30 votes
Accepted

Does Jesus Judge or Not?

The answer to the question does not lie in the statement but in the time/period. The first time Jesus was sent into the world His duty was to spread the Word of God to all men and not to judge anyone: ...
Kenart's user avatar
  • 416
26 votes

How could King Herod have killed John the baptist in Matthew 14?

There are three Herods in scripture. 1 The one that killed the infants at the time of Jesus' birth - 'Herod the Great'. 2 The one that killed John the Baptist - 'Herod Antipas'. (Also 'the Tetrarch'....
Nigel J's user avatar
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21 votes
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How could King Herod have killed John the baptist in Matthew 14?

Here is an extract from Wikipedia about the Herodian family (source): Herod the Great (born c. 74 BC, ruled 37–4 BC), client king of Judea who built the Second Temple (in Jerusalem) and in the New ...
Dottard's user avatar
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20 votes
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Jesus was tempted, but God cannot be tempted. How, then, do we reconcile James 1:13 and Heb. 4:15?

Human nature can be tempted. Divine nature cannot be tempted. These two passages indicate the duality of nature possessed (uniquely) by Jesus of Nazareth. These two natures cannot 'merge' or 'mingle'. ...
Nigel J's user avatar
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17 votes
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How can we reconcile 2 Samuel 6:23 & 2 Samuel 21:7-9?

As a commenter notes, there is a text-critical issue here. The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible plainly reads "Michal" at this point. However, as the textual notes to the Biblia Hebraica ...
Dɑvïd's user avatar
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17 votes
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Why did God choose circumcision and Paul cancel it?

Succinctly stated, as Christ himself was circumcised,1 all those who are “in Christ” are also circumcised with Christ,2 just as all those who are in Christ: suffer with Christ3 are crucified with ...
Der Übermensch's user avatar
16 votes
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Is there a numerical contradiction between Ezra and Nehemiah?

As other answers have noted, there are a number of discrepancies between the lists of Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 which are, largely, duplicate passages. In the case of Ezra 2:65 and Nehemiah 7:67, there ...
Dɑvïd's user avatar
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15 votes

Answer not a fool, or answer a fool?

I think the thing which is causing you to see a contradiction is the use of the imperative. Rephrase using conditionals: If you answer a fool according to his folly, you risk becoming like him. ...
Peter Taylor's user avatar
14 votes

Is there any ambiguity in Luke 2:5 to whether Mary and Joseph were already married?

There are three variants of the Greek text here: (a) ... τῇ μεμνηστευμένῃ αὐτῷ γυναικί ... ("his betrothed wife") (b) ... τῇ μεμνηστευμένῃ αὐτῷ ... ("his betrothed") (c) ... τῇ γυναικί ...
user33515's user avatar
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14 votes
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Are 1 John 1:8 and 1 John 3:9 contradictory?

There are several matters here that are crucial - First, 1 John 1:8 should never be read without also reading 1 John 1:10 - 8 If we say we have no sin [noun], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is ...
Dottard's user avatar
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13 votes

Why did God choose circumcision and Paul cancel it?

Simply put, the law of circumcision was given by God to the Hebrew people who made up the physical, geographical nation of Israel and to all the foreigners who would live in the nation of Israel. ...
Popcorn Bad Dude's user avatar
12 votes

Can we harmonize the two meetings of David and Saul?

Interacting with Frank Luke's response, I like the theory proposed by E.W. Bullinger, however it does not seem to fit with what immediately follows in Chapter 18. First of all I believe that ...
Andrew Whitman's user avatar
12 votes
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Why would God create vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Romans 9:21-22) if He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11)?

Paul was drawing an illustration from an Old Testament passage of Scripture, Jeremiah 18:3-6. In that passage, God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house to learn a lesson. The potter was making a vessel;...
Dave's user avatar
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12 votes

Did God forsake Jesus while on the cross?

Yes, God had forsaken Jesus on the cross (for about three hours). The fact that the Father was Jesus' constant, incessant and unwavering companion throughout Jesus' life, as correctly documented by ...
Dottard's user avatar
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11 votes
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Leviticus says animal sacrifice will cleanse you from your sins. Hebrews says it's impossible. What does "clean" mean?

'Clean' (טָהֵר) in Leviticus 16 The Hebrew verb טָהֵר / taher is used consistently throughout the Hebrew Bible in terms of cleansing or purifying, and so in the context of Leviticus 16 the stated ...
Steve can help's user avatar
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11 votes

Answer not a fool, or answer a fool?

The contradiction is intended, and rhetorical—and present in the Hebrew. However, there may be a slight play on the use of the preposition כ which means "according to, like" as in "according to his ...
Sola Gratia's user avatar
  • 9,462
11 votes

Should we put God to test or not?

The two scriptures (Deut. 6:16 and Malachi 3:10) should be read differently because the original Hebrew words for "test" are different in the two verses. In the King James version, the words ...
Thomas Gray's user avatar
11 votes

Jesus says mustard seeds are the smallest but they are not actually

When someone says "I was at the party last night and everyone was there", and then a questioner objects "No, 7 Billion people weren't there", then the objector is being ...
Robert's user avatar
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10 votes
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How can we understand the contradiction in Hebrews 11:5 and 13?

Well, hardly a "contradiction" as that term is normally understood. But there is a potential misunderstanding, as OP notes, which can be addressed in two ways: (1) To assume that ἀπέθανον "[these] ...
Dɑvïd's user avatar
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10 votes

How can Jesus say that Jews are the children of the devil (John 8:44) and provide salvation (John 4:22)?

"Salvation is from the Jews" doesn't mean that Jews give salvation to everyone. The word "from" (εκ) here is used in the sense that salvation arises from among Jews, and not the Samaritans, of which ...
Sola Gratia's user avatar
  • 9,462
10 votes

Does Jesus Judge or Not?

Suppose a lorry carries a load up a hill; we can say the lorry is responsible for taking the the load up the hill. But then we can say, no, actually the lorry was not responsible, it was the the ...
C. Stroud's user avatar
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10 votes
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Why did God bless Abraham's marriage with Sarah if she was his sister and incestuous relationships are categorically prohibited in Scripture?

There are two matters here: Marrying siblings was not always a problem but became a problem (as we now know) because of biological problems. Adam and Eve's children must have (almost) all married ...
Dottard's user avatar
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10 votes
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God promised a peaceful death to Zedekiah, so why did he die horribly?

Actually, Zedekiah did die in peace - he died in Babylon of natural causes and was not killed. However, there is more to this story - Zedekiah was warned several times. This is the brief history of ...
Dottard's user avatar
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10 votes

How can Isaiah 42:8 possibly be true, if John 13:31-32 is true?

This question is really only an apparent contradiction if one begins with the assumption that Jesus is not and never was YHWH of the OT. If this is a contradiction, then there are many more of them - ...
Dottard's user avatar
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10 votes
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Does everyone know God or not?

There is a noteworthy distinction of verbs: the lemma γινώσκω versus ἐπιγινώσκω, as listed in the following table: Word Verse Lemma γνωστὸν Rom. 1:19 γινώσκω γνόντες Rom. 1:21 γινώσκω ἐπιγινώσκει ...
Der Übermensch's user avatar
9 votes
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Why is there dust on the ground if there was a mist watering the ground?

The watering of the ground was imperfect in aspect because of the waw consecutive appears here with the perfect tense (and so “flips” the aspect from perfect to imperfect in alignment with the ...
Joseph's user avatar
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9 votes
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Could there be a chronological discord in Genesis 37, 38 & 39?

They could have (NOTE: Judah did not meet Joseph again until chapter 42, not chapter 39; but the 22 year time frame noted by the OP is reasonably calculated). Not much is given in the exact ...
ScottS's user avatar
  • 20k
9 votes

Did God command the making of graven images, in Exodus and Numbers?

No, God did not contradict Himself, since He never forbade all kinds of images to begin with, that, going on to command images to be made, He could be said to contradict Himself. Something is always ...
Sola Gratia's user avatar
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