Scripture Library

Interpretations & debates

Some passages are read in more than one way by serious readers. Each page starts with a plain explanation, then sets out the questions one by one: how far each is agreed, the main interpretations and who holds them, and the evidence behind them, down to the original words and sources.

• “Until” in Matthew 1:25

  Matthew 1:25

  Matthew says that Joseph “did not know her until she gave birth to a son”: he and Mary did not live as husband and wife before Jesus was born. The Greek for “until” is ἕως οὗ (heōs hou).

  3 questions: agreed; interpreters disagree; agreed in substance; some details open

• Jesus’ cry from the cross

  Mark 15:34 · Matthew 27:46

  Mark and Matthew report that as Jesus was dying he cried out the opening words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark gives the words in Aramaic, Matthew partly in Hebrew, and both then translate them into Greek.

  6 questions: agreed; interpreters disagree; the evidence cannot settle it; agreed in substance; some details open; christian traditions differ

• Kill or murder (Exodus 20:13)

  Exodus 20:13

  The sixth commandment (fifth in Catholic and Lutheran numbering) is two words in Hebrew, לֹא תִּרְצָח (lo tirṣaḥ). Older English Bibles render it “Thou shalt not kill”; most modern ones, “You shall not murder”.

  3 questions: agreed in substance; some details open; interpreters disagree; christian traditions differ

These pages are drafts, not yet reviewed by specialists. How they are made and checked · Scripture topics