This is a contradiction

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yaremasih

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Why does God talk of contradictory

how old is Jehoiachin when he began to reign
eighteen years or eight years???

KJV
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mothers name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 24: 8

KJV
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 36: 9
 
Since we don’t have access to the original documents, I rather suspect that some scribe made a mistake and that mistake was repeated thereafter.

God inspires the authors of Scripture, but copyists are a whole different matter
 
It is. But what theological relevance does this have? I understand your wariness of errors in the Bible. It is perturbing.

But copyists make mistakes. Translations sometimes get fudged (sometimes badly so; just read the NWT or Joseph Smith’s KJV) by poor translations. It’s fairly obvious that this was a copyist’s error, and not a moral or metaphysical one.

Even if this error is in the original, what does this tell us?

Jehoiachin’s reign was short-lived, and when he did rule (it is unlikely he actually began ruling at eight, even if his father died when he was eight) he was an evil ruler. And his mother was “Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem”.

Even eight-year olds can be capable of evil.
 
I saw no contradiction when checking my New American Bible. 2 Kings 24:8 for me says:
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
Click to expand...
And 2 Chronicles 36: 9 says:
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months (and ten days) in Jerusalem.
Click to expand...
So, I dunno. 🤷
 
I guess this proves that KJV isn’t the best translation.
 
Just Google “KJV translation errors” and see what turns up. Whole lot of controversy out there.
 
In the Septuagint there is no contradiction. In both verses it says eighteen. So the discrepancy must be in the Hebrew manuscripts.
 
This has no theological relevance and is a scribal error, cf. the Septuagint (where both instances say 18; the Septuagint preserves a more ancient textual tradition, and many of the later corruptions of the Hebrew are not present in it, many verses later omitted by the MT are retained in the LXX [and vice-verse, cf. LXX Job]) and DSS (I believe the same).
 
First, this is not a contradiction, but a simple mistake. 2 Kings was written about 2,600 years ago. 2 Chronicles was written about 200-300 years after that - both hand done on crude papyrus. Not one of the original manuscripts exists, so everything we have is a copy of various other copies, made over the following centuries. Imperfect men wrote the originals, and imperfect men copied them for succeeding generations.

It would be a contradiction if one book or the other said that Joachin was NOT eight or eighteen years old, or that he did not exist, or that he did not reign. You can find greater mistakes than this in major medical publications. Does that fact invalidate all medical knowledge, or even that which is properly reported? Does it reflect poorly on all medical knowledge? Of course not.

The bible teaches principle, not precision.
 
Maybe this will help:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Imagine how easily that little Yod (’) mark would be to miss while copying in a poorly lit room from an old piece of papyrus, faded over time.
 
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