Preachers, Stop Manipulating Numbers!

This is an excerpt from an upcoming project on preaching:

First, by “numbers”, I’m not referring to the 4th book of the Bible. Rather, I am referring to statistics and the appearances of a word or phrase in the Bible. For example, “the Bible uses the verb diakoneo (I serve) 37 times and the noun diakonos (servant, minister, deacon) 30 times.”

Have you ever wondered what good these facts do? There have been so many times where I notice people sitting next to me hectically jotting down these “numbers”. But do they actually impact one’s understanding of Scripture and biblical truth?

Here’s another example:

“In the Gospels, Jesus asked over 300 questions. Do you know how many times He directly answered a question? 3 times. I’m not good at math, but could someone tell me what percentage that is? If anything, this shows us that, to be like Jesus, we should ask questions and not provide answers.”

I was seriously getting ticked off when I heard this. The speaker had manipulated numbers and statistics. Here’s why:

First, clarity. What equates as a “direct answer”? If you were look up the phrase “Jesus answered” in a Bible app, you’ll see that the phrase has at least 70 appearances. Just because the person that Jesus was speaking to did not end one’s statement with a question mark does not mean the person did not ask a question. Questions often relate with intent. Imagine a child going to one’s parent in the middle of the night saying, “I’m hungry.” (this happened to me as a children’s camp counselor) The child is expressing, “do you have food?” without asking a direct question.

For example, when the man came to Christ saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly…And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” (Matt 17:14-16) He was asking Christ to heal his son without directly asking a question. Guess what happens? Jesus answers and heals the child. So often these “numbers” and statistics are not well-researched. Smh.

Second, even if it is true that the Gospels present Christ answering more questions than providing answers, it does not mean that the biblical authors believed that we should not answer questions in regard to the faith. Description may not necessarily equate to prescription. Scripture instructs us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Pet 3:15 NIV). Certainly, asking questions can often be a useful way of answering a question. However, just because Scripture does not record Jesus answering that many questions does not signify that we do not provide an answer. It is biblically untrue that we should not provide answers and only ask questions.

The problem with Numbers/Stats

Numbers can be easily manipulated to make a statement or argument that has minimal scriptural warrant. We see that on TV or in presentations. I was taught this in 8th grade. In my experience, there has rarely been a case where numbers have been used well to demonstrate a biblical notion—that it was the intent of the author to use certain words and phrases for effect. On the other hand, there are countless examples of preachers who manipulate numbers, particularly the number of appearances a word has in Scripture, to stress a point that does not make biblical sense.

In my opinion, most preachers use numbers to touch upon significance. The usual argument is something like this: “Because this term appeared [X] amount of times, we should take it seriously or not as seriously;” or, “The term [X] appears [a] times, but the term [Y] appears [2a—twice] times. Therefore, [Y] has greater significance than [X].” These arguments drive me crazy. Allow me to respond with four arguments.

Tread Carefully with Numbers/Stats

First, if all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16), all Scripture matters. All Scripture is important. Even if a word appears only once in Scripture, it is still God-breathed. A word or phrase is significant for the Christian believer not by how many times it appears, but by the fact that it is Scripture. If the objective of making a case with numbers is for the audience to understand significance, “that we should take the term seriously,” numbers and appearances are not the way to do it.

Second, a word or phrases’ appearance does not equate to greater/lesser importance. A word that is used a lot in the Bible does not automatically mean it is necessarily more important than another one. For instance, the word that appears most in the New Testament is kai, a conjunction that means “and, or, even,” with over 9000 appearances.[1] Yet, one would rarely hear a biblical case concerning the significance of kai. This relates to the next point.

Third, even if a word or phrase appears minimally in Scripture, it can carry massive theological—not lexical—significance. I must assert that there are some words in Scripture that contain great theological and salvific significance without anything to do with the number of appearances. For instance, “propitiation” (hilasmos) only makes two appearances (1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). Even if one were to combine the variant hilasterion (Rom 3:25, Heb 9:5), the total appearances of propitiation is four. Yet, propitiation is a rich theological notion that is crucial in detailing the process of the Gospel. One who does not understand propitiation likely does not know how to explain the Gospel. This key word relates to a ton of passages that connote a similar notion (Jn 3:16; 1 Pet 3:18 etc.).

Another example is the contrast between kurios (Lord, master) and philos (friend). There are over 700 usages of kurios, in which most of them are designated in reference to Christ. While there are over 20 usages of philos, only a few of the usages indicate the relationship between Christ and His believers as friends (Lk 12:4; John 15:14-15).

Jesus is Lord and the common term to designate Christ is to refer to His lordship—He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16). However, just because there are fewer instances where Christ calls us “friends” (philous), a fraternal term, it does not diminish the significance. Jesus is not lesser as a friend than our Lord. He is Lord over all and He is our friend.

Fourth, the attempt to make a case concerning significance with numbers assume that certain terms and phrases are used in the same way. However, a word (especially in Greek) can be used in different ways. For instance, “word” (logos) is used in Scripture referring to “Christ”, “Scripture”, “logic/reason” and (literally) “word”, in the sense of speech (something someone said). In fact, logos is predominantly used as a communication device. Counting how many times Scripture contains logos to make a case may easily ignore the different meanings that the word has. One simply cannot make a case with the number of times logos is used in Scripture.

In my experience, many preachers who attempt to make a case with numbers are not familiar with the original languages of Scripture nor linguistic practices. That’s not a problem…until they act like pros when they’re not by not doing the actual work. Seriously, Christian preachers can be a unique breed in how they teach a language that they have not studied in a public speech.

All to say, a preacher who truly cares about the integrity of the biblical text must be careful in using numbers as an argument. I would suggest that it would be safe to not use the appearance of a term as much as possible unless the preacher has truly made a biblically true case concerning numbers—which requires ample study. A case that employs numbers well is one in which the preacher can substantially claim that the biblical authors intended numbers to be used for significance. In my own studies, these cases are few. One example where numbers are used well could be the length of a king’s rule during Kings/Chronicles. Kings who were faithful to the Law had a longer reign while those who were unfaithful had a short reign.

Preachers, for the sake of integrity and biblical integrity, don’t manipulate numbers. As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15, may we do our best in handling Scripture.

[1] Mounce, Basis of Biblical Greek Grammar, 20.