Category Archives: Tough texts

1 Corinthians 15:44 – ‘Raised a spiritual body’

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1 Corinthians 15:42 It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 15:43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 15:44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Paul’s teaching here has led some to interpret the resurrection appearances of vv5-8 as non-physical, amounting to something like subjective visions.  …

Mt 13:31; Mk 4:31 – ‘The smallest of all the seeds’?

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Mt 13:31f “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.  It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest garden plant and becomes a tree, so that the wild birds come and nest in its branches.”

Mk 4:30-32  “To what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to present it?  It is like a mustard seed that when sown in the ground, even though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground—when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds can nest in its shade.” …

Matthew 7:16,20 – ‘You will recognise them by their fruit’

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Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. 7:16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? 7:17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 7:18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.…

1 Thessalonians 2:14f – ‘The Jews, who killed Jesus’

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‘…the Jews, 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us severely.’

Several years ago a fundamentalist church in the Denver metro area gained notoriety during Lent by quoting on their marquee a small fragment of the sentence that spans 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15: “the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus.”  It was a frightening throwback to the days of the Nazis who labeled all Jews as Christkillers.  Only after significant publicity called attention to it, did the church take it down.…

Romans 1:18, etc. – Wrath: personal or impersonal?

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Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

In his commentary on Romans, C.H. Dodd famously contended that Paul speaks of ‘the wrath’ ‘in a curiously impersonal way’.  He writes:

‘Paul retains the concept of “the wrath of God” not to describe the attitude of God to man but to describe the inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe.’

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Joshua 10 – Joshua’s ‘long day’

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Joshua 10:13 The sun stood still and the moon stood motionless while the nation took vengeance on its enemies. The event is recorded in the Scroll of the Upright One. The sun stood motionless in the middle of the sky and did not set for about a full day.

Various interpretative options are available:-

1. Myth.  Some regard the entire account as an historicised myth or legend.  But this would be to undermine the credibility of the inspired author (NBC).…

Joshua 6 – the fall of Jericho

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The historical accuracy of account of the conquest of Jericho as recorded in Joshua 6 is doubted by most scholars today.

According to that account, the walls of Jericho suddenly collapsed, and the Israelites were able to enter the city unhindered.

Maura Sala roundly states:

‘No archaeological evidence corroborates the biblical account of what happened in Jericho.’

According to the present scholarly consensus, Jericho was not a walled city at that time (around 1400 BC, if a later date for the exodus is assumed).…

2 Peter 3:9 – ‘The Lord wishes all to come to repentance’

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2 Peter 3:9 ‘The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.‘

Does this verse support universalism?

According to Barclay (DSB):

‘Ever and again there shines in Scripture the glint of the larger hope. We are not forbidden to believe that somehow and some time the God who loves the world will bring the whole world to himself.’

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Genesis 1:26 – Why a plural name for God?

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Gen 1:26 – ‘Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness”.’

Much has been made of the plural name for God here (‘Elohom‘) and of the expression ‘Let us make…’.  A number of interpretations have been proposed:-

Polytheism.  But modern commentators agree that Genesis 1 ‘is distinctly antimythological in its thrust, explicitly rejecting ancient Near Eastern views of creation. Thus modern commentators are quite agreed that Gen 1:26 could never have been taken by the author of this chapter in a polytheistic sense.’…

Matthew 12:40 – Three days and three nights

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Mt 12:40 “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”

See also Mt 16:21 (‘on the third day’); Mt 27:63 (‘after three days’); Acts 10:40; 1 Cor 15:4 (‘raised on the third day’).

There are two issues here.

The first is the question of whether Jesus’ words here are decisive in determining whether the Jonah incident should be considered fact or fiction. …