Making Authors Errant For The Sake Of Inerrancy?

Making Authors Errant For The Sake Of Inerrancy?

As I work through assignments related to the infancy narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, I am surprised how many students quote other sources claiming that Matthew gives Josephโ€™s genealogy while Luke gives Maryโ€™s. There is only one major problem with this suggestion: it isnโ€™t what these Gospels say. Both give genealogies that are explicitly said to be the lineage of Joseph. There is no way to interpret them as saying otherwise.

To make Lukeโ€™s genealogy Maryโ€™s, one would have to say that what Luke meant isnโ€™t what he wrote. And once one has attributed a mistake to an author, one has finished with inerrancy anyway, and so one has done nothing to defend the Bibleโ€™s accuracy.

So hereโ€™s the real question: Why are people still trying to use this as a solution? Why, for some Christians, is affirming that the Bible is inerrant more important than taking seriously what it actually says?


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