Hard Sayings of the Bible

by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.; Peter H. Davids; F. F. Bruce; Manfred T. Brauch

Publisher:

IVP

, 1996

Overview

Hard Sayings of the Bible offers explanations of over 500 of the most troubling verses to test the minds and hearts of Bible readers. Four seasoned scholars, all with a notable gift for communicating with people in the pew, take you behind the scenes to find succinct solutions to a wide variety of Bible difficulties, ranging from discrepancies about numbers to questions about God’s justice. Historical, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds shed light on these passages and not only help explain what they meant in biblical times but also show how they are relevant today.

Now carefully cross-referenced with over 100 new verses explained, as well as a dozen new introductory articles on chronology, miracles, archaeology, prophecy, and more, Hard Sayings of the Bible offers the combined resources of five previous volumes.

If you find yourself tied up in scriptural knots, this book will help you cut through them.

Key Features

• Explains over 500 tough Bible passages
• Offers historical, cultural, and linguistic perspectives on difficult passages
• Discusses the relevance of the Bible teaching for today

Contents

Top Highlights

“Why are there so many discrepancies and difficulties? There are a great number of sources to which we can trace them: errors of copyists in the manuscripts that have been handed down to us; the practice of using multiple names for the same person or place; the practice of using different methods for calculating official years, lengths of regencies and events; the special scope and purpose of individual authors, which sometimes led them to arrange their material topically rather than chronologically; and differences in the position from which an event or object was described and employed by the various writers.” (Pages 17–18)

“The three positions may be labeled ‘the cosmologically mixed races view’ (angels and humans), ‘the religiously mixed races view’ (godly Sethites and worldly Cainites) and ‘the sociologically mixed races view’ (despotic male aristocrats and beautiful female commoners).” (Page 106)

“The point is that a work is still an author’s work even if it has been edited, revised, updated or otherwise added to.” (Page 37)

“The Hebrew reads, ‘You are turning away [from God!] to your husband, and [as a result] he will rule over you [take advantage of you].’” (Page 98)

“God always inspects the giver and the worshiper before he inspects the gift, service or worship.” (Page 101)

Product Details

• Title: Hard Sayings of the Bible
• Authors: Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, Manfred T. Brauch
• Publisher: IVP
• Print Publication Date: 1996
• Logos Release Date: 2001
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible › Evidences, authority, etc; Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc
• ISBNs: 9780830878277, 0830878270
• Resource ID: LLS:40.40.24
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-28T20:18:15Z

About the Authors

Walter C. Kaiser is Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Peter H. Davids is professor of biblical theology at St. Stephen’s University, St. Stephen, New Brunswick. He is also the coeditor of Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments.

F. F. Bruce (1910–1990) was Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester in England.

Manfred Brauch (PhD, McMaster University) is a retired professor of biblical theology and past president of Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.