What does it mean to *wrest* the Scriptures?

The word *wrest* occurs in 2 Peter 3:16 as follows: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Other translations use the word *distort*, *twist*, or *pervert* (the last two being closest to the actual Greek word στρεβλόω).

Strong's Concordance (4761)
strebloó: to twist
Original Word: στρεβλόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: strebloó
Phonetic Spelling: (streb-lo'-o)
Definition: to twist
Usage: I twist, torture; met: I twist or pervert language.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 4761: στρεβλόω
στρεβλόω, στρέβλω; (στρεβλός (from στρέφω) twisted, Latin tortuosus; hence, στρέβλη, feminine, an instrument of torture); to twist, turn awry (Herodotus); to torture, put to the rack (Aristophanes, Plato, Demosthenes, Polybius, Josephus, 3Macc. 4:14); metaphorically, to pervert, of one who wrests or tortures language to a false sense, 2 Peter 3:16.

What was Peter telling us in the context of the Second Coming of Christ? See the entire chapter for context.
1. First Peter reminds Christians (including ourselves) that we should always be mindful of what was spoken by the holy prophets (in the OT) as well as the commandments of the apostles (in the NT). In other words everything in the Bible.

2. Next he tells us that scoffers will come in the last days mocking the Second Coming of Christ and saying Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. The scoffers of today are the Full Preterists who claim that the Second Coming of Christ was already fulfilled in 70 AD, as explained by Theopedia: Full Preterism holds that Jesus' Second Coming is to be viewed not as a future-to-us bodily return, but rather a "return" manifested by the physical destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple in AD 70 by foreign armies...”

3. Then Peter talks about the coming Day of the Lord, and the total burning up of the earth and the atmospheric heaven with supernatural fire, and goes on to say that the only reason for the delay in the Second Coming is the salvation of souls. God does not want a single soul to be condemned to Hell.

4. Then Peter says that in view of the terrible judgments to come, we should be holy and godly, and when Christ comes we should be “found in peace, without spot, and blameless”.

5. Then Peter addresses the issue of unlearned and unstable people who do not accept the Scriptures for what they are (including many hard saying which are not easily understood), but rather wrest, or twist, or pervert the Scriptures to their own destruction.

6. By looking around and observing what is happening in Christendom today, we can see that the same tendency to pervert the Scriptures is increasing more and more.

7. What are the manifestations of this tendency?

a. Basing modern Bible translations on ancient corruptions of the Hebrew and Greek texts in order to give us a *new improved Bible*.

b. Misrepresenting what the Bible says, such as the New World Translation of the JWs to call Christ “a god” instead of “God” (John 1:1)

c. Attempting to reconcile the theory of evolution with the creation account in Genesis, by postulating an Old Earth and a Pre-Adamite race of people.

d. Spiritualizing Bible prophecies so that nothing is taken in its plain literal sense, and the Millennium does not mean a literal thousand years in Revelation 20.

e. Reinterpreting Scriptures so that they mean something other than what they say. For example the doctrines of Soul Sleep and Annihilationism are meant to change what the Bible says about the afterlife.

f. Rejecting the plain teachings of the Bible, and substituting man-made ideas, such as Five Point Calvinism.

g. Denying the reality of a literal Rapture and that the saints will dwell eternally in the New Jerusalem.

One could add many more attempts which are being made to twist the Scriptures and misrepresent God’s truth. The issue for each reader is whether you are in the habit of wresting the Scriptures in order to accommodate your denominational perspective.

When I read the subject matter. I thought of the name change of Jacob meaning "deceiver" and when he wrestled with a angel or messenger of God his name was changed to Israel .Meaning "he who wrestles with God and man and overcomes", being blessed by God in the end as a remembrance of the conversion.

God inspired Elijah when wrestling between two thoughts.

1 Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word

A Bible study is usually a lot more valuable when it doesn't have a sectarian agenda appended to it.

It is like there is no struggling with sin, only not submitting to the Spirit.

It is like there is no misunderstanding of the word of God, only not giving up all the ways of the flesh.

So they do not understand the scriptures, for they will not give up all the ways of the flesh, so the flesh is battling against the scriptures to where they do not understand, or interpret how they want to hear it to give the flesh liberty.

2Ti 3:4 lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2Ti 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

They that are not led of the Spirit will not understand the scriptures, and the strict lifestyle of being like Christ, but the flesh will interpret scriptures to give the flesh liberty.

The Lord....longsuffering toward us....come to repentance vs.9
be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. vs.14
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as....Paul...hath written vs.15

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Rom.2:4

I visited a church once where they taught repentance wasn't a requirement for salvation, because (they said) repentance was a work and they were saved by faith alone.

they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

This is a great passage for an example of those who try to 'wrest' (twist) the Scriptures when they try to pit Paul against Jesus. Here Peter is saying that Paul's words are Scripture when he says 'other (loipoi) Scriptures' (referring to Paul's writings).

If one couples this with 2Tim 3:16 (All Scripture is inspired by God...) there is no way one can pit one against the other.

Triple AMEN........and or when they pit Paul against James......and try to say one is promoting justification before God by works........

"Basing modern Bible translations on ancient corruptions of the Hebrew and Greek texts..."

What is the right text to use?

The text which is in all the Reformation Bibles, including the Geneva Bible and the King James Bible.

If we believe that God's hand was in the Reformation, then we must also believe that His hand was over the Scriptures found in the traditional Hebrew and Greek texts which were printed at that time.

Denominational churches have problems because they want everyone under their same name to adhere to a certain creed or belief of the person that founded them.

So you get wesleyeans, darbyites, campbellites, millerites, mennonites, calvinists, etc.

But then non denom churches also have problems and many end up glorifying the people that founded them, they become brands...I have noticed that happens.

I noticed many people wrest scriptures to insist that Jesus returns as a a lion, and they pray that the younger generation will be lions...and thats nowhere in scripture. People just want to put their own ideas on it and cant fathom that Jesus is the Lamb of God and he asked Peter to feed my sheep and my lambs...he never said go and feed the lions. The lions eat the lambs! They dont even remember that daniel and Paul were saved out of the mouths of lions...and even when the lion of Judah slayed the lamb..,the lamb rose again.

The Bible talks about the devil is as a lion that roars about seeking their prey but no they still want to attribute our Lord as a lion when He is no such creature.

That isn't sound reasoning; it assumes far too much and is essentially an argument from silence. By the same logic, we "must believe" that Luther and Calvin were sinless because God used them.

It seems to me that you have misread Revelation 5:5. Here it is from the NIV:

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

In case you missed the context, the elder is talking about Jesus. This refers back to Genesis 49:9, where it says, "You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?"

It is true that most of the references to lions in Scripture are negative, but not all.

I basically agree with what Dino246 wrote. we can view the Reformation as an overall good thing, a move of God, without thinking that every aspect of it was approved of by God.

I think it would be similar to the case of Peter. We know that he was used by God to do things like open up the gospel to the gentiles. Yet, among the company of gentiles, he was charged by Paul with hypocrisy.

I was not referring to every aspect of the Reformation, since there were some things which were plainly ungodly (such as the persecution of other Christians).

What we need to see is this:

1. There is a time and a season for everything, and the invention of printing was coincidental with the Reformation, and the zeal to make the Bible available to the common man was coincidental with the many translations into the various European languages at that time.

2. God raised up some outstanding Christian reformers, scholars and theologians at that time who would make the Scriptures their primary authority, and the true Gospel their primary objective. Thus the Reformation swept across Europe in spite of Catholic opposition.

3. Regardless of all the criticisms directly against the traditional texts which were printed at that time, the fact remains that THE MAJORITY of Hebrew and Greek manuscripts examined since then clearly support the traditional Hebrew and Greek texts. That confirms the doctrine of the divine preservation of the Scriptures.

the idea "...THE MAJORITY of Hebrew and Greek manuscripts examined since then clearly support the traditional Hebrew and Greek texts."
my understanding of textual criticism, which isn't great, is that it's not like a vote. majority doesn't equal most reliable.
what do you mean by support? do they match exactly?

when I was studying New testament Greek, it started to become clear to me that the New testament writers seem to have an approach of "close enough is good enough".

take for example where Jesus reads from Isaiah
Luke 4: 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

compared to

Isaiah 61: 1. The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me


then a fascinating situation in Hebrews

Hebrews 1: 6. And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

I believe it doesn't say that in the Hebrew that the KJV was translated from.
but it is found in the Greek lxx in Deuteronomy.

great discussion, by the way! Peace!

An old song sung by Chubby Checker fits.......called---->The Twist

I always liked this passage
Psalm 119: 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

From the CLV:

16 as also in all the epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to apprehend, which the unlearned and unstable are twisting, as the rest of the scriptures also, to their own destruction."

Wrest is the old word for wrestling.. This is not talking about people who are throwing scriptures away / rejecting scriptures.. Classical wrestling is all about keeping a hold on your opponent while resisting them.. These are religious people who do their best to twist scriptures to make them say what they want them to say..

People can twist scriptures to the point where the doctrines they derive from wrestling scriptures end up causing them to deny the actual true scriptural beliefs that are essential for one to believe to be saved.. That's why wrestling and twisting scripture can cause ones own destruction..

reminds me of the prejudice of some on this forum towards wolves...and dogs for that matter

I don't think she has misread Revelation

I think people like some imagery better than others