BibleThe Bible is a big, thick book (a "tome", some might say) written 2000-6000 years ago. A superficial reading may initially lead to confusion; but careful further study and critical thinking will solve supposed contradictions. It seems like the Bible sometimes isn't read by skeptics with the same charity they read other books. What I mean is, if I was reading Shakespeare and found what I thought was a contradiction, I wouldn't think "Hmmm I guess I proved that this Shakespeare guy didn't know what he was doing." I'd probably assume that my naive interpretation was wrong; I'd need to do some more reading and thinking about the supposed problem, or consult an expert.

Here's a practical example. In Matthew 11:14 Jesus says John that Baptist "is the Elijah who was to come", but in John 1:21 when John the Baptist is asked if he is Elijah, he replies "I am not.". So who is right? At first glance it looks like a contradiction. But let's not just stop there, and let's give the work the same charity we would give any other writing to see if there's a reasonable explanation. What if Jesus was speaking figuratively while John the Baptist was speaking literally? Possible, but we'd need some evidence to back up this idea. Turns out this idea is confirmed by Luke 1:17, where John the Baptist is said to come "in the spirit and power of Elijah". So that verse confirms that Jesus was referring to a more figurative idea, while John the Baptist was refuting the crowd's question as to whether he was literally Elijah brought back to life … an idea which of course would be foreign to Jewish thought anyways.