When I was young, I admired the kind of person who seemed to have an answer for every category of problem—a walking encyclopedia. But as I have grown older and gradually learned more about life and the world, I have come to realize how little I can speak about with true authority. Now, I no longer admire someone who confidently offers ready answers to every question in life. Rather, I respect a leader who can honestly say, “I don’t know.”
The invention of the copying machine is a modern development. In the ancient world, scribes copied biblical manuscripts by hand. Any task done by human hands inevitably includes mistakes. The field of textual criticism carefully classifies the types of errors scribes made in the transmission process and uses them to help reconstruct the original text.
The Korean Revised Version of the Bible records Saul’s age at his accession to the throne as follows:
“Saul was forty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel two years” (1 Samuel 13:1).
The widely used English translation, the New International Version (NIV), renders the same verse:
“Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.”
The New English Bible (NEB) reads:
“Saul was fifty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel for twenty-two years.”
The familiar King James Version (KJV) states:
“Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel…”
Yet the Masoretic Text—the Hebrew textual tradition underlying these translations—literally reads:
“Saul was one year old when he became king, and he reigned two years over Israel.”
Clearly, Saul did not become king at the age of 1. That is a scribal error. The broader biblical narrative makes it evident that Saul was an adult when he ascended the throne. The idea that Israel’s first king began his reign as an infant is nonsensical.
When the original text is uncertain, translations that confidently specify “thirty years old and forty-two years of reign” or “fifty years old and twenty-two years of reign” reflect not divine revelation but scholarly reconstruction and theological judgment.
In this context, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) took a remarkably transparent approach. Its rendering of 1 Samuel 13:1 reads:
“Saul was … years old when he began to reign; and he reigned … and two years over Israel.”
Instead of pretending certainty where none exists, it leaves the blanks visible.
A leader does not need to know everything to lead. In fact, a leader who can say, “I don’t know—and therefore I need your help,” often earns greater trust and affection. People instinctively side with those who acknowledge their limitations. Something is intimidating about standing beside a leader who appears flawless and omniscient.
If saying “I don’t know” feels uncomfortable, one might instead say, “That’s not my area of expertise.” Such honesty communicates integrity. Leadership becomes healthier and more refreshing when leaders release themselves from the burden of being all-knowing narrators of every situation.