Hard Sayings of the Bible
Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
InterVarsity Press
The Bible obviously has fantastic details embedded from
Genesis to Revelation that makes us scratch our head and think: “Hey, what’s
going on here?” The book is a well written guide against such difficulties.
Upholding basic formula ‘Agreement and Disagreement are rest part’, this book
can be of great help even to further investigation.
The Publisher’s preface puts it forward as, ‘the authors
share the conviction that the Bible is God’s inspired and authoritative word to
the church, but careful readers will observe that they do not all agree on the best
solutions to certain Bible difficulties. This is as it should be. If everyone
agreed on the best solutions to these questions, they wouldn’t be hard sayings.’
Whenever we come across any verses that gives hard pinch to
our ears, we happen to spend time in its evaluation. The Bible verses are taken
as inspired and authoritative but not every time straightforward in
understanding and application. We need to understand the contemporary context,
historical background, situation, immediate and broader application, and nature
of the languages used without hurrying up packing our conclusion. The bible
itself otherwise acts as a great barrier to those who are new in faith.
The book gives a threefold interpreting classification to
help us understand hard passages in the best way:
Normative or Instructive texts: which declare the way things
ought to be among the followers of Christ. They declare the vision or intention
of the gospel without reference to particular problem situations. As such they
transcend the contexts in which they are uttered and are normative for both
individual and corporate Christian existence.
Descriptive texts: describe practices or actions in the
early churches without any commentary. The sense conveyed in such texts is that
what is described is perfectly acceptable or normal. The writer does not
question the practice but rather seems to assume it as appropriate.
Problematic or corrective texts: which clearly deal with
special situations or problems or misunderstandings in the Christian
communities which are addressed. Here it is particularly important to
understand as much as possible the situation which made the corrective,
authoritative, apostolic word necessary for that situation.
The author adds further:
An important dimension of this threefold classification
for the interpretation and understanding of a good number of our hard sayings
is the matter of their interrelationships. If a corrective text’s admonition
reflects the vision of the gospel articulated in instructive texts and is
further confirmed by descriptive texts, then the particular teaching would
undoubtedly be authoritative for the whole church in all times. On the other
hand, if an apostolic word addressed to a particular setting does not conform
to the way things ought to be (as revealed in instructive texts) and the way
things normally are (as revealed in descriptive texts), then the inspired, authoritative
word may very well be intended to deal exclusively with a specific problem and
thus be limited to that and similar problems.
The book gives three probable reasons for the texts seeming
harder to the reader:
First, we don’t understand them and needs addition of
background information for clarification. In other instances, even scholars are
not sure of author’s intended meaning. Hence, we can only make the best
assumptions. In this case, theological dogmatism is boycotted. Perhaps, most of
the questions emerging from the book of Genesis might fall into this category
such as Creation days, sons of God marrying daughters of men, existence of
Nephilim, Noahic flood, etc.
Second, Doctrinal difficulties is at peak. In this category,
the teaching of one particular book appears to knock out the teaching of the
other books on the particular subject. Sometimes, we may have misunderstood the
author and when we fully grasp the theme, the conflict disappears. Other times,
real conflict exists between author’s intended meaning and our own doctrinal
understanding. The real issue is whether the Scripture be allowed to correct
our doctrine, or is our doctrine the grid through which we will insist on
understanding Scripture? Either Scripture or our doctrinal understanding is the
Word of God. When they conflict, we find out which one we have actually
accepted as our final authority. Perhaps, certain debates such as Predestination
vs Free will, grace vs law, justification by faith alone or work, etc. might
fit this category.
Third, we really don’t adore what the text says and it
becomes hard to adore it! They are hard to obey, and we would rather they meant
something else than they do. James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15 may be in this category
for some people.
Today, we should not limit our question to: What does the
Bible say? Rather it is wise to reform the question as: What, Why and How does
the Bible say? Indeed, we may not understand every hard text in full extent but
we can at least grab the theme of the texts even if we are left open to various
possible interpretations. With all of the differences we happen to face,
interpreting Scripture becomes the job of getting back into that ancient world
and then understanding how it correlates with our world.
I agree with the author’s comment with regard to present day
Cambrian explosion of theological confusion such as creation vs evolution,
Calvinism vs other views, etc.:
The last stage of interpretation, however, is that of
moving from the world of the New Testament into our modern world. Here we will
have to be cautious. Some of the discussions and arguments Christians have had
over the centuries were not issues in the first century. The New Testament
authors will have nothing to say about such concerns. They may refuse to answer
our questions. In other cases we may have to discover the principle that
informs the author’s reasoning and apply it to our modern situation. But in
most of the cases the real danger is in jumping too quickly into the modern
situation. If we have not taken the time to grasp fully what the author of Scripture
was trying to say, we will distort his message when we move into our modern
period. But if we fully grasp it, we will be able to see where it applies, although
it may apply in a different place than we thought at first.
Finally, the book has provided comments on hard passages
starting from the Genesis to Revelation. Let the readers be reminded that
nobody is obligated to agree with all the explanation but the book gives enough
fuel to further survey and exploration.
Thank you!
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