All About the Bible
10 - Problem Texts
I wonder if you have ever read your Bible and felt puzzled sometimes. Well, you would be in good company. Peter said this about Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3:16, "he writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction". If Peter struggled sometimes with texts of the Bible then we must not feel too bad when we do. Problem texts are those verses in the Bible that are difficult to grasp and reconcile one with the other. There are those who are quite happy to make much of these apparent contradictions. They have no love for the Lord or His word. They follow the tactic of the devil whose first trick to deceive man and woman was to question the reliability of the word of God. We read in Genesis 3:2-4, "The woman said to the serpent…God did say `you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die`. `You will not surely die` the serpent said". Undermining the word of God has been Satan’s tactic from that time until the present.
The well known theologian B. B. Warfield said, "The Bible difficulties are like phantoms they vanish when anyone attempts to touch them". You need to bear a few basic principles in mind when you study God’s word and come across what appear to be discrepancies.
The first principle is to have a panoramic view of the Bible. Some will take a couple of Bible verses randomly and arrive at a faulty conclusion. For example, Genesis 1:31 says, "God saw all that He had made and it was very good". Then reference is made to Genesis 6:6. We read, "The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth and His heart was filled with pain". The criticism is why would God feel that way about man when He said all He made was good? When we read this early history carefully we notice a tragic change that took place with God's relationship to man. In Genesis chapter 3 man disobeyed God and sin entered the world. This brought death and sorrow. Mans rebellion grew worse and this led to God's regret that He had made man. To miss this point will lead to confused thinking.
Another example is that of Cain’s wife. The question is asked, "Where did Cain get his wife from?" The reasoning behind this question is that in Genesis chapter 4 Adam and Eve have two sons Cain and Abel. Cain murders Abel and he went to live in the land of Nod. Here he meets his wife. The argument given by those who oppose the reliability of the Bible’s history is how this could be if there were only four people living at that time: Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel? But for anyone who studies the Bible carefully we find that there were many more people living on the earth by the time Cain went to the land of Nod. We read in Genesis 5:4, "…Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters".
Clearly by the time Cain and Abel had reached a certain age of maturity there were other children belonging to Adam and Eve living on the earth. Cain married his sister. This was permitted by God at this time in earth’s early history. In the time of Moses marriage restrictions between close relatives were introduced because of the increasing deterioration of the human race and the threat of physical complications.
Another principle is the cultural setting of the Bible. Some argue that there is a contradiction between Matthew 8:5 and Luke 7:3. They both record the same event. In Matthew 8:5 we read, "When Jesus had entered Capernaum a centurion came to Him asking for help". In Luke 7:3 we read, "The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to Him asking Him to come and heal his servant". There is a solution to this apparent contradiction. In the culture of Jesus day it was the custom to attribute to the person himself an act that he had directed others to do. This is how Matthew records the event, whilst Luke indicates who the centurion sent on his behalf.
Much is made by the opponents of the Bible about the difference in the time of day relating to the events surrounding Jesus’ trail and crucifixion. We read in Mark 15:25, "It was the third hour when they crucified Him". John tells us in John 19:13-14, "Pilate…brought Jesus out and sat down on the judges’ seat…it was the day of preparation of Passover week, about the sixth hour". The objection is how could Jesus be on trial on the sixth hour of the day, when according to Mark He was on the cross at the third hour of the day? The explanation is straightforward. The Roman day was reckoned from 12 midnight. The sixth hour would be six in the morning. John used the Roman reckoning. The Jewish day was reckoned from 6 a.m. sunrise. The third hour of the day would be nine in the morning. Mark used the Jewish reckoning. So, Jesus was on trial at six in the morning Roman time, and crucified at three in the morning Jewish time.
Another principle when dealing with problem texts is the geography of the Bible. In Luke 18:35 we read, "As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging". Recording the same event, Mark tells us, in Mark 10:46, "Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and His disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging".
Did Jesus heal the blind beggar as He approached Jericho or as He left the city? The answer is that there were two sites for Jericho. There were the ruins of the old city that God said should never be rebuilt on that site. There was the new City of Jericho close by. Luke records Jesus approaching the new city of Jericho. Mark refers to Jesus travelling from the old city as He travelled toward the new city.
So we can see that when the Bible is read and studied carefully, bearing in mind the panorama, culture, and geography of the Bible the problem texts are no problem at all. As Warfield said, "They are like phantoms, they vanish".