Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
    New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
    New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
    Ebook865 pages

    New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties

    By Gleason L. Archer, Jr.

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Informed Answers to Your Most Troublesome Questions about the Bible.

    What do you make of the difficult areas in the Bible—those puzzling passages that make you stop and scratch your head? The seeming inconsistencies or moments that make you uncomfortable?

    • Did God approve of Rahab's lie?
    • Why are many of the Old Testament quotes in the New Testament not word-for-word?
    • Does the Bible class abortion with murder?
    • Where did Adam and Eve's sons get their wives?
    • Does 1 Corinthians authorize divorce for desertion? 

    The seeming incongruities of Scripture actually have sound explanations. But unless you're a Bible scholar, you probably don't know about them. The New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties gives you informed answers to your most troublesome questions. Many explanations include an eye-opening look at linguistic, cultural, numerical, relational, and other considerations of which most Bible readers are unaware.

    Referencing both the New International Version (NIV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB), this handbook makes scholarly insights accessible to everyone. Whether you're a student, pastor, everyday Bible-lover, or even a skeptic, the New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties will show you why the Bible is believable and dependable, with a message you can live by. 

    —ZONDERVAN'S UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE REFERENCE SERIES—

    This four-volume series supplies users of today's most popular modern Bible translation, and New International Version, with scholarly, economical, and uncompromisingly evangelical study tools. It includes:

    • New International Bible Commentary
    • New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words
    • New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
    • New International Encyclopedia of Bible Characters
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateApr 19, 2011
    ISBN9780310873372
    New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
    Author

    Gleason L. Archer, Jr.

    Gleason Archer Jr. received a PhD in Classics from Harvard University, an LL.B from Suffolk Law School and a Bachelor of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. Early in his career, Archer served as assistant pastor at Park Street Church in Boston. In 1948 he became Professor of Biblical Languages at Fuller Theological Seminary in California and in 1965 Professor of the Old Testament and Semitics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, where he later became an emeritus faculty member in 1989. He spent the remainder of his life researching, lecturing and writing.

    Related to New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties

    Titles in the series (100)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Fake News, Fake Gospels!

      Dec 31, 2021

      Fake News, Fake Gospels!
      5 min read

    • Article

      What The New Testament Doesn’t Say

      May 20, 2019

      When professing Christians deny Biblical creation, we often point them to the Words of Jesus and the New Testament authors, which clearly affirm their own belief in Biblical creation. Because Christians are, by definition, people who believe what Jes

      5 min read

    • Article

      How Well Do You Actually Know Your Bible?

      Aug 7, 2020

      The Bible is the handbook for Christianity. It includes every single instruction that we need d in in this this w world to survive. It is the only book that we have directly from God. You would think that as Christians ians who who have have spent ye

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Bible Doesn’t Suggest We Attend Church, It Instructs Us!

      Oct 21, 2019

      As the editor, I often receive letters from our readers requesting help or advice. I always try my best to refer people to the right organisations or people that I think could help them. Some enquiries are genuine, and others are from people simply t

      2 min read

    • Article

      How to Spread the Gospel Like Wildfire

      Aug 19, 2019

      The Gospel spread like wildfire in the early church. For example, a single speech from Peter converted 3000 people (Acts 2:41), and after he gave a second speech, the number of believers totalled 5000 (Acts 4:4). In only a few decades, the Good News

      5 min read

    • Article

      THE WAR FOR OUR YOUTH Why creation still matters

      Dec 30, 2019

      We’re being told by public education systems, universities, media, some parents, and unfortunately many church leaders, that parts of the Bible are not relevant anymore and that we need to reinvent God’s word. So, with this situation, in order to und

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Curveball’: When Spiritual Skepticism Leads To Sturdier Faith

      May 2, 2023

      In his probing spiritual memoir, “Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming,” Peter Enns describes a dark period. He realized his religious assumptions since his teenage years – that every word of the Bible was fact – needed a secon

      3 min read

    • Article

      Why Study Church History?

      Jun 15, 2020

      Why Study Church History?
      3 min read

    • Article

      7 Quirky ‘Doctrines’ DEBUNKED

      Oct 28, 2022

      Jesus said that the truth sets us free. But the opposite is also true: Lies put us in bondage—even if the lies are spoken from a pulpit by a sincere minister or a Christian celebrity. In my international travels, I’ve sat in countless meetings and he

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Sep 24, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Why Do Many People STRUGGLE With A LACK OF FAITH?

      Feb 11, 2022

      The apostle Paul exhorts Christians to “walk by faith and not by sight” – 2 Corinthians 5:7. What we see here is a contrast between truth and perception—what we know and believe to be true and what we perceive to be true. This is where the Christian

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Great Shaking

      Nov 27, 2020

      Way back in the last millennium when I was still a teenager there was a popular song made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis, “There’s been a whole lotta shakin goin’ on.”This is certainly true of today’s world. One major difference between the current global

      5 min read

    • Article

      Apostasy

      Apr 14, 2023

      We are currently living in one of the greatest seasons of apostasy. Men and women of God have been and continue to fall away from the faith in large numbers. Apostasy is not new. Departing from the faith is nothing new. It happens today just as it di

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Jul 30, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Dec 30, 2019

      Letters To The Editor
      6 min read

    • Article

      How Should We Respond To Celebrities Coming To Christ?

      Dec 30, 2019

      If you’ve been following the news lately, you will have noticed a significant wave of celebrities who are turning to Christ. In what is referred to as a massive spiritual movement, the sinful city of Hollywood is turning more and more stars away from

      5 min read

    • Article

      Remembering Luther & the Diet of Worms...

      Mar 10, 2023

      Is anyone keen on a special diet to keep fit? With many making plans that include some fitness goals, the answer may be an emphatic yes! How about a diet of worms? Mopane worms, to be specific. These may be a delicacy north of the Limpopo River, thou

      3 min read

    • Article

      Truth For All People, Everywhere

      Mar 16, 2020

      In 2019, the Barna Research Group published a report, Reviving Evangelism, drawn from a study that looked at the experiences and expectations of Christians and non-Christians in America. What was perhaps most pertinent was the finding that “Christian

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties

    5/5

    4 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This book does more than harmonize the various possible readings and meanings of passages which appear to be in conflict within the Bible, it gives clear and cogent explanations that add meaning and depth to the discussion for those willing to listen.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties - Gleason L. Archer, Jr.

    The Pentateuch

    What solid evidence is there for the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch?

    It is common in liberal or neoorthodox circles to deny that Moses had anything to do with the composition of the Pentateuch. Most critics of that persuasion feel that the so-called Books of Moses were written by several different, anonymous authors beginning in the ninth century and concluding with the final portion, the Priestly Code, around 445 B.C.—just in time for Ezra to read it aloud at the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Neh. 8). Still other scholars, especially those of the form-critical school, feel that rather little of the Pentateuch was actually written down until the time of Ezra, even though some portions of it may have existed as oral tradition for several centuries previous–l;-perhaps even to the period of Moses himself. In view of the general consensus among non-Evangelical scholars that all claims to Mosaic authorship are spurious, it is well for us to review at least briefly the solid and compelling evidence, both internal and external, that the entire Pentateuch is the authentic work of Moses, under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

    Biblical Testimony to Mosaic Authorship

    The Pentateuch often refers to Moses as its author, beginning with Exodus 17:14: And Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Write for me a memorial in a book … that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek.’ In Exodus 24:4 we read, And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh. In v.7 we are told, And he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people. Other references to Moses’ writing down the Pentateuch are found in Exodus 34:27, Numbers 33:1–l;2, and Deuteronomy 31:9, the last of which says, And Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests. Two verses later it is made a standing requirement for the future that when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. This provision apparently comprises all of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and most of Deuteronomy (at least through chap. 30).

    Later on, after the death of Moses, the Lord gives these directions to Joshua, Moses’ successor: This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you are to meditate in it day and night, in order that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it (Josh. 1:8). The denial of Mosaic authorship would mean that every one of the above-cited verses is false and unworthy of acceptance. Joshua 8:32–l;34 records that with the congregation of Israel stationed outside the city of Shechem, on the slopes of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, Joshua read aloud from the Law of Moses inscribed on stones the passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy referring to the blessings and curses, as Moses earlier had done (cf. Deut. 27–l;28). If the Documentary Hypothesis is correct, then this account must also be rejected as a sheer fabrication. Other Old Testament references to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch are 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; 21:8; Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 13:1; Daniel 9:11–l;13; and Malachi 4:4. All these testimonies must also be rejected as totally in error.

    Christ and the apostles likewise gave unequivocal witness that Moses was the author of the Torah (Law). In John 5:46–l;57, Jesus said, If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how can you believe my words? How indeed! Likewise, in John 7:19, Jesus said, Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet none of you does the Law. If Christ’s confirmation of Moses as the real author of the Pentateuch is set aside–l;-as it is by the modern critical theory–l;-it inescapably follows that the authority of Christ Himself is denied. For if He was mistaken about a factual, historical matter like this, then He might be mistaken about any other belief He held or doctrines He taught. In Acts 3:22, Peter said to his countrymen, Moses indeed said, ‘A Prophet shall the Lord God raise up to you’ (cf. Deut. 18:15). Paul affirmed in Romans 10:5 that Moses writes that the man who practices righteousness based on the law will live by that righteousness. But the JEDP theory of Wellhausen and the rationalistic modern critics deny that Moses ever wrote any of those things. This means that Christ and the apostles were totally mistaken in thinking that he did. Such an error as this, in matters of historical fact that can be verified, raises a serious question as to whether any of the theological teaching, dealing with metaphysical matters beyond our powers of verification, can be received as either trustworthy or authoritative. Thus we see that the question of Mosaic authenticity as the composer of the Pentateuch is a matter of utmost concern to the Christian. The authority of Christ Himself is involved in this issue.

    Internal Evidences of Mosaic Composition

    In addition to the direct testimonies of the Pentateuchal passages quoted above, we have the witness of the incidental allusions to contemporary events or current issues, to social or political conditions, or to matters of climate or geography. When all such factors are fairly and properly weighed, they lead to this conclusion: the author of these books and his readers must originally have lived in Egypt. Furthermore, these factors indicate that they had little or no firsthand acquaintance with Palestine and knew of it only by oral tradition from their forefathers. We cite the following evidences.

    The climate and weather referred to in Exodus are typically Egyptian, not Palestinian (cf. the reference to crop sequence in connection with the plague of hail, Exod. 9:31–l;32).

    The trees and animals referred to in Exodus through Deuteronomy are all indigenous to Egypt or the Sinai Peninsula, but none of them are peculiar to Palestine. The shittim or acacia tree is native to Egypt and the Sinai, but it is hardly found in Canaan except around the Dead Sea. This tree furnished the wood for much of the tabernacle furniture. The skins for its outer covering were the hide of the taḥaš, or dugong, which is foreign to Palestine but is found in the seas adjacent to Egypt and the Sinai. As for the lists of clean and unclean animals found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, these include some that are peculiar to the Sinai Peninsula, such as the , or pygarg (Deut. 14:5); the ya’anāh, or ostrich (Lev. 11:16); and the te’ô, or wild antelope (Deut. 14:5). It is difficult to imagine how a list of this sort could have been made up nine hundred years later, after the Hebrew people had been living in a country not possessing any of these beasts.

    Even more conclusive are the geographical references that betray the perspective of one who is personally unfamiliar with Palestine but is well acquainted with Egypt. (1) In Genesis 13:10, where the author wishes to convey to his readers how verdant the vegetation of the Jordan Valley was, he compares it to a well-known locality in the eastern part of the Egyptian Delta region, lying near Mendes, between Busiris and Tanis. He states that the Jordan Valley was like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar (Egyp. T-;-r). Nothing could be plainer from this casual reference than that the author was writing for a readership unfamiliar with the appearance of regions in Palestine but personally acquainted with the scenery of Lower Egypt. Such could only have grown up in Egypt, and this fits in only with a Mosaic date of composition for the Book of Genesis. (2) The founding of Kirjath-arba (the pre-Israelite name of Hebron in southern Judah) is stated in Numbers 13:22 to have taken place seven years before Zoan in Egypt. This clearly implies that Moses’ readers were well aware of the date of the founding of Zoan but unfamiliar with when Hebron–l;-which became one of the foremost cities in Israel after the Conquest—was first founded. (3) In Genesis 33:18, there is a reference to Salem, a city of Shechem in the land of Canaan. To a people who had been living in Palestine for over seven centuries since the Conquest (according to the date given this passage by the Well-hausen school), it seems rather strange that they would have to be told that so outstanding a city as Shechem was located in the land of Canaan. But it would be perfectly appropriate to a people who had not yet settled there—as was true of the congregation of Moses.

    The atmosphere and setting of the desert prevails all through the narrative, from Exodus 16 to the end of Deuteronomy (though there are some agricultural references looking forward to settled conditions in the land that they were soon to conquer). The prominence accorded to a large tent or tabernacle as the central place of worship and assembly would hardly be relevant to a readership living in Palestine for over seven centuries and familiar only with the temple of Solomon or Zerubbabel as their central sanctuary. The Wellhausen explanation for this, that the tabernacle was simply an artificial extrapolation from the temple, does not fit the facts; the temple was much different in size and furnishings from those described for the tabernacle in the Torah. But even this theory of historical fiction furnishes no explanation of why Ezra’s contemporaries would have been so interested in a mere tent as to devote to it so many chapters in Exodus (25–40) and to refer to it in nearly three-fourths of Leviticus and very frequently also in Numbers and Deuteronomy. No other example can be found in all world literature for such absorbing attention to a structure that never really existed and that had no bearing on the generation for which it was written.

    There are many evidences of a technical, linguistic nature that could be adduced to support an Egyptian background for the text of the Torah. Detailed examples of this may be found in my Survey of Old Testament Introduction (pp. 111–;14). Suffice it to say that a far greater number of Egyptian names and loan words are found in the Pentateuch than in any other section of Scripture. This is just what we would expect from an author who was brought up in Egypt, writing for a people who were reared in the same setting as he.

    If the Pentateuch was composed between the ninth and fifth centuries B.C., as the Documentary school maintains, and if it extrapolated the religious practices and political perspectives of the fifth and sixth centuries back to the times of Moses (by way of a pious fraud), it is reasonable to expect that this spurious document, concocted long after Jerusalem had been taken over as the capital of the Israelite kingdom, would surely have referred to Jerusalem by name on many occasions. It would certainly have included some prophecy of the future conquest of that city and its coming status as the location of the permanent temple of Yahweh. But a careful examination of the entire text of Genesis through Deuteronomy comes up with the astonishing result that Jerusalem is never once mentioned by name. To be sure, Mount Moriah appears in Genesis 22 as the location of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac, but there is no suggestion that it was to be the future location of the temple.

    In Genesis 14 there is a reference to Melchizedek as the king of Salem—not Jeru-salem—but again without any hint that it would later become the religious and political capital of the Hebrew Commonwealth. In Deuteronomy 12:5–18 there are references to a place that Yahweh your God shall choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling. While these references are general enough to include such places as Shiloh and Gibeon, where the tabernacle was kept for extended periods of time before the erection of Solomon’s temple, it is fair to assume that Deuteronomy 12:5 was mainly intended as a prediction of the establishment of the Jerusalem temple. Yet it is almost impossible to account for the failure of this allegedly late and spurious work of Moses to mention Jerusalem by name, when there was every incentive to do so. Only the supposition that the Torah was genuinely Mosaic, or at least composed well before the capture of Jerusalem in 1000 B.C., can account for its failure to mention the city at all by name.

    In dating literary documents, it is of greatest importance to take stock of the key terms that are apparently current at the time the author did his work. In the case of a religious book, the titles by which God is characteristically referred to are of pivotal significance. During the period between 850–450 B.C., we find increasing prominence given to the title YHWH ṣe a’ô (most frequently rendered in English versions by the LORD of Hosts). This appellation, which lays particular stress on the omnipotence of Israel’s Covenant-God, occurs about sixty-seven times in Isaiah (late eighth century), eighty-three times in Jeremiah (late seventh and early sixth centuries), thirteen times in the two chapters of Haggai (late sixth century), and fifty-one times in the fourteen chapters of Zechariah (late sixth to early fifth century). These prophets cover nearly the whole span of time during which the Pentateuchal corpus was being composed by Messrs. J, E, D, and P; yet amazingly enough, the title Yahweh of Hosts is never once to be found in the entire Pentateuch. From the standpoint of the science of comparative literature, this would be considered the strongest kind of evidence that the Torah was composed at a period when the title Yahweh of Hosts was not in use—therefore, all of it, even the so-called Priestly Code, must have been composed before the eighth century B.C. If this is a valid deduction, then the entire Documentary Hypothesis must be altogether abandoned.

    If the Priestly Code portion of the Pentateuch was truly composed in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., it would be expected that distinctively Levitical institutions and enrichments of public worship introduced from the time of David onward would find frequent mention in the Pentateuch. Such distinctives would surely include the guilds of temple singers, who were divided into twenty-four courses by King David (1 Chron. 25) and were often referred to in the titles of the Psalms. Yet no organized guilds of Levitical singers are ever once referred to in the Torah.

    The order of scribes ( ) should certainly have received mention as the great chief of scribes, Ezra himself, was finalizing large portions of the Pentateuch in time for the 445 B.C. celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles—according to the Wellhausen hypothesis. But for some strange reason there is no reference whatever to the scribal order or function, nor any prophetic hint that there will some day be such a class of guardians of the sacred text.

    From the time of Solomon and onward, there was a very important class of temple servants known as the Nethinim (those who have been given, i.e., to the service of the Lord in the temple). The number of Nethinim (392) who joined the 42,000 returnees from Babylon in 538 B.C. is included in the statistics of Ezra 2:58 and Nehemiah 7:60, along with the count of the Levites and priests. But there is no reference to them or prediction of them to be found in Document P. Very strange!

    From the time of David, the sweet psalmist of Israel (2 Sam. 23:1), liberal use was made of various musical instruments (stringed, wind, percussion—all three types) in connection with public worship before the Lord. Certainly a Mosaic sanction for this important feature of Levitical worship ought to have been included in the Torah if it had been composed as late as the tenth century or thereafter. But surprisingly enough, it fails to contain a single reference to musical accompaniment in connection with tabernacle worship. This is impossible to reconcile with a composition date in the fifth century B.C. It is beyond debate that a professional priestly group such as the Documentarians describe would have had the strongest motivation for including such cherished institutions as these among the ordinances of Moses.

    The Pentateuch, especially in Deuteronomy, contains several references to the future conquest of Canaan by the descendants of Abraham. The Deuteronomic speaker is filled with confidence that the Hebrew host will overwhelm all opposition within the land of Canaan, defeat every army, and storm every city they decide to attack. This is clearly reflected in the repeated exhortations to destroy every Canaanite temple or shrine with complete thoroughness (Deut. 7:5; 12:2–3; cf. Exod. 23:24; 34:13).

    Since every nation defends its religious shrines with the utmost resistance of which it is capable, the assumption that Israel will be able to destroy every pagan sanctuary throughout the land assumes the military supremacy of Yahweh’s people after their invasion of the land. At what other juncture in the career of the Hebrew nation could such a confidence have been entertained except in the days of Moses and Joshua? Here again, internal evidence points very strongly to a Mosaic date of composition. Nothing could be more unrealistic than to suppose that Josiah back in 621 B.C., when Judah was a tiny vassal state under the Assyrian Empire, could have expected to break down every idolatrous altar, destroy every pillar ( ) and cultic tree ( ), and smash every temple structure to rubble throughout the length and breadth of Palestine. Or how could the struggling little colony of post-Exilic fifth-century Judea expect to make a clean sweep of every heathen shrine from Dan to Beer-sheba?

    The only conclusion to draw from these Pentateuchal commands to destroy all traces of idolatry is that it was within Israel’s military capabilities to carry out this program throughout the whole region. But nothing could have been more inappropriate in the time of Zechariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah than to contemplate such a thorough extirpation of idol worship throughout Palestine. For them it was a battle just to survive, so repeated were their crop failures and so serious was the opposition of all the nations surrounding them. Neither Document P in the time of Ezra nor Deuteronomy in the days of Josiah could possibly be harmonized with such passages as these.

    Deuteronomy 13:2–11 provides the penalty of death by stoning for any idolater or false prophet, even for a brother, wife, or child. Verses 12–17 go on to say that even if it is an entire city that has turned to idolatry, every inhabitant within it is to be put to death, all houses are to be reduced to rubble and ashes, and all property is to be put under the ban. This is no visionary theory but a serious ordinance with inbuilt investigative procedures, reflecting a program that is meant to be carried out within contemporary Israel. But as we examine the account of Judah’s religious situation in the seventh century B.C. (or, indeed, in the eighth century from the time of Ahaz on), we find that idol worship was tolerated and practiced in almost every municipality throughout the kingdom—except during the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah. This would have meant the destruction of every city and town throughout the realm, even including Jerusalem itself. No one devises laws that are completely impossible to carry out in the light of contemporary conditions. The only period in Israel’s history when such legislation could have been enacted and enforced was back in the days of Moses and Joshua—or possibly in the time of David. (Already by Solomon’s time shrine worship on the high places was practiced.)

    Moses’ Qualifications for Authorship of the Pentateuch

    From all the biblical references to Moses’ background and training, it is apparent that he had just the right qualifications to compose just such a work as the Torah.

    He had a fine education as a prince reared in the Egyptian court (Acts 7:22), in a land that was more literate than any other country in the Fertile Crescent. Even the mirror handles and toothbrushes were adorned with hieroglyphic inscriptions, as well as the walls of every public

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1