ContradictionsReading order 233Bible context 1 min read
Who was Amasa's father?
The accounts agree that Abigail bore Amasa, but differ in his father's name and people.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Minor
- A local detail in a story, chronology, or inventory.
The same mother and son anchor paternal descriptions that differ in both personal name and Israelite versus Ishmaelite affiliation.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Amasa's father is Ithra the Israelite
And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man’s son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab’s mother.
2 Samuel 17:25
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:2 Samuel 17
Amasa's father is Jether the Ishmeelite
And Abigail bare Amasa: and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmeelite.
1 Chronicles 2:17
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:1 Chronicles 2