Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

Copyright © 2012–2026 DiscipleMakers, except guest articles (copyright author). Used by permission.

You are here: Home / Archives for Peter Krol

Seven Things Not in the Bible, Revisited

By

Yesterday, I listed seven things which are commonly believed to be in the Bible but really aren’t.  Now that you’ve had time to stew, I’ll show my work.  Here goes:

1.  Adam and Eve frequently walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden

Despite what the old hymns say, it’s just not in the Scripture.  All that Genesis 3:8 says is that there was one particular day when Adam and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden.  It may have been a regular habit of his, but we just don’t know for sure.

2.  Jesus walked through walls after his resurrection

Observe John 20:19 carefully.  It never says that Jesus walked through walls.  Sure, the doors were locked.  Sure, Jesus came and stood among them.  But how did he get there?  Was his resurrection body somehow immaterial such that it could pass through solid structures?

Perhaps.  But maybe he came in through the window.  Maybe he picked the lock and walked through the doorway.  Maybe he knocked and knocked until someone opened the door for him.  Maybe he opened up a hole in the roof and had four friends lower him on a pallet.  All these things are possible; we just don’t know.

Since Luke 24:39-43 makes it abundantly clear that Jesus was not a ghost (a “spirit”), I’m personally disinclined to believe the Jesus-walked-through-walls idea.

3.  Christians are commanded to pray before every meal

Mark 6:41 and Luke 24:30 show Jesus “blessing” a meal.  1 Timothy 4:4 suggests that we receive everything with thanks.  But I’m not aware of any command in Scripture to offer up a prayer before eating a meal.  So, next time you’re visiting with unbelieving friends – especially in public or on their turf – don’t make a big deal out of praying!  The Gospel will be offensive enough; don’t put any other stumbling blocks in their way.

4.  Young Daniel was tossed into the lion’s den

He had to be around 90 years old when it happened.  He was carried to Babylon as a teenager in 605 BC (Daniel 1:1), and he was thrown to the lions during the first year of Darius in 539 BC (Daniel 5:31-6:1) – almost 70 years later.  We have one children’s Bible that gets this right; Daniel is an old, old man with the lions.  Most of them get it wrong.

5.  Judah, Jacob’s fourth son, inherited the rights of the firstborn and became chief heir of Jacob’s blessing

Some suggest that since Reuben (Genesis 49:3-4), Simeon, and Levi (Genesis 49:5-7) lost the rights of the firstborn, they must have gone to Judah, the fourth son.  This view is attractive, considering that Jesus descended from Judah.

But the Bible makes it clear that, although Judah, and thus Jesus, was promised the kingship (Genesis 49:10), Joseph inherited the blessing of the firstborn.  That’s why his two sons became their own tribes (double portion of the firstborn – Genesis 48:14-16).  If you have any doubt of this fact, see 1 Chronicles 5:1-2.

Why does it matter?  Because a major theme in Scripture is the preeminence of the younger brother over the rightful older brother.  Jesus is the younger brother who replaced all the older brothers who went before him and screwed things up (especially Adam).  So also, we who are young, weak, and foolish, were rescued by God to shame the strong and the wise (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

6.  Money is the root of all evil

It’s the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evils (1 Timothy 6:10).

7.  God saved Noah because Noah was the only righteous man on earth

This one drives me nuts when I read children’s Bibles to my kids.  Noah didn’t find favor with God because he was righteous (no-one is righteous, no, not one – Psalm 14:1-3).  He was righteous because he found favor with God (Genesis 6:8-9).  Just like us (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Seven Things You Always Thought Were in the Bible But Really Aren’t

By

We can discern common Christian legends by observing the text carefully!  I don’t think you’ll find any of these things in the Bible, but please feel free to comment if I missed something.

  1. Adam and Eve frequently walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden
  2. Jesus walked through walls after his resurrection
  3. Christians are commanded to pray before every meal
  4. Young Daniel was tossed into the lion’s den
  5. Judah, Jacob’s fourth son, inherited the rights of the firstborn and became chief heir of Jacob’s blessing
  6. Money is the root of all evil
  7. God saved Noah because Noah was the only righteous man on earth

Why Book Overviews Matter

By

When we began the process of adopting our twin sons, the U.S. State Department required numerous criminal background checks.  First, the Pennsylvania State Police cleared us of any misdemeanors or felonies.  Second, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare cleared us of any history of child abuse.  Third, the FBI cleared us of any federal offenses.   In addition, despite our spotless history in the United States, the Ugandan magistrate also required a background check from Interpol.  Once again, our records were so clean you could have disinfected a toilet with them.

Why did they require such thorough investigation into our history?  I imagine it was because we were pursuing a lofty objective with weighty consequences.  How could they not examine every corner of our lives to make sure these precious boys would have a good home with us?

When we study a book of the Bible like Proverbs, we must likewise investigate its background.  Therefore, over a few posts we’ll examine four topics that are foundational for understanding this book: the genre, the author, the audience, and the author’s intentions for his audience.

Stay tuned!

What the Avengers Taught Me about Bible Study

By

I just saw The Avengers and thought it almost lived up to all the hype.  It’s well worth seeing, and it can teach you about Bible study!

Characters, characters

This movie was well set up by all the (mostly) independent prequels: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, and Thor.  Each of those movies tells the story of a single hero.  All the heroes come together as a team in The Avengers.  Needless to say, the movie’s greatest strength was its characterization.

There is no narrator to tell you what’s happening, and there’s not much explanation of plot or setting except through dialogue.  All you have that drives the drama and action is the characterization of the heroes as they relate to each other, and it works beautifully.

Tony Stark (Iron Man) considers himself a “genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist,” and his choices, especially in his relationships, directly reflect this chosen identity.  Bruce Banner (Hulk) remains pretty introverted, fearing the monster that rages within him.  When asked how he keeps the monster at bay, he reveals his secret: “I’m always angry.”  We can reinterpret his quiet withdrawal in light of this revelation.

I could go on, but the point should be clear that much of a story can be told through strong characterization.  Notice how the Bible uses the same technique:

  • Jacob’s character drives much of the last sections of Genesis, as his affinity for conflict (Gen 25:22) and deceit (Gen 27:18-19) is used against him by his uncle (Gen 29:23, 31:26-28) before the Lord redeems it and makes him fruitful through it (Gen 32:28).
  • We are told very little about the prophet Elijah, but we resonate with the one whose nature was just like ours (James 5:17) as we see him alternately hiding (1 Kings 17:5-7) and confronting (1 Kings 18:17-19), inspiring (1 Kings 18:38-39) and raving (1 Kings 19:10, 14).  The man who demanded justice (1 Kings 19:10) and saw the Lord only in wind, earthquake, fire, and whisper (1 Kings 19:11-12) eventually saw the fulness of God’s glory on that mountain in the face of Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:2-3).
  • One leper’s character shines when he returns to thank Jesus (Luke 17:15-19).
  • A whiny, victimized, blameshifting invalid (John 5:6-7) demonstrates the opposite of faith even after meeting Life in flesh (John 5:14-16).  We don’t need the author to tell us to avoid his example.

When you read the Bible, be aware of how the characters are portrayed.  By their description, choices, and dialogue, we receive instruction in how to flee temptation by remembering that Jesus is our escape (1 Cor 10:6-13).  If you still have the chance to see The Avengers, do so, and become a better Bible student.

What The Hunger Games Taught Me About Bible Study

By

I just finished reading the first Hunger Games book, which simultaneously captivated and horrified me.  This post is not a review of the content of the book, but an attempt to capture some literary points that (I think) contribute to the book’s success.  For more evaluative reviews, see my brief Goodreads review, or reviews by Tim Challies or Mark Meynell.

1.  Pay attention to verb tenses

Something nagged at me through the first part of the book.  The story felt alive to me, almost too alive.  It took a while to notice the cause, but eventually I realized the verbs were in the present tense.  Sorry, I did that paragraph all wrong; let me try it again.

Something nags at me through the first part of the book.  The story feels alive to me, almost too alive.  It takes a while to notice the cause, but eventually I realize it’s the verbs are in the present tense.

Collins isn’t the first novelist to use this convention, but I think it’s uncommon.  I can’t remember the last time I read a novel that employed it.

What does this fact have to do with Bible study?  Pay attention to tenses!  Authors communicate tone and mood through it.  Each biblical author communicates different style and purpose through his text.  One particularly vivid example is the Gospel of Mark.

For example, check out the New American Standard Bible, which conveniently lets us know when the original language behind a narrative uses present tense (instead of the more common past tense) by marking it with an *.

“Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12, NASB).

“They *went into Capernaum…” (Mark 1:21, NASB).

“Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they *spoke to Jesus about her” (Mark 1:30, NASB).

Swap each of those *verbs with a present tense (the Spirit impels…hey go…they speak…), and you’ll get the picture Mark intends.  You’ll picture yourself right there with Jesus and his disciples, and the story will come alive.

2. Put Yourself in the Story

Part of what I enjoyed about The Hunger Games was that stuff happens.  We didn’t need chapter after chapter of set up.  We didn’t get a lot of back story, except through the course of the action.  Collins’s greatest strength is her plot, which she uses well to both build characters and configure setting.  But the plot is always central.

So also, in the Bible, there are times when plot is central.  Again, the key example that comes to mind is the Gospel of Mark.  For example, notice how often Mark uses the word “immediately.”  Compared to the other three Gospels, Mark has the fewest recorded speeches of Jesus.  Mark cares about action, and he wants that action to impact us as though we were there.  Jesus is a doer, the King of the Universe, and he’s doing everything in his power to fix what is broken, especially in our own lives.

In short, as I read The Hunger Games and considered why it was so popular, I was inspired to go back and re-read Mark, which I did at my first opportunity.  As you engage in the folklore of our culture, allow it to sharpen your skill at reading God’s Knowable Word.

___________________

Disclosure: The Amazon links above are affiliate links, so if you click them and buy stuff you’ll support this site at no extra cost to yourself.

How’d You Do That? (5/16/12)

By

In Wednesday’s post, I continued listing some counterfeits to wisdom present in our day.  All I tried to do here was apply the introductory material by dealing with some issues that may hopefully hit closer to home for some of us.

How many times have you heard (or said) the following?

  • “You’ll understand when you’re older.”
  • “Once you get a few gray hairs (or some more experience under your belt), then you’ll earn more respect or influence.”
  • “Why should I do what you’re saying?”  “Because I’m your father!”

One way to apply Bible passages is to consider what we ought to believe.  I’ve heard this called the “Head” realm of application (as distinct from the “Hands” or “Heart” realms, which refer more to skills or character).  In this case, we ought to believe the right thing (and not the wrong thing) about how to become wise.  Let’s not fall for the subtle but unbiblical assumptions that exist all around us.

One more thought: in this post, I considered some common misconceptions about how one becomes wise.  I tried to reflect what was good before identifying what I thought was bad.

Even if we disagree with someone or some idea, we should always first aim to find what is good, true, and beautiful about it.  After we build agreement there, we can move toward addressing areas of disagreement.  I think Paul had this approach in mind when he wrote Philippians 4:8, which is in the context of helping two women deal with a conflict in Philippians 4:2.  I encourage you to study Philippians 4:2-9 and follow the steps listed there the next time you are in a conflict with another person and want either the peace of God or the God of peace to be with you.

What a Large Homeschool Convention Taught Me About Bible Study

By

My wife and I just returned from “The largest Christian homeschool conference in the Northeast.”  We eagerly anticipated this event, and it didn’t disappoint.

So many benefits came from the time.  We were able to get our hands and eyes on many curriculum options, finally choosing what we will use for the coming school year.  We couldn’t even wait for the Fall to begin; as soon as we got home, we unwrapped a few things and immediately did the first of the new lessons with our children.  They just loved it, and our energy was still high from the buzz of the convention.

This blog isn’t about homeschooling, though, but about Bible study.  So, to get to the point: what I learned about Bible study is that we need much more of it.

At the convention, we heard a number of talks on various topics: publishing, storytelling, simultaneously instructing children of different grade levels, and including the preschoolers in homeschool time.  The last session we attended was especially helpful, in that the speaker (Marilyn Boyer of Character Concepts) listed about 30 character qualities, from the Bible, that we should seek to instill in our children.  She gave loads of tips on how to help our children connect with the Scriptures on a heart level, through memorizing them, meditating on them, and applying them to all of life’s adventures.

What I found noteworthy was that, other than this final session, the Bible was almost completely absent from the other workshops we attended.  To be fair, we could only attend a small fraction of the workshops, and perhaps we chose the only ones weaker on Scripture.

But I can’t help myself thinking that if “Christian homeschooling” can get dislodged from its moorings in careful biblical study, it’s merely symptomatic of Christian culture at large, which can be saturated with morals and activities but be somewhat barren when it comes to understanding God’s Knowable Word.

I’ll list just one other symptom that struck me.  Among the hundreds of vendors, we must have seen dozens of Bible curricula for children and teenagers.  This encouraged us.  However, almost every sample we perused focused on either the Bible’s stories, its ethics, or its theology.

These three are important topics, but what I’d also like to see is training for children and teens in how to study the Bible.  My hope for our children is that by the time they graduate high school, they won’t need a Bible text book anymore.  I’m not saying they’ll have perfect knowledge of all things, independent of the Christian community or the preaching of God’s Word.  I just mean that I’d like them to be able to pick up their Bibles, read them profitably, understand them rightly, and be equipped to use them to change the world.

How’d You Do That? (5/10/12)

By

In Thursday’s post, we briefly surveyed Proverbs 9 and identified a few common counterfeits of wisdom in our day.  Here are some principles demonstrated in that post.

1.  Observe Comparison and Contrast

Proverbs 9 describes two different women.  We are meant to observe what is similar (comparison) and what is different (contrast) about them.

Similarities: women, serving a meal, making invitations to bystanders.

Differences: prepared food vs. secret bread, mixing wine vs. stealing water, sending maidens vs. no maidens, hewing pillars vs. knowing nothing.

Observing the similarities and differences enables us to see that, though both want to recruit followers and serve them a meal, what they offer and how they offer it is very different.  Folly is copying Wisdom, but with less power and weaker results.  We too ought to expect counterfeits to wisdom.

Comparison and contrast are simple yet powerful to observe.  Here are a few more examples.

Characters, such as:

  • Abram/Lot in Genesis 13-14, 18-19
  • Zechariah/Mary in Luke 1:5-38

Plots, such as:

  • Men meeting women at wells in Genesis 24:15-21 & 29:9-12, Exodus 2:15-22, John 4:1-10
  • Sexually immoral demands at the doorstep in Genesis 19 & Judges 19

Settings, such as:

  • Personal encounters with God on mountains in Exodus 33-34, 1 Kings 19:9-18, and Mark 9:2-8
  • Childlessness in Genesis 11:27-31, 25:19-22, 29:31; Judges 13:1-3, 1 Samuel 1:1-2, Matthew 1:18-25

Things, such as:

  • Two gates, two trees, two candidates for the Kingdom, two houses in Matthew 7:15-27

Whenever we see two or more things that resemble each other in some way, we should keep our eyes out for both similarities and differences.  Make two lists, and ask yourself the question, “what is the author trying to communicate by comparing or contrasting these things?”

2.  Identify What a Passage is NOT Saying

When I moved toward particular application, I began to list some common assumptions in our day regarding what makes someone wise.  I haven’t yet defined, from the text of Proverbs, what wisdom is; I thought first it would be helpful to clear out some misconceptions.

One way to apply a text of Scripture is to consider what we ought to believe in light of the passage.  As we do so, we can identify what common beliefs exist in our culture don’t quite hit the bullseye.  Recognizing these faulty beliefs enables us to clear the debris so we can apply right beliefs.  We’ll see this in a few weeks when we move past the counterfeits (what wisdom is not) and define what wisdom is.

How’d You Do That? (5/3/12, continued)

By

Here are two more Bible study principles I employed in last Thursday’s post:

2.  Read the Bible as Literature

Every book of the Bible is a book.  Each of these books was written by a person to a group of people.  We ought to read these books like we read other books.  That means they have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The ideas flow from one thought to the next.  This is why I’ll work through Proverbs 1-9 section after section.

3.  Pay Attention to Context

This point flows right out of the previous one.  When we forget that the Bible is a collection of books, it’s easy to read a verse here and a verse there as we feel inspired.  However, each of those verses has a context.  There is a literary context (the thoughts written before and after) and a historical context (the person who wrote the book, and the circumstances under which he wrote it).

Here’s an example.  If I told you that on May 3, The New York Times quoted Tobias Meyer as saying, “I have all the time in the world,” what would you think of?  Does the quote inspire you or frighten you?  Do you share the sentiment, or do you envy it?

It’s impossible to evaluate such questions when the quote is isolated from any context!  So let me fill you in with more details.

Tobias Meyer is an auctioneer.  A few days ago, painter Edvard Munch’s famous work, “The Scream,” came up for auction.  Once the bidding reached $99 million, the participants paused, likely in anticipation of the $100 million milestone.  At this moment, Mr. Meyer exclaimed, “I have all the time in the world.”  As you know, auctioneers are not known for taking time or for drawing things out.  This moment was one to be savored.

The bidding continued, and the painting finally sold for $119.9 million, becoming the most expensive piece of art in history.  See the full article here.

Now that you know the facts in their context, does the quote take on new significance?

Let’s do the same whenever we study the Bible, making sure we understand it rightly in its context.  I will seek to do it in Proverbs by focusing on Solomon’s main points and flow of thought.  You can do it as you read the Bible, too.