Today's Handbook for Solving Bible Difficulties

Book excerpt: For the Person Whose Study of Scripture is a Lifelong CommitmentFor the one without formal training in biblical studies, resolving questions and difficulties that arise while reading Scripture can be a discouraging task. Without a background in the culture, language, and history of the Bible, the lay Bible student is often left to grasp for answers or trust what someone else has said or written as the correct interpretation of a particular problem.Today's Handbook for Solving Bible Difficulties offers a refreshing solution. While offering suggested answers to specific difficulties, it goes a step beyond the usual approach and teaches readers reliable interpretive tools to use in their own reading of the Bible. Author David O'Brien encourages readers to more in-depth personal Bible study and shows them how to do it. In a very readable style, the book divides Bible difficulties into categories to help Bible students understand problems with:Apparent biblical contradictions in certain passagesLanguage, translation, and figures of speechHistory, criticism, and transmission of the biblical textCultural differencesCreation, Genesis -, and prophecyEthics and lifestyle issuesControversial doctrinal issues