Featured studies · 37 live, 16 in preparation
Debates
37 featured studies ask why Christians read the same texts differently, listed by the part of the canon each one stands in.
What these studies ask
Questions Christians answer differently. Each study sets out the texts both sides read, the positions with their holders, and where this site's tradition lands.
The parts of the canon
- Torah16 live
- History1 live
- Wisdom and Poetry1 live, 1 in preparation
- Prophets4 live
- Gospels4 live, 6 in preparation
- Acts and the Letters6 live, 9 in preparation
- Revelation2 live
- The Apocrypha3 live
The debates on the index of every featured study, 37 studies
Torah
16 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archaeology and the Bible | Sixteen excavated objects that touch the text, sorted by how much each one actually carries, every row states what the object does not show. | Genesis | 22 linked studies |
| Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism | Two systems read the same sixty-six books and draw two different maps of history, seven test passages read both ways, both at full strength. | Genesis | 19 linked studies |
| Creation and Evolution | The readings of Basil, Augustine, Chalmers, Kline, Walton, Ross, Collins and Behe, with their holders, their case and the strongest objection to each. | Genesis | 13 linked studies |
| Infant Baptism and Believers' Baptism | Three readings of who should be baptized, with the teachers and confessions that hold each and the verses each one reads. | Genesis | 17 linked studies |
| The Dynastic-Ruler Reading of the Sons of God | The reading of Genesis 6:1 to 4 that identifies its sons of God with kings and nobles, with holders from the Targum to Meredith G. Kline, set beside the Watchers and Sethite readings. | Genesis | 9 linked studies |
| The Kingdom and Culture: Dominion, Transformation and Separation | Dominion, transformation and separation are each still taught, and each reads Genesis 1:28 and the words of Christ in its own way. | Genesis | 16 linked studies |
| Who Wrote the Pentateuch | The Mosaic, documentary, fragmentary, supplementary and mediating readings of the five books of Moses, with their holders, their case and the objection each answers. | Genesis | 18 linked studies |
| An Eye for an Eye in the Law of Moses | Three readings of the law of retaliation in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and three readings of the answer Jesus gives in Matthew 5:38 to 42, each set out with its holders and their works. | Exodus | 23 linked studies |
| Generational Curses | Three readings of Exodus 20:5 and 34:7, each with its holders, its texts and the problem it has to answer. | Exodus | 16 linked studies |
| Sunday and the Sabbath | Four readings of the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, with the teachers and confessions that hold each and the verses each one reads. | Exodus | 17 linked studies |
| The Date of the Exodus | Scripture gives Israel 430 years in Egypt and counts 480 years from the exodus to the building of Solomon's temple. | Exodus | 21 linked studies |
| Truth-Telling and the Hard Cases of Deception | Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Grotius and Cassian answer the hard cases of the Hebrew midwives, Samuel and Rahab. | Exodus | 20 linked studies |
| How the Cross Saves: The Views of the Atonement | From Irenaeus in the second century to Horace Bushnell in 1866, the church's teachers have read the death of Christ through the Day of Atonement and the blood of the altar. | Leviticus | 17 linked studies |
| The Large Numbers of the Old Testament | Wesley, Petrie, Wenham and Humphreys each read the census totals of Numbers in a different way. | Numbers | 14 linked studies |
| The Prosperity Message | Three readings of the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28, from the church fathers to the Word of Faith teachers, each set out with its holders and their works. | Deuteronomy | 21 linked studies |
| War and Peace: Just War and Christian Nonresistance | Deuteronomy 20 opens with the LORD's promise in verse 1, sends four kinds of men home in verses 5 to 8, and devotes six nations in verses 16 to 18. | Deuteronomy | 18 linked studies |
History
1 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jephthah's vow | Josephus, Augustine, the rabbis, Radak and Keil and Delitzsch read the keeping of Jephthah's vow in Judges 11 in two ways. | Judges | 22 linked studies |
Wisdom and Poetry
1 live, 1 in preparation
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two Traditions, One Song | Allegorical and natural, side by side against the same verses, two thousand years of argument, presented at full strength and attributed, not adjudicated. | Song of Solomon | 5 linked studies |
| Was Job a king? Jobab of Edom and the Septuagint's ending | Planned in the queue for Job. | Job | In preparation |
Prophets
4 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hell and the Final State of the Lost | Eight passages from Isaiah to Revelation, and the five positions Christians have taken on the final state of the lost. | Isaiah | 5 linked studies |
| Isaiah 53 and the Rabbis | Which rabbis read the fourth Servant Song of the Messiah and which of Israel, quoted in their own words, with the point where the readings part. | Isaiah | 9 linked studies |
| Jonah: History or Parable? | Two readings of the book of Jonah: an account of a real prophet sent to Nineveh, or a story told to teach Israel about God's mercy. | Jonah | 16 linked studies |
| The Dated Messages of Haggai and Zechariah | Haggai and Zechariah spoke in Jerusalem to the governor Zerubbabel, the high priest Joshua and the people who had returned from exile. | Haggai | 12 linked studies |
Gospels
4 live, 6 in preparation
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Divorce: What Jesus Said | The page traces the teaching through three moments, design, permission, restoration, then follows the same question into Matthew 19's hardness of heart concession, Malachi's God hates putting away, and Paul's own addition for a believer abandoned by an unbelieving spouse. | Matthew | 7 linked studies |
| Reading Rabbinic Sources as a Christian | A rabbinic source on this site is reception history, how Israel's own tradition has read a text, never MannaFest's confession. | Matthew | 6 linked studies |
| The Intermediate State | Between death and resurrection, Scripture says the Christian dead are both with Christ and asleep — set the passages side by side and see how they resolve. | Luke | 4 linked studies |
| Eternal Security, and the Five Warnings of Hebrews | John 10:28 and the five warnings of Hebrews set side by side, with the readings named and the cost of each stated plainly. | John | 35 linked studies |
| Church and State in Christian Thought | Planned in the queue for Matthew. | Matthew | In preparation |
| Peter, the Papacy and Apostolic Succession | Planned in the queue for Matthew. | Matthew | In preparation |
| Sacrament or Ordinance: What the Rites Are and What They Do | Planned in the queue for Matthew. | Matthew | In preparation |
| Mary in the Teaching of the Churches | Planned in the queue for Luke. | Luke | In preparation |
| The text of the supper and the agony | Planned in the queue for Luke. | Luke | In preparation |
| the-kjv-question | Planned in the queue for Luke. | Luke | In preparation |
Acts and the Letters
6 live, 9 in preparation
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Have I Loved: the Election Thread | Gen 25:23 → Obadiah → Malachi 1 → Romans 9: one election thread across two millennia of text, with the hard question of 'hated' held honestly. | Romans | 14 linked studies |
| Head Coverings | In 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 Paul regulates how men and women in Corinth were to appear while praying or prophesying in the assembly, arguing from headship, from creation, from the angels, and from nature. | 1 Corinthians | 5 linked studies |
| Marriage, Singleness, and Divorce: 1 Corinthians 7 | 1 Corinthians 7 answers the Corinthians' own questions on marriage, singleness, and divorce, correcting an ascetic error without ever making singleness a command. | 1 Corinthians | 6 linked studies |
| Women in Ministry | Scripture names women as prophets, judges, deacons, teachers and the first witnesses of the resurrection, and Joel's promise of a Spirit poured out on sons and daughters alike is the one Peter preaches at Pentecost. | 1 Corinthians | 13 linked studies |
| Faith and Works | James 2:14-26 beside Romans 3:28-4:5: the same Abraham, two moments, harmonized. | James | 22 linked studies |
| Jude and 2 Peter | Jude 1:4 to 18 runs parallel to the second chapter of 2 Peter and the opening of its third. | 2 Peter | 9 linked studies |
| The Filioque | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| The Icon Controversy and the Second Council of Nicaea | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| The New Issue: Oneness and Trinitarian Pentecostals | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| the-constantine-question | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| Augustine, Pelagius and the Grace of God | Planned in the queue for Romans. | Romans | In preparation |
| Faith in Christ or the faithfulness of Christ, in Galatians | Planned in the queue for Romans. | Romans | In preparation |
| Justification in Rome, Wittenberg, Geneva and Constantinople | Planned in the queue for Romans. | Romans | In preparation |
| Liturgy and Free Worship | Planned in the queue for 1 Corinthians. | 1 Corinthians | In preparation |
| Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead | Planned in the queue for 1 Corinthians. | 1 Corinthians | In preparation |
Revelation
2 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gematria and Its Limits | What the letter-number system is, where the Bible itself uses it, and the four tests that separate a real numeric pattern from one a reader could find in any long text. | Revelation | 8 linked studies |
| The Four Schools of Revelation | Futurist, preterist, historicist, idealist: four lenses over the same book, tested against the beast, the millennium and Babylon. | Revelation | 23 linked studies |
The Apocrypha
3 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Judith/The Question Of History | Judith opens by crowning the king of Babylon in the capital of Assyria, and readers still differ on what kind of book it is. | Apocrypha | 1 linked study |
| Prayers, Merits, and the Dead | After a battle, Judas Maccabeus takes up a collection for a sin offering for his fallen soldiers, and the passage becomes the most argued Apocrypha text in the canon debates. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| Was Enoch a King? | Three answers to one question about the seventh man from Adam, each with its holders and its oldest witness. | Apocrypha | 12 linked studies |
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