Profound Puzzles: 14 Unanswered Questions in the Bible That Continue to Intrigue Scholars and Seekers

The Bible is God’s Word and a valuable blueprint of our existence. Its ancient tales provide us with history and wisdom. Yet, this sacred book leaves much big stuff hanging. These are not mistakes; these are profound invitations. They invite us to a more deeper, more personal faith. We must fully take into consideration the divine mystery.

• The Bible is a unmatched reservoir of wisdom.
• Some things are intentionally not explained.
• These mysteries elicit a deeper, more contemplative response.
• They remind us that there are limits to human knowledge about the divine.

These Bible mysteries even enhance our faith. These take us well beyond simple answers. We are summoned to be satisfied with humanity’s limitation in the presence of God’s magnitude. This interrogation is what an interrogation faith thrives on. We learn to have faith in God when we are not privy to the entire plan. It is in not knowing that our firm terror of God’s plan flourishes in fullest bloom.

1. Where is the Garden of Eden on Earth?

The Garden of Eden is a beautiful mystery. Genesis describes it as the perfect home of Adam and Eve. The Bible gives clues by describing four different rivers: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris (Hiddekel), and Euphrates. This points towards a geographical site near a significant river confluence. Centuries have passed since scholars argued about this location, but still, there is nothing.

• The Book of Genesis mentions four particular rivers flowing out of Eden.
• Scholars offer numerous possibilities, from the Persian Gulf to the Armenian Highlands.
• Millennial geopolitical and geological changes have likely erased the original markers.
• The mystery compels us to accept Eden as an abiding, symbolic vision of lost perfection.

The exact location of Eden is a profound mystery. The earth has changed over the millennia. Erosion and tectonics have most likely obliterated the original topography. We are left to think of Eden as more than a place. It is an inescapable metaphor for lost innocence and perfection. The mystery invites us to imagine God’s creation before it was destroyed.

2. The Greatest Search: Where is Noah’s Ark?

The Noah’s Ark is the most widely known Bible legend. It was a massive boat built to save life in the Great Flood. The Ark, according to Genesis, came to rest “on the mountains of Ararat.” That statement has motivated numerous expeditions, all but one on Mount Ararat in Turkey. No amount of labor anyone might have achieved has produced concrete evidence of the Ark.

• Genesis describes the Ark ended up resting “on the mountains of Ararat” (plural).
• Its search is impeded by enormous geological shifts and erosion over centuries.
• The hostile, cold climate and inaccessibility on Mount Ararat create search risks.
• The wood part of the Ark structure makes it highly susceptible to natural decay over thousands of years.

The Ark remains elusive on several different counts. Referring to “mountains of Ararat” instead of a single “mountain of Ararat” makes it a wide range, not a specific mountain. Secondly, the region is geologically active, which would mean that the Ark would be buried or destroyed. Wood will not endure millennia in the harsh mountain climate. The mystery causes us to understand its powerful tale with faith, and not with concrete facts.

3. The Silent Years: What Really Happened in Jesus’ ‘Missing Years’?

The Bible says very little of anything at all of Jesus’ life between age 12 and age 30. This is called His “missing years.” We do have one brief record of Him at age 12 in the Temple. The Gospels then jump at once to the start of His public ministry at around age 30. This eighteen-year span has produced a lot of speculation over the centuries.

• The Gospels say nothing of child Jesus before age 12 (Temple) and 30 (start of ministry).
• Speculation ranges from distant voyages (India, Egypt) to staying in Nazareth.
• Most generally accepted is that Jesus was a carpenter (tekton).
• Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men in these years.

The likely answer is that Jesus never went out of house in Nazareth. He worked humbly as a carpenter alongside Joseph. This time was giving Him practice and acquaintance with ordinary people. The silence in the scripture is deliberate. It directs our focus to the ministry, crucifixion on the cross, and the resurrection. This mystery teaches us that preparation, even in times of silence, is necessary.

4. Paul’s Secret Struggle: What Was His ‘Thorn in the Flesh

Paul in 2 Corinthians had spoken about a permanent infirmity: a “thorn in the flesh.” He had described it as a “messenger of Satan” so that he could be made humble. It was needed because of abundance in his spiritual visions. Paul had asked God three times to remove it. God answered clearly: “My grace is sufficient for you.” The quality of this “thorn” is not described at any point.

• Paul was left with the “thorn” so that he could be made humble due to his profound revelations.
• Speculations as to what it was are physical sicknesses (epilepsy, bad eye disease).
• Spiritual temptation or psychological battles (depression) have been theorized.
• The illness was described as “a messenger of Satan to buffet me.”

Scholars are debating what the thorn was. It could have been an illness like poor vision or perpetual sickness. It could have been unceasing turmoil in the mind or temptation. The Bible doesn’t say precisely so we won’t assume the lesson is for some one-of-a-kind individual. The main lesson is that God’s strength is perfected in our weakness. God’s grace is adequate for any “thorn” we may have.

5. The Holy Mystery: Where is the Ark of the Covenant?

The Ark of the Covenant was a sacred box. It held the Ten Commandments and the presence of God. It was the center of worship of ancient Israel. Although it is so significant, the Ark vanishes from the books of the Bible after the days of King Josiah. Its loss is one of the largest, most inspiring enigmas of the Bible.

• The Ark was a source of God’s presence and housed the Ten Commandments.
• It disappears mysteriously from the biblical record during the reign of King Josiah (c. 600s BC).
• Speculative hypotheses suggest it was secretly hidden under the Temple Mount before the Babylonian invasion.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims the Ark is stored in one of their church complexes in Axum, Ethiopia.

Different speculations regarding the Ark’s location have surfaced. Some assume the Ark was secretly buried under the Temple Mount by priests to hide it from invaders. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church asserts that the Ark rests in a church in Axum, Ethiopia. Without any conclusive evidence, the enigma continues. The Ark’s absence represents the eternal superiority of faith over the unknown.

6. Divine Oracle: What were the Urim and Thummim?

The Urim (lights) and Thummim (perfections) are mysterious biblical artifacts. They were on the High Priest’s breastplate. They were to inquire and hear directly God’s advice for Israel. They were used to rightly determine God’s will in perplexing issues. Their form and purpose are still unclear.

• Urim and Thummim are “lights” and “perfections.”
• They were placed on the High Priest’s breastplate (Ephod).
• Their job was to provide God’s divine guidance in making decisions for the nation.
• They are considered by scholars to have been charged with providing a simple, two-choice response (yes or no) of God.

The Bible does not explain their physical appearance. They were probably stones to emit. Some have them as spiritual entities to get a yes/no answer. The ambiguity is intentional. It drives home the message on God’s power to converse with His people. They were crucial instruments for national guidance.

7. Beyond the Flesh: What would it be like to be a Spirit Being?

What would one be like if one were an unblemished spirit being? That is a reflection on consciousness and life after death. The Bible offers no complete answer. It offers clues in angels and the Risen Christ. To be a spirit is to be free from fleshly bounds. It is to be unblemished consciousness and immediate contact with God.

• The Bible employs the image of a spirit’s nature as akin to the untrustworthy wind (pneuma).
• Spirit beings are typically immortal and freed from the necessities of their bodies, like hunger or thirst.
• The Resurrected Jesus provided a taste, demonstrating the ability to travel through walls.
• This enigma moves in the direction of a changed condition outside the bounds of fleshly mortality.

Jesus’ resurrction appearances give us the most clues. He demonstrated powers beyond physics. He could walk through shut doors and ascend into heaven. The condition of the spirit is altered. It has no bounds of flesh. This mystery gives us a comforting expectation for our eventual future, eternal life.

8. When is Jesus’ Real Birthday?

The widely accepted date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus Christ is strangely absent from the Bible. Billions of individuals on planet earth celebrate Christmas, but the scripture does not give any particular day or even year of the arrival of the Messiah. It is this omission of giving a specific date that has interested scholars and devout believers over the centuries. They are always attempting to pinpoint the exact moment of this moment of turning, world-shaking event, and are forever frustrated by the quiet in the meticulous biblical record.

• There is no December 25th marker in the Bible.
• Scholars most typically place Jesus’ birth between 6 BC to 4 BC.
• This is estimated on the basis of the rule of King Herod the Great.
• The Bible is interested in the theological significance (Incarnation), not in the calendar date.

Scholarly approximation puts the birth of Jesus between 6 BC and 4 BC. This computation is made by comparing ancient sources, especially King Herod the Great’s reign, a co-temporary of Jesus when He was an infant. This historical reading sets that the ancient documents were interested in the significance of the event and not specific calendar dates. Lack of date in the Bible takes the focus away from the date and onto the historic event: God made flesh.

9. When Did Jesus Die?

Likewise, His birthday is not known. His death, a Friday during the Jewish Passover, is mentioned in the New Testament. This is essential to the theological meaning of the event. It is not, however, indicated in the Gospels by calendar date or year. This leaves historians to labor strenuously to recreate the milestone by means of historical and astronomical records.

• Jesus was crucified on a Friday, during Passover season, and the Jews were celebrating then.
• A majority of scholars date the incident sometime around AD 33.
• April 3rd on a Friday is strongly contended to be the date.
• This is corroborated by cross-checking Jewish calendar and Roman record.

By cross-checking with biblical data and with ancient historical data, the majority of scholars are certain that Jesus died in AD 33. Most conclude that April 3rd on a Friday is the probable date. This is from cross-checking the Jewish calendar, the lunar cycle, and the rule of Roman rulers. The Bible just doesn’t provide a specific date. It is not ambiguous in assigning a date to His death and resurrection as it considers how eternal, redemptive, and superior to every day His death and resurrection are.

10.  Where Did Evil Really Originate?

The origin of evil is the Bible’s deepest theological enigma. God created a good world, then where did evil come from? The divine texts tell us loudly about the existence of evil and the devastation it causes. They do not suggest one clear story of how its initial manifestation did happen. This dense vagueness has fueled centuries of theological debate and philosophical contention.

• The Bible testifies to the universal prevalence of evil but never speaks of its specific source.
• One theory places the origin of evil with Satan, an angelic disobedient being.
• Traditional belief suggests this is the result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in Eden.
• Evil is considered abstractly as a misuse of free will and not as God originally intended.

Biblical traditions connect the origin of evil with two events. First, the figure of Satan, disobedient angel and embodiment of devilishness. Secondly, the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Both blame the evil as having originated from a corruption of free will, either of an angel or of human beings. The fact that the Bible does not explain to us the entirety of the “why” of this rebellion focuses our attention where it needs to be. It takes us away from marvelling at things philosophic and on to God’s plan for the redemption of evil.

11. How Long Did the Creation Process Take?

Genesis explains the origin of the universe happening in six distinct “days.” All of them start with: “And there was evening, and there was morning.” It offers a clear structure while the duration of these “days” is one of the best-kept secrets. It creates mixed impressions among scientists and believers.

• Genesis Creation happens in six distinct “days.”
• Their length is not specifically stated to be 24 hours.
• The young-earth position is that they were actual 24-hour days.
• The day-age position is that these “days” are lengthy geologic ages.

One widely held belief is that the Genesis “days” are literal, consecutive 24-hour days (young-earth view). This puts creation a few thousand years ago. Another line of thinking that has considerable influence considers the “days” symbolically. They are far longer, un-specified periods or geological ages (day-age theory). The Bible’s vagueness about time assures its main message heard: God is the sovereign Creator of all, who acts purposefully.

12. How far in advance did the waters reach during the Great Flood?

The biblical account of the Great Flood in Genesis is one of unique scale. In the account, waters swept away and covered “all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven.” This succeeds in expressing the sheer height of the waters of the flood (in excess of fifteen cubits), but very successfully evades any description of the geographical area over which waters flowed. This leaves an enduring mystery: was the flood local or worldwide? The Bible declares the waters swept over “all the high mountains.”

• The verse refers to the height (over fifteen cubits) and not to the geographical extent.
• There is a school of thought that defends that the flood was worldwide, a literal event (global).
• There is another school of thought that believes it was a local event from the ancient Near Eastern perspective.
• This lack of specification of geographic reference is the origin of a long-standing debate.

There are those who think that the “whole heavens” terminology must indicate that the flood was a literal, worldwide disaster. There are others who are adamant the writing is of a great, but not potentially worldwide, flood a “universal” one in the ancient Near Eastern sense. The ambiguity of the Bible only underscores its central concern: God’s judgment upon man’s sin and His covenantal loyalty to Noah. 

13.  Why Was Job Tested?

Job was addressed in the Book of Job as the problem of righteous suffering. He was described as righteous and innocent, but he lost everything: riches, children, and health. This left an agonizing question regarding God’s justice. Whereas his suffering lasted, the last, direct cause of Job’s suffering is never made known to him. His entire motivation remains available for readers to speculate.

• Job was a righteous man who endured horribly, to no avail. 
• The reader knows: a test of Job’s faith by Satan at God’s behest.
• Job himself never does receive from God the explanation for his torments.
• The purpose is to establish faith in spite of success.
• The reader knows that the story begins with a dialogue in which Satan challenges the genuineness of Job.

God permits the testing, but sets limits on the anguish. Job is kept in the dark about the prologue, and that adds to his pain and also the confusion. The mystery is doing away with the idea that all that causes humans pain is due to human transgression. It is reminding us of how enormous the difference between human wisdom and God’s wisdom is and inviting us to have faith in God’s reign even when the ways of God are un-understandable. ️ What Happens Immediately After Death

14. The mystery of what happens within the immediate seconds of death is deeply intimate. 

The Bible speaks explicitly of after-death life paradise and hell as the final eternities. The scriptures, however, are delightfully opaque in communicating the act itself. What the precise experience of the soul or spirit is for the instant immediately after the body has died is partly hidden from us.

• The Bible clearly informs us of the final destinies (heaven and hell).
• It does not clearly outline what the soul goes through immediately after death.
• The believers are promised to be “present with the Lord” (intermediate state).
• The minutiae of what the soul goes through up to the final resurrection is left undefined.
• Scripture in the Bible promises the believer to be “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

This suggests an immediate spiritual passage. The character of the journey the emotions, the very atmosphere, the exact nature of being in great part a mystery. This volitional vagueness undergirds our confidence in God’s promise of life hereafter. It compels us to fix our attention on the life of holiness here and now, with the specifics of the journey behind the veil safely in His hands.