Joseph Ibn Kaspi on the Contradictions in the Bible

One central feature of Maimonides’ Guide is his explaining the ways that different writings feature contradictions, listing seven possible categories. Joseph ibn Kaspi, one of the most interesting commentators on Maimonides Guide, applies these contradictions to the internal contradictions in the Hebrew Bible. Of the seven contradictions listed by Maimonides, Ibn Kaspi finds evidence of the first, fourth and seventh in the Bible. He recognizes the first, as the subjective influence of different biblical authors, which explains the different accounts of the same events. He sees the fourth where in one place it says that children are not punished for the sins of the parents, while later it says that children are punished for the sins of the parents. He also finds examples of the seventh in the relationship of God’s determinism and human freedom in the Bible. For example, in the cases of the flood and Sodom in Genesis, punishment is described as deterministically caused by God, without a description of the freedom to change and repent. In later books such as the Book of Jonah, the role of human freedom and initiative is emphasized. Ibn Kaspi sees the latter as the Bible’s true view and the former as the false view for the masses. One notable contradiction that is absent from the biblical text, according to Ibn Kaspi, is the fifth type of contradiction, the contradiction for the sake of pedagogy, which he writes is only found in the books of the philosophers, such as the Guide.