Lecture 2-Practicing Hermeneutics.txt

What is this describing?: We need principles and practices to bridge a gap to historical events we know nothing about, cultural norms and values we do not share, and an author-audience relationship that has escaped our scrutiny.

What do these safeguards say about our approach to reading the scripture? 1. Protection against deception 2. Prevention against false ways to close the gap (between us and the original author and audience’s language, history and culture) such as: Wooden literalism – “The literal sense is the plain sense. Anything else is liberalism.” Interpreting all texts literally becomes a problem when applied to non-literal genre within the Bible. (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, etc) Denial -(selective processing) ignoring what does not fit into our cultural beliefs, Seeking a “higher” or “deeper” meaning, Psychological free association (for Example: You read the word “mother” which causes you to think of apple pie and you think God is telling you to eat apple pie. There’s no real connection)

What are these: normal language exegesis, distancing before merging and multi-perspectivalism.

What hermeneutical tool is described here?-a) first, finding out how language was used normally in that time and place and then b) to responsibly appropriate that meaning.“A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers.” In other words, if a biblical author was transported to our time and culture today and understood it, the author could say whether or not our interpretation falls within the domain of his original intent.

What hermeneutical tool is described here? -Allow the “otherness” and “distance” of the ancient text to challenge our worldview and irrevocably alter it. Do not merge the original author’s worldview with our worldview too quickly. We often make false assumptions that are not true. This tool also serves an iconoclastic role by exposing group or cultural prejudices and “obvious truths.” It serves to break our idols, our iconic images and our traditions. This allows the distance of the original author’s culture to challenge us; and it helps keep us from being blinded by our own cultural presuppositions so we can hear God’s prophetic, cutting Word.

What hermeneutical tool is described here?- We should humbly acknowledge that our perspective is limited by our particular social location and our approach to interpretation should be seeking to approach the text from multiple perspectives rather than just one. This is different than relativism.

_______ is the resonance between different texts and their meanings. Many biblical texts allude to and refer back to earlier texts so that their meanings resonate with each other. Frequently, this concept takes the form of typology.

________ is a way to interpret a text so that the normal meaning is extended to cover a new situation. It is figurative interpretation without being fanciful or arbitrary (as in the inappropriate allegorization of a text). A NT writer may use this to interpret an OT text. Therefore, we cannot understand some NT texts without understanding the OT. This concept is a huge thing in the Bible (but not in modern Western thought and the Enlightenment). Much of what the Bible says of Jesus is that he is the fulfillment of OT types, i.e., persons (Adam, Moses, Joshua, David), events (Jonah’s deliverance from the belly of a fish, Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt), institutions (temple, law, sacrificial system), and objects (manna, brazen serpent, rock).

What are these? Correspondence ,Intensification , Mutual illumination

What aspect of typology does this describe?- between the old and the new. The interpreter finds a ____________between a person, event, institution or object in the Old Testament (the type) and a person, event, or thing that is more contemporary (the fulfillment) within the OT or NT. The __________ exists because God controls the flow of salvation history.

What aspect of typology does this describe?- the fulfillment is greater than the type. A person, event, or thing not only fulfills, but goes beyond its previous type. This happens because God not only does what he says, but he does a new thing that goes above and beyond it.

What aspect of typology does this describe? Between the type and the fulfillment. There is a wholistic relationship between the old and new covenants that serves God’s unified purpose. What was concealed in the old covenant (the type) is revealed in the new covenant (the fulfillment). The texts comprising the type and its fulfillment resonate with and explain each other.

What transformational encounter is considered, “divine reading” or the “deep reading” of Scripture. In such meditative or contemplative reading, we experience the narrative without criticism (academic analysis) so that it may lead us into another world of ideas and experiences.

What transformational encounter is concerned with when we, Accept a scriptural statement as a command and act accordingly,Receive a promise or a pledge and live in the light of it, and Heed a warning?

What is a transforming interaction between the text and the reader that is a repetitive process involving: 1) formulating an understanding, 2) verifying it, and then 3) refining it and allows us to continually gain increasing understanding as we engage the text, encounter the Living Jesus, are changed and see more and more?