When looking at contradictions, it's important to be aware that the "Bible" wasn't written as a cohesive text, but was assembled from a multitude of other works, basically as a power structure and means to gain political influence. Gnosticism is almost completely omitted, and much of what we find in the New Testament was the work of Paul, who was almost certainly either a Gentile, or a late conversion to Judaism, especially considering that almost all of the works ascribed to him are in conflict with Judaism itself, and Jesus was, first and foremost, a Jew.
What most people refer to as "Christianity" is actually only Christian-based religion, using the Bible as it's canonical text; many gospels, which we've discovered via the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Apocryphal books in the Catholic Bible, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and the library at Hammurabi, were omitted. It's natural, under those circumstances, for there to be inconsistencies when examined in fine detail, since they're different works, by different authors, many with completely different perspectives.
There is sooooo much more to Christianity than the "Bible", but unfortunately, most of the religions founded on Christianity use it as the only common canonical reference...
