Well, it seemed a good idea at the time! But all the volunteer Bible Puzzlers have been too busy to post any Puzzlers. So I’ve decided to shift the definition of a Puzzler a bit and allow it to include just about any post that deals with some sort of exegetical problem. I know that’s cheating, but at this point it looks like yours truly will be way too busy to put together any big posts on this subject (as much as I’d like to).
Bible Puzzlers That Might Have Been
In thinking about Bible Puzzlers I had a couple of ideas for posts that came to mind:
- What is the significance of 2 John for Christians today?
The short answer is that 2 John shows that Christianity is about love and truth. While all our behavior is governed by love we must also be ready to contend for truth. Another way of saying this is that theology is important! Yucko, theology?!? Sorry, but it’s true.
- Can we read the book of Judges as a Christian devotional text?
I just finished this book and I was amazed at the violence, idolatry, and misogyny it documents. One way of trying to not reject Judges is to see it at as a depiction of negative heroes. That is, Judges is not showing behavior to emulate, but rather behavior to avoid. But what do we do then about Hebrews 11 where many of the judges are held up as “heroes of the faith?” Tough question! Another approach is to see Judges as important historically or as recounting a particularly important phase in the covenantal story. Well, the good news for me personally is that I’ve now moved on to the book of Ruth!
Considering how crazy my life is right now I don’t imagine I’ll have time to address these topics but you’ve got the short versions which might be just as well.
Bible Puzzlers Lite
I have tagged a number of my posts as Bible Puzzlers so if you click on “Bible Puzzler” in the side bar or at the bottom of this post you will see a number of posts that have puzzles to solve. If you have some Bible Puzzlers at your site I’d encourage you to use the “Bible Puzzler” tag as well and let me know about it.
Here are a couple of my favorite Bible Puzzlers:
So what?: What does “so” mean in “For God so loved the world?”
Born to be my baby: How should we interpret “husband of one wife?”
What is a horn of salvation?: I learned a lot from the commenters on this post. I’m preparing a follow-up post on “bowels of mercy” but I’m not sure when it will come out.
Where is Jesus’ tattoo?: Despite the name of this post, I was really interested in divine names. But it did end up being an interesting series of posts on applying Old Testament prohibitions to modern practices. Almost a month later I am still getting huge amounts of search engine traffic because of this post.
How do I get involved?
If you have a Bible Puzzle that you’ve written on your blog, tell us about it by posting a comment or trackback to the Latest Bible Puzzler page. And remember to use the “Bible Puzzler” tag on your posts!
Surely there are many good and positive things which Christians can get from the book of Judges. I think of the positive teaching about the leadership of Gideon, and of the woman Deborah. Indeed this “misogynist” book in fact gives one of the strongest biblical examples about a woman in leadership. Even the more ambiguous figures like Samson have their positive sides. In a way it is encouraging to see how God can use such people despite their many faults. But of course it also highlights some of those faults and so gives teaching on how to avoid them.
[...] In a recent post I mentioned my consternation after reading the book of Judges. Judges is the seventh book of the Old Testament and recounts a series of stories about prominent leaders during the period between the conquest of Canaan and the establishment of a monarchy. In my post I wrote: [...]