Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

Copyright © 2012–2025 DiscipleMakers, except guest articles (copyright author). Used by permission.

You are here: Home / Archives for Peter Krol

The Best Bible Translation

By

Tommy Keene has another great reflection on his blog, this time about which English Bible is the best version to use. I concur with his conclusion:

There’s a very simple answer to that question: whatever translation your church uses.

In most cases, your default translation should be the one that the majority of people that you are talking to on a weekly basis are regularly using themselves. That doesn’t mean that it’s the only translation you should consult (we will talk about how to do that in a subsequent post), nor does it mean that you need to wave a “Best Translation Ever” flag every time you quote it, but it does mean that any exegetical argumentation you make should usually be grounded in that translation. It means this is the translation you are working from, and it means that if you cannot prove your point from this translation on its own merits then you might want to consider whether or not it is a point worth making.

He goes on to explain that there are many very good English translations. They’ve all got strengths, and they’ve all got flaws. And by “translations,” he’s referring to bona fide translations and not paraphrases.

Check out his reasoning for this conclusion.

Judges: We Need a King

By

The book of Judges contains some of our best-known Bible stories, such as Gideon and his water-lapping soldiers, and Samson and his hair. The book of Judges also contains some rarely-referenced weirdness, such as Shamgar’s oxgoad and Abimelech’s dictatorship. In addition, the book of Judges contains some horrific tales, typically considered inappropriate for polite company, such as Eglon’s feces spilling out, and a Levite’s despicable treatment of his concubine.

This book is heroic, confusing, and quite dark, sometimes all at the same time. How are we to understand its message?

Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay

Literary Markers

The book divides into sections according to the lives of its chief protagonists, the “judges,” or military and political leaders of the tribes of Israel. Some judges get complete stories assigned to them, while others get only a summary statement or two. These biographies yield the following list (I’ve indented the minor judges who appear only in summary statements):

  • Othniel – Jdg 3:7-11
  • Ehud – Jdg 3:12-30
    • Shamgar – Jdg 3:31
  • Deborah – Jdg 4:1-5:31
  • Gideon – Jdg 6:1-8:35
  • Abimelech – Jdg 9:1-57
    • Tola – Jdg 10:1-2
    • Jair – Jdg 10:3-5
  • Jephthah – Jdg 10:6-12:7
    • Ibzan – Jdg 12:8-10
    • Elon – Jdg 12:11-12
    • Abdon – Jdg 12:13-15
  • Samson – Jdg 13:1-16:31

Most of these stories end with either the death of the leader, or the land having rest from oppression, or both. So they are presented as a set of life-stories that fit together in a literary sequence.

That leaves us with a quite a bit of material at the beginning and end of the book that doesn’t fit within the sequence of life-cycles of the judges. But a closer look shows that this material is still carefully arranged.

Beginning and Ending

The book opens “after the death of Joshua” (Jdg 1:1), but then later describes what happens “when Joshua dismissed the people” (Jdg 2:6). So these scenes must be out of chronological order.

The first scene describes the results of each tribe’s conquest of the promised land, getting progressively less effective, and culminating in the condemnation of the angel of the Lord (Jdg 1:1-2:5). The second scene steps back and offers perspective on why those conquests tended to fail: The people stopped listening to Yahweh and chose instead to pursue false gods (Jdg 2:6-3:6). This second scene lays out a template of sorts, which each judge’s narrative will then follow: the people turn aside, are handed over to an oppressor, cry out to God, have a judge raised up, conquer the oppressor, find rest, and turn again to false gods.

So the opening two scenes describe what happened in the generation following Joshua’s death (scene 1), and why (scene 2).

Jumping to the end of the book, we also find two distinct units. In the first unit (Jdg 17-18), a man sets up a personal shrine with a private priest (who happens to be the grandson of Moses!), which is then robbed by the tribe that executed its conquest most poorly (Dan). In the second unit (Jdg 19-21), a Levite cannot be trusted with his own quasi-bride, civil war erupts, and everything falls to pieces.

So the closing two scenes grant us graphic portraits of why things have gotten so terrible (unit 1), and just what happens when things get so terrible (unit 2)—the same issues as the opening scenes, but in reverse order. By book’s end, we ought to feel utterly repulsed by the behavior and beliefs of the people of God. How did things ever get so out of hand, when God was so faithful to deliver them time and again?

The Refrain

The book’s final lines present a chilling assessment that ought to rattle any clear-thinking society:

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 21:25

This statement appears as a refrain multiple times in the closing scenes (Jdg 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25). It parallels the opening statement of Joshua’s death, leaving the people leaderless (Jdg 1:1). So the book’s conclusion is driven by this piercing assessment.

The Body

So if the book’s introduction and conclusion both unpack what went wrong and why it went wrong, what does the cycle of judges in the book’s body suggest about the narrator’s agenda?

In one sense, we can see the sequence of judges as a linear sequence getting progressively worse.

  • Othniel makes quick work of his adversary, fighting in the strength of God’s Spirit.
  • Ehud turns to deception, which is not uncommon in military campaigns but stands out by contrast with Othniel.
  • Deborah steps up (along with another woman, Jael), when the male military officer refuses to go without her.
  • Gideon is full of questions and uncertainty, refusing to become king. But he sets up an unauthorized shrine and names his son “my father is king” (Abimelech).
  • Abimelech doesn’t even pretend to be a good guy, but claims kingship for himself, murdering all rivals and falling to a bloody and shameful end.
  • Jephthah is a mighty warrior, yet also a known scoundrel and thug. Though Gideon mostly made peace with tribes who complained against him, Jephthah, upon finishing off God’s enemies, makes open war on God’s people who won’t support him.
  • Samson performs mighty acts of faith in Yahweh’s name, yet he can’t stop living and grasping for whatever he sees in the moment. He is rewarded with blindness so he can finally, truly see.

In this linear sequence, the judges represent the people of Israel not only politically but spiritually. The life of the judge is a living parable of the spiritual state of the community, descending into chaotic, horrific self-centeredness.

But there is another sense in which the stories of the judges are presented. In addition to the linear descent into madness, we also see a concentric (or chiastic) sequence.

  • Othniel
    • Ehud
      • Deborah
        • Gideon
      • Abimelech
    • Jephthah
  • Samson

How are the judges placed in parallel?

  • Othniel and Samson both do their work in the strength of Yahweh’s Spirit, interacting largely with the tribe of Judah.
  • Ehud and Jephthah both have battles (with very different results) at the fords of the Jordan.
  • Deborah and Abimelech are both unusual leaders. One is suffering through the appointed leader’s abdication; the other suffers from his own self-aggrandizement. Also, in both stories, the antagonist perishes from a head wound and impalement.

Gideon stands at the book’s center, as the reluctant leader who accomplishes tremendous deeds for Yahweh. Yet even his greatest victory comes tinged with a hint of self-aggrandizement (“A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!” – Jdg 7:18). His story culminates in a critical proposition from the men of Israel: “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also” (Jdg 8:22). While he refuses this offer of a dynasty (Jdg 8:23), he still has the chutzpah to name one of his sons “my father is king” (Jdg 8:31). His story ends with more than a hint of something sinister afoot.

Conclusion

The book’s key question is: Who will lead these people? And its key conclusion is: They need a king. But clearly, not just any king. Someone like Abimelech will never do.

First and foremost, they need Yahweh as their king. Everything goes haywire when then they rebel against him. But perhaps Yahweh will see fit to grant them a human king in his image, after his likeness, according to his own heart. Judges only raises the question, but you have to keep reading into Ruth and 1 & 2 Samuel for an answer.

Interpretive Outline

  • What happens without a leader – Jdg 1:1-2:5
    • Why they need a king – Jdg 2:6-3:6
      • Three kingly heroes – Jdg 3:7-5:31
        • The man who would (or would not?) be king – Jdg 6:1-8:35
      • Three very unkingly heroes – Jdg 9:1-16:31
    • Why they need a king – Jdg 17:1-18:31
  • What the worst looks like when there is no king – Jdg 19:1-21:25

This post is part of a series of interpretive overviews of the books of the Bible.

The Danger of an Open Bible

By

Jared Olivetti has an intriguing piece at Gentle Reformation, where he reflects on how dangerous it can be for people to read their Bibles the wrong way.

When Jesus and Satan had their showdown in the wilderness, what was the Enemy’s great tactic? To quote, misquote, and under-quote God’s Word, giving his lies the appearance of evil (don’t all the best lies do that?). Every great heretic in the history of the church has been an expert in the Bible and has used the Bible to do terrible things. An open Bible is a dangerous thing. More specifically, poor Bible reading is dangerous Bible reading. In all seriousness, consider how many people have been horribly abused with the Bible.

We certainly don’t have the option of not reading or preaching the Bible! But this is a double-edged sword…and just as I wouldn’t want you swinging a sword around without learning how to use it first, Jesus wants you to read and to read well.

I particularly appreciate his concern with the danger of Bible dissection:

…to read with dissection is to read the Bible with a microscope, to read atomistically, on the most minute level possible. This happens when we read without any sense of the context, just waiting for a verse to jump out at us. And when said verse does jump, we make it our verse for the day (or, worse, our “life-verse”), never bothering to wonder what the author intended to say, what the first audience thought, or how it fits into the whole scope of the Bible. This is the instagram way of reading the Bible.

Check it out!

Inviting Guest Posts for Book Overviews

By

Right before quarantine-induced cabin fever set in, I began a series of posts with interpretive book overviews. I made it only through Genesis and Exodus before life’s curve ball made me alter my swing for a season. Now I’m just about ready to get back to it.

With that said, I would like to draw your attention to the contents page, where I list all the books of the Bible for which I plan to write these interpretive overviews. Two of them already have pretty little hyperlinks, which will lead you to those first two posts I wrote back in March (which amounts to eons in virus-years).

The keen observers among you will notice that not all 66 books are included on the list. And those who have been trained in asking interpretive questions are wondering: Why are not all 66 books on the list? Have no fear; I will now tell you. The reason is because I must keep close reign on the magnitude of my ignorance I prefer not to write on topics where I have little to say that would be useful. And I have not yet spent enough time in the unlisted books to believe I have anything to say for which I could be accused of being useful.

This is, perhaps, where you come in. I would be pleased—nay, delighted—to publish guest posts from the many competent, yet ordinary, Bible students out there who are actually acquainted with the books absent from my list. For the purposes of this invitation, I don’t care how many degrees you have; I do care how well you’ve grasped the argument of one or more books of the Bible.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

  • Most Bible book overviews out there are focused on historical context (time and circumstances of writing) and observation: summarizing and re-stating the content. These are very important and helpful, but I am doing something different here. I am looking for overviews focused on interpretation: identifying main points, showing literary divisions, and following the author’s train of thought and/or argument. I am looking for overviews that walk through the argument of a book (see my posts on Genesis and Exodus for examples).
  • Posts can be up to 1,300 words. But if you can say it in fewer words, please do so.
  • I prefer your guest post to be submitted as a Google doc. Please simply share the doc with peter.krol@knowableword.com, adding any message you would like to introduce yourself. If you don’t have a Google account or don’t know how to create Google docs, you may attach a Word file to an email sent to peter.krol@knowableword.com.
  • If I accept your submission, I will publish it here on the blog, link to it from the overviews page, include a bio linking to your own website or profiles page(s), and give you an extra entry in our next annual Bible reading giveaway.

Thank you for your help with this series, and I can’t wait to work together on this project with more of you!

Mastering the Middle Books of the Psalms

By

I’ve written before about my study of Book I of the Psalms (Psalms 1-41), sharing the spreadsheet I created to help with the analysis. I’ve now proceeded through books II (Psalms 42-72), III (Psalms 73-89), and IV (Psalms 90-106), updating the spreadsheet accordingly.

I propose the following as the main point of each book:

  • Book I: Though the Messiah, like David, suffers at the hands of men, God accepts him as his own.
  • Book II: We need a king greater than David.
  • Book III: We are desperate in our exile.
  • Book IV: We have hope our exile will eventually end.

In addition, I have a strong suspicion that books III and IV are each structured as an extended chiasm, where the second half is parallel to the first but in reverse order.

Please feel free to check out the spreadsheet, make a copy, and use this information in any way that may be helpful to you. The spreadsheet also links to each of the daily devotional videos I recorded over the last few months.

For future reference, you can find a link to the spreadsheet on the Resources page. I’ll let you know when I complete my work on Book V.

Check it out.

Context Matters: My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

By

Perhaps you’ve heard Jesus’ cry of dereliction while hanging on the cross. “How great the pain of searing loss; the Father turns his face away” (Stuart Townend). Perhaps you knew that Jesus was alluding to David’s lament in Psalm 22. But what exactly was David’s concern, and why was it so devastating? And how did Jesus share that experience in his own crucifixion?

When we learn to read the Bible properly—not as an assortment of quotes and aphorisms—we find that some familiar phrases take on entirely new meanings.

Image by Alf-Marty from Pixabay

David’s Crisis of Faith

In Psalm 22, David feels utterly abandoned by God (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). The reason is that, as he looks around, he sees no evidence of God’s presence or activity to save (“Why are you so far from saving me?”). David cries and cries, but receives no answer (Ps 22:1-2).

David understands how these things work, and he seeks to console himself with the perspective of history. In Israel’s covenant with her God, there is a direct connection between loyal trust and deliverance.

  • In you our fathers trusted (Ps 22:4a).
  • They trusted, and you delivered them (Ps 22:4b).
  • To you they cried and were rescued (Ps 22:5a).
  • In you they trusted and were not put to shame (Ps 22:5b).

Those who trusted in God were rescued, and those who proved disloyal were put to open shame. This strengthens David to persevere in trust and believing loyalty (Ps 22:3).

“But I am a worm and not a man” (Ps 22:6). The problem is, it’s not working the way it ought. David has trusted and remained loyal, but he is still put to shame! He is mocked and scorned. His trust in Yahweh is now the very thing for which he is mocked (Ps 22:8).

What’s at stake here is that the connection between trust and deliverance appears to be broken. For generations, the Israelites had a pattern of abandoning God when things didn’t go their way. Will David do the same? Now that he has hard evidence that trust in God will not pay off? Will he change his mind and go back to Egypt? Will he grumble and complain? Will he turn to other gods?

In the rest of the psalm, we see David mature from a questioner (Ps 22:1-10) to a beggar (Ps:11-21), then to a preacher (Ps 22:22-26), and finally to a missionary (Ps 22:27-31). He withstands the test and survives the crisis of faith. With all outward appearances to the contrary, he proclaims that Yahweh remains worthy of fear (Ps 22:23), praise (Ps 22:25), and service (Ps 22:30).

Jesus’ Crisis of Faith

Though David felt that God had abandoned him, we can confidently conclude that this was not truly the case (2 Sam 7:9, 12-15). Yet for Jesus, such abandonment by the Father was in fact a reality. He faced his darkest hour alone (Mark 15:33-34), accompanied only by the sin of the world that had now become his own (2 Cor 5:21).

Once again, we must ask the question of historical habits: Will Jesus survive the crisis of faith? Will he fall to pieces, just like generation upon generation of Jews had done before him? Since trust in the Father is not paying out in deliverance, is it worth it for him to continue trusting at all?

This tension is all the greater when we observe Mark’s attention to the question of perseverance. Those who deride him dare him to come down from the cross (Mark 15:29-30). They doubt his ability to attain salvation for himself (Mark 15:31). They claim they will believe what he has said, only if he will come down (Mark 15:32). If he can’t save himself, they wonder whether Elijah will come to take him down from the cross (Mark 15:36).

But Jesus perseveres. He stays on the cross until all is finished, and he can proclaim that “he has done it” (Ps 22:31; see John 19:30). He remains loyal, even when abandoned by his Father. Because the Father despised and abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and hid his face from him (Ps 22:24), all the families of the nations can now worship before him (Ps 22:27).

And though the answer was delayed three days, we know that he who cried out to his Father was eventually heard (Ps 22:24, Rom 1:4, Heb 5:7-9).

Conclusion

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When you hear or recite the question, don’t allow it’s familiarity to dull your senses to the visceral conflict it betrays. Delight in this hero, who succeeded in every way where Old Covenant Israel failed. Behold the crisis of faith, the disillusionment, and the unbelievable temptation to come down from the cross to prove his worth. And rest assured that you will never have to experience such complete abandonment, because he already went through it once for all.

Tell the coming generations of his righteousness, and that he has done it.

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, click here.

Can You Trust Your Bible Study if You Don’t Know Hebrew and Greek?

By

Tommy Keene has a fabulous piece at his blog entitled “How do I do good exegesis if I don’t know Hebrew or Greek?” Perhaps you’ve been plagued by this question, wondering how far English translations can really take you.

This uncertainty causes some people to question any conclusion drawn from a Bible translation whatsoever. And it causes others to do foolish things when they use original language tools without knowledge of those original languages (for an example, see my post on how a little Greek can be a big distraction).

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Keene proposes an utterly sensible way forward. Here’s a taste:

Let’s say that you want to do some serious exegetical work on a passage of Scripture–perhaps you need to write an exegetical paper, or you’re running this week’s Bible Study, or counseling a client through a trauma, or answering your friend’s very specific and theological questions in a coffee shop–but you don’t know the original languages and therefore feel some lack of confidence when it comes to explaining what the biblical text really means.

Can you deeply and analytically study and reflect on a text of Scripture without making use of the original languages, and if so, how?

The question is particularly important if you’ve already been convinced, as I’ve argued previously, that you shouldn’t make definitive conclusions based on the original languages if you don’t possess a working knowledge of them. The present post began as a kind-of appendix to that argument, but on further reflection deserves a series itself.

“So I shouldn’t come to definitive exegetical conclusions from the Hebrew and Greek if I don’t know the original languages?” one might respond. “If that’s the case, is it still possible for me to mount an exegetical case for my position, and if so, how do I do that?”

The short answer: yes it’s very much possible, but it is vitally important that you account for the limitations of working with the text “in translation.” If you want to properly exegete a passage without the evidence provided by the Hebrew and Greek, you need to (1) trust a native language translation while simultaneously (2) being perpetually aware of its limitations.

The rest of this piece is well worth your time.

Check it out!

Taking a Break from the Psalms

By

Now that I’ve reached the end of book 2 (Psalm 72), which is almost halfway through the Psalms, I plan to take a break from the daily devotions. The videos worked nicely with my schedule while stuck at home, but with things opening up bit by bit, I find myself unable to keep the pace.

If our region experiences another wave of shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, I will likely pick back up with the daily devotions and try to finish the Psalms.

But for now, you can expect a return to my previous routine of a Check it Out post on Wednesdays and a reflective post on Fridays. Lord willing, Ryan will continue posting every other Monday.

Psalms Book 2 Wrap-up—Someone Bigger Than David

By

Psalms Book 2 Review Devotional

Psalms Book 2 Review Devotional

Posted by Grace Fellowship Church on Saturday, June 27, 2020

Or watch it here.

Book 2 Review

Moving beyond David, new poets join the roster

  • Sons of Korah (Psalms 42-49)
    • Life in and longing for Zion
  • Asaph (Psalm 50 – and more to come in Book 3)
    • Can’t take money with you
  • Back to David (Psalms 51-70)
    • Life in a fallen world
      • 51-59: Dealing with sin, from self to enemies to betrayal
      • 60-64: Fallen systems and structures 
      • 65-70: A clear view of God
  • 71: No known poet
    • We need old saints to remind us of everything we’ve covered in these many diverse poems
  • Solomon (Psalm 72)
    • Son of David, next king
    • Book 2 ends with a poem from Solomon about the coming King who would rule the world in justice and righteousness
  • Book 2 is not completely leaving David behind
    • But it is training us to start looking beyond David for something bigger
    • SomeONE bigger
      • Who will spare us, even from the deserved judgment or undeserved consequences of sin
      • Who will lead us in song and service before God
        • Getting us back to Zion, even from pain of exile
      • Who will remind us of all that God has done for us
      • Who will rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth
Image by ArtTower from Pixabay