Each page starts with one question and the passage behind it. Then it walks through the main interpretations, the evidence for each one, and the hardest questions each view must answer. Some passages leave room for uncertainty, and the explanations keep that uncertainty in view.
The Bible never gives a command for or against cremation. Burial is the consistent biblical practice, but 1 Corinthians 15 makes resurrection depend on God's transforming power, not on the condition of someone's remains. Paul compares the buried body to a seed and the resurrection body to what grows from it. Most churches now permit cremation, while some continue to prefer or require burial. Scripture leaves the method itself open.
The Bible mentions tattoos once. Leviticus 19:28 tells Israel not to cut their bodies for the dead or put marks on themselves. No other verse returns to the subject. The disagreement concerns the purpose of that command. Some readers understand it as a lasting moral rule. Others read it within a cluster of laws about mourning and pagan worship, aimed at a religious practice in ancient Israel. Most churches today treat tattoos as a matter of motive, content, conscience, and wisdom.
Leviticus 19:28 · 3 readings compared · 6 related questions
Jesus says every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven except one: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The sentence appears in three Gospels, and Mark supplies the immediate reason. Religious leaders watched Jesus free a suffering man and claimed that an evil spirit gave him the power. Interpreters differ over the warning's scope. It may name that specific accusation, a settled lifelong refusal of the Spirit's witness, or deliberate abandonment of a faith once known. Nearly every tradition agrees that fear of having committed this sin is evidence against having done so.
Matthew 12:31-32 · 3 readings compared · 6 related questions
The Nephilim appear only in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33, and neither verse defines the name. The Septuagint translated it with the Greek word *gigantes*, which led to "giants" in English Bibles. The Hebrew may mean "fallen ones," though the etymology is uncertain. Readers variously understand them as the offspring of the sons of God, a formidable people already present in the story, or violent warriors of a violent age.
Genesis 6:4 · 3 readings compared · 6 related questions
Genesis 6:2 calls a group "the sons of God" but never identifies them. The three main interpretations are rebellious heavenly beings, descendants of Seth, and ancient kings who claimed divine descent. The heavenly-being view has the earliest recorded support and fits every unambiguous use of the Hebrew phrase *bene ha-elohim* elsewhere. The Sethite view became dominant in the Western church around the fifth century. The royal view is more recent and has less historical support. The four verses leave the question open.
Genesis 6:1-4 · 3 readings compared · 6 related questions