The Five Most Confusing Texts from St. Paul

[00:00:00][music] >> These are five texts in scripture that as a professor of theology I still struggle to understand completely. If you don't know who I am, my name is Jordan Cooper. I'm the executive director of a theological education organization known as Just and Sinner, and I am also a professor of theology in American Lutheran Theological Seminary.

[00:00:28]The Apostle Peter in the letter of Second Peter in chapter 3 starting in verse 15 says the following. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.

[00:00:40]Speaking of this as he does in all his letters, there are some things in them hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. This is a really notable passage. It's a really notable passage for a couple for a couple reasons. One is that it tells us yeah, there are some things that are kind of hard to understand in scripture, and then the other significant elements of this is that Peter refers to this letter of or to the letters of Paul and he refers to those letters as scripture. As he says, they twist these texts as they do the other scriptures.

[00:01:17]Now, there is a doctrine called the perspicuity of scripture. The perspicuity of scripture means that scripture is clear. Scripture is clear when it's talking about the essential matters of salvation. Clear in such a way that you know, the Bible's not just a totally obscure book that if you start to read the Bible it's going to be totally incomprehensible. The primary message of the Bible is pretty clear that human beings are sinners who are in need of redemption. God began working out redemption right after the fall of humanity as he gave promises to Adam, Abraham, then the nation of Israel, and that God's promises were fulfilled in Jesus who died so that sins might be forgiven, who rose from the dead so that eternal life might be given to God's people and that he will one day come again to judge the living and the dead.

[00:02:02]These elements of faith that we have summarized in things like the Apostles' Creed are pretty clear throughout scripture. But, according to Peter, that doesn't mean that every single verse is clear. So, here are just five of the verses that even as a professor of theology, I'm not totally sure of. That does not mean that I don't have my ideas of what those texts mean, but that I hold my interpretation of those texts a little bit loosely as I'm not quite positive what is attempting to be said.

[00:02:34]The first of these difficult passages comes from the book of 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, where St. Paul says the following, "Yet woman will be saved through bearing children or childbearing if she continues in faith and love and holiness with modesty."

[00:02:54]This is a pretty odd passage because at first glance, it may sound as if what Paul is saying is that a woman's salvation is somehow dependent upon her bearing children, so long as she also has these other fruits of Christian character in her life. And if that text simply meant, really like it in the most literal sense, that a woman is only only say enters glory through the bearing of children, that would seem to imply that a woman who was barren or dies young or simply just doesn't get married is then cut off from salvation. That clearly is not the case. We have so much testimony to barren women being blessed and loved by God throughout scripture that I think it's pretty clear that's not what's being said, but it may sound kind of like that, which is why the passage is is pretty odd. It is a hotly debated passage. People try to figure out what exactly is Paul referring to here. Now, there are various ways to interpret this text. One of those is to say that saved doesn't really mean >> [clears throat] >> like eternally saved.

[00:03:59]It's talking about the fact that God is uniquely gifted women with this gift of childbearing, and women are sanctified, they are holy as they do these things.

[00:04:07]There's a special blessing given to women that they can bear children.

[00:04:10]And that's one interpretation of this passage.

[00:04:13]The interpretation that I take is that this is referring to the birth of Christ coming from a woman.

[00:04:22]And I say that because within the context, St. Paul is referring to the situation of Adam and Eve. And he's talking about how Eve was deceived first, then Adam was deceived. And then he goes on to say, "But woman women will be saved, not just men, through childbearing."

[00:04:41]And what I think he's doing here is he's speaking to Mary as the kind of reversal of Eve in a sense. So, that Eve is the the woman through whom sin first entered into the human race, not in the way that it came through Adam. I mean, Paul says in Romans chapter 5, there's some unique role that Adam played where it's through Adam that all of humanity is corrupted.

[00:05:02]But Eve was technically the first to be deceived by the serpent.

[00:05:05]And so, he's saying that just as Eve was deceived first by the serpent and sin came through a woman, he's saying, "But also salvation comes through a woman, because it was only through childbearing that Christ entered into the world and accomplished salvation." That's the interpretation I take, but it's one of those passages where I say, "I very well could be wrong in my interpretation of that passage." Because it's it's just such a kind of obscure phrase, and he doesn't expand on it enough to really be sure exactly of what he means there. The second difficult passage is from the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 29. St. Paul says this, "Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

[00:05:50]If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

[00:05:55]That is a strange passage again.

[00:05:58]Baptized on behalf of the dead. Now, the church does not, and by the church I mean every Christian tradition, the church does not baptize the dead. It does not baptize on behalf of the dead.

[00:06:10]The only religious organization that does baptize on behalf of the dead is the LDS Church.

[00:06:17]And that particular body and tradition has some very different sets of scriptures than traditionally Christians would.

[00:06:27]So, the question is what is Paul talking about when he's talking about this practice of baptizing the dead? Is he saying that we should baptize for the dead or on behalf of the dead?

[00:06:38]Or is he just merely referencing a practice that he knew about? Now, I think it is worth noting in this passage, and this is actually true about a lot of these passages that are obscure, is that Paul is assuming a knowledge of some practice. So, when Paul is writing to the Corinthians, there is some assumption that they know what he's talking about when he mentions this idea of baptizing the dead.

[00:07:01]And so, there's a whole context here that they had that we today just can't access cuz we don't we don't know what this practice was about. We don't know what happened with the Corinthians.

[00:07:11]We have to look at the the purpose for which this this claim or this idea of baptizing the dead is being used. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is a passage where St. Paul is talking about the bodily resurrection. He's speaking about why it is so essential that we affirm that Jesus bodily, literally, physically rose from the dead. That we cannot simply say that Christ was a phantom or a ghost or that his spirit rose and his body didn't. And so, Paul is defending at length the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, not just the resurrection of Christ, but also the resurrection of of all people.

[00:07:49]And so he's saying this is the final hope of all of God's people is that we are raised just as Christ was raised and we live with him eternally. And it's in the middle of this discussion about the resurrection that he introduces this idea of being baptized for the dead.

[00:08:04]It's really a a supplemental part of the argument where Paul is trying to present evidence to the Corinthians and he's saying you look you already believe in the resurrection of the dead. People are saying that they doubt it, but you I know you believe in it because you had this practice of baptizing for the dead.

[00:08:22]And that doesn't make any sense unless you believe that somehow through the baptism on behalf of the dead they're going to be raised to life.

[00:08:29]And so there is likely a conversation that we have missed out on here.

[00:08:36]Where there was a practice that some Corinthians had been baptizing the dead at one time. And I think it's likely that they this was a practice that was not approved, but that Paul is pointing back to that practice that he had known about to say, "Well, I know you guys believe in the resurrection because I had heard that you had been doing this or that."

[00:08:55]baptizing for the dead. That's my take on this passage. I think that that's what's going on here, but this is just notoriously difficult because we just don't have access to it. There are things in the original context that we're just not given. And because of that I say, "Well, I don't know that we have to know if we needed the context, if we really needed to understand this idea of baptism on behalf of the dead, then it would have been been revealed."

[00:09:19]So we're left with one of these as St. Peter says strange passages in Paul that's hard to understand. And here's another passage from St. Paul. This is from the Epistle to the Romans chapter 11 verse 26.

[00:09:35]Where St. Paul says, "And so, all Israel will be saved." Okay, that's a brief text, but what is Paul talking about here? In Romans chapter 9 through chapter 11, Paul is talking about how it is that the church relates to Israel.

[00:09:56]And he's speaking about the the question of like who is the true Israel.

[00:10:01]Because it was evident by this time that many of those who were Jewish people who had been given the national promises given to Abraham did not believe in Christ as the Messiah. And so, Paul's got a struggle. He's got a He's got to deal with this. The question is like, "Well, how does this all fit together?"

[00:10:16]Because it seems like wasn't Jesus supposed to come for the Jewish people?

[00:10:19]But if they don't believe, does that mean that God's promises have failed because he's failed to win over his own people? And so, Paul gets into a into a discussion about one, who is true Israel? In Romans 9, he speaks about how true Israel is not just those who are of the physical descent of Israel, but also those who have the faith of Israel.

[00:10:40]And then, he does go on to talk about a partial hardening that has happened for the people of Israel so that the Gentiles might be grafted in to the people of God.

[00:10:52]But that this hardening was for a time so that Israel might be made jealous and also come to know the work of the Messiah. But this particular phrase here is a difficult one because I I think there are really strong arguments for both positions on what Paul is talking about. So, here are the the two options.

[00:11:10]On the one hand, Paul could be talking about all Israel as a way to speak about a mass conversion of those who are physical descendants of Abraham at some point in time. So, there's this period of the Gentiles and as like prior to Christ's return, God is now going to bring a bunch of the physical descendants of of Abraham back into a knowledge of the Messiah that they might come back to the faith that they were given. As St. Paul cites, here are the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.

[00:11:38]They can't revoke those gifts and callings. There's something permanent to that that is then expressed through a conversion of these Jewish people to Christianity. That's you know, that so that would be in this sense, this would be referring to physical the physical descendants of of Abraham. To say all Israel will be saved is not really in a literal sense every single person that is of the Jewish people, but instead to say that's a a large number, right? It's a large number of the Jewish people are going to come to know the Messiah.

[00:12:08]Uh which then answers the question.

[00:12:09]Well, the gift the the promises of God have not failed cuz God is going to do this. It just hasn't happened yet.

[00:12:14]The other second interpretation of this is going to say that when Paul is talking about all Israel will be saved here, what he's doing is summarizing the relationship between both Jews and Gentiles within the new covenant. Where he's saying that all Israel will be saved, which means the true Israel, which is those who have the faith of Abraham, and this includes both Jews and Gentiles here. And if you read the context here, I think it doesn't really become that much clearer cuz you can see how either of these would fit in the context. In verse 25, Paul says, "Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren. A hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of number of the Gentiles will come in. And so all Israel will be saved." So that is the immediate preceding text to the all Israel will be saved. Well, you could understand what Paul is saying in two pretty different ways. One would be that he's saying that, "Well, the full number of the Gentiles and the part of Israel that he's outlining, these both constitute all Israel." Or it could be the case that what he's saying is, "Well, unt- until the full because he says until the full number of the Gentiles comes in." That what Paul is saying is, "Well, it's only until the full number of the Gentiles comes in that Israel is hardened." And so, when the full number of the Gentiles comes in, Israel will no longer be hardened and all Israel will be saved. So, even in the context when you read the argument, you're like, he could be saying either thing here. So, this is a passage where um I I just, you know, I have a view on it. I I think that this being literal descendants of Abraham in some way coming into the church. This is not the dispensational reading, by the way.

[00:13:56]That's it So, it's not that. If you hear that, it's not what I'm talking about.

[00:13:59]Uh I I think that's what Paul is talking about here because it seems to fit to me it fits better with overall overarching argument of 9 through 11.

[00:14:08]But, I very well may be wrong. So, this is one of those things where I'm like, "Yeah, this is a little bit difficult and I'm not exactly sure which of these is what it is that Paul intends in this particular passage. The next passage that I want to mention here that that I have some difficulty with is 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And it's a big section of text. So, this starts in verse two and it goes all the way through verse 16. So, I'm not going to I'm not going to outline or read the whole section here. You can read it yourself. But, I'm just going to quickly, this will take a whole other video to discuss some of this, but just quickly mention why I think this is difficult. Um this is the passage where St. Paul encourages veiling. And he tells the women in the Corinthian church that they are to veil. And he speaks specifically of when they are praying and prophesying, which implies that women are both praying and prophesying in the Corinthian church.

[00:14:59]Um but, when they do that, when they pray and prophesy, there is to be a mark that distinguishes them from the men in the congregation. So, they're praying and prophesying. They're doing things seemingly publicly, but those things are they're still distinguished from the men in the congregation. And so, the veil is this this mark of distinction that the women have to wear. Now, there are a ton of interpretations to this passage. There are so many uh because it's just diff- it's notoriously difficult. And one interpretation is going to say that there's some cultural something going on within the Corinthian church here that Paul is responding to.

[00:15:35]That leads him to introduce this practice so that it's unique to this particular church. Now, the argument against that is going to say, "Well, Paul points to nature though. He doesn't when he's justifying what he's trying to say here. There may be a cultural element to it, but it doesn't seem like that's all Paul's talking about because he doesn't say because you know how the Corinthians view uncovered heads." He instead talks about creation. And he he he speaks for example about how doesn't nature tell you that a man shouldn't have long hair.

[00:16:04]And this that particular point becomes like even more difficult. It doesn't solve the issue because then you're like, "Well, wait a minute. Are you saying that it's a sin for a man to have a long hair because we at least know that the Nazarites were men who had long hair and God commanded them to do it.

[00:16:18]So, it can't be wrong in an absolute sense."

[00:16:21]As So, is Paul talking about an issue of sin or is he just talking about the general tendency of nature? It is true that the general tendency is that women have longer hair than men, but that's not true universally.

[00:16:31]So, the the argument is is difficult for that reason. There's another part of this that's tough, which is that Paul try when when he's talking about why this is an important thing that women would would have a covering over their heads, he says, "This is because of the angels."

[00:16:50]With no explanation. So, [laughter] you're like, "Wait a minute. Okay, wait.

[00:16:55]Woah, what is head coverings angels?

[00:16:56]What does this have to do with angels? What's going on here?" And Paul doesn't explain anything. He doesn't explain anything.

[00:17:03]There is evidently a theology of angels that that is going on There's something about angels that's going on in the Corinthian church and some discussions they had had. And we know this cuz there are just mentions of some things that point in that kind of direction, especially with the tongues of angels, you know, this this kind of stuff where they're speaking and saying the the languages of angels in the Corinthian church. So, we're not exactly sure. There's different interpretations of this. Some say it references uh the authority of the angels. Some say this has a reference to the angels' presence within the the service, the worship service.

[00:17:36]And so, we're not exactly sure. Now, this is a text that is so kind of thorough and difficult that I don't even want to give you my position on it in this video because it would just take too long to actually explain it cuz it's a long text. But, I just want to point out this is a really tough text, and it's one that whatever conclusion you come to on this text, uh it's one that I just wouldn't be too adamant about because of some of the pieces here are just hard to to put together. And the final of these passages is from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians, it's 2 Corinthians.

[00:18:11]This is in verse 7. And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelation, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

[00:18:22]Three times I besought the Lord about this that it should leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And so, this this is a point that people debate pretty like commonly.

[00:18:37]What is the thorn in the flesh? St. Paul is talking about how you know, he's gotten these revelations from God, but God's kind of keeping Paul humble, and he's keeping Paul humble by having some kind of of something that is that he's struggling with. There is something that is bothering him that stops him from boasting uh to keep him humble. And so, we don't know exactly what this is. Some people think it is a physical ailment. Some people are going to point to uh like almost blindness that he can't see very well because that's pretty evident when he's like, "I'm writing this in large letters." Elsewhere, he says, so he probably couldn't see very well. Some people think it's a particular sin or temptation that he has.

[00:19:16]And the fact is, we just don't know. And this is a passage where it is obscure because we don't know what it's pointing to, but I think it's supposed to be. I think that's the point that Paul is making here. Uh you're not supposed to you don't need to know the details. The point is, we do have things that we struggle with in our flesh. There going to be things that that we struggle with throughout life on this earth, and we may beg the Lord three times to remove it from us, but he may not do that. Just like happens with Paul here. And we may just that may be our cross that we bear throughout throughout life. And so, we all have various things that are like that.

[00:19:51]Um so, those those are the passages These are all from Paul, and I may do if this is popular, may do some other ones from some more difficult passages in the Old Testament, try to give you some potential answers to these. I can go through any of these in some more depth.

[00:20:04]So, the point of all of this isn't to say that there's no answer to any of these things, and it's certainly not to say that the Bible is all obscure, but it is to say that like we got to be honest with the text. And to be honest with the text is, yeah, as the New Testament itself tells us like there is some passages, there's a selection of passages that are kind of difficult. And so, that doesn't mean that we should throw up our hands and say we can't understand anything in the Bible because there are a few difficult passages. Um and it is worth saying that they're difficult, and it doesn't mean we don't try to chip away at them. You know, it doesn't mean we don't try to get get an answer to them. Um but I think it just means we have to approach some with a little bit of humility when we're looking at these particular passages. So, I hope you found this interesting, and if you want to subscribe, just uh hit the subscribe button, and I'll see you in the next video. God bless.

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