Hard passages in both texts
Every long religious text has passages that readers find hard to fit together. A fair conversation names the difficulties in your own text first, then asks how your friend handles theirs.This step looks honestly at the hard passages in the Bible, and then at the Hindu texts. The Hindu questions below are ones Hindu teachers and readers discuss among themselves. The Christian ones are the objections you will hear.
Hard questions Hindu readers ask
urges to fight, telling him there is "nothing higher for a than a war" () and warning of sin if he refuses (). Yet , non-harm, is among Hinduism's highest values. Some read the battle as an inner struggle. Others take it literally.
The names a path of knowledge and a path of action (), and teaches devotion elsewhere. Great commentators disagree over which one the finally puts first. stressed knowledge, and stressed devotion.
"Better is one's own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another" (). Yet the ends: "Abandon all duties and take refuge in Me alone" (). Readers debate how the two fit together.
criticizes those who take pleasure in the "flowery speech" of the (), then calls himself the one "to be known by all the " ().
The raises a deeper problem of its own: the side said to stand for wins by breaking the rules of war, as the four moments in "The and the " showed.
Where the Hindu texts differ from one another
The Hindu texts were composed over about two thousand years by different schools. They sometimes give different answers to the same question. Hindu teachers know this, and most explain it as layers or as different paths for different people. Here are the clearest examples, each with the usual Hindu reply.
The early praises , and , and gives and (later ) little space. The make supreme, with born from a lotus in his navel (). The tell of and failing to find the end of 's pillar of light (). The texts place the Goddess above all three. The speak of beyond any form. Common reply: these are different faces of one reality, or different devotions for different people.
asks whether even the highest one knows how creation began. speaks of a golden womb or egg. tells of a cosmic person offered in sacrifice. The speak of the world coming out of . Common reply: these are poetic attempts at a mystery, not rival reports, and the question itself is left open.
Some describe without qualities (). The and the describe a personal God who loves and who is worshipped. Common reply: the personal form is a way to reach the formless, which is reading. and read the other way, with God personal at the very top.
The describe animal sacrifice, and the epics mention hunting and eating game, though scholars debate some of the verses. Later texts, such as the and parts of the , strongly praise abstaining from meat and say is the highest duty. Even the permits meat in some circumstances while praising those who refrain. Common reply: ideals changed as society changed, and the later ideal is the higher one.
, which is also verse 12 of the Isha , says that those who worship the unmanifest enter "blind darkness", and those who delight in the manifest enter greater darkness. Some Hindus read it as a warning against worshipping created things and images. Others do not. The and the , meanwhile, give detailed rules for temples, images and the rite that invites the deity into the image. Common reply: the image is a help for the worshipper and not the limit of God.
In the , keeps his word whatever it costs. In the , advises the to break the war's rules in the deaths of , and . Common reply: they came in different ages, and is "subtle". The lets its own characters object.
What your friend may sayWhat Hindus often say
- "These are not contradictions, only layers and paths." Many Hindus hold this. But layers that disagree about who God is cannot all be true about God.
Your strongest answerHow a Christian answers
Ask gently: if the texts disagree about who God is, how does a person decide which to trust? Hindus have an answer: the texts rank above the texts, and a teacher guides the reader. A Christian can then say honestly that the Bible makes one claim that stays the same from Genesis to Revelation: one God, who is personal, and who finally reveals Himself in Jesus (). Then invite them to look at the evidence for that claim.
Notice the difference. The Bible's hard passages, below, are details around one event, and each has a reasonable answer. The Hindu texts disagree about who God is. The God of the Bible says, "I, Yahweh, don't change" (), and He does not contradict Himself. Say this gently, but say it.
Hard questions Christian readers face
Matthew 1 and Luke 3 list different ancestors between David and Jesus. Common reply: Matthew follows the legal line through Joseph, the royal heir, and Luke most likely follows Mary's family line. Ancient genealogies had different purposes.
Matthew says Judas hanged himself (). Acts says he fell headlong and burst open (). Common reply: the accounts can describe two stages of one event, with the hanging first and the fall after. Not every reader finds this tidy.
The four Gospels differ on how many women went to the tomb and how many angels they met. Common reply: each writer selects from a larger event. All agree that the tomb was empty, that women were the first witnesses, and that Jesus was alive. Paul lists the witnesses in .
Paul: "a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law" (). James: "by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith" (). Common reply: they use "justified" and "works" for different things, and both say that real faith produces good works ().
God commands Israel to destroy certain Canaanite cities (), while Jesus says "love your enemies" (). Common reply: the first was a one-time judgment on particular nations at a particular time, never a standing order, and Jesus fulfills the Old Testament and does not repeat that command. Christians still find it hard, and you can say so.
What your friend may sayWhat Hindus often say
- "Those are proof of human editing." Notice that the differences are about details. Independent witnesses rarely match word for word, and identical accounts would suggest they were coordinated.
- "Your answers are guesses." Some are. Say so honestly. Then ask what a Hindu reader does with the questions above. Honest readers of both texts keep reading.
Your strongest answerHow a Christian answers
A text can have hard passages and still be true at its center. The question is what each text stakes everything on. The Bible stakes everything on one public event: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain" (). The difficulties above are about details around that event, not about whether Jesus died and rose. Invite your friend to weigh the evidence for the event itself.
Gentleness is the point. You are not scoring points against a text your friend loves. You are showing that you have read yours with the same honesty you ask of theirs.
We have tried to read the Bible with the same honesty we ask of the Hindu texts. Weigh both for yourself.
With the reliability of the texts and the hard questions now laid out, the next step follows the one thread that runs through the whole Bible, and where it leads.
Hard passages do not move the center. Christ is the key to all Scripture (), and He does not change: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever ().
Both have hard passages. The Bible's are details around one event, the resurrection, and they have answers. The Hindu texts disagree about who God is.
Why the next step followsNext, the one thread that runs through the whole Bible.One thread through the whole Bible →Which hard passage in the Bible do you need to understand better, so you can answer a friend with confidence? Where will you go for help?
Which hard question about the Bible would you most like answered? Who could you ask?