The following biblical contradictions were refuted by one reader by saying that the bible has to be "properly interpreted". If that is so, why is it written to appear to have these contradictions when, at least for modern versions, it could be re-written to abolish them or to have footnotes to explain them away? But I cannot see how some of them can be re-interpreted at all as the statements seem so specific.

I acknowledge taking extracts from "Blind Faith" by Chester Dolan (see review).

Contradictions, inconsistencies anomalies and peculiar observations in the Bible are legion. Dr. Charles Francis Potter, in his book "Is That in The Bible", lists a thousand of them. Richard Elliott Friedman, in "Who Wrote the Bible", gives us many, many more. One does not read far in any part of the Bible without noticing exceptions, denials, disavowals, repudiations, negations, or qualifications of what has been said before. There are too many to record all of them. For now let us point out some of the most conspicuous of the contradictions, those that any alert reader will notice if he is paying attention to what he reads.

1. "A person is to be put to death only for his own sins" (2 Kings 14:6). "A son should not be made to suffer for his father's sins" (Ezekiel 18.20). But: "Before long I will punish the King of Israel for the murders of his ancestor Jehu" (Hosea 1:4). "I will punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations for the sins of their fathers" (Exodus 34:7). All four statements are words directly from God. "How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions," said Paul in his letter to the Romans. Who indeed!
2. "He is not one to change his mind" (1 Samuel 15:29). "God is not a man, who changes his mind" (Numbers 23:19). But: "The Lord had compassion, and changed his mind" (Amos 7:3). "The Lord felt grief, and changed his mind" (2 Samuel 24:16). "I know that you are disposed to pity, always ready to change your mind" (Jonah 4:2). All are statements made in describing God. The twenty-ninth verse, of 1 Samuel 15 reads: "Israel's Everlasting God does not lie or change his mind. He is not a man to change his mind." Then six verses later the same chapter ends with: "The Lord was sorry that he had appointed Saul king over Israel."
3. In Paul's letter to the Galatians, the eleventh and twelfth verses of the third chapter flatly contradict each other, and Paul, in his letter to the Romans, again supports both of these opposing views: (11) "It is evident that no one is made righteous in God's eyes by the Law. Only by Faith, the just shall live." (Paul, in Romans 3:28, agrees with this.) (12) "The Law, however, does not depend on Faith. Only he who obeys the Law shall live." (In Romans 13:1-2, Paul agrees with this.) But it was Paul who said, "I become all things to all men."
4. In Leviticus 20:21 and Deuteronomy 25:5, we find a man must not under any circumstances marry his brother's widow - and at the same time must do exactly that.
5. "Bezalel made the ark of the covenant of acacia-wood" (Exodus 37:1). But: "So I, Moses, made an ark of acacia wood" (Deuteronomy 10:3).
6. God tells us we can eat anything that moves in Genesis 9:3 but he seems to have serious misgivings about some of them in Deuteronomy 14:7-19.
7. "Lord, I know that no man is the master of himself, no man has control over his own destiny" (Jeremiah 10:23). Almost all of the Bible is a contradiction of this contention. The constant talk of man's sins and God's punishment of them postulates man's free will and responsibility for what he does.
8. Another conspicuous contradiction in the Bible is God's capability of creating a vast physical universe totally without the assistance of corporeal entities, while from then on He often seems incapable of the simplest little physical manipulation, but constantly petitions some human being to do his bidding. It seems He could not even put a Son on earth without involving a human mother, and then this God-Son (or Son-God) must pass through stages of baby-boy-man to reach a stage where He could function as Deity. With Adam it was so much simpler. Eve was simpler still.
9. Another obvious contradiction in biblical history that no one mentions is its denunciation of incest, while at the same time blithely disregarding its own biblical accounts that without incest the human race would not exist. I wonder that Pope Pius XII on December 8, 1854, did not add to his dogma of Immaculate Conception another, the dogma of Immaculate Incest to give the human race a clean start to replace its shady inception.
10. God is constantly stated to be immortal, but: "The Lord of Hosts has sworn by his own life" (Jeremiah 51:14).