A Real and Significant Biblical Contradiction?

[spockrates]

As for those who think that modern translations are there to cover up anything are showing their ignorance. They do not study the process of modern translation and that we find the meaning to words that the KJ translators did not know and had to make an intelligent guess.

An intelligent guess??
Your god gave his divine word to a bunch of sand farmers and then left it up to everyone else to GUESS at it for 2000 years???

Your god is such a worthless little impotent turd of a deity.

Don't shoot the one who sent the messenger!

---

It is likely more accurate than the King James version, but the choice of words is so--19th century. Let's also consider one of the most popular versions of the 21st century--Today's New International Version:


9 “‘And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.'"

(Ezekiel 14:9)

It seems, then that the deception of Ezekiel might be described as God prevailing against the one who misrepresented himself as God's spokesperson, and he prevailed by enticing the imposter in some way. Do you agree? If so, in what way did God entice the false prophet?

I'm thinking that the context of the surrounding verses paints a picture of a the fake prophet deceiving the Jewish people by assuring them that they will be able to defend themselves against the invading military forces. This contradict's God's message that they will not prevail against them. So in what way would you say God deceived, prevailed against, or enticed the false prophet?

Yes I agree, prevail can carry the same meaning as entice and I believe in this case entice is probably the better word, it makes the verse easier to understand.

As for those who think that modern translations are there to cover up anything are showing their ignorance. They do not study the process of modern translation and that we find the meaning to words that the KJ translators did not know and had to make an intelligent guess.

Agreed. Modern translators have the advantage of access to thousands more extant ancient manuscripts. Sure, the King James English has a poetic sound to it, something like Shakespeare, but it was not based on the latest scholarship.

---

GodsChild:

So there now appears to be no contradiction. Hebrews says God never lies; Ezekiel says God entices the liar. The liar does the lying; God does the enticing. Since Enticing is not lying, the two passages do not disagree. Agreed?

But I do not think we should breath a sigh of relief just yet. For it seems we have jumped out of the frying pan, only to land in the fire! Please let me explain:

It seems to me the false prophet described in Ezekiel sinned by misleading the ancient Jewish people to their harm. They could have listened to Ezekiel and surrendered to the invading armies. As it was, they listened to the imposter and resisted the invaders and suffered their full wrath, with only a few survivors escaping Jerusalem. Now God says that he was the one who enticed this false prophet. To what did God entice him, if not to sin by lying to the ancient Jewish people? The upshot, it seems is that the book of Ezekiel now appears to contradict another biblical book. For we now understand Ezekiel to have meant this,

“‘And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.'"

(Ezekiel 14:9)

But a New Testament author writes this,

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone...

(James 1:13)

The burning question that now consumes us: Is the enticing of Ezekiel the same as the tempting of James? If so, how is this not a contradiction? (At this point, I have no idea how we will save ourselves from getting burned by this one, but I suppose that with God all good things are possible! Let us pray for wisdom and see where the God of Wisdom takes us.)