Biblical discrepancies

 One of the highlights of my week is the time I spend leading Bible studies in Maximum and Medium A at Drakenstein Correctional Centre.

Whatever the ostensible topic of the day, we always have wide ranging and hard hitting discussions in (I trust) Spirit-led directions.

Last week one of the men brought up a good illustration to explain some of the apparent discrepancies in biblical accounts.

In Medium A there are various rooms (cells) which accommodate everything from one to 20-30 men. Each has to produce a "room report" every day which provides details of everything that's happened within the room. A single cell example might start with the inmate taking off his shoes and leaving them outside the door when he went inside. A multiple-occupancy room report would have the men going inside with their shoes on.

Fast forward one hundred years to historians researching prison habits in twenty-first century Western Cape Correctional Centres. One historian is convinced that inmates have to be bare-footed inside the cells, no shoes are allowed. Another historian says that's rubbish; he has evidence of shoe-wearing within prison rooms. Without additional knowledge who can tell which historian is correct? How can the discrepancy be resolved?

With a little bit of extra information it's easy to see how both views can be reconciled.

A man in a single cell has to leave his shoes outside because shoelaces can be used to commit suicide. When there are multiple inmates in one room it's more difficult to use shoelaces to kill yourself without someone else noticing and intervening. Therefore there isn't the ban on shoes in rooms containing more than one person. Apparent discrepancy resolved.

Sometimes all we need is a bit more background information and the humilty to acknowledge that there might be things modern people don't know but original writers and readers did.