interpretation(11/1)
Conversation about the Bible
What follows is a thread copied from a lovely Mastodon conversation across the past two days between my account @acbilson, @corbden, and @Shobeck). Visit the start of the thread here to read in full. @acbilson One rejection of the #bible I’ve witnessed is that it contains horrendous evil, even evil in which God’s actions get enmeshed. Case in point: Abraham’s nephew, Lot, offers his virgin daughters to be gang raped by his neighbors to protect his male guests.…
Quotes without context invite misunderstanding
Out-of-context quoting is a practice weaponized to deface people, but I don’t want to address that here. Instead, I will consider the practice of well-meaning Christians to publish Bible verses to a mass audience. Some Christians like to publish verses on social media, or put verses on their windows, binders, walls, etc for others to see. The intent is good–to share the words that give you life–but the consequences aren’t.…
Interpreting the sermon on the mount
Interpretation of the Bible can vary widely. Joshua Steele quotes NINE approaches to interpreting Matthew 5:1-7:29, commonly called Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. This passage starts and ends with two nearly identical bookends. 💬 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. Matthew 4:23 (ESV) (A long stretch of teachings, followed by numerous stories)…
Biblical movements in the Torah
Thanks to The Bible Project I’ve gotten a better feel for the shape of the Torah. Here’s the general outline by movement, as Tim and Jon would put it. There is also sub-structures which I hope to fill in. Genesis - Four Movements Adam to Noah 1:1-11:26 Abraham 11:27-25:18 Isaac and Jacob 25:19-37:1 Jacob’s Sons 37:2-50:26 Exodus - Three Movements The Exodus from Egypt 1:1-13:16 Israel at Mount Sinai 13:17-24:18 The Tabernacle Constructed 25:1-40:38 Leviticus - Three Movements…
How to be hot or cold
💬 ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-17 (ESV) This excerpt starts Jesus' rebuke of the Laodicieans. On its surface, it’s a vivid rebuke of a church community that has lost its way. But what does this mean, “cold or hot”?…
The good news begins with the back story
Christopher Wright notes that nearly all Christmas renditions skip Matthew’s first sixteen verses; the geneaology of Jesus the Messiah. Maybe we’re missing something since Matthew wants to start with the geneaology? Matthew uploads the whole backstory of the Hebrew scriptures with a crafted geneaology that spans three covenantal arcs: from Abram to David, from David to the Exile, and from the Exile to Jesus. We’re supposed to have the promise to Abram that he would be the father of many nations in our mind, and that through him all the families of the world would be blessed.…
The father kept his promise
Just because the gift turns out to be a motorcar doesn’t mean we should try to argue that the original promise of a horse was only meant figuratively. A horse was meant, a horse was what the child understood, and a horse was expected. But the changed circumstances and the progress of history enabled the promises to be fulfilled in a different and far superior way, without emptying the promise either of its purpose (to give a means of transport) or of its basis in a relationship of fatherly love.…
Interpretive replacements sometimes erase context
There’s a practice I’ve encountered in Biblical interpretation which often leaves me with some unease. Not because I haven’t done it myself, I have. Maybe it’s because the practice feels too close to interpretation by mystic symbology. The practice is finding a term or phrase in the New Testament that gets applied to Jesus, then interpreting that term as a pseudonym for Jesus in the Old Testament. The example I run into most regularly is the transformation of “Angel of the LORD” to “Jesus pre-incarnate”.…
Direct application hinders discovery
Well-meaning interpreters will sometimes make a mistake in their application of the Bible. Out of conviction in the Bible’s authority, an interpreter will anchor a contemporary topic on a verse that appears to directly address the topic. By so doing, the interpreter both assures their audience of the Bible’s relevance to the topic and suppliments their own authority with the Biblical author’s. The interpreter also communicates an interpretive assumption that short-circuits the audience’s discovery.…
Biblical interpretation is cyclical
As I’ve matured, one of the ambiguities I’ve learned to accept is the journey of interpretation. When I was younger, I expected that a full and complete grasp of the Bible was a matter of time and effort. Now that I’m a little wiser, I realize that I am on a journey of discovery that has no final end nor milestones to mark progress. The best I can claim is that I understand a part of the whole and part of any one page, and that’s true for every person I’ve met.…
Epistles are real correspondence
The New Testament letters have fit into my mental model as a synopsis of the whole Bible, and the Old Testament primarily as historical background. If the Bible were written as I imagine, the letters would be the treatise, and the Old Testament would be an appendix. The claim that the letters are real correspondence rooted in the circumstances of the Roman Empire is scandalous. This means that the central content of the Bible is actually the Old Testament and the Gospel accounts, and the letters are nearer to practical footnotes on how to understand and apply the core than a synopsis of it.…
Assessments are made from the lense of your culture
Cultural Insight: Assessments of other cultures are made from one’s own culture as the baseline, but this can lead to contradictory results. A French person may accuse an American of unfeeling bluntness because the French generally contextualize their speech in subtle nonverbal cues. Before you say, “Well, that’s just the way the French are,” consider that a Chinese person would make the same accusation of the French. ((Meyer, pg. 22))…