In Defense of the Faith

Copyists’ Errors— Even in the King James Version?

Question: I came across a list of numerous contradictions in the Bible. Here are just a few: 2 Samuel:8:4And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: and David houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for an hundred chariots.
See All... says David took from Hadadezer “seven hundred horsemen,” but 1 Chronicles:18:4And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: David also houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them an hundred chariots.
See All... says David took “seven thousand horsemen.” A similar discrepancy occurs between 2 Samuel:10:18And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there.
See All... (“seven hundred chariots [and] forty thousand horsemen”) and 1 Chronicles:19:18But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host.
See All... (“seven thousand chariots [and] forty thousand footmen”). These are just a few of the errors—and they’re in the King James Bible, which I have always believed was perfect in every word. Help!

Response: The Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts, not in every copy that someone has produced since then. Not every copyist or every translator worked so flawlessly that every copy of the Bible in every language is perfect in every word. These errors you point out were made by someone in centuries past when the documents were copied by hand.

One would have to go to the available manuscripts themselves to determine when these particular errors arose. And no doubt by comparing the many manuscripts we still have with one another it would be possible to determine what the original actually said—whether 700 or 7,000, whether footmen or horsemen, etc. However, it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort to determine this because these errors do not affect any doctrinal teaching.

Certain kinds of copying or translating errors that affect doctrine could also theoretically have crept into a particular manuscript, but we have so many copies of manuscripts dating back so many centuries that by comparing these with one another such mistakes can be discovered and corrected. In fact, none of the major Bible translations on the market today contains doctrinal errors. Although there are certain significant translational differences between the King James Bible and the modern translations (including many deficiencies in the latter), any discrepancies in most translations are corrected by other verses in that same version.

—An excerpt from In Defense of the Faith (pp. 111-12) by Dave Hunt