Why are prophetic books difficult to study?

Answer 1

AnswerProphetic books can be difficult to study because first you have to find the prophecies and then decide what you believe they mean. In many cases, the original authors did not necessarily intend to prophesy anything at all, but later theologians have found new meanings in their writings. In other cases, prophecies are apocalyptic and obscure.

Genuine study also involves an understanding of the changes that have taken place over time. For example, the Christian Old Testament is based on the Septuagint, an early, flawed Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Sometimes, errors in the Septuagint have resulted in apparent prophecies that were not present in the original texts. In other cases, copy errors and interpolations have changed the originals. Scholars may never see the original books just as they were first written, but various manuscripts and fragments have come to light, showing a little more about those originals.