No Bible contradictions
Excerpt from BibleProtector’s “Line Upon Line” bible study.
Some people say that there are contradictions in the Bible. But they say this because they have not studied it properly, and often
because they want to believe lies.
Here is one example, where two verses appear to give different
information.
“Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.” (2 Kings 8:26).
“Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.” (2 Chronicles 22:2).
The question is, if Ahaziah reigned for one year, why does one verse say that he was 22 and the other that he was 42 years old?
The answer is that the people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah king with his father when he was twenty-two, and only reigned independently as a king for one year when he was fortytwo
years old. This diagram shows Ahaziah’s life, and when he was reigning for twenty years as a regent under his father and under the control of the people of Jerusalem, and when he then
reigned on his own for one year.
Ahaziah’s lifetime in years In the first passage, a semi-colon “;” divides the information, “Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem.” Just because it does not mention the twenty years does not mean that it is wrong. What we find is complementary not contradictory information.
Most accusations are a lot easier than this to refute.