From time to time in our Daily Droplets, we share some insights into studying and interpreting God’s word. No more important topic can occupy our attention.
In Galatians 3:16, Paul writes, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.” Abraham had a host of “seeds” within the nation of Israel and Christians as well (Gal. 3:29). But, the point Paul is making here is that the “seed” which brings salvation is singular: Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 22:29-32, Jesus interprets a passage for the Sadducees and makes His argument on the basis of a verbal tense: “But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. “But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Jesus expected His audience, the Jews, to draw a logical conclusion based on the statement God made: there is life after death.
In John 10:34-36, Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6 and makes a point about the use of the word “gods” in the text: “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
Here’s my point… The Bible shows that we need to study deeply, sometimes looking for precise meanings of words in certain contexts, in order to under the message from God. Sometimes that would also include looking at the tense of a verb or the number of a given noun.
Paul Holland
