Does the Bible Contradict Itself?

[Undeceived]

Are there old copies of the OT in Hebrew ? (I don't mean "versions that were copied from Hebrew sources" or any such cop-out)
I assumed there must be since Undecieved talked about "going back to the Hebrew" to alter the meaning of a passage.

The oldest sizable extant copy of the Hebrew OT is dated to 2nd century BC, a complete copy 1000 AD. There are two 7th century BC silver scrolls of the Torah. Translations are made from any of these, as they all match. Since some meaning is lost in any translation, it makes sense to examine the original in cases of importance.

It is commonly thought that Judas impaled himself on his sword, since "hang" and "impale" are the same word. It was a common form of suicide. The word for "hang by the neck" did not come about until 1400 AD.

Interesting response, Undeceived. Are you saying that the Matthew 27:5 is a mistranslation? The explanation I've heard it that Matthew's account that Judas hanged himself was accurate, and Luke explains what happened to Judas' decaying corpse after he hung himself--it decayed to the point where it fell from the rope and burst when it hit the ground.

Thanks for pointing that out. Your explanation may be more likely. And I made a typo. The verses on Judas were originally written in Greek. The possibility remains, since “hang” and “impale” were just as synonymous in Greek as in any other ancient language. Hangings were not common in the ancient world unless they were part of another form of execution—in which they were the display after the killing. One example of such ambiguous language is in Esther 5:14- http://www.ligonier.org/blog/was-haman-h...r-impaled/ . To “hang” could mean to hang on anything—a post, a spike, a cross. But the rise of the Roman Empire put an end to old methods. The 1st century is a dividing line between ancient civilization and the modern world, so one cannot be sure which execution a suicide would have chosen. The translation remains "hang" because we do not have enough evidence to change it. In cases of doubt, the closest translation is kept.