Category Archives: Tough texts

Exodus – Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?

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The account of the ten plagues of Egypt frequently refers to the ‘hardening’ of Pharaoh’s heart.  Because ‘hardness of heart’ suggests to us something to do with the emotions, Goldingay prefers to think of this as ‘the closing of Pharaoh’s mind’.  There are four aspects to this:-

  • Yahweh will close Pharaoh’s mind: Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 14:4
  • Pharaoh’s mind was closed: Exodus 7:13, 14, 22; 8:19; 9:7, 35
  • Pharaoh closed his mind: Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34
  • Yahweh closed Pharaoh’s mind: Exodus 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:8

Alexander refers to the ‘strengthening’ of Pharaoh’s heart. …

Genesis 3 – traditional and revisionist readings

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I must admit that I’m not sure about where to place Genesis 3 on a scale between the two extremes of ‘literal history’ and ‘pure fiction’.  Here’s a summary of some the options:-

An historical account of a ‘Fall’

Traditionally, this account has been understood as a more or less literal description of an historical event in involving a ‘fall’ on the part of our first parents from a state of innocence.  According to Kreeft & Tacelli, for example,

‘there are three reasons why the Fall can’t be mere moral parable or fiction:-

First, if the Fall is not historical at all, then its effects—suffering and death—also are not historical.

…

Genesis 22 – “Abraham, kill your son”

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The account (in Genesis 22) of how God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, is one of the most problematic in the whole of scripture.  It seems to teach that blind, irrational faith is a ‘good thing’, even the result is that you are willing to slaughter a member of your own family because you think that God has told you to do it.  Of, course, God prevented Abraham from killing Isaac in the end (Gen 22:12), but that does not seem to get us off the hook: we presume that Abraham would have gone through with the terrible deed if God had not intervened.…

Rom 7:24 – Who is the ‘wretched man’?

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Paul describes, in vv15-24, a high level of emotional turmoil.  But who is the “I” of this passage?  Is it Paul himself, or someone else?  And is the state he describe that of a believer, or an unbeliever; a regenerate, or an unregenerate person?

It is true, as Moo says, that what Paul says about the law still amounts to much the same thing, whatever conclusion one arrives at: ‘One can preach this paragraph, in its basic intention, without even making a definite identification of the ‘ego’.’ …

Ephesians 1:10 – ‘The fullness of the times’

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In the New International Version (1984 ed.) Eph 1:9f reads:-

‘[God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.’

There are several issues with this translation.  Firstly, ‘to be put into effect’ rather obscures the important word οἰκονομίαν (economy, administration) in the original. …

Judges 19:11-28 – The priest and the concubine

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As evidence for the nastiness of the Old Testament and its God, Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 240f) can find no better example than the account of an unnamed Levite and his concubine while travelling in Gibeah (Judges 19:11-28).

Quoting the Authorised Version (why?), Dawkins outlines the ghastly unfolding of events.  The two of them spend the night in the house of an old man.  While eating their supper, the men of the city come to the door and demand that the old man hands over his male guest so that they can have their way with him. …

Isaiah 14:12 – Is Satan a fallen angel?

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Isaiah 14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,
O shining one, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O conqueror of the nations!

Since God created everything, Gen 1:1, Jn 1:3, Col 1:16, and everything he created was good, Gen 1:3, Ps 104:24, 1 Tim 4:4, it seems reasonable to suppose that Satan was originally part of that good creation, but ‘fell’ into evil.

Many interpreters have seen in this prophecy (and also Eze 28) a cosmic dimension, although its primary reference is clearly to a man – the king of Babylon, Isa 14:4.…

1 Peter 3:18-20 – Christ ‘preached to the spirits in prison’

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1 Peter 3:18-20 – ‘Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.  In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.’…

Romans 6:14 – ‘You are not under law’

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Paul writes in Romans 6:14, ‘sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.’

What does this mean?

1.  Christians are not under law, in the first place, in the sense that they are no longer bound by the ceremonial law of the Old Testament.  This law dealt with the Temple and its ritual and, according to the Letter to the Hebrews and other New Testament writings, has been fulfilled in Christ.…

Rom 3:22; Gal 2:16 – faith in, or faithfulness of Christ?

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The issue

Lee Irons summarises the issue:

‘As is well-known, the phrase pistis Christou in Paul’s writings (e.g., Gal 2:16, 20; Rom 3:22; Phil 3:9) is grammatically ambiguous. The genitive Christou could be taken in an objective sense (“faith in Christ”) or a subjective sense (“Christ’s own faith”). Since the Greek word pistis can also mean “faithfulness,” most who hold to the subjective genitive interpretation render the phrase “the faithfulness of Christ.”’

Scholars (e.g. Leon Morris, Dictionary of Paul and his Letters) tell us that the Greek word ‘pistis‘ usually means ‘faith’, but can occasionally signify ‘faithfulness’. …