Did the Cock Crow Twice or Three Times?

QUESTION: Harmonise Mark 14:72, "Before the cock crow twice," and Luke 22:61, "Before the cock crow thou wilt deny me thrice."

ANSWER: Dr. Robinson harmonises it thus: "The cock often crows irregularly about midnight, and again always and regularly about the third hour, which is named the cock-crowing. Mark speaks more definitely and Matthew more generally." There are other slight discrepancies relating to the persons who questioned Peter, for which I am thankful, since they prove that the two evangelists are independent witnesses and not drilled after the manner of perjury to utter exactly the same words. Of such testimonies judges and juries are justly suspicious. My theory of inspiration is that the Bible is the infallible directory to eternal life, and that such fly-specks as these minute differences do not in the least damage that directory. In this respect I do not believe, as Dr. Adam Clarke does not, in the absolute inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, especially in respect to numbers.

— Steele's Answers pp. 243, 244.

"My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?"

QUESTION: Explain the words of Christ on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" — Matt. 27:46.

ANSWER: It is said that Martin Luther, after several hours' meditation on these words, exclaimed, "God forsaken of God! I cannot understand it. I cannot understand it." I sympathize with the great reformer. The personality of Christ in whom two natures are blended is unique and beyond our poor philosophy. Still more unfathomable is the unique act of atonement for sin which he was making when this dereliction took place. But we must believe that Christ, "the fullness of the Godhead bodily," ever had the inner consciousness of union with his Father indestructible and that there was no objective withdrawal of the Father and much less was he hurling down the thunderbolts of wrath upon the head of his beloved Son as a vicarious malefactor enduring punishment. Calvary was a scene of suffering but not of punishment. It is reasonable to believe that in the intensity of the unspeakable physical and mental agonies of Jesus, the pain and loss of blood so affected his brain as momentarily to interrupt communion with the skies, that — to use a modern illustration — the receiver of his telephone was out of repair so that the uttered love of the Father was not heard. Dr. A. Clarke inclines to the theory that the word "why" is capable of being translated. thus: "To what kind of men have you left me?" thus reflecting upon the cruel ingrates who were murdering him, rather than on the withdrawal of his Father. There is some ground for this exegesis, but to most Greek scholars it must appear to be strained.

— Steele's Answers pp. 213, 214.

The Seventh Day

QUESTION: In Gen. 2:2 why is it said that "God ended his work on the seventh day," and then follows the contradictory statement that he rested on that day?

ANSWER: It is the general voice of the Scriptures that the whole creation was finished in six days. See Ex. 20:11 and 31:17. There is a good reason for the opinion of A. Clarke that this is a mistake of a transcriber who read the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the seventh, which very closely resembles it. The Jews did not have our nine digits but used letters instead. The Greek version, made about 200 B. C., and quoted in the New Testament more than 1,000 times, reads, "God ended his work on the sixth day." Thus reads also the Samaritan Hebrew, and the Syriac version.

— Steele's Answers p. 181.