Archives For Hermeneutics

Some things preach well, and then some things preach very well! The idea that there are four unique and distinct words for “love” in Koine Greek is very popular among evangelical pastors. I surmise one reason it is so widely accepted as true, in light of the textual issues, is that it preaches well.

No one has had more influence in the mass proliferation of the four loves than C.S. Lewis. Lewis lays out this four-fold study of the Greek words for love in his book The Four Loves. Lewis argues that the four Greek words for love (agape, phileo, eros, storge) all communicate different types of love (unconditional, friendship, romantic, affectionate). But is this true? D.A. Carson thinks not and addresses this issue in his book Exegetical Fallacies: Continue Reading…

The Christian canon is not a fixed deposit of traditions from the past, but a dynamic vehicle by which the risen Lord continues through the Holy Spirit to guide, instruct, and nourish his people. The imperative “to search the Scriptures” reveals the need for its continuous interpretation. The activity of hearing, reading, and praying is required, indeed mandated by the Scripture itself. In every successive generation new light has been promised for those seeking divine illumination to provide fresh understanding, new application to changing cultures, and a call for repentance for persistent failure in living out the imperatives of the gospel. In this constant struggle to live a faithful Christian life, the Scriptures of the church afford the abiding context from which to grow into the image of Christ. It is thus a theological gyroscope for maintaining one’s direction when buffeted by the ever-shifting winds of change.

Childs, Brevard S. The Church’s Guide for Reading Paul: The Canonical Shaping of the Pauline Corpus (p. 26).

Below are three humorous examples of how Old Testament scholars would interpret a Stop sign. These three examples come form a larger list titled Hermeneutics in Everyday Life by Tim Perry. Continue Reading…

Recently, Truett Seminary’s professor of theology Dr. Roger Olson shed light on his low view of the Old Testament in a comment on his blog. Olson states:

I would go so far as to say that we should not focus on the cultural meaning, the circumstances, etc., except out of historical interest. Everything we need to know about God and salvation is in the New Testament. The OT was types and shadows. It provides some context for understanding the New Testament, but it provides nothing essential for doctrine or practice that Christians cannot find in the NT.

Source: Regarding Old Testament “Texts of Terror”: Comment #25098

The post itself has many disappointing comments about the Old Testament and Olson’s “interpret everything through a lens of love” theologizing, but his comment in view shows where the rubber meets the Marcion-esque road he is traveling.  Continue Reading…

Recently, I have noticed a buzz around the blogosphere regarding the hermeneutical movement known as the Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS). This approach is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the works of Daniel J. Treier,  Kevin Vanhoozer, D. Christopher Spinks and others. So, what is TIS? Continue Reading…

Updated: I found corresponding handouts for each lecture and linked them below.

I am taking an Ezra-Nehemiah exegesis class this semester and one of our textbooks is V. Philips Long’s Art of Biblical History. Long is currently Professor of Old Testament at Regent College but formerly taught at Covenant Theological Seminary (CTS) for 15 years. CTS has several of Long’s lectures on their iTunesU account, two of which are on the subject of Long’s Art of Biblical History. They are well worth the listen.

Audio

Art of Biblical History I

Art of Biblical History II

Handouts

Art of Biblical History I

Art of Biblical History II

In his Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach, John Sailhamer addresses the literal sense (sensus literalis) of the text and proposes that the literal sense of Scripture may also function as the spiritual sense (sensus spiritualis).

As part of the overall proposal for an approach to OT theology offered in this book, we strongly urge the consideration of a return to the notion that the literal meaning of the OT may, in fact, be linked to the messianic hope of the pre-Christian, Israelite prophets. By paying careful attention to the compositional strategies of the biblical books themselves, we believe in them can be found many essential clues to the meaning intended by their authors—clues that point beyond their immediate historical referent to a future, messianic age. By looking at the works of the scriptural authors, rather than at the events that lie behind their accounts of them, we can find appropriate textual clues to the meaning of these biblical books. Those clues, we also suggest, point to an essentially messianic and eschatological focus of the biblical texts. In other words, the literal meaning of Scripture (sensus literalis) may, in fact, be the spiritual sense (sensus spiritualis) intended by the author, namely, the messianic sense picked up in the NT books. Such a view of the meaning of the OT is quite similar to that of the apostle Paul in Romans 16:25-27. There Paul speaks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which, though hidden in ages past, “has now been revealed and made known through the prophetic writings.” Paul notes three things about the Gospel in these verses: (1) it was formerly a hidden “mystery” in “long ages past” (v. 25); (2) it has now been revealed (v. 26); and (3) it is “made known through the prophetic writings” (v. 26).

Sailhamer, John H. (2010-12-07). Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach (Kindle Locations 2679-2689). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

While giving a lecture at Baylor’s Truett Seminary, New Testament scholar and professor at Duke Divinity School Richard Hays shared a funny and yet sad story of a student’s confusion regarding the faith of Judaism and Christianity. The context of the story is a discussion on the modern church being almost Marcionite in their practice of biblical instruction and reflection. The story received much laughter to which Hays was thankful: “I’m glad that line got a laugh. Among Methodist audiences they sometimes look at me blankly when I have told that story.”

I once had a student say to me in class, “Judaism was a harsh religion that taught people to fear God’s judgment. But thank goodness Jesus came along and taught us to love God with all our heart, and soul, and strength.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is at the heart of Judaism, not fear of judgment. Continue Reading…

There are no purely objective readers. We all bring certain biases and agendas to the text before us. The goal is not to purify one’s self from this condition but to realize and account for such “baggage.” In Appendix A, titled Hermeneutics, in Michael B. Shepherd’s Daniel in the Context of the Hebrew Bible, Shepherd addresses how the biased reader of the Bible should approach the text and then behave once inside the revealed biblical world.

If postmodernism has been of any value at all, it is that it has taught the children of modernity about the fallacy of objectivity. Continue Reading…

What must we know about the final editors or redactors of the Old Testament? Should we labor to undercover an agenda or psychological mindset present in the person(s) in order to understand why the final editors arranged and added to the received text in front of them? To what degree should we care about the final form of the Old Testament scriptures? Christopher Seitz writes on these issues in The Character of Christian Scripture: The Significance of a Two-Testament Bible.

The final editors do not have any moral superiority, and it is not for this reason that a canonical approach values the final form of the text.The final form of the text is a canonical-historical portrayal, and the final editors have never ceased hearing the Word of God as a word spoken through history. Their very nonappearance, moreover, is testimony to the degree to which they have sought to let the past have its own say and in the case of Isaiah, have deferred to God’s inspired Word as it presses ahead in all its accomplishing work. No morally superior, or balefully institutional, second or third Isaiahs get the final word. That would be far too Continue Reading…