Bible Writers Don't Know Math

All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword (1 Chronicles 21:5).

David called for a census to number Israel, much to the dismay of Joab. Nevertheless, the job was done, and the result: 1,100,000 men in Israel, and 470,000 men in Judah. Coming across as a shock to our belief in the inerrancy of Scriptures is the discrepancy of these numbers, cross-referenced in 2 Samuel:

And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men (2 Samuel 24:9).

According to 2 Samuel, Israel had 800,000 men – 300,000 men less than what was recorded by the chronicler! Also, 2 Samuel records that Judah had 500,000 men – 30,000 men more than the chronicler’s head count! How can this be? An error as big as the thousands does not augur well for the Bible’s much acclaimed reputation for its accuracy.

In fact, this is just one instance in the bible where the numbers don’t add up. There are many more discrepancies of this nature that occur many places elsewhere. There has got to be an answer to this puzzle. What exactly is the problem with numbers?

There are a few ways of interpreting these large numbers without denying the authority and accuracy of Scriptures. There are 3 ways of looking at numbers in the bible:

Firstly, the numbers can be taken as exact. This way of interpreting numbers stands in a majority of bible passages, where the amount is neither challenged nor fluctuated in parallel passages. But this explanation does not answer the chronicler’s inconsistency.

Secondly, the fluctuations can be attributed to a scribal error. There could be an early misunderstanding of the Hebrew word that is usually translated into thousands. Unfortunately, this point of view does not hold much water, because the original text with its exact arithmetic does not show any evidence of scribal errors.

Thirdly, the most plausible way to interpret those numbers is to accept the fact that there is more than 1 way to use numbers. With this understanding, numbers can be seen in 3 different ways:

1) The numbers can be precise, such as “three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour” (Numbers 15:9).

2) The numbers can be approximated, such as “about a day’s journey” (Numbers 11:31).

3) The numbers can be used in a rhetorical manner, where deliberate exaggeration is intentional for effect, such as “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold” (Genesis 4:24). Moses clearly used the rhetoric manner when he proclaimed: “The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!” (Deuteronomy 1:10-11).

Therefore, large numbers in the bible may have its origins from a combination of those 3 uses. The numbers may have started off as a precise statistic. Then, the numbers may have been approximated by rounding them to the nearest hundred. Then, the numbers may have been inflated (by a factor of 10, perhaps) in a rhetorical manner to evoke praise to God, just as Moses did.

As for Joab’s count of “men who drew the sword” in 1 Chronicles and “valiant men who drew the sword” in 2 Samuel, probably the numbers were not used in a rhetorical manner. The numbers were very unlikely to be inflated because the statistics were for the purpose of governance.

It is likely that the men in 1 Chronicles and 2 Samuel were numbered according to different standards. It may be speculated that different criteria were used to consider a man as able-bodied enough to be counted as military quality. At this point, the numbers started off as precise.

After that, the numbers in both cases were obviously approximated, as they are clearly rounded numbers. They must have been rounded off to the nearest hundred. Or to the nearest thousand, whichever seemed fit to the scribes.

In the conclusion of the matter, the “inconsistency” of numbers in the bible does not degrade its authority or reliability as the divine and inspired Word of God. The statistics in the bible are subject to the weakness of human interpretation. Nevertheless, the message content of the bible stands infallible.