Here we have a very glaring error. Elijah is represented as sending a threatening letter to Jehoram, king of Judah; but the Tishbite had been “taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire” during the reign of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram’s father; and the prophet alluded to should be Elisha, and not Elijah.
The blunder arises from a confusion in the mind of the chronicler between Jehoram king of Israel, and Jehoram king of Judah. This will be understood by turning to 2 Kings, viii., 20, where the revolt of the Edomites, which preceded the “threatening letter,” is narrated. The translation of Elijah is given six chapters further back, viz. 2 Kings, ii., 11.
Matt, xxvii., 9.
The writer is speaking of Judas, who returned the money casting it down before the priests. This money was used for the purchase of a field to bury strangers in, and the Evangelist adds: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying: ‘They took the 30 pieces of silver . . . and gave them for the potter’s field.’” These are not the words of Jeremiah at all, but of Zechariah. (xi., 12, 13.)
Mark ii., 26.
Here we have an historical error made by Christ himself. The disciples had been blamed for plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath day; whereupon Jesus retorted—“Have ye not read what David did when he had need and was an hungered . . . how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar, the High Priest, and did eat the shew bread?” The High Priest alluded to was not Abiathar, but Ahimelech. The account will be found 1 Sam. xxi., 1–6. “Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the [High] Priest . . . and said to him . . . give me [the] five loaves [under thine hand] . . . And the priest answered . . . ‘There is no common bread under mine hand, but [only] the hallowed bread, . . . So the priest gave him [the] hallowed bread.”
Acts, vii., 15, 16.
Here again we have an unpardonable historical error. The writer says: “So Jacob died, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor.” This was not Abraham, but Jacob. Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite, the field of Machpelah (see Gen. xxiii., 16, &c.); it was Jacob who bought the “parcel of a field at the hand of the children of Hamor [Emmor], Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of money.” (Gen. xxxiii., 19; and Joshua, xxiv., 32.)
(b.) Erroneous figures.
These are so numerous it is universally allowed that no dependence is to be placed upon them; but the instances subjoined are sufficiently striking, and in any book except the Bible would be termed errors.