ContradictionsReading order 20Bible context 6 min read
Is it wrong to lie?
Broad condemnations of lying conflict with divine authorization of a lying spirit and favorable treatment of people who use deception.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
Categorical condemnation of lying conflicts substantially with God's explicit authorization of a lying spirit, while rescue narratives provide weaker supplementary evidence.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Deception is used by favored figures and authorized by God
And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
Exodus 1:18-20
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Exodus 1
And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them