SwedishChef said:
"There are no contradictions within these pages. "
I too used to think that was a true statement. That is until I had finished reading the Bible for the third time.
I also understand the people can explain away some minor understandings. Like did Jesus die on Passover or the day before? As you did with Josiah being buried in peace.
But, I will ask about a couple that seem to cause me some great concern.
When the Israelites left Egypt God gave them the Ten Commandments one of which is You Must Not Kill. Then he told them 40 Years later to wipe out the inhabitents of the Promised Land. Even the children.
God wanted men and woman to not divorce, yet after the return from Babylon, Ezra made them divorce their foreign Wives.
The Bible states that the dead are conscious of nothing. But, many can find scriptures that support the dead going to Heaven and Hell.
The Bible clearly teaches that a man is responsible for the welfare of children, but God told Abraham to toss his First Born Son out of his camp with his mother to be on their own.
God said that the sacrifice of Children never came into his mind as a way to Worship God. Yet he told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. He allowed his own son to be sacrificed for the sins of the world.
I understand that some will always go back to the end justifies the means and that God can resurrect all dead ones and make things better after the second coming of Jesus. But if you can not even acknowledge that there are some apparent contradictions in the Bible then I doubt that you have really read the Bible with an attempt to obtain a deep understanding of what is found in the pages of the Bible.