Bible Tips: "All" Does Not Always Mean "All"
“I’ve tried everything and nothing works.”
“You NEVER listen to me!”
“There is nothing on TV tonight.”
Most of us have said (and have heard others say) things like this. Words like “always/never” or “everyone/everything” or “all/none” are universal terms. Yet in ordinary speech we use them in non-universal ways, and we expect others to understand that “all doesn’t always mean all”.
If I say “I always have to do everything myself!” or “I have nothing to wear!” you should understand that I am exaggerating to express frustration.
If I say “nothing good ever happens after midnight” I am making a sweeping generalization to express a tendency, not an absolute law of the universe.
If I say “all of Philadelphia was talking about the game”, it doesn’t mean every person but that the game was a topic of discussion among many people.
If I say “the customer is always right,” I’m speaking proverbially. It is understood that there are exceptions.
Language works the same way in the Bible. It records speech the way that people actually speak.
When Moses writes “all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth” (Genesis 41.57), he doesn’t mean the famine was global or that Mayans, Chinese, and aboriginal Australians paddled to Egypt in search of food. By “all the earth” he means Egypt’s world, the lands within its circle of dealings.
Likewise, when Matthew says “all Judea and all the region about Jordan were going out to” John the Baptist, not every individual person in those regions went out. Matthew means John’s teachings were popular and large crowds went to hear John and be baptized.
Jesus spoke the parable of the persistent widow who, when she didn’t get justice, kept pestering the judge to re-open her case (Luke 18.1-7) and Luke said its message was that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (18.1). Luke’s point is persistence (the parable portrays that), not that every waking moment be only given to prayer. Paul makes the same point: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5.17).
In Romans 7.18 Paul says “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing.” Though he says “no good thing dwells…in me”, he limits his description by “that is, in my flesh”. So he isn’t referring to his entire self; but to “his flesh” – his fallen nature. A few verses later Paul says “I delight in the law of God in my inner being” (Romans 7.22). He distinguishes his “inner being” from his “flesh”. Similarly, in Romans 3.12 Paul quotes Psalm 14.3: “There is no one who does good, not even one.” Yet Scripture elsewhere praises Noah, Job, and Joseph as righteous men. The verse describes a general moral condition, not a commentary on every act of every individual in history.
Paul’s point is the intractability of fallen human nature. Self-improvement programs won’t save you. You can’t satisfy God’s demands for perfection by your own willpower. You will always fall short. But that doesn’t mean that people are incapable of doing any good in a civil or relational sense. Jesus himself said that evil people know how to give good gifts (Luke 11.13).
Universals can be used universally. To name a few examples:
“The LORD never sleeps or slumbers.” (Psalm 121.4)
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.20)
“Nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1.37)
“No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14.6)
“Every good and perfect gift is from above.” (James 1.17)
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1.5)
Scripture uses universal language the way all human language uses it—sometimes absolutely, sometimes rhetorically—and context tells us which.
“You NEVER listen to me!”
“There is nothing on TV tonight.”
Most of us have said (and have heard others say) things like this. Words like “always/never” or “everyone/everything” or “all/none” are universal terms. Yet in ordinary speech we use them in non-universal ways, and we expect others to understand that “all doesn’t always mean all”.
If I say “I always have to do everything myself!” or “I have nothing to wear!” you should understand that I am exaggerating to express frustration.
If I say “nothing good ever happens after midnight” I am making a sweeping generalization to express a tendency, not an absolute law of the universe.
If I say “all of Philadelphia was talking about the game”, it doesn’t mean every person but that the game was a topic of discussion among many people.
If I say “the customer is always right,” I’m speaking proverbially. It is understood that there are exceptions.
Language works the same way in the Bible. It records speech the way that people actually speak.
When Moses writes “all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth” (Genesis 41.57), he doesn’t mean the famine was global or that Mayans, Chinese, and aboriginal Australians paddled to Egypt in search of food. By “all the earth” he means Egypt’s world, the lands within its circle of dealings.
Likewise, when Matthew says “all Judea and all the region about Jordan were going out to” John the Baptist, not every individual person in those regions went out. Matthew means John’s teachings were popular and large crowds went to hear John and be baptized.
Jesus spoke the parable of the persistent widow who, when she didn’t get justice, kept pestering the judge to re-open her case (Luke 18.1-7) and Luke said its message was that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (18.1). Luke’s point is persistence (the parable portrays that), not that every waking moment be only given to prayer. Paul makes the same point: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5.17).
In Romans 7.18 Paul says “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing.” Though he says “no good thing dwells…in me”, he limits his description by “that is, in my flesh”. So he isn’t referring to his entire self; but to “his flesh” – his fallen nature. A few verses later Paul says “I delight in the law of God in my inner being” (Romans 7.22). He distinguishes his “inner being” from his “flesh”. Similarly, in Romans 3.12 Paul quotes Psalm 14.3: “There is no one who does good, not even one.” Yet Scripture elsewhere praises Noah, Job, and Joseph as righteous men. The verse describes a general moral condition, not a commentary on every act of every individual in history.
Paul’s point is the intractability of fallen human nature. Self-improvement programs won’t save you. You can’t satisfy God’s demands for perfection by your own willpower. You will always fall short. But that doesn’t mean that people are incapable of doing any good in a civil or relational sense. Jesus himself said that evil people know how to give good gifts (Luke 11.13).
Universals can be used universally. To name a few examples:
“The LORD never sleeps or slumbers.” (Psalm 121.4)
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.20)
“Nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1.37)
“No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14.6)
“Every good and perfect gift is from above.” (James 1.17)
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1.5)
Scripture uses universal language the way all human language uses it—sometimes absolutely, sometimes rhetorically—and context tells us which.