Biblical contradiction?

[doogieduff]

Seems to be an apparent biblical contradiction...

1 Chronicles 2:13-15
13 Jesse begot Eliab his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimea the third,
14 Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth,
15 Ozem the sixth, and David the seventh.

According to this passage, David was the SEVENTH son of Jesse.

1 Samuel 16:10-11
10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these."
11 And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here."

According to these verses, Jesse had SEVEN of his sons pass before Samuel, yet the YOUNGEST remained, David. This would make him the eighth child, not the seventh, like 1 Chronicles said.

[Ric]

Today @ 09:49 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=108496#post108496)
doogieduff:

Seems to be an apparent biblical contradiction...

1 Chronicles 2:13-15
13 Jesse begot Eliab his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimea the third,
14 Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth,
15 Ozem the sixth, and David the seventh.

According to this passage, David was the SEVENTH son of Jesse.

1 Samuel 16:10-11
10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these."
11 And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here."

According to these verses, Jesse had SEVEN of his sons pass before Samuel, yet the YOUNGEST remained, David. This would make him the eighth child, not the seventh, like 1 Chronicles said.

1 Samuel 16 names only the three oldest brothers of David: Eliab (v.6), Abinadab (v.8), and Shammah (v.9), who is called Shimea in 1 Chronicles 2:13. Yet it does specify that Jesse introduced seven of his sons to Samuel (v.10) before he had the youngest, David, called home from the field (v.11). 1 Chronicles 2:14 gives the names of the other three as Nethanel, Raddai, and Ozem, and specifies that David was the seventh. What became of the other son, unnamed in 1 Samuel 16 and totally ignored in 1 Chronicles 2? Delitzsch (Keil and Delitzsch, Chronicles, p.62) suggests that he might have died without posterity; therefore his name was not preserved as late as the period when Chronicles was composed. It may well have been that he died of illness or accident while still a young man, prior to marriage. Since he produced no descendants and contributed no exploits back in David's time, there was no special reason for retaining him in the later enumeration of Jesse's sons.

The writer of this article had an older brother who died quite young, which would bring up the count of the children to four. Yet after the death of that earlier son, the three surviving children always spoke of themselves as a family of three siblings. Perhaps a similar event happened in Jesse's family as well. The full number of his sons was eight, but only seven survived and played a role during David's career. (1 Chron. 2:16 adds that there were two daughters as well, Zeruiah and Abigail. After they were married, their sons played an important role as well in the service of their uncle David.)

:smile:

[doogieduff]

Yesterday @ 08:24 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=108516#post108516)
Ric:



1 Samuel 16 names only the three oldest brothers of David: Eliab (v.6), Abinadab (v.8), and Shammah (v.9), who is called Shimea in 1 Chronicles 2:13. Yet it does specify that Jesse introduced seven of his sons to Samuel (v.10) before he had the youngest, David, called home from the field (v.11). 1 Chronicles 2:14 gives the names of the other three as Nethanel, Raddai, and Ozem, and specifies that David was the seventh. What became of the other son, unnamed in 1 Samuel 16 and totally ignored in 1 Chronicles 2? Delitzsch (Keil and Delitzsch, Chronicles, p.62) suggests that he might have died without posterity; therefore his name was not preserved as late as the period when Chronicles was composed. It may well have been that he died of illness or accident while still a young man, prior to marriage. Since he produced no descendants and contributed no exploits back in David's time, there was no special reason for retaining him in the later enumeration of Jesse's sons.

The writer of this article had an older brother who died quite young, which would bring up the count of the children to four. Yet after the death of that earlier son, the three surviving children always spoke of themselves as a family of three siblings. Perhaps a similar event happened in Jesse's family as well. The full number of his sons was eight, but only seven survived and played a role during David's career. (1 Chron. 2:16 adds that there were two daughters as well, Zeruiah and Abigail. After they were married, their sons played an important role as well in the service of their uncle David.)

:smile:

Thanks, this is very insightful, and something I've considered, but it still doesn't solve it for me. If I had 2 older brothers, and I was the third born son, and one of my older brothers died, I wouldn't become the second born. I would still remain the third born son to whomever. If the passage labeled David as one of seven children, it would be o, but ti clearly says he is th seventh born son of Jesse, and this is't so. A death could never change the fact that he was the eighth born son of Jesse.

[jpholding]

Doogieduff,

Tex Avery man, huh?

My own answer here would be that in 1 Samuel someone later copying this mistook a six for a seven. The Hebrew symbols look similar. If not I can add that in ancient genealogies, names of ancestors were at times dropped out of the middle to compress the lists. Perhaps a similar action took place here for a son who died early; it would simply be as though he never existed.

[RevSteve45]

Doggieduff,

The solution to the problem may be in 1 Chronicles 27:18, where "Elihu" is called "of the brethren of David." The Syriac and Arabic versions read, "Ozem the sixth, Elihu the seventh, David the eighth."

Other scholars, however, think that "Elihu" is a corruption of "Eliab." However, that would seem to be unlikely, since in 3 places (1 Samuel 16:6, 17:13; 1 Chronicles 2:13), Eliab is named as the FIRSTBORN, and those other versions refer to Elihu as the SIXTH.

Even if Elihu & Eliab are one & the same person, however, it is certainly understandable how a young child who did not live long, would be left out of the standard lists of geneaologies. Families were large in those days, and the mortality rate was fairly high.

In His Service,
Steve

[Jason Gastrich]

Mr. Holding . . . ug! :smile: Why are you so quick to reach for the copyist error explanation?!

"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" had this same question. Here is it's Q and my A.

1 Chronicles 2:13-15 - Here we are told that Jesse had seven sons, but according to 1 Sam.16:10 he had eight.

* In 1 Samuel 16:10, this Hebrew word for "sons" can refer to grandchildren, too. Therefore, it appears that Jesse showed seven children and one grandchild to Samuel. It is also possible that he had another son that died. This could explain why he was counted in the earlier historical accounts and omitted from some later ones.