In contrast to our modern culture’s tendency towards too much information, the scriptural writers were masters of understatement.
Perhaps that’s because the process of writing was both expensive and painful in ancient times.
Maybe it’s because the people of antiquity didn’t devote as much energy to emotional health and dysfunction as we do. Or maybe it’s because biblical authors are masters of literary craft.
Whatever the cause, the result is that we have an incredible number of unanswered questions about the characters and narratives that inhabit the pages of the bible.
Here are a few:
And just where did Cain’s wife come from?
What was the relationship like between Abraham and Isaac after that little “testing” episode in Genesis 22? How much time did Isaac have to spend on a therapist’s couch processing that?
Speaking of Abraham, how did Sarah feel every time he’d say, “I’d like you to meet my sister”?
How did Mary and Joseph deal with the fact that baby Jesus bypassed the terrible twos?
What did Jonah smell like? You know, afterwards?
After the incident described in Galatians 2:11-14, were Paul and Peter friends? Enemies? Frenemies?
When Luke adds the superfluous detail that Paul “kept on talking until midnight” in the story about the guy who falls asleep and then falls out of the window in Acts 20, did Paul think it was funny? Or did he get ticked off?
How did Peter feel when in the course of telling the resurrection story John very slyly includes the detail about how the two of them raced to the tomb but John won?