At first glance a story of the Bible may appear to be just that, a simple story; however, when one does more than simply read the story, there are a plethora of underlying meanings to be found. Reading the Bible in search of its meanings can sometimes be confusing, which results in several different interpretations and raises many arguments amongst the readers. When reading the Bible, “it is necessary to apply tools of critical reading to find out what God wants to communicate with us,” (Smith-Christopher, 28). In order to figure out what God wants to communicate, one must use hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. Hermeneutics helps to steer the Bible’s readers in the correct direction by presenting methods that serve to assist …show more content…
This quote explains that through revelation, God revealing himself to human beings, God provided inspiration, the process of being mentally stimulated to do something creative, for the authors of the Bible to write their stories. This concept is supported in the Old Testament textbook: “God inspired the human authors of the Bible. The human authors had the freedom to choose the words they wrote, and also the discretion of the stories and the incidences that they would include in their texts,” (Smith-Christopher 57). By following these components of hermeneutics one can hope to obtain some theological truth out of the stories in the Bible.
Exodus is the story of Moses going into Egypt and asking the Pharaoh to let the Israelites (God’s people) go; however, as God expected the Pharaoh does not give in right away which causes God to bring forth the plagues. Exodus Chapter 8 tells the story of three of the ten plagues cast upon the Pharaoh and the Egyptians in an effort to force the Pharaoh to let God’s people be free from the Pharaoh. Moses is told by God to tell Aaron to stretch out his hands and staff over the streams, canals, and pools which brings the frogs to the land of Egypt. Eventually Moses convinces God to stop, but the frogs died in the land and left behind a stench so the Pharaoh refused to talk with them. Aaron then strikes the ground with his staff, as God told Moses, and gnats swarm the land of Egypt and when the Magicians failed to
The introduction deals with the ideas of authority and perspective, and how they function properly in the process of Biblical interpretation. A key idea is that reading is a dialogue between the text and the reader. Both sides have a role to play. If we acknowledge this, then we must also acknowledge that the perspective of the reader has some significance in how the Bible is interpreted and exercises authority. This dialogical reading transcends the categories of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’, and
The plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death caused the Pharaoh of Egypt to finally free the people of Israel. But the people of Israel leaving with Moses not only served as an effect of the plagues, but also as a cause for the death of the Pharaoh. Following their release, the Egyptian army pursued Moses and the Israelites and planned to enslave them once more. The army caught up to Moses when they were at the Red Sea, but God’s plan was not for the Israelites to return to slavery. He told Moses to raise his staff just as he had in Egypt several times, and when he did, the waters of the Red Sea dispersed and left a path for the Israelites to travel across in order to escape Pharaoh’s army. Continuing to chase after the Israelites, the Egyptians entered the Red Sea using the path created by God. But once each Israelite had safely crossed the sea, God let loose the waters, and all of the Egyptians trapped in the rushing waters drowned. By this final act of God, His power was made clear and the grace and love He has for His people was undoubtedly
In “Scripture: Nourished by the Word (Catholic Basics: A Pastoral Ministry Series)” Ralph (2001) emphasises the importance of a contextualist approach when reading scripture. Firstly, this essay will discuss Ralph’s statement and outline the difference between a fundamental and contextual approach towards reading the Bible. Secondly, these different approaches will be demonstrated on three different examples: the Genesis’ creation accounts, the stories of miracles in the Gospel writings, and Jesus’ words towards his mother Mary just before his crucifixion. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on how a contextualist approach assists in gaining a better understanding of God.
I have read various books on Theological Hermeneutics, and one, whose title has slipped my mind, had once suggested the Hermeneutics isn’t only about picking up the Bible, analyzing it, and putting it back down, but also making an application through it. So, in this paper I have followed such a suggestion. First I will mention the background of the book being hermeneutically analyzed. This answers many of the questions needed to contextualize the book into its original socio-cultural setting for better understanding. Secondly, I will do an exegesis, or commentary, on the verses of the book to explain the interpretation that I had gotten out of it. This is done in
Brown and published by Westminster John Know Press is a book that provides basic information
Biblical Inspiration has five different key components. The first components is Marshall talking about how God exposes himself to society. Marshall wanted to make it obvious that this controversy is based for of his readers, and these readers have some kind of belief in God, and the realness of him. After this Marshall starts to talks about the question that is raised. This question is is God reveals himself in different ways, and can one of these ways be in the Bible? Marshall made it apparent that he believed God revealed himself quite obviously in the Bible, and was a very important tool for God to reveal himself to us. Marshall confirmed this when he said, “Christians do experience such moments of revelation as
Throughout the course of the semester, we have constantly talked about and expressed the idea of reading the Bible in a historical context. Picking out the pieces that coincide with evidence that has been found with archeological findings, the accuracy of dates, and important people. The critical study of the Bible is to look at the book as a piece of historical text. The use of our “historical lens” allows us to pick out to various pieces that appear to be factual. Using this analysis of looking at the Bible through our “historical glasses”, we can understand the true meaning of the Bible in its original historical setting.
1) Grasp the text in their town. (Read the text carefully and observe. Try to see as much as possible in the text. Look, look, and look again, observing all that you can. Scrutinize the grammar and analyze all significant words. Study the historical and literary contexts. Write out what the passage meant for the biblical audience using past tense verbs and refer to the biblical audience.)p.42
To articulate my theological view of scripture, I will address Scripture as broken yet beautiful, then express how I read and interpret sacred texts, given the need to understand the author’s intent, the historical context, and a Christocentric hermeneutic. This will be followed by the aim of reading scripture, which is not simply for orthodox doctrine, but for right living. Although Scripture is primary, it is not the only way God speaks to humanity, thus I will address the Spirit, tradition, creation, and experience as other sources of insight. Despite this integrated approach to scripture and theology, it is not foolproof or necessarily correct. Therefore, I will end this section with a discussion of knowledge and how we understand truth, grounded in the epistemological paradigm of practical
To truly comprehend a biblical passage, it is important to have knowledge of the ‘hermeneutics which enables an understanding of the locus of meaning and the principles of bible interpretation’ . The audience needs to have a clear interpretation of the biblical passage which includes ‘content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out’ , this supports the argument that all worlds of the text are equally important. ‘Biblical passages are often taken out of context and interpreted to support a particular viewpoint of justify a particular action’ . It is imperative to note that ‘in order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their
This paper will analyze the "Divine Purpose" as it appears in the various "highways of prophecy" in the New Testament, and show how those "highways" may be followed to a deeper and fuller appreciation of God's message.
When studying any piece of literature there are many different methods and techniques that can be used. The Bible, in specific, is often referred to as a source of moral code, hope, and answers to social, ethical, and political questions. However, this incredibly influential book can also be read as if it were any other novel. The events, settings, and characters can all be evaluated for what they are, forgetting the notion that they are from a religious text. This approach is called narrative criticism. When regarding to the Bible in this way, we do not need to know any historical information or focus on seeking a deeper theological meaning. Instead, the stories are evaluated in terms of how
Genesis 1-3 offered the very first outline of societal norms and therein introduced interpretations of norms related to family, gender, and sex. In our now-progressive society, the constraints of indubitable religion are removed and the differing interpretations of gender, sex, and family within religion are freely debated. Since the text of creation is divine and human logic cannot fully interpret or understand God’s word, there are copious, varying interpretations of the text. An essential starting point for interpreting the Bible is the understanding that misinterpretations are bound to happen. The difference in time and context alone is causation, let alone the factors of translation and transcription. Susan T. Foh and Carol Meyers, both graduates of Wellesley College, have very differing strategies regarding how to interpret divine texts. Meyers, a professor at Duke, directed attention towards the context in which the text was written. Since our societies are constantly in flux, the context from when the text was written is often different from the context in which predominant and accepted interpretations were fabricated. Foh’s strategy of interpreting and understanding the text is to utilize latter parts of the text, which were written with more recent contexts, in order to understand the text. Both of these methodologies set up the text to be re-interpreted, however, Foh’s methodology is more complete because it allows the text to speak for itself rather than bring in
To the Israelites (the original audience), Exodus 3:2-12 had many important meanings. First, the Israelites learn that God was coming to save them, because he loves them and he has heard their cries for help. Second, the verse reflects the first time the Israelites have the opportunity to understand their God and who He is. Robinson (1997) reflects, that “the miracle of the bush that burns but is not consumed is of a piece with the marvels soon to be worked in Egypt…”, this serves to mark God as totally in control of the natural forces. Robinson (1997) further explains, “He who controls the elements is Lord of
Exodus 21-24 was definitely quite an instructive piece of literature. It was almost raw in its nature as a text or “book” but more of reading an excerpt from a piece of non-fiction most similar to an instruction manual of some sort that you get when you buy a dissembled bike or desk. Something like being enrolled in a police academy there was definite sense of a master-slave relationship in the air. It is like something never before seen in the Torah, these chapters showed a whole new YHWH. The YHWH who is feared like the school principal in an elementary school, not even mom and dad has come on so strong as to the dos and donts of living life. It seems as if YHWH was pushed to such a point where YHWH has no choice but intervene into the