ContradictionsReading order 498Bible context 2 min read
Who Was Achan's father?
Achan's detailed genealogy names Carmi as his father, while two shorter descriptions call him Zerah's son. The difference depends on whether 'son' identifies an immediate father or a more distant ancestor.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Minor
- A local detail in a story, chronology, or inventory.
The shorter designation preserves Achan's actual ancestor Zerah, so it need not contradict the detailed line through Carmi and Zabdi.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Achan descends from Zerah through Zabdi and Carmi
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.
Joshua 7:1
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Joshua 7
Achan is called the son of Zerah
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
Joshua 7:24
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)