Everything You Need to Know AboutThe Bible’s historical blunders

From false historical claims to failed prophecies about events that have since passed, the Bible is filled with concerning blunders.

1Many languages were actually spoken around the world before the Tower of Babel story.

The Bible places the events of its Tower of Babel story around 1000 BCE. According to Genesis, before this time “the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech”. In reality, there were many spoken and written languages prior to the Tower of Babel events. Chinese was developed prior to 1200 BCE and speakers of several Semitic languages developed the Abjad and Consonantal alphabet prior to 1500 BCE. The oldest known text in the Sanskrit language, the Rigveda, dates to 1700-1100 BCE. Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to about 3100 BCE and Sumerian writings date as far back as 3200 BCE.

2Matthew's zombie uprising never actually happened.

Matthew claims that when Jesus died, graves were opened as zombies rose from them, and that this was seen by many people. If a city under Roman occupation was invaded by zombies don’t you think at least one contemporary historian would have written about it? Needless to say, there is not one historical documentation of an actual zombie uprising.

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Matthew 27:52-53

3There are still uncircumcised people living in Jerusalem.

Isaiah claims uncircumcised people would never enter Jerusalem again but there are still uncircumcised people living in Jerusalem even today.

Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.
Isaiah 52:1

4The Babylonian Exile lasted 48 years, not 70 years.

The Babylonian Exile only lasted 48 years, from 586 BCE when the temple was destroyed, until the return of the Israelites to their promised land in 538 BCE after Cyrus overthrew the Babylonian Empire. Jeremiah 29:10 & 2 Chronicles 36:21 falsely say the exile lasted 70 years.

5The story of Jericho is off by 900 years and Joshua never destroyed the wall.

The Bible says Joshua destroyed the wall of Jericho around 1400 BCE, but archaeological evidence shows that an earthquake destroyed the wall in 2300 BCE. The city was also thoroughly destroyed by a fire and then abandoned in 1600 BCE. Jericho was not inhabited again until 700 BCE. Not only was there no wall to tumble down, there also were no citizens to destroy at Jericho within centuries of the Bible’s Joshua story.

6Belshazzar was never king, nor was he related to Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 5:1-2 says Belshazzar was king of the Chaldean Empire (Babylon), and son/successor of Nebuchadnezzar. In reality, Nebuchadnezzar’s son and successor was Amel-Marduk. He was assassinated by his brother-in-law Nergal-Ashur-Usur, who took the throne. His reign was followed by his son, Labashi-Marduk, who was opposed by a faction that overthrew him and placed Nabu-naido on the throne. Belshazzar (who’s name was actually Bel-shar-utsur) was the son of Nabu-naido. He was never king, but the crown prince, and was not related to Nebuchadnezzar.

7King Nebuchadnezzar never conquered Egypt.

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He and his army – the most ruthless of nations – will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.
Ezekiel 30:10-11

Ezekiel predicts that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon will conquer Egypt, utterly destroying it, slaying and scattering its people. Nebuchadnezzar killed many Egyptians and even the Egyptian king Necho II during a battle in Carchemish, but he never conquered Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar attempted conquering Egypt in 601 BCE and failed. In 568 BCE he tried again but Egypt still survived and the pharaoh Amasis II continued his reign from 570 until 526 BCE.

Egypt was conquered by the Nubian King Piy in 728 BCE, the Persians in 525 BCE, and Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Never by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.

8Jesus was born during two historical events, that are over 10 years apart.

Luke 2:2 places the birth of Jesus during the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria for taxation purpose. The only census that was even close to being large enough to fit the Bible’s description happened in 6 CE, also Quirinius was not governor of Syria until 6 CE. Matthew 2:1 says Jesus was born in Judea, during the time of King Herod (aka Herod the Great). King Herod died in 4 BCE so according to Matthew, Jesus had to be born before 4 BCE which is 10 years before the census by Quirinius.

Jesus timeline

Apologists have tried to cover up this historical contradiction by making up the claim that there was an earlier census AND that Quirinius was also governor of Syria twice. However, Quirinius was never the governor of Syria prior to 6 CE and was the governor of Pamphylia-Galatia (in modern Turkey) during the last years of King Herod. Also, there was not another large census within 100 years prior to 6 CE.

Some apologists claim that in Matthew 2 “King Herod” refers to Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas. However, Matthew 2 is, in fact, talking about Herod the Great. It mentions that Herod is king of Judea and only Herod the Great was king of Judea. Antipas was only the ruler of Galilee and Perea. Also, Herod Antipas lived until 39 CE yet the Herod talked about in Matthew died while Jesus was a child according to Matthew 2:19.

9The world did not end thousands of years ago like Jesus said it would.

Jesus states in Matthew that all the signs marking the end of the world would be fulfilled before his generation ended, before the people that were standing in front of him “taste death.” Those people have been dead for over 2000 years and the world did not come to an end, neither have all those signs been fulfilled.

I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Matthew 16:28
I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
Matthew 23:36
I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Matthew 24:34

Recap

When looking at these false claims about history, along with the fact that the exodus and the Great Flood never happened, it is clear that the Bible was authored by fallible and imaginative men, with no divine guidance.