The Bible/Questions about the Bible
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Sola scriptura
Sola scriptura: may we rely on the Word of God and not on the words of mere man.
Warning: I am providing my interpretations of and insights about the Bible in the hopes that they might be useful. (It's also helpful for my own personal understanding of the Bible to try to explain it to others.) But relying on anyone else (especially me) to interpret the Bible for you is risky business indeed!
It is my hope that my writings about the Bible will not be used as a substitute for the Real Thing, but will draw you into it and lead you to read the Bible itself all the more. Please don't just accept my second-hand interpretations of Scripture (or anyone else's, for that matter). Instead, I urge you to read the Bible first-hand, to discover for yourself what it has to say, and to let the Bible interpret itself.
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[edit] Intro
I come up with many questions as I'm reading the Bible. Some of the questions are not really all that important in the grand scheme of things; I ask them merely because I'm curious. Other questions seem pretty important to my theology, so for these questions, I'm not content just to ask the questions: I'd like to also seek out the answers to these questions.
In a sense, I am defending my theology, my beliefs about God; I am being an apologist (see wikipedia:Apologetics).
I don't believe the Bible needs defending; I believe the Bible can defend itself. So perhaps the reason I am taking up the defensive is to help show that the Bible can be trusted!
I don't think God minds us asking hard questions about the Bible. In many cases, I believe the answers to our questions about the Bible can be found in the Bible itself and are just waiting for us to find them! That, I believe, is the best way to answer my questions, and the most reliable. But when that isn't an option, I may choose to attempt an educated guess as to what the answer is, based on historical/archaeological/cultural evidence. Or I may just list out all the possible answers that are feasible, if one best answer doesn't present itself.
I will seek God's help in answering these questions and ask him for wisdom. I don't expect him to just dictate the answers to me -- although I do believe God can and does sometimes use that means of communication! --, but rather to point out the answer in Scriptures or other trustworthy sources. (Even if God did answer my questions directly, no one would believe me if I said so, and I want to strengthen other people's faith too, not just my own.)
[edit] General
[edit] How should we related to resources other than The Bible?
What role should they have in our lives?
If the Bible is all we need and our final authority in all things (Sola Scriptura), then what do we need other resources?
Other resources lend insight into Bible verses... but they sometimes provide supplemental information that isn't contained in the Bible. Should we throw them out then?
What place should the writings of Ellen White (AKA, the Spirit of Prophecy) have in our lives?
— Tyler (2006-08-05 14:35)
[edit] How much are we required to know about the Bible?
How much does God expect us to know about the Bible?
There are people who get degrees in theology, who make it their life's work to study the Bible. They put the rest of us to shame. Is God more pleased with these Bible scholars than he is with those of us who know very little about the Bible?
This is, I think, a very important question. For if God expects us to be expert Bible scholars--or if that is a prerequisite for going to heaven--then a lot of us are in big trouble!
Fortunately, I don't think we will be judged according to what we don't know, but by what we do know.
[edit] Regarding specific passages in the Bible
[edit] Why don't people live for 900+ years any more, like they did in Genesis 5 (NIV)?
Because God decided to limit our days.
- When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
Why did he do that? Because men were marrying beautiful women? No, I doubt it. What's wrong with marrying a beautiful women? Because of polygamy?? Maybe it's because they were marrying women plural... Maybe they were reproducing too rapidly??
I don't really know.
[edit] Why did God destroy life on the earth with a flood?
[Questions to ask God (category)]
Why the long, drawn-out process (100 years+) of building a boat, then causing the flood waters to rise until they covered the tallest mountain, and then waiting for the flood waters to recede again?
Why not choose something more instantaneous?
Was it so that people other than Noah's family had a chance to be saved? Where does it say that Noah preached to the people and invited them to be saved in the ark? I don't see that anywhere in Genesis 7 (NIV), but I've heard of that part of the story in modern retellings of the story. Did people just make that part up?
[edit] The Flood: Were the plants and other species saved too?
[Questions to ask God (category)]
Genesis 7:14 (NIV) tells us that all the animals and even the flying insects were saved, but it says nothing about the plants. And what about the nonflying insects... the creepy crawly insects?
[edit] What does it mean, "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood"?
[Interpretation (category)]
- The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
[edit] Why did Noah curse the Canaanites after Ham noticed he was naked?
It was Noah who had gotten drunk and was lying naked in his tent. How is Ham to blame here? Why was Noah so upset with him?
- ...
- Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.
- When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said,
- "Cursed be Canaan!
- The lowest of slaves
- will he be to his brothers."
- ...
Harsh!
[edit] Why did Jesus let satan tempt him in the desert for 40 days?
What the Bible says: Luke 4:1-13 (NIV)
- Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. [...]
Granted, Jesus did overcome every one of the temptations, quoting the relevant law from Scripture to point out how in each case giving in to temptation would be a violation of God's holy law.
But why on earth would he put himself in such a vulnerable situation? Being without food for 40 days, he would've had to have been very hungry -- almost dead from starvation! In such a state it would've been harder even than usual to resist temptation.
It says, "The devil led him up to a high place..." and "The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple." My question is: Why did Jesus let satan lead him along to these places? Why did he indulge satan's wishes?
I guess he went to be tempted because he was lead by the Spirit! Strange. Elisabeth Elliot writes (in God's Guidance, p. 27), "We read that after Jesus was baptized, he was lead by the Spirit into the wilderness for the express purpose of being tempted by the devil. Led to be tempted. But we are not to ask for that--again, no inflated ideas of of our own heroic strength. We are weak and easily tempted to sin, so we ask the opposite."
[edit] Luke 4:23-29 (NIV): Why were the people so angry at hearing this?
He told the story of Elijah briefly and how Elijah was sent to a widow in Zarepheth rather to any of the widows in his hometown. It was probably apparent to them that he was comparing himself to Elijah and the people of Nazareth to the widows and Elijah's hometown.
They probably saw that he was implying that he, like Elijah, might be sent to/accepted by other towns than his hometown of Nazareth. Why would this be so upsetting to them? And why would they be so willing to fulfill the very words he just expressed by rejecting him?!
And a similar question: Why did Jesus say it? Didn't he know that it would provoke them to anger? did he have to say it to fulfill prophecy or something?
[edit] Why were demons so intent on telling everyone that Jesus is the Son of God?
What the Bible says: Luke 4:33-34 (NIV), ...
Wouldn't that be to the detriment of satan's cause for people to find out that truth? Or were these demons just not being team players?
See also: Why did God not want people to know that he was the Son of God?
[edit] Why did God not want people to know that he was the Son of God?
As evidenced by:
- Luke 4:33-35 (NIV): "Be quiet!"
[edit] Luke 7:31-35 (NIV): "We played the flute for you and you did not dance"??
I don't understand this text at all!
What does "We played the flute for you and you did not dance" mean?
How is that part related to verses 33-34?
"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
- " 'We played the flute for you,
- and you did not dance;
- we sang a dirge,
- and you did not cry.' 33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' 34The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' 35But wisdom is proved right by all her children."
[edit] Daniel 9: The 430 year prophecy
- "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
70 prophetic weeks = 490 prophetic days = 490 years => 34 AD
7 weeks + 62 weeks = 69 weeks = 483 years => 27 AD
- 457 BC: The decree of Artexerxes (there were 3 or 4 decrees; we are interested in the one about the temple and the city (Jerusalem))
- +7 weeks = 408 BC: Time to rebuild city
- 27 AD (the start of the week): Messiah the Prince; Baptism/annointing of Jesus; The Holy Spirit descended as a dove on Jesus; God the Father confirmed Jesus
- Confirming the Covenant to the "many" (the Jews)
- 31 AD (the middle of the week): Christ is crucified. "Bring an end to sacrifice." The veil in the temple was torn as a sign of this.
- The new covenant. Was given to the Jews first.
- 34 AD (the end of the week): The stoning of Stephen.
- 70 AD: The destruction of Jerusalem
(0 AD = 1 BC; 0 BC = 1 AD)
The transition from the covenant being just for the Jews to it being for the Gentiles as well:
- Acts 3: to the Jews
- Acts 7: The stoning of Stephen
- Acts 13: To the Gentiles
The stoning of Stephen
- Sanhedrin council was present
- "Covenant lawsuit"
- Gift of prophecy
- Witnessed by Saul (the start of his conversion?)
[edit] Regarding translation/language
[edit] "I tell you, today ..." or "I tell you today, ..."?
— Tyler (2006-05-09)
Why do so many people think Jesus said, "I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."? Why do most Bible translations have it that way?
The correct translation, when you put the comma in the right place, is clearly: "I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise."
[edit] Do "talents" refer to a measurement of money or a skill/ability?
[English ambiguity (category)]
Because I always thought it was a measure of money. But then I've heard people talk about the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30 (NLT)) as if it were about talents in the usual sense as it is used in English ("to have a talent for ___ing") and it made me question whether they were right or just confused (I think they were confused/misinformed).
bible.org: The Talents (http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=2278).
It is unfortunate that this is called the parable of the talents because we think of spiritual gifts when we hear the word “talents,” but talents were just money. This is talking about money and responsibility in a general sense.
...
Talent = 6,000 days wages. About $250,000 in modern terms at minimum wage.
Parable of the Talents - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Talents).
The parable tells of a master who was leaving his home to travel, and before going gave his three servants different amounts of money. On returning from his travels, the master asked his servants for an account of the money given to them. The first servant reported that he was given five talents, and he had made five talents more. The master praised the servant as being good and faithful, gave him more responsibility because of his faithfulness, and invited the servant to be joyful together with him.
...
The parable is apparently the origin of the use of the word "talent" to use a skill or ability, from the common interpretation of the story to teach that we are under a moral obligation to use our abilities rather than bury them; compare the phrase in Milton's sonnet on his blindness,
Interesting! I wonder how much truth there is to that bold claim! So they're saying that the original meaning of "talent" was money and only later did it start to mean skill or ability (which is the only meaning most people living today are probably aware of).
The Daily Walk Bible, p. 566 (Esther 3):
One commentator has valued the Hebrew talent of silver at $12,000.
[edit] History of/origin of/writing of/canonization of the Bible
[edit] Who wrote the book of Job?
Was it written by someone who actually was there, someone who actually heard the conversations (Job or one of his 4 friends)? Or was it by someone else and God dictated the words of those conversations to them?
Did they write down the conversations right after they happened (in a "journal" at the end of each day perhaps)? Or was it written down in one shot after all of those events had happened?
How could anyone remember the words said in all of those lengthy conversations/debates? And get all the little details right? That's a long book (42 chapters, and 37 pages in my Bible)! How accurate is it? How did the author or authors do it?
It seems doubtful that one of Job's 3 friends (whose arguments pretty much got refuted) would have taken it upon themselves to document all of that... The most likely person I can think of who might have authored the book would have been Job himself... but that's just a guess.
[edit] Why aren't the books of the Bible in chronological order?
Esther is set in 483-473 BC while Job is set some 1500 years before, around 2000 BC, yet Job comes after Esther in the Bible! Why? Did the canoners really get their chronology that mixed up??
I think someone should arrange the books/sections of the bible chronologically...
Here's my attempt: Chronological Bible
[edit] History
[edit] Who were the Medes and the Persians and if they were one kingdom why did they have separate names?
Xerxes in book of Esther
...
[edit] History: Culture/Customs
[edit] Why would any king be so barbaric and heartless as to want to kill a visitor solely on the grounds that he had not invited him/her into his presence?
Especially his wife, the Queen!!
And yet Esther (and his cousin Mordecai) seems to be genuinely afraid that there was a very real possibility of that happening.
Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.”
