Deck 2: Why Is the Bible so Hard to Understand

Question 1

1. Discuss why it is important to assign a piece of literature to a particular genre before attempting to interpret it.

Answer 1

Without understanding how a particular genre works, readers cannot adequately interpret a text. Students might draw parallels between fiction and nonfiction or any other genre that, if incorrectly assigned, would lead to misinterpretation. Each genre has certain characteristics and rules for how it is to be written and expectations for how it is to be understood.

Question 2

2. What kinds of conventions unite different types of literature into a single genre? How do these conventions help the reader know what to expect when reading work of a particular genre?

Answer 2

Readers bring different sets of expectations to different genres of literature. For example, a reader's expectations of a text that begins "Once upon a time" would be very different than expectations of a text opening with "Dear diary." Differences in form (structure, prose/poetry, etc.) and content (simile/metaphor, specialized language) communicate differences in the function of a text-such aspects of genre are part of how an author communicates meaning to the audience, expecting the audience to recognize the formal features of a genre to be able to understand the message(s) in a text.

Question 3

3. Why is the Bible so difficult to understand? List several factors that make the Bible difficult for modern audiences to understand and how modern readers can best attempt to overcome these difficulties.

Answer 3

The Bible is not a single book but a collection of many books written over a long period of time and in different places. We do not have the original-or even a near copy of an original-manuscript for any biblical book but rely upon long distant copies transmitted by hand for centuries. These books are written in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), and those languages changed significantly over time. These books were also written by numerous authors, most of whom were anonymous, and include many pseudonymous books or books falsely attributed to a historical figure. Not knowing the historical or social context of a given book can make it more difficult to understand. These authors also did not all agree with one another and came from different historical contexts or worldviews-and their contexts and worldviews were all radically different from those of modern readers. There are also numerous genres of literature represented in the Bible, with some books including sections of more than one genre or even combining different genres into one. There are also numerous internal tensions and discrepancies within and among the various books. Finally, many of the historical details found in various biblical books are either unverified or outright contradicted by external evidence such as archaeology. It is therefore imperative to take a careful historical and literary approach to bridge these gaps and get as close as possible to how these documents might have been understood in their own contexts.

Question 4

1. We have the original copies of the Hebrew Bible but not of the New Testament.

Question 5

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls include the original copies of several books of the Hebrew Bible.

Question 6

3. The Jewish scriptures were written in Hebrew and Greek.

Question 7

4. The Bible nowhere contradicts the historical evidence archaeologists have found.

Question 8

5. All English translations of the New Testament are based on a single manuscriprom 1000 C.E.

Question 9

6. The Bible can be described most accurately as an anthology, or collection of writings assembled over many centuries.

Question 10

7. Pieces of literature that share a range of formal conventions are classified together as a trope.

Question 11

8. The entire New Testament was written in Greek.

Question 12

9. The book of Isaiah talks about the virgin birth of the future messiah.

Question 13

10. The Bible contains books that claim to be written by authors who did not write them.

Question 14

1) What is the term for a category of literature in which members share a range of conventions?

A) genre
B) prose
C) editorial
D) collective

Question 15

2) In pre-Christian Judaism, the term "Son of God" referred to

A) God.
B) a person used to do God's will on earth.
C) Jesus.
D) the coming messiah.

Question 16

3) Modern English translations of the Hebrew Bible are based upon

A) manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
B) a single manuscript from 1000 C.E.
C) the original Hebrew manuscripts from ancient Israel.
D) thousands of manuscripts collected from across the ancient world.

Question 17

4) In pre-Christian Judaism, the term "Son of God" referred to

A) God.
B) a person used to do God's will on earth.
C) Jesus.
D) the coming messiah.

Question 18

5) The word "messiah" literally means

A) Son of God.
B) the rightful king of the world.
C) a person who has been anointed with oil.
D) a person born of a virgin.

Question 19

6) When Isaiah 7:14 refers to the young woman who will be with child and give birth to a son named Immanuel, it is talking about

A) how God will swiftly resolve a crisis in ancient Judah.
B) a person used to do God's will on earth.
C) Jesus.
D) the coming messiah.

Question 20

7) In Greek and Roman pagan contexts, "son of God" meant

A) a member of the Trinity.
B) a person used to do God's will on earth.
C) the coming messiah.
D) a demigod produced by the sexual union of a god and a human.

Question 21

8) One positive value of the discrepancies found among different books in the Bible is that they

A) prove that God does not exist.
B) show that each book of the Bible has its own message.
C) cause headaches for scholarly interpreters.
D) expose false interpretations and demonstrate the true historical value of the Bible.

Question 22

9) Which of the following genres does not appear in the Bible?

A) apocalypse
B) myth
C) novel
D) mystery

Question 23

10) Who wrote the New Testament Gospels?

A) Matthew, Peter, Paul, and Mary
B) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
C) Matthew, Peter, Luke, John
D) none of the above (The authors wrote anonymously.)

Question 24

11) Most scholars think ____________ was the last book of the Bible to be written

A) Revelation
B) 2 Peter
C) 3 John
D) Daniel

Question 25

12) The books of the Bible were written in which languages?

A) Hebrew and Greek
B) Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
C) Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin
D) Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek

Question 26

13) Historians can only access

A) what is written in texts.
B) what happens in the natural world.
C) the natural and supernatural realms.
D) data from texts and archaeology.

Question 27

14) Not including the deuterocanonical books, how many books are found in the English tradition of the Jewish scriptures?

A) twenty-four
B) twenty-seven
C) thirty-nine
D) sixty-six

Question 28

15) Approximately how many ancient or medieval Greek manuscripts of texts from the New Testament exist today?

A) 250.
B) 1,370.
C) 5,600.
D) 10,100.