Today’s Handbook

for

Solving Bible Difficulties

David E. O’Brien

Bethany House Publishers

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438

Copyright © 1990 by David E. O’Brien

Published by Bethany House Publishers

A Ministry of Bethany Fellowship, Inc.

6820 Auto Club Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, by the International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

O’Brien, David E.

Today’s handbook for solving Bible difficulties / David E. O’Brien.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-87123-814-4

1. Bible—Hermeneutics. 2. Bible. O.T. Genesis I–XI—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.

BS476.037 1990

220.6′1—dc20 90-30954

CIP

To Three Men Who Shaped My Life

The Reverend H. S. Thomasson,

my grandfather, whose faith and life drew me to Christ more surely than any sermon.

The Reverend Gordon K. Peterson, Sr.,

whose ministry and friendship provided me with a strong example of a virile Christianity lived hilariously at full speed at a time in my life when nothing less would have helped.

The Reverend Dr. Sidney B. Nelson,

whose love for the Lord, love of learning, and love for a dying world were so perfectly joined they will always be both a model and a reproach to me.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

THIS IS PROBABLY A DUMB QUESTION, BUT …

Prologue

IF IT’S BEEN REVEALED, WHY CAN’T I SEE IT?

Part 1 History

1 THE PAST IMPERFECTLY

2 REVELATION, REPLOGLE, AND RAND McNALLY

Part 2 Language

3 TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE GZORNENPLATT

4 “THE ELEPHANT’S CHILD” AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC FABLES

5 ENTER CANAANITES, STAGE LEFT

Part 3 Culture

6 TO SKIN A CAT

7 FREE PEOPLE, SOVEREIGN GOD

8 HURTING PEOPLE, LOVING GOD

9 HOW SHOULD WE LIVE, THEN?

Part 4 All Three

10 CAKE CRUMBS AND CONTRADICTIONS

Epilogue

WHO CAN KNOW?

Appendix

WORKERS AND THEIR TOOLS

Principle Index

Question Index

Subject Index

Scripture Index

Preface

This is a long book so I’ll keep this short, but I do want you to know how the questions I’ve attempted to answer came to be selected.

Both in teaching and in the pastorate I discovered that the number of questions people have about the Bible is surprisingly limited. If I heard a question once I could count on hearing it again, and often.

When I decided to write this book, I decided to go to the people who seemed to be best at asking hard questions: my students. I asked for three questions apiece from a total of about two hundred students in my Old Testament history classes at St. Paul Bible College and a similar number of questions from a similar number of students in Bible classes at Bethany Fellowship.

The result was a folder of questions that weighed about two pounds. Many of the approximately 1300 questions I received were repeated more than once. I assigned these top priority. Others, while asked only once or twice, seemed to touch on interpretive problems that had implications for larger issues within the church. ...