If the Bible is the word of God, why do some passages seem to disagree, and does that undo the Restoration’s use of scripture?
They quote this
Answer not a fool / answer a fool. The Bible can hold tension. So can a Restoration that believes it.
King James Version
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
NRSVUE
Do not answer fools according to their folly, lest you be a fool yourself. Answer fools according to their folly, lest they be wise in their own eyes.
How we read it
Answer not a fool / answer a fool: the Bible can hold tension on purpose. Inspiration comes through men, in their language (D&C 1:24). Article of Faith 8 exists because translation is real. A contradiction is not a death blow. It is a reason to read harder — which is what they refuse to do.
The Bible answers
All scripture is given by inspiration. Given — through men, in their language.
King James Version
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
NRSVUE
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
The Book of Mormon answers
1 Nephi 13:28–29
Plain and precious things taken away. That is why some contradictions exist.
Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God. And after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles; and … because of the many plain and precious things which have been taken out of the book … an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them.
Also restored
Articles of Faith 1:8
As far as it is translated correctly.
We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.
Dead Sea Scrolls textual variants
Biblical manuscripts from Qumran (for example in Samuel, Jeremiah, and the Psalms) sometimes agree with the later Masoretic Text, sometimes with the Septuagint, and sometimes with neither.
The Bible’s own transmission is plural. That is not a Restoration talking point. It is an archaeological fact. It is also why ‘as far as it is translated correctly’ is a conservative sentence, not a liberal one: it takes inspiration seriously enough to care about the wording.
Scripture Central
Scripture Central
Some tensions are literary (Proverbs 26). Some are perspectival (the four Gospels). Some are scribal. Some are real gaps where plain and precious things were lost. The Restoration does not need a brittle inerrancy that dies when two genealogies of Jesus differ. It needs the Holy Ghost, additional scripture, and the JST. The Bible remains profitable, as Paul said, and it remains first in the list of our books.
A library of inspired books will not read like a single memorandum. The eighth article of faith was written for that fact.
Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.
Be the first to tell us if this case is strong.
