WHO WAS KISH'S FATHER?

The skeptic Rayan Zehn tackles another biblical contradiction here with the following words:

    “There are a few people named Kish in the Bible, but for the purpose of this post I will be referring         only to Kish, the father of Saul... It should come as no surprise...that every once in a while the Bible      mixes up paternity test results. This appears to be the case with Kish. Who is his father?

            In I Samuel 9:1 we discover that Kish came from Abiel’s seed.

            Then we flip to I Chronicles 8:33 and find that Kish’s father is Ner."

Actually, both I Samuel 9:1 and 14:50-51 are in agreement that Kish's father was Abiel. And the latter account explains that Ner was Kish's brother. However, I Chronicles 8:30 and 9:36 appear to give the name Ner as Saul's grandfather instead. To most people, this would appear to be no big deal since it is a minor point upon which no biblical doctrine depends. But even such trivial discrepancies have the effect of bothering both atheists and believers alike, even though most biblical scholars tend to ignore the apparent contradiction altogether. For those who are concerned, however, several commentators have attempted to reconcile the varying accounts.

    McCarter merely says, “Until a better solution is proposed, we must assume that this was an error on the Chronicler's part, arising perhaps from misinterpretation of the information given in the present passage [i.e., I Samuel 14:50-51].”

    But Williamson, writing on I Chronicles 8:30, throws out another proposal: “A. Demsky...has suggested that the list [in vv. 29-40] combines both vertical and horizontal elements, which helps to explain the tension concerning the position of Kish.” He is referring to the two basic ways in which genealogical information is generally presented in the Bible. In other words, it does not list names strictly from father to grandfather to great-grandfather, but may interrupt it to list names in the collateral line as well.

    “Flanagan thinks that Ner was elevated to the vertical line above Kish and Saul [in I Samuel 14:49-51] because of his importance in I Chr. 8:33-40 and 9:39-43.” (Tsumura) This possibility may sound strange, but we should not discount the fact that often the Bible presents these genealogies, not just to convey boring historical facts, but in such a way as to highlight one person or another in the lists. Just look at Jesus' genealogy given at the start of Matthew's Gospel. Comparison of these names with Old Testament genealogies containing the same people shows that Matthew has purposely left out a number of generations in order that every seventh name of the list will be a prominent personage. This is not the least “cheating” since the word “father” can also refer to a grandfather or other male in the persons lineage.

    “A comparison of I Sa. 9:1 with I Sa. 14:51 will show that Kish and Ner were brothers. Hence scholars my be correct in proposing here [in I Chronicles]: 'And Ner begat Abner, and Kish begat Saul', although there is no support from mss. [i.e. manuscripts] or versions. The Hebrew seems incompatible with I Sa. 9:1, but this could be corrected to read 'Kish, the son of Ner, the son of Abiel.'” (Ellison)

    “These two positions seem to be irreconcilable. However, 'Kish' in I Chr. 9:36 and Ner's son 'Kish' in I Chr. 9:39 could be different persons, based on the way the genealogical data are treated in vv. 35-44. For one thing, the narrator first lists ten sons of Jaiel [i.e. Abiel] in vv. 36-37; then after making a brief reference to the last son Mikloth in v. 38, the narrator moves on to trace in detail the lineage of Ner (vv. 39-44), whose first son was Kish, the father of Saul...In this structure, Saul's father, Kish, is the grandson of Abiel; see 'Kish, son of Abiel' (I Sam. 9:1); this is supported by the usage of ben [i.e. 'son'] which sometimes refers to a grandson.” (Tsumura)

Thus, there are actually several ways to explain away this “contradiction.”