The Grace Discipleship Group

This is the third lecture by D. A. Carson in the series called “A Light Introduction to Biblical Interpretation.” Please make notes for yourself and send Murray a copy. Feel free to post additional comments or questions in the comment section of this lesson.

If you want an example of a set of notes, or would like to follow an outline while you listen to the teaching, you will find notes HERE prepared by Julie Cortens. These notes cover both lesson 3 and 4. Thanks, Julie!

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Below I have pasted a set of notes by David Frampton on handling puzzling passages. I thought it would be applicable since we are studing hermeneutics.

Puzzling Bible Passages

Solving The Puzzling Texts

By David Frampton

Our presupposition: The sixty-six books of the Holy Scriptures in the original manuscripts are God-breathed and without error in their record of events and what they affirm. 2 Tm 3:16; 2 Pt 1:20-21; Jn 10:35

Observation: The Bible has been in its complete form for 1900 years. During that time every puzzling Bible passage has been studied and debated by those with the greatest gifts of teaching. If a passage appears puzzling to us, someone else may have a clear explanation.

What kinds of Bible passages cause us to be puzzled?

* Passages with teachings that some “don’t like” — Romans 9
* Passages that seem to contradict other clear teachings — Gen 11:5; cf. Ps 139:1-6
* Passages that seem to contradict other Biblical events — Mk 16:5; cf. Jn 20:12
* Passages of questionable moral content — Judges 11:29-40
* Passages that are obscure — 1 Cor 15:29
* Passages in which the text is unclear — 2 Sm 8:8; cf. 1 Chrn 18:8

Comment: There is another class of passages that puzzles people—passages that do not fit our theological system! Everyone has this kind of weakness, so a passage that puzzles one person will not puzzle another. When we find a passage like this, we must not rewrite the text of Scripture to fit our system but reconstruct our system to make it more Biblical.

Example: Acts 13:48
And hearing, the nations rejoiced and glorified the Word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

Some guidelines for understanding puzzling passages

* Be faithful to the Scriptures—the whole counsel of God.
* Don’t base your viewpoint on reaction.
* Pay very close attention to what the text actually says and does not say.
* Make an effort to understand the language, the social customs and the physical phenomena.
* Remember that the Bible uses human language and literary devices: figures of speech, language of appearance, mnemonic devices (Mt 1:8; cf. 2 Kings), etc.
* Check various accurate translations to see if your problem arises from the way a text is translated or the text itself (Ac 2:40).
* Know that some events may seem the same but might be separate events (Mt 14:13-21; cf. Mt 15:29-39).
* Realize that the Lord has not told us everything about every event.
* Recognize that one writer may give more details about an event than another writer.
* Determine whether your difficulty is caused by the text or by your speculation.
* Hold your judgment in check until you have studied all the relevant facts.
* It’s better to say, “I don’t know,” than to be prejudiced.
* Remember that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen 18:25).

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