The Alexandrian Approach to Bible Interpretation Greek mythology relates the legend of Alexander the Great’s arrival in 333 B. C. at Gordium, a city of ancient Turkey, where he found an intricately interwoven knot tightly binding the pole of a chariot to its yoke. Prophecy said that whoever was able to untie the knot would become the next conqueror and ruler of Asia. This knot had frustrated the efforts of all who had tried to unravel it. After struggling without success to untie it, the impetuous Alexander finally declared that it mattered not how the knot was loosened and forthwith drew his sword and sliced the knot in two, thus enabling him to untangle it. He then went on to conquer Egypt and western Asia, thus fulfilling the prophecy. Hence, “the cutting of the Gordian knot” became a proverb referring to the resolution of a seemingly unsolvable problem by unorthodox but decisive action. This story is, in some ways, similar to the Biblical one of King Jehoiakim’s cutting the scroll of God’s word and burning it in the fire. While Jehoiakim’s actions were certainly dramatic and definite and seemed to resolve what was for him a “knotty” problem, they were also futile and self-destructive. As the Lord told Saul, who viciously persecuted Christians before becoming one, it is useless and self-defeating to “kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). The legend of Alexander and the Gordian knot is illustrative of how many people approach Bible interpretation. The Bible presents irresolvable difficulties for those who cannot reconcile its “(k)nots” with their wishes. Thus, they adopt the Alexandrian approach. Since so much of what they want to believe is plainly contrary to the Bible, they resort to the drastic measure of slashing through the Bible’s “(k)nots” by ignoring them or massively distorting what it says to the point that, by the time they are finished, it supposedly says the opposite of what it actually does say. In worst-case scenarios, they denigrate the Bible by either denying its divine inspiration or by citing or producing alternate traditions or books to add to, or replace, it. Examples of this procedure abound. For instance, to those who believe that one is justified by faith alone, it is no problem that the Bible actually says the opposite (Jas. 2:24). They simply draw their swords and cut this Gordian knot by denigrating the letter of James or giving it an irrational but favorable interpretation. Does the Bible forbid homosexuality (e.g., 1 Cor. 6:9-11)? Again, this “Gordian knot” is no problem for sword-wielding defenders who simply claim, without any more warrant or reason than their own desires, that the Bible condemns only “unnatural” homosexuality, though the Bible makes no such distinction (Rom. 1:26,27). Is the papacy nowhere mentioned in the New Testament? This is no deterrent to its advocates, who just find enough authority in their long-standing traditions to overrule what the Bible says. This approach gives credence to the unbelievers’ claim that anything can be proven by the Bible. As King Saul learned, those who reject God’s word, will by Him be rejected (1 Sam. 15:23). In 323 B.C., ten years after he had supposedly cut “the Gordian knot,” Alexander died in Babylon at the age of 32. Just seven years after Jehoiakim cut and burned the scroll of God’s word, Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians and he was killed. This gives new meaning to Jesus’ words: “… those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matt. 26:52).