Hermeneutics Refresher - Context, context, context!

[PaulK]

Greetings!

As it is the first week of this challenge, I thought it might be useful to write up a brief refresher on how we read the Bible as Lutherans. The fancy theological term for this is "Hermeneutics" which means "the study of interpretation".

Why study interpretation? Why not just read the Bible myself and draw whatever conclusions I want? The answer is that we constantly must guard against incorrect interpretation, or more precisely, interpretation that is not accurate to God's intention. Each of us has heard Bible passages used to defend clearly unbiblical ideas. We have also struggled with particularly difficult passages, often struggling to answer the perennial Lutheran question "What does this mean?" Like all other struggles, this is a result of our sinful nature. We are constantly tempted to read ourselves into God's Word, seek to confirm our own agendas, and focus only on what we want to hear. However, this is not the purpose of God's Word, you and I are not the main characters of the Bible, and often, the Bible tells us truths our Old Adam doesn't want to admit. The tools of hermeneutics are how we guard against these tendencies, and instead understand God's gift of the scriptures according to His will—the way He intended.

To start, here's an example a previous pastor of mine used often to illustrate why this topic is important: Suppose someone came to you and said "The Bible says 'Solomon had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines' (1 Kings 11:3) and Jesus said 'Go and do likewise' (Luke 10:36)". What's the problem here?

The answer, quite obviously, is context. While this example is particularly silly, the problem is abundant. We can't draw true conclusions from the Bible when it is manipulated in this way. Instead, we must keep the Bible in context. But of the many possible contexts, which ones do we find in the Bible?

1. Christocentricity
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God."
The first, and primary context in which we must read the Bible is the context of Jesus Christ. This is the purpose of scripture; it reveals the crucified Christ to mankind, so that through him we may be saved. This is what we mean when we say the bible is "Christocentric": the entirety of the Bible, from cover to cover, is all about Christ. This is even true in the Old Testament, before His bodily incarnation, as Jesus Himself says in Luke 24 "everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled". From the very beginning, God continually saves people through His action alone, all pointing towards His definitive, perfect action in the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you read the Bible, always be watchful for Christ being revealed through the text.

2. Integrity
The primary context of the Bible is Jesus, but there's a second context that we must keep in mind. This is the context of the words themselves the way they were heard by the original audience. The words of scripture are not complicated, and are not written in some kind of code or secret language. Instead, the Bible uses ordinary words, mostly in Hebrew and Greek, that have ordinary meanings humans can understand. This not only allows the Bible to be translated into languages like English for those of us who aren't pastors and scholars, it additionally reveals the books of the Bible themselves as documents written by real people. Therefore, Bible doesn't only point to Christ; it also speaks of actual, historical events that happened to actual, historical people. Learning about the people and places to, by, and about whom scripture was written help us to understand its meaning.

3. Coherence
The Bible is comprised of many books of different genres written over thousands of years, yet it is in itself one unified whole. This is the third context in which we understand the Bible: The context of itself. When Lutherans say "scripture interprets scripture", this is the context we speak of. The authors of the Bible were all inspired by the same Holy Spirit, so the Bible itself is a coherent, self-consistent story. It does not contradict itself. The passages we read have a particular place in that one story, so we can use other parts of that story to help interpret what we are reading. Clear passages interpret unclear passages, New Testament interprets Old Testament, and homologoumena interprets antilegoumena.

These three contexts help to reveal God's righteousness and mercy in the entirety of the Bible. As you read the Bible during this challenge, I challenge you to keep in mind these hermeneutical principles. What does this passage say about Christ? What does this passage say to its first hearers? What do other passages say about this passage?

[Tom Tighe]

Wow! Thanks Paul. I couldn't agree more. I think that this chronological reading really helps with the context in which the books were written. For me, that adds to integrity and coherence.

[Jules]

I concur. Very good.

[ghjk]

This is first-rate, Paul! I just finished rereading a great book entitled "The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament" by Edmund P. Clowney. It covers some of the ways in which Christ and His work of salvation are foreshadowed in the OT by certain people and events, as well as some of the characters who may have actually been the pre-incarnate Christ such as The Angel of the Lord and Melchizedek. This book is a great accompaniment to Bible in a Year reading. And speaking to your comment that the Bible is "one unified whole," the book starts out in the Foreword with this sentence in all caps: "THE BIBLE IS A UNITY."

I am Marina, by the way... )

[ghjk]

This is first-rate, Paul! I just finished rereading a great book entitled "The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament" by Edmund P. Clowney. It covers some of the ways in which Christ and His work of salvation are foreshadowed in the OT by certain people and events, as well as some of the characters who may have actually been the pre-incarnate Christ such as The Angel of the Lord and Melchizedek. This book is a great accompaniment to Bible in a Year reading. And speaking to your comment that the Bible is "one unified whole," the book starts out in the Foreword with this sentence in all caps: "THE BIBLE IS A UNITY."

I am Marina, by the way... )