Contradiction Number 6

This one's easy to miss but highlights how even seemingly minor names can trigger big questions. In Genesis 10:24 and Genesis 11:12, Shelah is the son of Arphaxad. But in Luke 3:35-36, Luke inserts an extra generation: Shelah is the son of Cainan, who is the son of Arphaxad. This causes a problem not only for biblical consistency but also for how genealogies were preserved and transmitted.

It's not just a typo - the name Cainan appears nowhere in the Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts but does appear in some versions of the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. Some argue Luke was simply quoting from that Greek source, while others say Cainan may have been added to Luke's genealogy by later copyists. Theologically, this isn't earth-shattering - it doesn't affect doctrine - but it does chip away at the idea that genealogical records in the Bible are infallible or immune from scribal insertions.