Incidental Discrepancies
When we read the Bible as it has come to us, we find some discrepancies or apparent discrepancies that are not detrimental to the divine inspiration of the Bible and that in most cases can be readily explained. Take, for instance, the case of large numbers in the historical books of the Bible. A few examples will illustrate the issue at hand. According to 1 Chronicles 19:18, David defeated the Arameans, killing 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. In 2 Samuel 10:18 the numbers given are 700 charioteers and 40,000 horsemen. In 1 Kings 4:26 we are told that Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses, while in 2 Chronicles 9:25 we read that he had 4,000 stalls. In 2 Kings 24:8 Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, but in 2 Chronicles 36:9 the age given is 8 years. There are several ways of dealing with these discrepancies in order to harmonize them. The most common way, offered by conservative theologians, is to treat these as transcriptional errors made by the scribes. GOP 99.2
We can also postulate that some of the numbers were simply taken from the sources used by the biblical writer. We do know that the author of Chronicles used several sources, and a number of them are mentioned in the text. For instance, reference is made to “the account of the chronicles of King David” (1 Chron. 27:24, NKJV) and “the book of the kings of Judah and Israel” (2 Chron. 25:26, NKJV). These are most probably court records to which the biblical writer had access and from which information was obtained in the composition of the biblical book. Perhaps it would be appropriate to conclude that in some of the cases dealing with numbers and the use of different names for the same person the biblical writer was following the sources used. In a sense this is similar to cases in which, because of what appears to be a slip of memory, a biblical writer assigns a particular quote to the wrong person (Matthew 27:9; the quote is not from Jeremiah but from Zechariah 11:12, 13). These inconsequential discrepancies are not incompatible with the biblical understanding of revelation/inspiration, because they do not undermine the reliability and trustworthiness of the Scriptures. Perhaps the most we can say is that since in the revelation/inspiration processGOP 100.1
the guidance of the Holy Spirit respected human modes of thinking and writing, we should not expect to find in Scripture the absolute perfection that belongs only to the inner life of the Trinity. On the contrary, we should not be surprised to find in Scripture imperfections and limitations that essentially belong to human modes of knowing and writing. GOP 100.2