"How many horsemen did David capture?"

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"How many horsemen did David capture?"

2 Samuel 8:4 And David took from him 1,700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough for 100 chariots.

1 Chronicles 18:4 And David took from him 1,000 chariots, 7,000 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for 100 chariots.

The story of David is told twice in the Bible, once across 1 Sam 16 to 1 Kings 2 and again in 1 Chronicles. Here we have near identical verses from both sources describing the same event, but with one important distinction: The chariots are not referenced in 2 Samuel and a different number of horsemen are listed, 1,700 versus 7,000. This may seem like an insignificant discrepancy, but what does this difference tell us about the sources themselves? Was this an error? How can we know what the original text said if one of these numbers is incorrect?

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"Is the Israelite population described in the Book of Numbers reliable or reasonable?"

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"Is the Israelite population described in the Book of Numbers reliable or reasonable?"
Numbers 1:45-46 So all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers' houses, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel — all those listed were 603,550.

It can certainly be questioned if the Exodus ever happened at all, but assuming it did, are the population numbers described in the Book of Numbers reasonable? What kind of impact would a population of nearly 2 million Israelites have on the region? Are there any translation complications that might explain the seemingly high numbers? When were these bible stories written and could the time between the event and its transcription account for any inflated or exaggerated values?

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"How were humans created?"

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"How were humans created?"
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

According to the Bible, God created male and female in his image, fully formed as they still appear today. Genesis 1 is actually the first of two different creation stories in Genesis, but regardless of the differences, how well does either story comport with modern science and what we understand about human development?

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"How old is the Earth?"

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"How old is the Earth?"
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Christian Bible tells us that the Earth is the first thing that God created, along with "the heavens". Why doesn't the Bible explicitly state when the creation occurred in relation to the time the Bible was written? What can science tell us about the origins of the Earth? Do our observations of the universe conflict with the Bible? How old do other religions claim the Earth to be and do their holy books support different conclusions?

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"Were the Hebrews actually held as slaves in ancient Egypt?"

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"Were the Hebrews actually held as slaves in ancient Egypt?"
Exodus 5:1-2 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

The book of Exodus is named specifically for the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, but how certain are we that this actually took place? This is a very specific historical claim about an ancient civilization that we have learned a great deal about through archeology. What historical evidence do we have that the Hebrews were held as slaves by the Egyptians? Are the population figures described in the Book of Numbers reliable or reasonable?

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"Is there any evidence of an unusually long day as described in Joshua?"

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"Joshua 10:12-14 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
    and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
    until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel."

This event seems suspiciously absent from the stories of other ancient cultures during the same period. Wouldn't such a suspension of physics cause all sorts of other catastrophes around the world? Why is the sun described as having "stopped in the midst of heaven"? Is the sky the same thing as heaven? Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the Earth stopped rotating on its axis? Why would God do this just to support the violence and killing perpetrated by Joshua? What is the Book of Jashar and why is it not included in the Bible?

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"Was there really a global flood?"

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Genesis 7:17-20 The flood continued for forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains covering them fifteen cubits deep.

Do we have any evidence of a global flood? Where did all of the water come from? How much would it have to rain to cover the planet with water above the highest mountains?

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