Many people constantly accuse the Bible of having contradictions within it. One such alleged contradiction concerns the command not to boil the Passover lamb. In Exodus 12:8-9, Israel is forbidden to eat any of the lamb raw or to boil it in water. Similarly, in Deuteronomy 16:5-7, Moses’ instructions on eating the Passover include the command to cook it and eat it. Although the apparent contradiction is not present in many English translations, the issue is that the Hebrew of Exodus 12:8-9 says not to “boil [מְבֻשָּׁל] in water,” while Deuteronomy 16:7 uses the same verb while saying, “boil [וּבִשַּׁלְתָּ] and eat.” In other words, Exodus 12 says NOT to boil, and Deuteronomy says to boil and eat. What do we do with that? Resolving the Alleged Contradiction To answer this issue, we need to clarify that the Hebrew verb used (בשׁל) does not inherently mean “to boil.” It means…