Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Suggestion Box: Bible Brain Busters

During last week's post I identified and addressed a particular interpretive issue (the Christological conundrum of Jesus' Gethsemane prayer) as an example of a Bible Brain Buster. A rich discussion followed. Thank you all for reading and pondering. Thanks especially to those who commented.

I would like to address some more Bible Brain Busters, perhaps in the form of a series. However, I do not want to pick them arbitrarily according to my own pet issues. Thus I would like to request suggestions from you.

Let the comments board for this post serve as a suggestion box for Bible Brain Busters: biblical texts that become puzzling in light of central Christian affirmations. Please identify specific scriptural passages and specific questions connected with those passages. No question is too "simple" or "obvious" (actually, the ones we are embarrassed to ask are usually the best ones, because they deal with the most basic and therefore most important matters). This would be a great time to hear from those of you who do not usually comment, since the request is open-ended and there is no pressure to take a "view" on anything.

I hope to see this suggestion box stuffed full over the course of the week!

Any suggestions?
Do you have any interesting Bible Brain Busters?
_

16 comments:

Keith Drury said...

How do we interpret these verses without falling into subordination of the Son to the Father?

“The Father is greater than I.” (Jn 14:28)

“..the head of man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11:3)

“Then shall he himself be subject unto Him then put all things under Him.” (1 Cor 15:28)

“I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.” (Jn 20:17)

…and other verses of like tenor?

Harold Harmon said...

How does Jesus say "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:36-37) When He and the Father are One"

Also (and maybe this is just technical) - When Judas throws the coins back in the temple, Matthew 27:8-10 tells us, '"That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me."'
But, I can't really see this in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah 11:12-13 'I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter."

David Drury said...

Several of my suggestions would basically be "God's ethics" questions. (I understand that even using the phrase, “God’s ethics” is a stumbling block by definition for some.) I think these ethical situations—while not triggering metaphysical or Trinitarian questions about God—do in fact call into question, or at least challenge, the nuances of the fundamental attributes we’ve ascribed to God. They deal with God’s direct statements in scripture or his actions and commands recorded there.

Here are starting points (I begin with the particularly crude acts first here)…

[Before anyone reads these I want to ensure you actually do the work to investigate these issues and not “write off God and the Bible” at a glance on these issues. I’ve phrased these starkly to treat them somewhat scientifically—but I don’t want anyone to “lose faith” because of the mere questions themselves. I have not lost faith in the face of them.]

GENOCIDE

Genesis 6:5-9… How do we explain God’s ethical decision to enact mass genocide of humanity? How do we ethically respond to recent genocidal flare-ups among humanity in Kosovo and Rawanda, even now in Darfur, and 60 years ago in Nazi Germany in light of God’s action here?

[Other genocidal acts or commands from God: Deuteronomy 7:1-2; Joshua 6:21; Joshua 10:40-41; Genesis 19; Deuteronomy 2:26-35!]

MURDER

Exodus 7:13-14; 12:29-30… How do we explain God’s ethical decision to harden Pharoah’s heart himself, particularly because God’s own punishment for forcing the election caused the mass murder of the firstborn in Egypt? How do we retain human responsibility for decisions which lead to mass suffering when God seems to be the first cause of that kind of decision in at least this case?

2 Kings 2:23-24… In this case 42 Children are cursed in the name of the LORD by Elisha because they mocked his baldness—they were killed by bears. [Also, how do bald men interpret this passage in light of their liberation from hairiness?  :-) ]

RAPE

Deuteronomy 21:11-14; Numbers 31:1-18… In these cases of defeating an enemy virgin girls were taken from the enemy and an expectation of sexual submission to the conquering Hebrew soldiers was required. They became their forced wives. How do we then view such atrocities taking place today in light of it happening then?

BEATING SLAVES OR OTHERWISE TREATING THEM AS PROPERTY

Exodus 21:20-21; Exodus 21:26-27; Leviticus 19:20-22… In these cases slavery was not only condoned as a cultural reality, but descriptions of beating them and even the expectation of sexual submission to their masters is also considered part of the “bargain”? How do we view such things today when it was considered normal by God then?

Those are places I'd like to see you check out.

Have fun with that can of worms! :-)

millinerd said...

Who inspired David's census of Israel? Satan or the Lord?

Ken Schenck said...

I was going to mention the subordination ones, since that comes up so often in the women in ministry debate, but Keith has already brought it up.

Ken Schenck said...

I have a question. I have grown up praying "in Jesus' name," which is of course the "New Testament" way to pray. I also notice that the BCP collects also pray "through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit." In other words, we pray through the Son to the Father.

Yet we also hear prayer "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." What's the scoop here?

Amanda said...

"There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first but also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God."

Romans 2:9-11

That sure sounds like partiality to me...

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