Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Defining Clarity
Historical Gaps Cultural Gaps Religious Gaps Linguistic Gaps Literary Gaps
Historical Gaps
ANE 2nd Temple Judaism (a.k.a. the Intertestamental Period) Roman rule in the ancient world, esp. in Palestine Development of the provinces of Asia Minor The dates of the respective compositions The reasons for which each was composed The original audience(s) of a composition Geography (e.g., cities no longer in existence) Textual transmission, text criticism
Cultural Gaps
Family relationships Political protocol Economic practices Military systems Agricultural methods Legal systems Philosophical systems
Religious Gaps
The temple cult and the religions of the ANE Judaism of Jesus Day Emperor Cult Mithraism Proto-gnosticism Mystery religions
Linguistic Gaps
The Bible has been composed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and (Koine) Greek The issues of translation: difficulty, interpretative function
Literary Gaps
The Bible incorporates a variety of literary styles, some of which are no longer in use (e.g. apocalyptic) In addition, of those still in use, their ancient function is different from their contemporary function (poetry, proverb, taunt, etc.)
Hermeneutics
The Science and Art of Biblical Interpretation
Hermeneutics
Luke 24:27: Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. The word translated explained is diermh,neusen (dierm neusen), which means to explain on a more extensive and formal level the meaning of something which is particularly obscure or difficult to comprehend. It may be rendered, to explain, or to interpret.
Hermeneutics
From here (Luke 24) biblical hermeneutics has developed as a discipline and may be defined simply as the science and art of biblical interpretation The reason why it is considered science and art is that although there are certain rules which when strictly applied will yield similar results, there is also an art to interpretation that figures into ones interpretive work
Hermeneutics
Our method for interpretation is derived both from what the Bible says about itself and from the phenomena of Scripture Since we believe that the Bible is the word of God written in human language, inerrant and inspired, we reason that our methodology must take into account the original languages, the literary forms, and the historical context of Scripture. This is commonly called grammatico-historical exegesis, or literal interpretation. By literal is meant that the words of Scripture are to be read according to their normal grammatical and philological sense.
Hermeneutics
And since we believe the Bible to be unified in its teaching as the word of God written, our methodology must also take into account what the Scripture says elsewhere on a given subject as we draw conclusions about what a given text may mean. This is commonly called the principle of Scripture interpreting Scripture
Hermeneutics
The unity of Scripture in the person of Christ also indicates that our methodology must take into account the Christocentric nature of the biblical witness This is sometimes called Christocentric interpretation
Hermeneutics
And finally, since we believe the Bible represent the progressive unfolding of Gods work of redemption, our methodology must also take into account how the writers of the New Testament and the apostles interpret the Old Testament This is sometimes called the redemptivehistorical interpretation
Hermeneutics: Summary
Grammatico-historical interpretation Scripture interprets Scripture Christocentric interpretation The New Testament is the final word on our understanding of previous revelation
Conclusion
Glossary
Glossary
Hermeneutics: The science and art of interpreting texts