In the story of Noah and his ark, we are told that God instructed Noah to preserve a male and a female of every species of animal, presumably so that their populations could recover later. This is Genesis 6:19:
However, we are also told that God told Noah to take seven pairs of every clean animal. This is Genesis 7:2:
I can't really see this as a contradiction. The general idea is for there to be a male and a female of each species. However, more of the clean animals are needed, apparently so that Noah can sacrifice them, which he does at Genesis 8:20. I think it's reasonable that God can mention the general idea (two of each animal) and then later mention an exception (fourteen of each clean animal).
Things are made slightly tricky by Genesis 7:8-9:
Genesis 7:15 is similar. These verses seem to suggest that there were precisely two of every species (with no exceptions). However, it's arguable that these verses do not rule out the presence of more animals, but merely tell us that the main plan - to get at least one pair of every species on board - went ahead smoothly. The extra animals aren't mentioned here, being irrelevant to the main plan.
Alternatively, Looking Unto Jesus suggests that these verses are merely describing how the animals entered in an orderly fashion.
Perhaps neither solution is 100% satisfactory. This problem arguably borders on being Minor. I should note that it's fairly standard in Biblical scholarship to see these two passages as having been written by different authors, and then folded together later.
Updated: 2008-08-08
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