Discrepancy

Deep math meets computer science over
a hugely diverse range of topics:
an amazing book!

The title seems to be a play on the "Probabilistic Method,"
a better-known cousin of the Discrepancy Method. The book
covers an unusual mix of topics, and is very well-written.

This is a well researched book, summarizing all the arguments on the topic of the over 200 years missing from the traditional Jewish chronology.

However, the presentation is confusing and repetitious. And the conclusion, that the Talmud got his numbers wrong, does not jive with the supposed belief of the Author in standard Orthodox Jewish dogma. This link is still missing.

At first W. Chambers claimed that Alger Hiss and others were secret Communists whose purpose was to influence policy (from 1939 to November 1948). After being sued for slander Chambers produced 69 documents to support his claim of spying. Chambers earlier stated he was a Communist until "1935", or "early 1937", or "the end of 1937", or "the spring of 1937". The documents were dated between January 5 and April 1 of 1938. Chambers then changed his story to leaving on April 15, 1938. You can judge his veracity by this. Note his memory of wallpaper patterns!

The original State Department files were rated "classified" to "secret". Most consisted of trade agreements, which were of commercial, not political, importance. When Chambers learned that Alger Hiss could not type, he then claimed Priscilla did it! (Did writer and translator Chambers ASSUME that other men had this skill?) The most telling fact about these documents is that most had never been routed through sections where either Alger or Donald Hiss had worked! This discrepancy has never been explained. When the contents of the three rolls of microfilm were released in 1975, they were found to be Navy Dept instructions on how to use life rafts, fire extinguishers, and chest parachutes. Where did they come from?

The biggest lie of all is Chamber's claim that the stored documents were a "life preserver". Because they had no value without his testimony to corroborate them! He should have seen a lawyer, made a notarized statement, and left immortal testimony. But then it couldn't be changed to explain new facts.

The publishers put a new cover on this 1874 text as though it were current, but it is only of historical value. We've learned a lot about the Bible and ancient Israel in the last 127 years.

The author doesn't even do what he proposes; many of the "explanations" consist of saying that he doesn't understand it but he believes that there is no contradiction or he proposes outlandish explanations that conflict with the clear meaning of the text. I think this undermines the Bible's reliability - if it doesn't mean what it says, how can I trust anything it says!

A quaint book with some interesting explanations.

This book surveys the Bible's apparent contradictions. The book begins by explaining the origin, design, and results of these apparent contradictions. Next, the book cites each set of apparently contradictory verses and summarizes the explanations Biblical scholars give to resolve the apparent contradictions. The summaries are clear and brief, sufficient to satisfy the believer's concerns. The summaries don't seem likely to convince the unsympathetic non-believer, though.

Interesting note: It looks like the publisher took the galleys from a very old book called _Discrepancies of the Bible_, slapped a new cover on it, added "Alleged" to the title, and put it on the market. The book's typography, except for the title and copyright pages, looks like something from 1900. It's telling that no work cited in the bibliography was published later than 1845! I did not find this to hinder the book's usefulness, however.

Although this work is old, it is, in many ways, still up to date.
It brings together Scriptures that apparently contradict one another and shows how they can be reconciled.

These discrepancies are resolved hermenutically (interpretationally), not so much archaeologically. Therefore, most resolutions do not depend upon discoveries made in the 125 years since the book was originally authored. One could probably find similiar reconciliations by digging through commentaries, but we often want a quick and ready answer, and Haley often comes through. His answers are brief and understandable--no fluff. Although not all of his reconciliations are satsifying, most are.

This is a reference book, not a book for reading. But it sure comes in handy. Gleason Archer's book, "Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties" is much more thorough about the subjects it covers (and I highly recommend it), but it only address a fraction of the passages addressed here by Haley.

Along with Bullinger's "Figures of Speech Used in the Bible," both of these 19th century volumes have no worthy modern replacements.