Questions to Ask About the Bible: A Three-Faith Comparative Guide

In Jewish tradition, asking questions about sacred texts isn't just tolerated — it's considered a religious obligation. The Talmudic culture of machloket l'shem shamayim (debate for the sake of heaven) means that wrestling with difficult passages is itself a form of worship. Deuteronomy explicitly envisions a child asking about the meaning of God's commandments, and the parent is expected to answer thoughtfully Deuteronomy 6:20. This intergenerational dialogue is the backbone of the Passover Seder and rabbinic study alike.

Good questions to ask about the Bible from a Jewish perspective include: Who is speaking in this passage? What is the historical context of this commandment? How have the rabbis interpreted this verse across centuries? Isaiah challenges the reader directly — have you not known, have you not heard? — implying that ignorance is never an excuse when the text has been available Isaiah 40:21. Scholars like Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (20th century) argued that intellectual engagement with Torah is inseparable from spiritual growth.

Judaism also insists on rigorous verification when a text makes a serious claim. Deuteronomy 13:14 commands the community to enquire, and make search, and ask diligently before accepting any report as true Deuteronomy 13:14. That same critical discipline applies when reading any biblical passage: don't accept a surface reading without investigation. The tradition of pshat (plain meaning), remez (allegorical), drash (homiletical), and sod (mystical) — the four-level PaRDeS system — shows how layered and question-rich Jewish Bible reading truly is.

Christianity has always placed a premium on understanding scripture, not merely reciting it. Jesus himself modeled this by asking his disciples probing questions — "What question ye with them?" (Mark 9:16) Mark 9:16 — and by checking whether his followers had genuinely comprehended his teaching Matthew 13:51. The tradition of asking questions about the Bible runs from the early Church Fathers through the Reformation and into modern biblical scholarship. Figures like Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) and John Calvin (1509–1564) both wrote extensively on how readers should approach difficult texts with humility and rigor.

Productive questions a Christian might ask include: What did this passage mean to its original audience? How does this text point to Christ? What does this mean for how I should live? Jesus's question in John 16:31 — "Do ye now believe?" John 16:31 — reminds readers that intellectual understanding must translate into lived faith. Belief and comprehension aren't the same thing, and the best questions about the Bible bridge that gap.

There's genuine disagreement within Christianity about how to read the Bible. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions differ on the role of church authority in interpretation. Evangelical scholars like D.A. Carson emphasize grammatical-historical exegesis, while liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutiérrez (20th century) prioritize reading from the perspective of the poor. Isaiah's rhetorical challenge — have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? Isaiah 40:21 — resonates across these camps as a call to deeper, more honest engagement with the text.

Islam's relationship with the Bible is complex and nuanced. Muslims believe the Torah (Tawrat) and Gospel (Injil) were originally revealed by God, but hold that the texts have undergone alteration (tahrif) over time. This means the questions a Muslim asks about the Bible are often different in kind: not simply "what does this mean?" but also "is this passage preserved accurately?" and "does this align with what the Quran confirms?" Medieval scholars like Ibn Hazm (994–1064 AD) and Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 AD) wrote detailed critiques of biblical textual transmission from this angle.

That said, Islam does not dismiss the Bible entirely. The Quran instructs believers to ask those who have received scripture before them, acknowledging the value of prior revelation. The command in Deuteronomy to enquire, and make search, and ask diligently Deuteronomy 13:14 resonates with the Islamic principle of tahqiq — careful verification before accepting any religious claim. A Muslim reading the Bible might ask: Where does this passage agree with the Quran? Where does it diverge, and why? What do Jewish and Christian scholars say about its transmission history?

Isaiah's question — "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning?" Isaiah 40:21 — is the kind of rhetorical challenge that Islamic theology applies to the entire Abrahamic heritage: the truth of monotheism has always been available, even if human hands have sometimes obscured it. Questions about the Bible, from an Islamic standpoint, are ultimately questions about how much of God's original message remains intact — and that's a question taken very seriously in classical Islamic scholarship.