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Mark 7:2-4 – Why Scholars Can Be Needed
One reason Biblical research is needed, and scholars and historians are important, is to fill in the blanks. Not blanks of truth, but blanks caused by our being removed 2000 years another culture. Just as 2 millennium ago the common title Super Bowl might mean a big or important round dish; today we need these experts to fill in what would be unstated by Biblical writers but understood by their culture. We even have a Biblical example of this because Mark is writing about a Jewish culture writing to Roman culture: Mark 7:2-4 (HCSB) “(2) They observed that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unclean — that is, unwashed — hands. (3) (For the Pharisees, in fact all the Jews, will not eat unless they wash their hands ritually, keeping the tradition of the elders. (4) When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, jugs, copper utensils, and dining couches.)” So use experts, but use them wisely. The Bible is written so the truth of salvation can be found by any one.
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