Subject: Why did Eve react like that? |
Bible Note: Doc, There are many "problem verses" (as my pastor once phrased it) in the bible that the Evangelists deliberately included w/o any apparent interpretive key or associated scripture. Take John 20:23, for ex: And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (Joh 20:22-23 NKJV) Jesus appears to give these men divine authority to forgive or retain sins, heretofore the prerogative of God alone. If we are constrained by the rule of "explicity", as you state it, we are left with 2 options: either John the Apostle deliberately left us conjecture-less, or there existed a tradition, perhaps lost, perhaps not, with which his readers were familar but of which we're unaware. It seems that we must conjecture in order to discover what did provide the interpretive framework for this verse. In other words, it appears that in some cases the NT presupposes a contemporary knowledge, tradition or practice within the early church, a background to render intelligible certain verses like the above; otherwise, and according to your formulation, wouldn't John be violating Sola Scriptura by corraling us into conjecture rather than clarity? |