Dear Bryon:

There are no contradictions in the Bible in its religious teaching. There are several "apparent" contradictions that turn out to not be contradictions when properly interpreted.

There are other passages that are merely two different views of the same story, but either version does not change the facts. An example of this is that one writer says that Judas hung himself. Another writer says that Judas jump into a pit of fire. The reason for the different stories is that no one really knew how Judas killed himself. There were several stories going around.

If does not matter.

The point is that Judas killed himself. It does not matter how he did it.

There are other factual contradictions but none of these matters. The Bible is NOT a book of science, psychology, history, or anthropology. It is a book of religion that reveals the message of God to his people.

In its religious message there are no contradictions.

As far as various laws in the Old Testament there were many practices in the Old Testament that were contrary to what God intended. Moses allowed divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of the people but Jesus tells us that God never intended this.

As far as the specific law of the death penalty for witchcraft, idolatry was punishable by death in those days.

The Death Penalty per se does not violate to contradict the Fifth Commandment of "Thou shall not kill." The Church teaches that the Death Penalty can be done, and even be a responsibility of the state if that is the only way to protect society. Today there is little excuse for the death penalty, but in times past it was the only option available to adequately protect society.

The Catechism states:

2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

It is also permissible to kill to defend oneself or to defend one's family if that is the only way to protect oneself or one's family.

It is hard for us in the 21st century to understand how idolatry could be such a threat to society that it warrants the death penalty, but it did back then. At the time there was a major concern for contamination against the faith that would disrupt all of society. Idolatry was a MAJOR problem back then and is one of the reasons why Israel was in trouble so much of the time. So, at the time, idolatry was so disruptive to society that the death penalty was imposed to protect the society.

Under certain circumstances killing to defend oneself, to protect society against a criminal, or to protect a nation in war against an aggressor is permitted and it not a contradiction or violation of the Fifth Amendment.

As it is with any Bible passage, scriptures CANNOT be taken out of context but must be interpreted in the fuller context of the passage, the book, the entire Bible, and the Magisterial understandings of the Church.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary