Are close-vote scope standards significantly different now than they used to be?

Question

I've noticed some questions being quickly closed as opinion-based or too broad, even though there is a precedent for the success of such questions. These closures seem to be mostly recent, and frequently voted to close by the same small set of users.

A clear example of this phenomenon is demonstrated in exegesis questions, which often have titles like "What did Jesus mean by _______?", or "What does _______ mean?" In fact, there are a lot of successful questions of this type in the exegesis tag. However, it seems to me that some recent questions of similar style are the target of closure from these users.

Examples of successful questions:

What did Jesus mean when he said go and sin no more...?

What does John 12:25 mean?

What does it mean to judge the fatherless?

Here is an example of a recently closed question:

What did Jesus mean when he said we must eat his flesh and drink his blood?

It was asked in 2011 accepted an answer written in 2014, and closed just last month. Did these previous completed questions just fall through the cracks, is there actually a precedent for some exegesis questions closed as too broad or opinion based to be answered, or are these questions not similar for some reason?

Answer 1

TLDR; Yes, standards have changed.

More specifically, I see two distinct things that have changed:

1. Biblical Hermeneutics launched as a sister site. Many of the "What does verse X mean?" questions are now better suited for this site, which delves into the textual context, translation nuänces, etc, of scripture. They strictly do not address interpretation questions.

   Of course, now days, interpretation questions are permitted here, so long as the denominational scope is provided. We didn't always have this rule, which leads to...

2. After some initial growing pains, we more or less settled on a list of criteria which makes for an acceptable question. The help center provides a good overview of this list, but this list didn't always exist as it does today.

   For instance, as pointed out in comments, "Is X a sin?" was permitted initially. Now it clearly is not.

   We also accepted a lot of "truth questions" in the past (questions which ask for the absolute truth of something--"Was Mary perpetually a virgin?" or "Is Jesus Michael the Archangel?"), which are now expressly off-topic, as they are essentially asking for voting wars between denominations.

I have recently discovered that we still have a very large number of old questions open, which no longer fit the guidelines. Many of those you cited probably fit this category. Slowly, these questions will get closed, and/or updated to fall within current guidelines. As you find them, you are encouraged to vote and/or comment to request the OP edit the question to fit within guidelines.