A fascinating comment on a blog post I was reading today, regarding how we read the Bible (emphasis mine):
I have lately seen the difficulty of reaching agreement on the "meaning of texts" with others who perhaps are not as familiar with the methods of historical-critical exegesis of the Bible. The norm for interpreting the Bible seems to be either 1)just opening it up and applying the words on the page to ourselves with no consideration of the context that God was addressing, or else 2)a flat harmonizing ("analogy of Scripture") that ignores the point that God was trying to make through the individual authors.The response from the blogger:
As Gordon Fee said, the culprit is historical exegesis, the demand that we understand what God was saying through the biblical authors to the people "there and then" before we then take it and transfer it to the "here and now." I think this is where we lose the people who accuse us of ignoring what the text "obviously means." It seems most Christians in America are taught that they are to just open the Bible and receive from it whatever they believe God is giving, without any mediation from the believing community, those who have been in the faith longer, or even those whom God has gifted with an understanding of the original languages and culture.
...you are quite right about the endless belief that one can simply understand the Bible by reading some translation and thinking about it. This is seldom true when we are dealing with complex texts precisely because we bring too much of our modern assumptions to the reading of the text.
4 comments:
I liked this. Thanks for posting it.
Very true observations...I am presently seeking to understand a verse in Romans and looking at Paul's audience, time and place to help with that.
love, Mom
Hey Allison! I feel I needed to comment on this post, so here goes:
It is true that the bible contains scripture that is mysterious and it will most likely stay that way until the end and there things that have to be taken in context, but, luckily for us our LORD provided the majority of scripture (and the most important parts) to leave no room for argument or pondering of what we "think" HE is "trying" to tell us. The bible thoroughly equippes us to lead our life as to honor GOD , the rules he has set for us in day to day contact with people, denying ourselves and being humble to HIS word, our roles as men and women, husbands and wives, and the way we are called to be as Christian families and raise our children. (Matthew 22:37,Titus 2 & 3, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 & 4, Galatians 5, Ephesians 4,5, & 6 and the list goes on & on.) Praise be to the LORD that HE provided the bible for even the simplest of minds to understand...because if he didn't what would be the point? I don't want the bible to suit MY desires and to hear only what I want to hear or what people are telling me, I want to serve and obey the GOD who created me and know what HE desires. And in my 100% belief, it is not hidden but plainly laid out for me, and the only thing I need to do is choose to follow it.
I don't doubt that God's word does provide guidance for our lives, some things specifically, some things not as clear. The part of this quote that stuck with me is the necessity of taking the whole of the biblical texts into consideration--not just "flipping to a verse" and applying it however it seems to fit. I do find that people can use the Bible to back up anything they want (right? lots of extreme examples out there, for sure) and lately I'm so intrigued to study the text in its entire context historically. I think that's the only way to truly know what God was and is saying through the biblical authors. (and as I look at things this way, some of my previously held "the Bible is so obvious about this, Christianity in general accepts this so it must be true" beliefs have been changed. this is why it's important to me!)
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