ContradictionsReading order 177Bible context 2 min read
On what day did the temple burn?
The destruction accounts date the captain's arrival three days apart. Their dates directly modify his arrival, rather than separately specify the hour of the temple fire.
- Textual conflict
- Direct contradiction
- The quoted passages make incompatible claims about the same subject under the same conditions. Little additional inference is needed.
- Importance
- Minor
- A local detail in a story, chronology, or inventory.
The same official's arrival before Jerusalem's destruction is dated to the seventh and tenth days of the same month and regnal year.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Nebuzar-adan arrives on the seventh day before burning Jerusalem
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar–adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.
2 Kings 25:8-9
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:2 Kings 25
Nebuzar-adan arrives on the tenth day before burning Jerusalem
Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar–adan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, And