Why the "There are so many interpretations of the Bible" claim is confused

[drfuzzy]

If you don't want to explore hundreds of comparisons, here are 5 from the gospels:

That graphic is misleading. For example, when Jesus says "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?" it is written in Hebrew in Matthew (Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?) But in Mark  it's written in Aramaic (Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?). Both Matthew and Mark say that people were confused by what he said and thought he was calling for Elijah - if he was speaking Hebrew it was probably because they were trying to interpret it as Aramaic (which then becomes 'Elijah! Elijah! Why have you forsaken me?'). More importantly, both Matthew and Mark say that Jesus shouted again before he died (Matt 27:50; Mark 15:37), so clearly they do NOT say that his last words were "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?": they say that he said that - that people got confused - and then he shouted something else (but they don't say what) before he died. It's not a contradiction.

The death of Judas and the question of who purchased the Field of Blood is a true contradiction. Apologists claim that Matthew can be interpreted that "he hanged himself in shame", however while that is possible, the context of Matthew's narrative does not allow for that possibility, and even if it did it doesn't solve the problem of who bought the field. Matthew 27 says that the Jewish leaders bought the field after Judas hanged himself using Judas's money. But Acts makes it clear that Judas himself buys the field and then dies in it.

Thanks Aractus.   Sorry I'm so late responding.  I do love clarification, and add corrections to my notes.  You sound like you have spent a lot of time studying this stuff . . . 

I'm really curious about how many passages listed as "contradictions" are due to language/translation confusion.  There must be a lot.  And I think that newer versions of the Bible should annotate these passages clearly, so we can see them as we study.  (Perhaps web-based versions will provide this service - some are starting to do so already.)   But, of course, a study of translation differences would be a life-long work, wouldn't it?