Everyone who reads the Bible seriously runs into passages that are confusing, strange or troubling. Pretending otherwise does more damage than the passages do, because it teaches people that honest readers do not have questions, and then they conclude they are not honest readers.

Five questions that resolve most difficulties

What kind of writing is this? Poetry, law, narrative, letter and prophecy each work differently. A great deal of confusion is a genre error.

Who was it written to, and what did they already know? A letter answering a question you cannot hear is bound to sound abrupt.

Does the passage approve of what it reports? Narrative often describes without endorsing. The Bible records terrible things done by its own major figures, and recording is not recommending.

What surrounds it? Most verses that seem to say something outrageous say something different when the paragraph is read.

Is it clear elsewhere? Reading obscure passages in the light of clear ones is an old and sound rule. Reversing it produces most of the strange doctrines in history.

When the difficulty is moral rather than intellectual

Some passages are not confusing but disturbing: violence, judgement, the treatment of women, slavery in the ancient world. These deserve better than a quick answer.

Take them slowly, read what thoughtful believers have written about them across the centuries, and notice whether the text itself grieves over what it reports. Do not resolve them by pretending they do not trouble you, and do not conclude on a first reading that there is nothing to hear.

Practical tools

Read a second translation; often the difficulty is a translation choice. Use a study Bible with notes explaining the historical setting. And ask a real person who has read more than you have, which is faster than an evening online and far less likely to end somewhere strange.

An honest word

Some questions will not close. Believers with far more learning than most of us have lived with unresolved passages for a lifetime without losing faith, because trust in a person can survive unanswered questions about them.

A single difficult passage is not a reason to stop reading the other nine hundred pages. Keep going, and revisit it in a year; a surprising number resolve simply because you have read more.

Ask about a specific passage in our questions section, or read alongside a congregation you can question in person — the directory is where to find one.