A Curious Question

“…but why?”

Every parent of growing children knows how incessant this refrain can become in a child's mouth. Their insatiable curiosity to understand how and why things work drives them onward, and it seems that each carefully worded answer is met with the same question—an endless spiral downward in search of understanding.

We have a lot we can learn from a four-year-old! That’s because one of the most dangerous attitudes to infect any student of the Bible is a sense that we already know a passage so well and have grasped its meaning that we do not need to examine it carefully in a subsequent study. While it is probably (and hopefully) true that we are constantly developing our knowledge and grasp of the Scriptures, we must fight the notion that we have little more to learn from a text. Therefore, as expositors of God's Word, we need to cultivate an attitude of curiosity and investigation, like a four-year-old. We need to develop the habit of asking good questions as we examine a biblical text.

First, we should hone our skills of observation with questions that challenge us to truly see all that is important in the passage: “Who is writing this?” “What is being said?” “To whom is it written?” Etc. These types of questions are essential to ensure that we are noticing all the CONTENT of the passage.  As mentioned in the previous article, we want to discern the author's true message and be careful not to insert our own. So, we should be guided by the question, "What does the text say?" and further challenged by asking, "Does it truly say that?" These key questions (or questioning attitude) will help us faithfully observe what is in the text and guard ourselves against the assumption that we already know the text well.

After the phase of careful observation, there is a second class of questions that we need to ask. These are questions that challenge us to consider the intent of the writer in writing what he did: "In what manner did he speak of the content matter?” “Why did he decide to exclude certain elements that others included?" Such questions are sometimes difficult to answer, and we need to be cautious about being too speculative in our answers. Still, we should diligently pursue this line of questioning to be certain that we are following the author's message and purpose. Our investigation might dramatically change our understanding of a text.

As a practical example, numerous passages in the Gospel of Mark illustrate the point. Like most of us, the men we train globally often struggle to keep themselves in the text of the Gospel they are studying rather than turning the study into a topical study of the life of Christ across all the Gospels. We encourage them to first observe that Mark's account of Christ’s life and teachings leaves some things out that other Gospels include. We then challenge them to consider: “Why did Mark tell it this way?” “Is his decision closely linked to the specific message he wanted to convey?” Only then can we fully grasp his message.

An early example of this is his account of Jesus’ testing in the wilderness, recorded in Mark 1:12-13. While Matthew and Luke both relate three different temptations from Satan, along with Jesus' response to each, Mark summarizes the entire episode in just two sentences. Why would he do that? Now, it is certainly possible that Mark did this without a conscious reason. Perhaps he did not have access to those details at the time he wrote his Gospel. However, it is more likely that he omitted them because the details of the interaction with Satan are not essential to the message Mark was trying to convey. They might even distract from what he wanted to emphasize in this early part of his Gospel. When we notice that he begins the chapter with a list of witnesses who gave testimony to the identity of Jesus, we might consider: Was this condensed summary of the direct confrontation with Satan and the ministry of the angels intended to give further witness to Jesus’ unique identity? Even if we are not certain of the answer, just asking this question will probably cause us to be more attentive to the theme of Christ's identity throughout the rest of the book. This awareness, in turn, may lead us to a better recognition of the tension that drives Mark's narrative and the message he seeks to convey.

So, when we open God’s Word, we should be diligent in asking ourselves questions regarding the text.   They will drive us to maintain curiosity and develop discipline in our pursuit to understand both the content and intent of a passage. As we shall see in this series of articles, other study principles are helpful in this process since they inform us of the questions that are most helpful in varying contexts. But the goal will always be the same — to use interrogation as a tool for investigation.