. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer genealogies of Jesus,
02:46both starting with Joseph, but differing in the next generation.
02:49And not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers.
02:53And from our fathers' fathers' fathers. Yeah.
02:55And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers. Yeah, all right.
02:58In Matthew, we are told that Jacob is Joseph's father, but in Luke, it's said to be Heli,
03:03so why does this matter? As stated by Bart Ehrman in Jesus Interrupted,
03:07the Messiah is to be the son of David, a descendant of Israel's greatest king.
03:11So the Gospels of Matthew and Luke must go through the trouble of identifying Jesus'
03:15royal blood by documenting Joseph's ancestors all the way to King David.
03:19They both go even further, with Matthew ending at Abraham and Luke taking it all the way back
03:23to Adam. One potential explanation of the difference in Jesus' grandfather's name
03:28is the idea that the genealogy in Matthew relates to Joseph, while Luke's genealogy
03:33could be from Mary's line. But even this is still widely contested. Bart Ehrman notes,
03:37It is an attractive solution, but it has a fatal flaw.
03:40Luke explicitly indicates that the family line is that of Joseph, not Mary.
03:45The Bible tells us that ten commandments were delivered to Moses and the Israelites,
03:48seared into stone by God's own hand, with instructions such as,
03:51You shall not murder, you shall not steal, and none of those adultery shenanigans either.
03:56These commandments are pretty iconic. In fact, they're just about everywhere in the modern world.
04:00That said, the Bible ventures into some unfamiliar territory with additional
04:04laws handed down to Moses. For starters, the Bible contains more than one version
04:08of the commandments, with two full sets and two partial sets. Then, in Exodus 20,
04:12there are arguably 13 statements from which we derive the commandments.
04:17These 15!
04:21Ten! Ten commandments!
04:24This might seem like splitting hairs, until we consider the commandments that Moses is given on
04:28the second try, in two brand-spanking-new-stone tablets. Be careful not to make a treaty with
04:33those who live in the land. Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything
04:38containing yeast. And do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk. Way different, right?
04:44It's a totally separate tone and purpose from the previous set of laws.
04:47And according to Oxford Biblical Studies Online, biblical scholars are not even sure whether the
04:52term ten commandments refers to what is written in Exodus 20, Exodus 34, or Deuteronomy 5.
04:58The creation of all existence is described in two very neat itemized lists,
05:02one in Genesis 1 and the other in Genesis 2, with completely different sequences of events.
05:07Why include two origin stories that don't align? Utah State University professor David Bockeboy
05:12comments,
05:13"...it is likely that separate authors with distinct theological views and agendas wrote these myths."
05:18In the first account of creation, Genesis 1, we kick off with the heavens and the earth,
05:22followed by light and darkness on the first day. On day two, we get the sky. Day three,
05:27plants arrive. The sun and moon pop into existence on day four, and fish and birds appear on the
05:31fifth day. It isn't until the sixth day that God creates man and woman, along with land-dwelling
05:36animals, before taking the seventh day off to relax. In Genesis 2, the script is flipped to
05:41prioritize humanity. We start with a barren earth, no plants or water. From its dust,
05:45the first man, Adam, is created. God then causes plants and trees to grow in the Garden of Eden,
05:50places Adam there, and encourages him to work the land. Seeing Adam could use some help,
05:55God presents him with all manner of newly created animals, which Adam is in charge of naming.
05:59Eventually, God creates the first woman, Eve, from Adam's rib, for the purpose of
06:04curing his loneliness.
06:06Abraham holds a central role in the Old Testament as the first patriarch of the Hebrews. He is
06:10venerated in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. According to the Book of Genesis,
06:14Abraham begins his dynasty-building journey in Ur of the Chaldeans. And while no actual dates are
06:19given, this happens at approximately 2,000 BCE in the biblical timeline. Many know Ur as the
06:25ancient city of Sumer and Babylonia, which very much did exist from as early as 4,000 BCE. But
06:32the specific reference to the Chaldeans throws a wrench in the works. The Chaldeans are not even
06:36mentioned in historical records until over a thousand years later, per Britannica.
06:40The Chaldeans are first referenced during the reign of Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II,
06:45somewhere between 883 BCE and 859 BCE. However, their rule of Ur would not commence until 721 BCE,
06:54well after the time of Abraham. So even if the city of Ur of the Chaldeans was not the same Ur
06:59we associate with the Sumerians and Babylonians, there is still a vast gulf of time separating
07:03Abraham from his biblical birthplace. The animals came in two-by-two, or seven-by-two,
07:09depending on which biblical account of Noah's flood you read. Here's what we know about the
07:13story for sure. After God deems humanity too wicked to continue, a great flood is sent to
07:17drown the Earth. As the only good man left, Noah gets to take his family and a multitude of animals
07:22to ride out the flood in a giant wooden boat, with the purpose of repopulating the planet later.
07:27Oh, and you might need this.
07:30So far, so good. But the Bible waffles on God's specifications for the animals.
07:35For example, in one chapter of Genesis, Noah is instructed to bring aboard the ark
07:39two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that
07:43moves along the ground. This is the clearest-cut version, likely the one most are familiar with.
07:47But in another chapter of Genesis, the requirement shifts somewhat to seven pairs of clean animals
07:52and one pair of unclean animals. The length of the flood is also unclear, described as lasting
07:57either 40 days or 150 days. Biblical students have suggested these contradictions are simply
08:02different parts of the same narrative. According to Jeffrey Gagin from the Bishop School,
08:06they are most likely two different traditions that were later brought together.
08:10There is a rare commonality between the four Gospels and the reaction to Jesus' resurrection
08:14by his disciples — surprise and doubt. Granted, it comes to them as a very pleasant and joyful
08:20surprise. But why is it a surprise at all? On several occasions prior to his death,
08:24Jesus made explicitly clear that he was not only going to be killed, but brought back to life.
08:29In the Gospel of Mark alone, Jesus tells his disciples exactly what's going down three
08:33separate times. That seems like fair warning, right? Well, Apostle Thomas still feels the
08:38need to stick his fingers in Jesus' wounds to be convinced that it really is him.
08:42And this is after Jesus performed numerous miracles in front of all the disciples,
08:46such as walking on the water, controlling the weather, and raising the actual dead.
08:50At that point, just give J.C. a break and keep your hands to yourself, Thomas.
08:55During the reign of Augustus, a census was called across the Roman Empire that required
08:58all subjects to return to their familial lands to be counted. As we've discussed,
09:02Joseph was said to be descended from the house of King David, and was thus required to travel
09:06with his pregnant wife Mary from Nazareth to his hometown of Bethlehem. Along the way,
09:11they were guided by a star, and eventually found their way to a stable where Jesus was born.
09:15But there's a snag between this heartwarming tale and historical records.
09:19The reign of Augustus Caesar is well-documented,
09:22but there is no recorded evidence of an empire-spanning census during this period.
09:26Bart Ehrman of Jesus Interrupted notes that it would probably be far too impractical to make
09:30everyone in the Roman Empire return to their ancestral home, something they may only be
09:34connected to by thousand-year-old roots. A census did take place in the region where
09:38Jesus was born, Judea, ordered by the Roman governor of Syria, Quirinius, after 6 AD.
09:44But, as described in the census and Quirinius, this was 10 years after the
09:49villain of the Nativity story, King Herod, died in 4 BCE.
09:53The city of Jericho, located in today's West Bank, is truly ancient,
09:57with its origins as a permanent settlement dating back almost 11,000 years, according to Britannica.
10:02Its famous walls appeared almost as long ago, with evidence of thick fortifications dating back to
10:068,000 BCE. These are the walls that were supposedly destroyed by Joshua and his Israelite army.
10:12In the Old Testament Book of Joshua, the Israelites parade silently around Jericho,
10:16a city promised to them by God, for six days. On the seventh day, they blast trumpets and
10:21shout so loudly that the walls tumble, permitting the army to sack the city.
10:25As described by Mara Sala in Bible Odyssey, estimates for when Joshua conducted this
10:29campaign are towards the end of the 13th century BCE, as the Bronze Age was drawing to a close.
10:34Archaeological digs over the 20th century reveal a different story. The destruction
10:39layers found at Jericho — layers of soot and burnt masonry — indicate the city had definitely
10:43faced disaster more than once. However, not since around 1550 BCE had these famous walls been
10:49rebuilt, which was long before Joshua and his rowdy army were said to have arrived.
10:54In the Book of Exodus, Moses leads the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity to the Promised Land,
10:58but not before some serious arm-twisting. Moses needed God to bring 10 awful plagues upon the
11:03people of Egypt before the Pharaoh relented and set the Israelites free. The plagues included
11:08rivers of blood, frogs, flies, hail, and, eventually, the divine slaughter of every
11:13Egyptian firstborn son. The enormity of these plagues, and the socioeconomic impact of losing
11:18an entire tribe's free labor, may have been worthy of documentation by the Egyptians, right?
11:23Not so much. According to National Geographic, there is no evidence from written Egyptian
11:27records that the plagues — or the Exodus itself, for that matter — ever took place.
11:32There are some tantalizing scraps of contemporary records supporting a
11:35Semitic presence in Egypt around the 13th century BCE, per the Biblical Archaeology Society.
11:41It's also true that the Egyptians were not in the habit of recording their calamities or defeats.
11:45So while scholars are still divided on whether there was an Exodus,
11:48the matter of why the Egyptians didn't mention the 10 plagues remains a mystery.