For 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 student is often left to grasp for answers, or trust what someone else has said or written as the correct interpretation of a specific passage.
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 interpretative tools to use in their own reading of the Bible. Author David O’Brien encourages readers to a 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 passages
- Language, translation, and figures of speech
- History, criticism, and transmission of the biblical text
- Cultural differences
- Creation, Genesis 1–11, and prophecy
- Ethics and lifestyle issues
- Controversial doctrinal issues
