Exegesis is the systematic study of the Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning. This is basically a historical task. It is the attempt to hear the Word as the original recipients were to have heard it, to find out what was the original intent of the words of the Bible.
How many times have you heard or said, "What Jesus meant by that was..."? Those are exegetical expressions.
The problem with much of this, however, is:
It is too selective, and the sources consulted are not true "experts".
1) The problem with "selective" exegesis is that one will often read one's own, completely foreign, ideas into a text and thereby make God's Word something other than what God really said. For example: Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:22, "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (KJV). When we look at it exegetically, we realize that Paul is giving final instructions on how to deal with "prophetic utterances", and when something is not of God we are to toss it aside. To make this text mean something else is to abuse the Word of God and make it mean what God did not intend it to mean.
2) When it is necessary to consult an "expert", use the best source possible. For example, in Mark 10:23 (Matt. 19:23; Luke 18:24), Jesus says, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God." He then adds: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom." It is often said that there was a gate in Jerusalem known as the "Needle's Eye," which camels could go through only by kneeling, and with great difficulty. The point of this "interpretation" is that a camel could in fact go through the "Needle's Eye." The trouble with this "exegesis," however, is that it is simply not true. There never was such a gate in Jerusalem at any time in its history. It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and that was precisely Jesus' point. It is impossible for one who trusts in riches to enter the Kingdom. It takes a miracle for a rich person to get saved, which is quite the point of what follows: "All things are possible with God."
Next Post: Learning to do exegesis
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Nature of Scripture
As Professor George Ladd once put it: "The Bible is the Word of God given in the words of people in history." It is this dual nature of the Bible that demands of us the task of interpretation.
Because the Bible is God's Word, it has eternal relevance; it speaks to all mankind, in every age and in every culture. Because it is God's Word, we must listen - and obey. But because God chose to speak His Word through human words in history, every book in the Bible also has historical particularity; each document is conditioned by the language, time, and culture in which it was originally written. Interpretation of the Bible is demanded by the "tension" that exists between its eternal relevance and its historical particularity.
There are, for example, Christians who, on the basis of Deuteronomy 22:5 ("A woman must not wear men's clothing," NIV) argue that women should not wear slacks or shorts. But the same people seldom take literally the other imperatives in that list....(vs. 8,9, and 12).
1. In speaking through real persons, in a variety of circumstances, over a 1500 year period, God's Word was expressed in the vocabulary and thought patterns of those persons and conditioned by the culture of those times and circumstances. That is to say, God's Word to us was first of all His Word to them. Our problem is that we are so far removed from them in time, and sometimes in thought. This is the major reason one needs to learn to interpret the Bible. If God's word about women wearing men's clothing or people having parapets around houses is to speak to us, we first need to know what it said to its original hearers - and why.
FIRST, one has to hear the Word they heard in order to understand what was said to them back then and there.
SECOND, one must learn to hear that same Word in the here and now.
2. To interpret properly the "then and there" of the biblical texts, one must not only know some general rules that apply to all words of the Bible, but one needs to learn the special rules that apply to each different literary form, of which there are many - narrative history, geneologies, chronicles, laws of all kinds, poetry of all kinds, proverbs, prophetic oracles, riddles, drama, biological sketches, parables, letters, sermons, and apocalypses.
Next Post: The First Task: Exegesis
Because the Bible is God's Word, it has eternal relevance; it speaks to all mankind, in every age and in every culture. Because it is God's Word, we must listen - and obey. But because God chose to speak His Word through human words in history, every book in the Bible also has historical particularity; each document is conditioned by the language, time, and culture in which it was originally written. Interpretation of the Bible is demanded by the "tension" that exists between its eternal relevance and its historical particularity.
There are, for example, Christians who, on the basis of Deuteronomy 22:5 ("A woman must not wear men's clothing," NIV) argue that women should not wear slacks or shorts. But the same people seldom take literally the other imperatives in that list....(vs. 8,9, and 12).
1. In speaking through real persons, in a variety of circumstances, over a 1500 year period, God's Word was expressed in the vocabulary and thought patterns of those persons and conditioned by the culture of those times and circumstances. That is to say, God's Word to us was first of all His Word to them. Our problem is that we are so far removed from them in time, and sometimes in thought. This is the major reason one needs to learn to interpret the Bible. If God's word about women wearing men's clothing or people having parapets around houses is to speak to us, we first need to know what it said to its original hearers - and why.
FIRST, one has to hear the Word they heard in order to understand what was said to them back then and there.
SECOND, one must learn to hear that same Word in the here and now.
2. To interpret properly the "then and there" of the biblical texts, one must not only know some general rules that apply to all words of the Bible, but one needs to learn the special rules that apply to each different literary form, of which there are many - narrative history, geneologies, chronicles, laws of all kinds, poetry of all kinds, proverbs, prophetic oracles, riddles, drama, biological sketches, parables, letters, sermons, and apocalypses.
Next Post: The First Task: Exegesis
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Reader Is An Interpreter
Whether you've thought about it or not, every reader is at the same time an interpreter. We invariably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text.
When a person in our culture reads the word "cross," centuries of Christian art and symbolism cause most people automatically to think of the Roman cross (t), although it was more likely shaped like the letter "T."
When we read texts about the church at worship we automatically see people sitting in a building with pews, much like we use today.
The need to interpret can be seen by simply noticing the church as it is today. The contemporary church makes it abundantly clear that not all "plain meanins" are equally plain to all.
There are those who would argue that women should keep silent in the church on the basis of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and at the same time deny the validity of speaking in tongues and prophecy, the very context in which the "silence" passage occurs.
For some, the Bible "plainly teaches" baptism by immersion; others believe they can make a biblical case for infant baptism. Both "eternal security" and the possibility of "losing one's salvation" are preached in the church, but never by the same person. Yet both are affirmed as the plain meaning of biblical texts.
Besides these recognizable differences among "Bible-believing Christians," there are also all kinds of strange ideas and teachings floating around. People are always bending the truth by the way they select texts from the Bible. every imaginable heresy or practice claims to be "supported" by a text.
Even among more biblically orthodox believers there are many strange ideas that manage to gain acceptance. Usually, because somebody decides to take a particular text out of its legitimate context for the purpose of supporting their own pet beliefs.
Next Posting: "The Nature of Scripture"
When a person in our culture reads the word "cross," centuries of Christian art and symbolism cause most people automatically to think of the Roman cross (t), although it was more likely shaped like the letter "T."
When we read texts about the church at worship we automatically see people sitting in a building with pews, much like we use today.
The need to interpret can be seen by simply noticing the church as it is today. The contemporary church makes it abundantly clear that not all "plain meanins" are equally plain to all.
There are those who would argue that women should keep silent in the church on the basis of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and at the same time deny the validity of speaking in tongues and prophecy, the very context in which the "silence" passage occurs.
For some, the Bible "plainly teaches" baptism by immersion; others believe they can make a biblical case for infant baptism. Both "eternal security" and the possibility of "losing one's salvation" are preached in the church, but never by the same person. Yet both are affirmed as the plain meaning of biblical texts.
Besides these recognizable differences among "Bible-believing Christians," there are also all kinds of strange ideas and teachings floating around. People are always bending the truth by the way they select texts from the Bible. every imaginable heresy or practice claims to be "supported" by a text.
Even among more biblically orthodox believers there are many strange ideas that manage to gain acceptance. Usually, because somebody decides to take a particular text out of its legitimate context for the purpose of supporting their own pet beliefs.
Next Posting: "The Nature of Scripture"
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