Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · Introduction
Mark 2:26 and Abiathar: the verse that broke inerrancy for Ehrman
In short
- 1.Jesus in Mark 2:26 says David entered the house of God and ate the showbread "when **Abiathar** was high priest".
- 2.In 1 Samuel 21 the priest is **Ahimelech**, Abiathar's father.
- 3.Ehrman's Princeton essay argued the difficulty away; his professor's one-line comment was: "Maybe Mark just made a mistake."
- 4.Once one mistake is admitted, the whole inerrancy framework has to be rebuilt.
The claim being examined
For inerrantists, the original text of the Bible contains no historical mistakes; any apparent error must be a misunderstanding on the reader's part.
The Islamic position
Islam's claim about scripture is not that a text is faultless because tradition says so, but that revelation is preserved and verifiable. A doctrine that has to be rescued by strained readings invites exactly the scrutiny Q 2:79 raises.
Analysis
Ehrman recounts writing a long paper reconciling Mark 2:26 with 1 Samuel 21 by arguing that the Greek phrase means only that the episode occurs in the section of scripture where Abiathar is a major character. The simpler reading is that the Gospel writer misremembered. The point Ehrman draws is not that Mark is worthless but that the text is a human product with human characteristics, which is precisely what textual criticism assumes and inerrancy denies. Matthew and Luke, notably, both drop the priest's name when they reproduce the episode.
From the Qur'an
Q 2:79
فَوَيْلٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ
So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, 'This is from Allah.'
From the Bible
Mark 2:26
Greek: epi Abiathar archiereos
…in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence.
Read it in their Bible1 Samuel 21:1-6
Hebrew: Achimelech
David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest… so the priest gave him the holy bread.
Read it in their BibleSources
Bart D. Ehrman · Bart D. Ehrman, *Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why* (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), Introduction, pp. 8-9
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