One of the most ironic and sad things I have seen is Jewish "anti-missionaries" who "get in bed" with skeptics and use their arguments against the NT. I would ask such persons: If, for example, you cite contradictions among accounts in the Gospels, what of similar "contradictions" in the OT, such as between Kings and Chronicles? It apparently does not occur to such AMs that they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

Our third and last mini-essay on the yellownet AM site addresses their charges of contradiction in the NT. As these are overwhelmingly "old hat" it will simply be a matter of providing links as a reference for anyone who comes across this site. There is little new to read here and regular readers may wish to skip this one if they do not have one of the issues below in mind. Anything that is new to this site I have indicated with a triple star (***).

• Mark 8:12/John 12:37
• Mark 6:5
• John 5:31/8:14 -- the site also charges that:

  Furthermore, to make matters even more confused and conflicted, this passage was added to the Christian Bible in the sixth century. It is first found in a paper called "Liber Appologeticus" in the fourth century. It is noted that the words are sixth century additions to the original text. The footnote in the Jerusalem Bible, a Catholic translation, says these words are "not in any of the early Greek manuscripts or in the earliest manuscripts of the Vulgate itself."

  I have found no confirmation of this at all.

• John 16:5 is misquoted. It says, "But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?" The AM site omits the, "But now..." to make a contradiction.
• ***In John, chapter 7, verse 38, Jesus reportedly says: "Scripture said: 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water'." There is no such passage in the Hebrew Tanach or anything resembling it. Answer: Witherington's commentary on John [173] notes that Sirach 24:30-32 reflects a similar saying: "As for me, I was like a canal from a river, like a water channel into a garden. I said, 'I will water my garden and drench my flower-beds' And lo, my canal became a river, and my river a sea...I will again pour out teaching like prophecy, and leave it to all future generations." This comes after a discussion of Wisdom/Torah as being a source of a river of wisdom. Note that "scripture" (graphe) is a word for any written document and does not apply exclusively to the OT.
• Matthew 2:23
• ***John 17:12 mentions a "son of perdition" and says the "scriptures are being fulfilled." There is no reference, however, to a "son of perdition" in the Tanach. Nothing here requires that the phrase "son of perdition" be in the OT. The verse says refers back to 13:18, "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me." Reference is to Ps. 41:9. The AM site may of course argue against validity of application, but cannot argue against the process, which is typical exegesis for the period -- see here.
• Matthew 23:35
• On the genealogies of Jesus and the "Jeconiah problem"
• ***Matthew 11:14/John 1:21, and Luke 7:19-20 -- see here also for some new comments
• John 5:22, 8:15, etc. as well as Matthew 7:1. Matthew 19:28 refers to "judging" in the sense of ruling, as with the "judges" in the book of Judges (as I note in The Mormon Defenders against a Mormon apologist who makes the same mistake!).
• 1 Cor. 11:14
• Matthew 5:8/10:34
• Answered by this -- the AM site fails to recognize that to see Jesus (John 14:9) is not to see the face of God, but to see an attribute and expression of God.
• ***According to Acts 7:53 and Galations 3:19, the Holy Torah was given to the Jewish people by "angels." But, according to Exodus 20:1, it was given to Moses by G-d: "And G-d spoke all these words." This AM site needs a little more familiarity with their own Jewish background material. The word for "angels" means messengers and this is in line with the NT-era Jewish understanding of Wisdom as a messenger through whom the transcendent God's commands were delivered. Moreover, contemporary Jewish tradition regarded angels as having a "positive role in the giving of the Law (cf. Deut. 32:2 LXX; Ps. 67:18 LXX; Jub. 1:27-29...)" [Witherington, Galatians commentary, 257] and the rabbis also spoke of angels descending at the time the law was given (Pesiq R 21).
• See here and here.
• See here and here (sections on Jesus as a Zealot/militant)
• On the timing of the Last Supper
• On sacrifices and blood
• Matt. 7:21 (here used against Rom. 10:13)
• Eccles. 1:4//2 Peter 3:10
• John 5:31//8:14
• Matthew 17:11//Mark 9:2//Luke 9:28
• ***The claim is made that Jesus "justified" the sinner (Romans 4:5; Romans 15:9). But, the Bible in Proverbs 17, verse 15 teaches that "He who justifies the sinner is an abomination to G-d." Prov. 17:15 says, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD." Rom.4:5 (15:9 says nothing of this sort) makes God the "justifier," not Jesus. Nothing in Proverbs says that God is not permitted to show mercy to the wicked. We do not have that prerogative, and God does not "justify" by releasing the wicked from their charges (which is what Proverbs is condeming) but because the people trust in His grace -- and this is no more and no less than what Judaism itself says even now!

  Rom. 4:3-6 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works...

  ---

  Here is a second set from the same site.

• (noted twice)John 7:8-10
• John 13:38/Mark 14:66-8
• ***Jesus told the thief on the cross: "Verily I say unto thee, 'Today shalt thou be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43)." This prophecy could not have been kept unless Jesus went to heaven that day, in which case he would not have been buried for three days. This one really makes me scratch my head! So if Jesus' body is in the tomb, the spirit of Jesus cannot go to Paradise?
• Mark 8:34
• Matthew 23:17-19//Luke 11:40
• Matthew 12:40
• John 3:13 -- see here and here.
• Luke 11:47 -- no specific example is given to prove the claim that Jesus "had such ancestral killers if Christians want to claim he is a descendant of King David through King Solomon..."
• See here (re Hosea 6:2)
• Mark 10:18
• Matt. 13:31-2
• ***This one is a real oddity: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44) versus "And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, 'Thou art Christ the Son of God'" (Luke 4:41).Jesus disconfirmed his own acclaimed divinity, unless some devils are more honest than "the devil." Well, that makes sense. So we are to take this to mean that the devil and his cohorts never say anything true? It doesn't mean that -- and this AM site needs a lesson in their own culture's use of extreme language.
• See our piece on the trial of Jesus
• Mark 16:17-18 -- notably our AM site seems aware of textual issues, for it says, "It's far more practical to rationalize the verse away." That would be a dishonest way of putting it!
• Matt. 17:20
• Matt. 5:14//John 9:5
• ***"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8). Equate this with John 9:31 which states "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." Everyone who asks receives; yet, according to Jesus' teachings, God doesn't hear sinners and is far from the wicked. This one is so clumsy I see no reason to make an entry for it. Do these AMs know their own Jewish literary heritage of hyperbole?

  Gen. 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

  If Cain thought "every one" would slay him, he sure felt differently when he took a wife.

  Eccl. 10:13 Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

  Wow! That fool must have had a loud mouth to tell all 20-50 million people on earth at the time about himself, or he must have had some weird way of spreading the news. :-)

  Jer. 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

  Everyone? Including Jeremiah? I think our point is made. It is absurd to take a didactic, proverbial exemplar as a literal application.

• A snide remark is offered that "the first beings to recognize the acclaimed messiahship of Jesus were devils, the most corrupt and deceitful of all beings." (re Mark 3:11). This is false, whatever it would be worth anyway, since the confessions in John 1 by Nathaneal and others came before this chronologically, and the voice of God recognized Jesus' sonship and status at his own baptism rather before Mark 3:11 and parallels.
• Matt. 20:23//28:16
• A second use of Luke 11:47; see above.
• John 8:50, 12:23, 17:5
• ***"Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matthew 24:23-24) versus "The same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me" (John 5:36, see also John 3:2, 20:30-31, and Matthew 11:20-21). According to Jesus, the ability to do great signs and wonders (miracles), does not prove one is the messiah. Yet, he contends his works prove he is from God. Using Jesus' own criteria, how do we know he is genuine and authentic? John 5:36 uses the word ergon, which does not mean miracles but works generally -- this is in line with the principle that it is by one's fruit that one will know a person. It does not refer to miracles alone. John 3:2 does use such a word, but it is in a statement said by Nicodemus. John 20:30-1 uses such a word as well, but only says that Jesus did miracles and does not say that these were sole and unusual witnesses to Jesus' work. On Matt. 11:21 see here; the AM site misuses this verse.
• See above on signs.
• ***"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28) in comparison with: "Yea, all kings shall fall down before him (the messiah): all nations shall serve him" (Psalm 72:11) and "That all people, nations, and languages, should serve him" (Daniel 7:14) and "All dominions shall serve and obey him" (Daniel 7:27). Yes, this is fine -- what of it? The Son of Man cannot have varied duties over time? I think our AM site has been reading skeptical material a little too much. They may want to think about how skeptics use the same reasoning within the OT to ask such questions as whether God repents or not.