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A lot of people with questions turn to the Bible for answers. And many times the answers to the big questions are found there. But have you ever opened the Bible looking for questions? I have, and what I found was startling.

To keep things simple, I just looked for sentences with a question mark in them, using my study Bible. Yes, I know that the original Bible languages didn’t have punctuation marks. But I’m assured that the translators knew which sentences needed a question mark and which ones did not.

Let me tell you why I was interested in questions. Some ten years before, I had been to a seminar on leading business meetings. One point they made was that questions often carried an agenda besides the obvious one of seeking the answer. In fact they said that 4 out 5 questions asked in business meetings had a hidden agenda, and often that agenda was destructive to the purposes of the meeting. So I wanted to see how that concept played out in the Bible.

Unless I missed something, there are no questions in Genesis 1 or 2. There is also no sin. When I got to Genesis 3:1, I found the first question in the Bible. It’s the serpent’s question. Is this a question with an agenda? You bet it is! The purpose is to put Eve and Adam into rebellion against God. The serpent probably already knows what the answer is going to be.

If we look at Genesis 3:9, we hear the Lord asking a question, “where are you?”. This is the first time the Lord addresses sinful Adam, and it’s a question. When the Lord asks a question, it’s safe to say He knows the answer. The problem here is not that the Lord doesn’t know where Adam is. It’s that Adam doesn’t know where Adam is. That problem is still with us.

I’m going to skip over several questions here, and skip to the first question asked by a human being. It’s Cain’s question in Genesis 4:9. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Is this a question with an agenda? You bet it is! Cain isn’t interested in finding out the answer. He just wants to absolve himself from responsibility for Abel’s death.

Interestingly enough, God doesn’t give Cain an answer to his question. When a question is asked with a hidden agenda, God often deals with the hidden agenda instead of dealing with the question. I once heard a Rabbi say, “in a sense, the rest of scripture is an answer to Cain’s question.” We are still dealing with Cain’s question today.

Now let me skip all the way to Matthew 22:34-39. A Jewish lawyer asks Jesus the standard quiz question for prospective teachers. When Jesus is asked a question He sometimes skips right over the answer to deal with the real issue. He sometimes answers a question with another question. This time he gives two answers for one question. Jesus first gives the standard answer, from Deuteronomy 6:5. Then He gives a second, unexpected answer, from Leviticus 19:18.

We know these two as the great commandments. In a way, the first great commandment deals with the serpent’s question. It’s not an answer to the question as asked. But it addresses the issue behind the serpent’s question. The second great commandment addresses the issue raised by Cain’s question.

Shortly after that comes an interesting point, in Matthew 22:46. They no longer dared to ask Him any questions. Do you have questions for God? Go ahead, ask them. But don’t be surprised if you end up with more questions at the end of the day.

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Not all those who wander are lost.

Interesting point. Many times the questions are presented by God to make a point to us as we consider the answer. For example, when God addresses Job at the end of the book He asks a number of questions - God knows the answer but He wanted Job to consider who he was in relation to God.

I have an evangelist friend who but together a booklet on the questions in the gospels. His point is that the answer is in the question or rather the question is the answer. The book presents the question and then a number of lines are given for fill in my wife and I are working each on our own booklet answering the questions and giving our thoughts.

Exactly.

When God asks a question, the answer is in the question or in the thinking that the question triggers.

When the serpent asks a question, it's Satan's counterfeit. The answer is in the question, but the question is designed to lead one astray. When Cain asks a question, it's fallen man speaking. The answer is not in the question, but in what the question is trying to conceal.

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Not all those who wander are lost.

I signed up the other day and "Questions in the bible" was the first post that attracted my attention.

This was because I consider that the Bible encourages us to ask questions and the answers to these questions lead to new questions, and this dynamic offers us wisdom.

It surprised me to discover that this post was actually about the questions in the Bible. That was again interesting because only recently I was told me that the first question in the Bible was “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and the rest of the Bible was about explaining that the answer to that question is indeed yes.

The idea that raising questions often goes together with a hidden agenda made me laugh, not because I disagree, but because I joined this forum to raise several questions.

One is whether it makes sense that calling a book sacred may originally have meant recognizing that it holds secrets, since the words 'sacred' and 'secret' may have a common origin. Another is whether the word 'religion' originally referred to reading a sacred book once and again (lt. relegere = re-reading) to find its secrets. Some people consider sacred books the work of God. But what if they are the work of enlightened people who understood ideas that their contemporaries did not comprehend? Would such people not be forced to write a 'sacred' book to pass their wisdom on to the future generations?

Autodidact - welcome to the forum.

The Bible does contain some interesting questions. Usually, when I prepare a lesson or sermon I ask question about the text I am using such as who was the author, what was his intent, etc. In addition, studying the questions themselves are also interesting. For example, when God asks a question he is omniscient therefore He knows the answer. The question is for the person to consider.. For example, when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and hid in the garden God asked him where he was but God knew exactly where he was and he wanted Adam to realize where he was morally.

By the way, sacred and secret do convey the idea of set apart. However, the Greek word hagios and the Latin sacredos and then secret is from the Greek word kruptos which means hidden and the Latin is abscondito and both the words sacred and secret go back to Old French and Middle English.

The only book that I hold as sacred is the Bible. I love all kinds of books, I am a book nut, I have read the classics. I taught a home school high school student for one semester in the classics. I went beyond the required reading in college English class and read Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Beowulf, etc. However, of all the classics these men were highly motivated by their intellect but they were not inspired by God. The Bible was divinely inspired by God and the Bible is the only book I refer to as inspired by God. 2 Tim 3:16 "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness." NASB The word inspired in this text, in the Greek, means God breathed in other words out of God's mouth his voice came and went forth and was penned down by chosen men. Therefore, I hold the Bible as sacred. However, I do respect books that others hold to be sacred such as the Vedas, Koran, etc.

GaryM,

re: " 'All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness'."

The trick of course is in determining what is scripture and what isn't.

I believe everything from Gen. 1:1 to Rev. 22:21 is divinely inspired. I do not accept the position that some scripture in the Bible is inspired while other verses are not I accept it all as the word of God.

GaryM

I agree .... it is all given for our learning, but it does not mean we can just read every word without doing our homework re meaning, context, genre, etc.

A life-changing book for me was "How to Read the Bible for All its Worth" by Stuart and Fee .... and I would say it was a "must read" for every Christian who is serious about understanding the Word of God.

in Christ

Dinah

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Thank you dcjoy. After having a semester of hermeneutics and reading several books on hermeneutics I follow all the rules of grammar, context, figurative language, etc. I read a book years ago called "Understanding the Bible," by John R.W. Stott, this was when I was in high school, and I have re-read it since.

anything by John Stott is worth reading

yes, I found that when I did a course of study that it opened up whole new horizons for me .... it didn't change what I already believed, but oh, it all became so much richer !!!

blessings

Dinah

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I though the first question was in Genesis 3:1.