Ask-a-Prof is a web-based service (free to MBS Partners, a small fee for others) that allows you to ask a Bible-related question of seminary and religion professors from a variety of faith traditions. Responses to questions will be sent to the e-mail you provide and also posted on this site.
Follow the links to:
Be aware that many, if not most, biblical questions have more than one answer, if there is even an "answer" at all. The responses you receive may or may not seem like "answers" to you. The byline of the Massachusetts Bible Society, "One Book, Many Voices" indicates that how we interpret what the Bible says has a lot to do with who we are, our life experiences, and our culture. We hope that this program will help those who love the Bible as we do to see that the text is rarely as simple as it seems. The depths of God are unknowable by human minds and the depths of God's Word are often equally mysterious.
That biblical richness and complexity is why we have asked scholars from across the theological spectrum and from a variety of Christian and Jewish traditions to join us in this project. Normally you would only have access to their thinking by taking a class with them, traveling to a lecture, or reading one of their books. We are grateful that they have agreed to volunteer their time in giving you the benefit of their expertise and hope that even if you don't find "answers," you will find your understanding of God's Word brought to new and exciting levels.
Can I Ask a Question?
How Will I Get My Answer?
Are There Rules About What I Can Ask?
Can I Ask a Particular Professor on the List?
Suppose I Don't Get an Answer?
How Long Will It Be Until I Get an Answer?
Do the Answers Reflect the Opinions of the Massachusetts Bible Society?
MBS Individual Partners as well as those members of organizations that are MBS Group Partners can ask a question for free as a benefit of membership. Others may also ask a question for a small fee. Go to the question submission form to ask your question.
Your responses will be sent by MBS to the e-mail address you provide. You may get one response or several and MBS will forward responses as we receive them from those answering. Responses will also be posted here on the website.
There are only the normal rules of tact and courtesy. All questions are first received and evaluated by MBS. Questions that have a simple factual answer (like "Where can I find the Ten Commandments?") will be answered by MBS staff, sent to you directly, and will not be posted on the site. Questions that contain offensive language will be returned to the questioner to either re-frame or withdraw. Questions that require a more complex response will be sent to our participating professors.
You can certainly request that a certain professor respond to your question and MBS will pass along that request. We make no guarantee, however, that the person you selected will reply. Every professor will see every question and has the option to respond or not to each one.
We will certainly do everything we can to ensure that you receive at least one response to your question. If for some reason that is not possible, MBS staff will respond and direct you to resources that may be of help, refunding any fee you may have paid to ask. Fees will not be refunded if a question is returned as offensive and you are unable or unwilling to reframe the question in a way that would be helpful.
If your question is factual in nature and can be answered by MBS staff, you should have the response the next business day. When a question goes out to the list of professors, the response time will depend on their schedules. You might get a response in a day or two, but it might be longer. If several professors respond, you might get answers across a week or more. If you are uncomfortable with the length of time a response is taking, please contact us to be sure it was received and we will do what we can to expedite an answer.
Not necessarily. We do not edit the responses except for length and expect that all those reading the responses, including the staff and Trustees at MBS, will find some responses to be right in line with our own beliefs and some with which we would have strong disagreement. This is not about promoting one "right" interpretation. This is about showing that there are many ways to look at Scripture. We believe the responses should be just the beginning of your study. Take them to your study groups. Pray about them and ask for God's guidance. Bring discussions about them to our Social Network. The God who inspired four different Gospels is big enough to handle a variety of interpretations.