Does The Bible Have Numerical Mistakes?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesA querist asks, “I found what looks like a contradiction in the Bible. I know there are not any “” so I need some help. 2 Samuel 10:18 talks about David slew the men of 700 chariots of the Syrians and 40,000 horsemen and Shobach the commander. I Chronicles 19:18 says that David slew the men of 7000 chariots and 40,000 footmen. One says 700 — the other 7000.
One says 40,000 horsemen(cavalry) — the other 40,000 footmen (infantry). All of these are numerical problems. Does the Bible have numerical mistakes? A careful reading of the surrounding verses in each case makes it obvious it is the same account.”
1) Adam Clarke, in his commentary on 2 Samuel 10:18, gives a logical reason for the difference in numbers:
Verse 18. SEVEN HUNDRED chariots-and forty thousand HORSEMEN:
In the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 19:18, it is said, David slew of the Syrians SEVEN THOUSAND men, which fought in chariots. It is difficult to ascertain the right number in this and similar places. It is very probable that, in former times, the Jews expressed, as they often do now, their numbers, not by words at full length, but by numeral letters; and, as many of the letters bear a great similarity to each other, mistakes might easily creep in when the numeral letters came to be expressed by words at full length. This alone will account for the many mistakes which we find in the numbers in these books, and renders a mistake here very probable. The letter zain, with a dot above, stands for seven thousand, nun for seven hundred: the great similarity of these letters might easily cause the one to be mistaken for the other, and so produce an error in this place.
2) Brother Kyle Butt of Apologetics Press also provides a plausible explanation: