I wrote this piece a year ago, but given the need to always clarify scriptures to new comers to the Christian faith, i thought this might help them navigate better during their exploration of the Christian faith.
Please feel free to also Check My Book here.
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Have you ever wondered why are
there so many diverging views among Christians about even the simplest biblical
issue? Something tells me that you have indeed noticed. Why are people who believe
in the unity message of the bible also known as the word of God have so little
unity in their understanding of it? People have suggested many answers and I do
agree with some of them; and in this brief written presentation I will
reiterate some of them using my own words. I want to clarify before hands that
there is a difference between learning to listen to the voice of God and the
subject under consideration in this chapter.
The discussion below will not
follow an academic format and for the purpose of keeping it engaging I’ll write
it in a dialogue form making it easier to the readers to follow with much ease
the line of reasoning. My reasons are simple. First, many excellent books have
been written on the subject of hermeneutic and exegesis. I do not envision any
reason that may require me to take the scholarly tone when eminent and trained
scholars have already done that in their scholarly journals or in their
respective books. Second, since my words are limited in this chapter, it will
be off the purpose of this essay to investigate about the subjects of
“hermeneutic and exegesis” in a formal way. Finally, I do believe
that people tend to understand better an introduction of a topic when they are
discussed in a dialogue format or during public debates.
A. What does the word hermeneutic and exegesis mean?
Hermeneutics are usually defined
as the science or the study of the methodological principles of interpretation[1].
In other words, it is the art of Biblical interpretation. Exegesis on the other
hands is the application of the principles of hermeneutics. The relation
between the two can be summarized as such; hermeneutic is about the principles
and methodology of interpretation while exegesis is about applying those
principles of hermeneutic. So when a person takes the Bible and decides to look
for the meaning of a given text, s/he is doing an exegesis of the text. So if
the exegesis leads to an erroneous conclusion or understanding of the biblical
texts, the reasons as I see them are two folds 1) the principles of
interpretation (of that hermeneutic) have not been well followed; or 2) the
principles of interpretation (of that particular hermeneutic) are incorrect because
they are based on incorrect or unsupported assumptions.
B. When you
say “that particular hermeneutic”, are you implying that there are many sorts
of hermeneutics?
Matter of fact yes! Even a
cursory look on the internet would reveal that. For example, there are: Talmudical Hermeneutics which is the interpretative system
used by Jews to interpret the Hebrew bible; Roman Catholic principles of
hermeneutics; Christian biblical hermeneutics which involves mainline
protestant churches[2] interpretative systems, and Trajectory hermeneutics. All
these hermeneutics have similarities and dissimilarities in the foundational
principles.
C. Why do people feel the need to interpret the Bible?
Why not just take it just as it is and read it literally?
Aha! Here is the tough reality. Truth is not always
self-evident and it needs to be defended and explained. To interpret is
generally defined as to explain or tell the meaning of. Even the scriptures[3] admit to
that need since some parts of the scriptures itself can be confusing for some
people since they deal with deeper truths or unusual concept to their
experiences. In 2 Peter 3:16 we are informed by the apostle Peter that some
writings of the apostles Paul where being misunderstood: “As
also in all his epistles (Paul), speaking in them of these things; in which are
some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto
their own destruction.”
As this shows, some scriptures are hard to
understand, hence the need for interpretation in order to get their proper
meanings. If they are not properly interpreted, those who lack descent learning
on the appropriate topic might and probably will misunderstand them and arrive
to incorrect conclusions and resolutions.
D. If I have to ask you, “What is your take on all of
this”, what would you say?
I would
say that not everybody should be actively involved in doing hermeneutic or the
exegesis of the whole Bible in search of doctrines. For to do that demands on
the part of the interpreter to be properly equipped for such a task. There are usually three obstacles
that stand in the way of correctly interpreting the biblical writings: We speak
a different language, we live approximately two millennia later, and we bring
different expectations to the text. Anyone who wants to do a fair and good job
with the biblical texts needs to ensure that he can surmount those obstacles.
E. Do you mean that understanding the bible is reserved to some people?
Not in that
sense. I mean that not everybody is capable of interpreting the Bible
correctly. The bible is a collection of books and letters. The two main
divisions of the Bible:
The Old
Testament has thirty-nine books that could be grouped in five divisions: Law (Ex:
Leviticus), History (Ruth), Poetry (Song of Solomon), Major Prophets
(Lamentations) and Minor Prophets (Obadiah).
The New
Testament has twenty-seven books grouped in four divisions: Gospels (Ex:
Matthew), History (Acts), Epistles (Philemon) and prophecy (Revelation).
This wealth
of diversity in the texts of the Bible requires an ability to understand the
difference of genre in order to understand them properly. Some texts are
written with a literal language, other in a Figurative language. For example, the
book of Acts and the Gospel of Mark can be read quite[4]
literally because they are historical books but it would be a mistake to read a
poetic book such as Ecclesiastes or a prophetic book such as Ezekiel in the
same literal fashion. Having this in mind, it become imperative that anyone
involved in elucidating the meaning of biblical doctrines must be familiar with
the documents s/he is trying to understand. I do not recommend new comer in the
Christian faith to be involved in the self study of the Holy Scriptures. I
always try to apply the noble reasoning of watchman Nee, who always encouraged
his young converts to faith to first get familiarize with the text of the
bible. He made them first read the whole Bible at least once before they start
getting involved in its studies. I have found it to be an effective way to train
responsible and mature Christians. First
they get familiar with the document they want to study and then they can start
the study.
F. So how would they learn if they can’t start studying
the scripture from the beginning?
New converts do also learn
as they read their Bible as they get familiar with its content. They are
learning facts, a lot of spiritual facts. At this stage of high vulnerability
in their spiritual development and growth, they need to learn from those who
are more mature than them. As the apostle Peter says “As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow” (1Peter 2:2). It becomes then an imperative to Christian leader to
make sure that those still in their faith infancy be taught, instructed about
the Christian doctrines because if they are left as independent thinkers, they
will undermine their own spiritual growth or worse, they might be bent to teach
what should not be taught. Falsity should never be taught. And this is what
will happen if unequipped Christians are encouraged to get involved in the
practice of exegesis without mature Christian’s supervisions. The author of
Hebrew shares the sentiments: “For when for the
time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be
the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat. For every
one that use milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrew 5:12-14). Those who are
still in their spiritual infancy need to be taught even the most basic things.
No interpretation of any of the oracles of God should be given to them
unsupervised until they growth and maturity becomes evident to all.
G. Can’t new Christian study the
Bible while reading it for the first time? Is it really such a bad idea?
Let
say that it was a bad idea for me! I’ll just use one example; One that didn’t
have any apparent or lasting negative effect on me. When I was young in my
faith, at that time I was yet to have read my whole Bible for the first time, I
was reading the book of Revelation of John and fell on a text that made me secretly
take a decision to never marry. Since my desires to be so close to the Lord
Jesus was strong (and
is still so strong) I concluded that if I ever wanted to have the
chance to be among the special 144000 people I will have to abandon any project
of being married. My love for Him pushed me to get the closest proximity I
could biblically figure out at that time. You might wonder what kind of Bible I
have read to desire an eternal celibacy. Here is the text: “… the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from
the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are
virgins. These are they which follow the
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the
firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (Rev 14:3-4). ‘You see’, I thought
to myself, ‘even if those who are married will get to see and live with the
Lord, they will never have this privilege of being part of His closest
entourage in the future in the eternity’. As you can see, I had a biblical support and a
strong desire, hence making the sacrifice was regarded as acceptable.
Let’s
take this old reasoning of mine and show exactly how and where they were
faulty. First, although I read Revelation 14, I didn’t make at the time the
connection with its mirror passage in Revelation chapter seven. This inability
to connect the two texts was my first error. This error is the most frequent
error made during biblical exegesis. It is most and easily made by those who
are unfamiliar with the scriptures as a whole or those who are still unskilled
with regards to the word or righteousness. I was guilty of the later. I knew
the chapter seven of Revelation, but since I was still unskilled, I didn’t make
the relevant connection. Chapter seven identified who are those 144000 people
that would be chosen as firstfruits: “And
I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all
the tribes of the children of Israel.” (Rev. 7:4). Years later as I was
re-reading the book of Revelation, I realized that whatever sacrifice I decided
to make, I would never be part of the 144000 people I secretly envied. For
those people were people chosen from the twelve tribes of Israel. It then dawn
on me that I was not a Jew by birth hence I couldn’t possibly qualify to be
part of one of the Israelite tribes. So
was the first blow against my premature exegesis.
The
second blow came when I read the book of Hebrew. At this point, I needed to
learn a second lesson. I needed to re-embrace the value of marriage and realize
that married people were not second class celestial citizens nor sexual
intimacy a defiling practice for those who are married. Here is how the book of
Hebrew reads: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrew 13:4). This was rather a timely needed distinction.
By saying in Rev. 14 that some people defiled themselves with women didn’t mean
that this was applicable to married people, for there is nothing defiling in a
married couple intimacy as suggested in Hebrew text above.
Wrong and incorrect exegesis may lead people to
implement wrongly the scriptures. In my case there were no tragic consequences
even though some resolutions were already secretly been made. It is by sheer
divine grace that I wasn’t leading or teaching young converts. I suspect I
would have led the ‘144000 celibacy movement”.
H. What about the
church elders then? Since they are mature how come that they still don’t agree
with each others?
Authority is the answer. When we become learned we
tend to see ourselves as an island standing alone in the sea of confusion. But
no one is an island. We all need each others' expertise and we have to learn to
submit to God’s leadership. This is how the ‘milk drinker’ grows (1Peter 2:2)
and this is also how the ‘meat eater’ stays strong (Hebrew 5:14). The
scriptures is inspired by God as an instrument to perfect the body of Christ (2
Timothy 4:16-17). However the scripture alone will not do that. That is why God
has established ministers who can make use of the scriptures in order to bring
the body of Christ into perfection (Ephesians 4: 11-15). By the word perfection
I mean completeness, well furnished. We can even suggest it to mean great
maturity. Even ministers need to grow even though they have a measure of
maturity. The measure that we are all pursuing is the measure of Christ
maturity. In Ephesians 4:11 we are informed that the Lord “gave
some (to be), apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and
some, pastors and teachers;” (underline added). And if each
minister realizes that each minister has something that the other doesn’t have
and humbly cooperate, I suspect that there would be more agreement than not.
And it is befitting to the adults in faith whatever their given ministries, to
learn to exchange and speak frankly when there is a topic under contention
(Acts 15).
I. So you have a high view of the Church[5] structure when it comes to understanding the meaning
of scripture?
Yes I do! The first Christians trusted the church
leadership in matter of faith and I think that if we get rid of our modern
individualistic approach to the Christian truth, we would have little
confusion. It is well known that truth needs to be supported otherwise it gets
forgotten and lost. God’s remedy to that is the Church. Paul in his pastoral
letter of 1Timothy 3:15 wrote to Timothy, a young leader in the Church of
Ephesus, how he should lead the church and as we read we uncover a precious
truth. “… you may know how you ought to behave yourself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Since the word of God is the truth (John 17), we are told
that the ground on which the truth stands, and the pillar that supports IT, is
the Church. That is why I found it to be risky to engage in a self-style
hermeneutics and exegesis when God has established a protective system that
doesn’t revolve on a person or individuals but on a community that uses the
Gospel truth as its standard (Galatians 2:11-14).
J. As a summary what would you want to say to people who want to learn to do exegesis?
There
aren’t much new theological questions that we are currently thinking that have
not been addressed in some extent in the long past history up to today by the
Church leaders. First, I’ll encourage people, to read a lot their bibles cover-to-cover
before wanting to start pronouncing themselves on doctrinal matters. Second, I
will strongly encourage the abolition of individualistic interpretation[6]
of scripture and promote the corporate exegesis and the cooperation as advised
in 1 Peter 5:1-5: “Elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and
also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not … being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the
flock ... Likewise, you younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all
of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God
resist the proud, and give grace to the humble.” Third, I encourage the reading
of Christian literatures from knowledgeable Christians from different school of
thoughts on a given topic of interest and compare ones’ understanding and
interpretation with what other have been finding. Fourth, deal with your
prejudices when it comes to the Bible, the church and your uniqueness in the
history of the Christian thought[7].
Finally, pray! Prayer really opens up one’s life to the truth of the
scriptures. It also positions yourself in receiving God’s guidance when you
search for the truth[8].
It creates in us the ability to be sensible to the voice of God and by that, we
get enabled to receive directive from the Lord as He guides us either to proper
instructive sources or He allows us to get sudden understandings about subject
that troubles us.
[1] Gene Taylor.
Hermeneutics: How to Study the Bible _ A practical Approach to Understanding
Scripture. Page 15.
[2] By Mainline
churches, I mean Methodism, Lutheranism, Baptist, etc.
[3] An expression
used to refer to the holy writings.
[4] The Gospels do
mix literal language and figurative language in its narrations such as
parables, simile, metaphor, allegory, etc.
[5] It is beyond the
scope of this current work to argue on the identity of the Churches that should
be trusted.
[6] 2 Peter 1:20: “Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
[7]
In a way we
are unique in God’s plan for the church and on the other hand we are just one
among many, one living stone among many others who form the spiritual edifice.
So cool off your head, you are not the only precious character for the life of
the Church of Christ. You too can learn from others.
[8] More about the
importance of prayer will be discussed in a future chapter.
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