Servant School – Bible Study Prep - Hermeneutics
Servant
School
May
12, 2022
Introduction
Welcome to our Bible Study Preparation Class.
Whether you are someone who hopes to teach the Bible in front of church,
lead a small group Bible Study, or who just wants to know their Bible better,
it is my prayer that this class will help you to sharpen your skills at
studying your Bible as well as growing in how to communicate what you’ve
learned.
Each week we will start with a few minutes looking at…
Why Study the Bible?
This week I want to talk a few minutes about “Textual Accuracy”
There are going to be some people who will say that we don’t have the
original writings of Moses or Paul, and so we can’t be sure that the text of
the Bible is what they actually wrote.
While we may not have the original writings of the authors in their own
handwriting, textual scholars have advanced quite far in the last fifty years
in studying the accuracy of the actual texts.
The science of “textual criticism” examines all the ancient copies of the
text to see how often the texts vary.
The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew (there are a few
passages in Aramaic).
The Jews recognized early on that the books we call the “Old Testament”
were the very Word of God.
The scribes developed quite early very strict practices in making their
copies of the Scriptures.
They developed a system where they would count the very number of letters
on each page and in each book after they finished their copy. If there was one letter missing, they would
destroy the copy as being faulty and start over.
These copies were so accurate that the scribes were confident enough to
destroy the old copies because their newer copies were so exact.
The Jewish scribes follow these same practices today when they make their
handwritten copies.
I took this picture at Masada in Israel, where there is a Jewish scribe
hidden away behind glass in the ruins of the synagogue on top of the mountain
of Masada.
Up until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946, the earliest known
copies of the Hebrew Old Testament dated to around 1000AD. That’s because the
Jews didn’t keep their old copies.
But when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and began to be studied, they
found copies of complete Old Testament books like Isaiah, that dated from
200BC, and found that they were virtually unchanged from the manuscripts we use
today.
The Jewish scribes did a great job in preserving their Scriptures.
The New Testament was written in Greek, and it took the early church a few
years before they realized that our 27 books of the New Testament were all
God’s Word, inspired by God Himself.
When an early church got a letter from Paul, they would make copies as
quick as they could and send them to other churches.
These early Christian scribes weren’t always too accurate in making their
hand-made copies.
So a letter was dropped here, a word was misspelled
there, and as copies were made from copies, some of these small errors were
replicated over and over.
Does that mean that we aren’t sure what Paul or the other writers actually wrote?
Not at all.
When we compare all the various ancient manuscripts, it’s pretty clear that we know what Paul and the other writers wrote,
The early church didn’t destroy all their early copies like Jewish scribes
did.
We have thousands of ancient Greek manuscripts that we can compare to each
other.
Compare what we have in the New Testament with other ancient texts.
Roman historian Tacitus wrote “Annals of Imperial Rome”. There is only one manuscript of his first six
books in existence.
Josephus’ work “The Jewish War” has only 9 manuscripts.
Homer’s “Iliad” has a whopping 650 manuscripts.
The New Testament has 20,000 manuscripts.
The manuscripts basically divide into two families of texts – one called
“Byzantine” and another called “Alexandrian”.
Scholars still debate which “family” is more accurate, but I wouldn’t worry
about it.
These families of manuscripts agree in all but a few areas and are 95%
identical.
There are two passages that are significantly different – John 8 (The woman
caught in adultery) and the end of Mark 16.
The rest of the differences between the two “families” come down to
spelling and a missing word here and there.
There are no major doctrines involved in these small discrepancies.
The bottom line is this –
You can trust your Bible.
You can trust that the words you are reading are the words that God
intended.
Today’s main topic is:
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutic Methods
Hermeneutics is the science and art of interpreting the
Scriptures.
It’s a science because there are
specific rules that ought to be followed.
It’s an art because it takes
creativity to bring the Bible alive.
For today, we’ll focus mostly on the “science” part, but in future weeks we
will talk about the creative aspect as well.
There are three basic approaches that people take when it comes to
interpreting the Bible –
1.
Symbolic
Many through church history have taken a symbolic approach to the
Scriptures.
Augustine taught that every scripture had four levels of
understanding:
The “letter” which was the
literal understanding,
the “allegory” which was a
symbolic interpretation,
the “moral” understanding which
gave a sense of what we were to do or not to do,
and the “anagogy”
which was a kind of deeper, mystical, spiritual understanding.
You can see Augustine’s “symbolic” approach when he teaches on the parable
of the Good Samaritan:
The symbolic approach gives each detail of the story an
interpretation.
Adam is the man who was beaten up.
The priest and Levite are the Old Testament
Jesus is the Good Samaritan who comes to heal
wounds caused by sin
The church is the “inn”
The innkeeper becomes the Apostle Paul.
You’ll find these kinds of approaches in the very ancient commentaries.
To be honest, the Apostle Paul at times practiced this “symbolic” approach
to interpretation.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul is defending his position of salvation
by grace against those who would say that we can only be saved if we also keep
the Law of Moses.
Paul will dive into the story in Genesis about Abraham having children by
two different women: Sarah his wife, and Hagar his wife’s servant –
(Galatians 4:21–26
NKJV) —21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the
law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a
bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who
was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the
freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic.
For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to
bondage, which is Hagar—25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in
Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her
children—26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Now I’m not going to spend too much time on this passage,
but just to say that it’s one thing for Paul to decide how to interpret an Old
Testament story symbolically, and it’s quite another for one of us, especially
those who have not had the education of being trained in a rabbinical school
like Paul was.
While Scripture may indeed be very, very deep, and may have many levels of
understanding to it, the problem with the symbolic approach is that you’ll find
that with each teacher, you might have a different interpretation as to what
the verse means.
I have a hard time thinking that God meant for us to be confused as to what
His Word means.
If you read the context of “The Good Samaritan”, you will discover that the
story is meant to teach what it means to “love your neighbor”. That’s what Jesus said it was about. To go beyond that is a little too far for me.
You’ll find these symbolic approaches in the very ancient commentaries.
Sometimes it is very proper to interpret Scripture symbolically when
the passage itself is clearly symbolic.
There are different types of writings that require that we interpret things
as symbolic, such as parts of Daniel and Revelation.
The parables of Jesus also have a symbolic component to them as well. We
know this because Jesus Himself interprets some of the parables.
But these texts will let us know that they are meant to have a symbolic
meaning.
2.
Disconnected
This approach comes in many forms, but the idea is that you take a single
verse and make it say whatever you want.
Two types of “disconnected” interpretation are…
a.
Proof Texting
This is where you will find a person taking a text to prove their point, and twisting the meaning of the passage to make it
fit their theology.
Example:
The Mormons take the following verse as if it’s referring to Joseph Smith,
simply because the name “Joseph” appears in it:
(Ezekiel
37:16–17 NKJV) —16 “As for you, son of man, take a
stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel,
his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the
stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they
will become one in your hand.
For a person who is not versed in the Bible and not
familiar with Ezekiel, this can knock you off guard when those friendly fellows
come knocking on your front door..
That is, until you study your Bible and come to realize
that it’s talking about the divided kingdom after the Babylonian captivity, the
southern kingdom which was known as Judah, and the northern kingdom
which was known as Ephraim, or, Joseph (who was the
father of Ephraim), and their eventual reunification.
There is no “Joseph Smith” anywhere in the passage. Or the
Bible.
b.
Springboarding
This is what many pastors were taught in the old days, to pick a “text” and
build your sermon on it.
Usually what it meant was for the pastor to read the text, make a brief
comment on it, and then launch into the things he really wanted to say.
For many churches it meant that the pastor would talk about his favorite
pet peaves like staying away from the movies, the
importance of giving, and the need to be baptized …in every sermon.
For example, the pastor would announce,
“Today’s text comes from
(John 15:5 NKJV) “I am the vine,
you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much
fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
“… so Jesus is telling us that
without Him we can do nothing…but with Him we can do all things.
“My first point is: You should give more to the church…
“My second point is:
You should not go to the movies…
“My third point is” You need to be baptized…”
So let me ask you, do you see
those specific things in the text? I
guess you could kind of get there in your “application”, but you are just using
text as an excuse to talk about what you really want to talk about, maybe the
same things you talk about every week.
This is called “springboarding”, using a text to launch into your real
agenda or message.
So three approaches: 1. Symbolic, 2. Disconnected …
3.
Grammar and History
This is the approach we take with interpreting Scripture.
We base our interpretation of Scripture upon what the passage is saying grammatically, and upon what the historical circumstances were.
Grammar
This means being careful to understand what the language of the text is
saying.
It can be helpful to have an understanding of the
original languages, but not always necessary when it
comes to grammar.
(we will
talk more on this next week)
History
Understanding the historical context of the book helps us understand what
is happening.
Understanding when the various authors wrote can help a lot when it comes
to understanding what they are talking about.
You might find the history recorded in Samuel, Kings, and
Chronicles a little boring, but when you understand the events in the timeline
of Israel, and when the prophet wrote, it’s helpful.
Knowing that Isaiah was written after Israel had been
divided into a northern and southern kingdom and what their names were is
helpful.
Knowing that the Assyrians were the biggest threat to
Israel in Isaiah’s day helps when you see Assyria referenced.
Knowing that the Babylonian invasion is still a hundred
and fifty years away makes the prophecies about Babylon even more amazing.
Knowing that Ezekiel was writing from Babylon, after the
northern and southern kingdoms were already in exile, makes that passage in
Ezekiel 27 easier to understand.
Understanding Paul’s life through the historical book of
Acts, and when he wrote the various epistles helps you understand the kinds of
things he’s dealing with.
Culture
A part of understanding history is understanding the way Bible cultures
worked.
For example…
(1
Corinthians 11:5 NKJV) But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head
uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were
shaved.
Some churches take this and the following verses to mean
that women today must wear head coverings of some kind (either a hat or a
veil).
I think it helps to understand that in Paul’s day in
Corinth, only prostitutes walked around with their heads uncovered. That’s how the men of the city could tell
whether a gal was a “working woman” or not.
Could Paul simply be saying that women should be careful
about looking like a prostitute when they come to church?
In another passage about women, Paul writes,
(1
Timothy 2:15 NKJV) Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in
faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
Is Paul saying that a woman is going to get to heaven
(“saved”) by giving birth to children?
What about women who can’t get pregnant?
I find it’s helpful to understand that historically
childbearing was a dangerous thing in the first century. Many women died in childbirth.
It makes more sense to see this verse as Paul comforting
women who are afraid of giving birth because even if they die in childbirth,
they will go to heaven because they are trusting in Jesus.
A good principle is this:
The
plain sense is the main sense.
I understand that the “plain sense” isn’t always all that plain.
But when the sense IS plain, don’t go messing with it.
Some of those verses we’ve just discussed can get lost in our silly ideas.
Sometimes when I come up against a verse that confuses me, I realize I need
to study a little more, or perhaps I just need to tuck it into that file in my
head labeled “Waiting for further information”.
Keep in mind though that God doesn’t try to hide His real meaning behind
secret codes that only a select few can understand.
Usually, the plain sense is the correct one.
I hope that helps.
In Class
Play Video
Any comments from tonight’s teaching video?
Questions?
Do you recall the three kinds of “interpretation” modes?
(symbolic, disconnected, grammar/history)
Have you ever sat under a teacher that used the first two modes?
Share your pericopes from John 3
Perhaps have three or four share.
Share your “O-I-A” from John 3 (have everyone share)
Make one observation and explain it (without an application)
Make a second observation, explain it, and apply it.
From Sunday morning – identify an example of O-I-A
Here’s mine:
Observation:
(Genesis
4:10 NKJV) And He said, “What have you done? The voice of
your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
Interpretation: God is
counseling Cain. God isn’t asking
because He doesn’t know.
Application: We too need to
learn to “speak the truth in love” to help each other. We need to learn how to appropriately
“confront” each other when needed.
Homework
I want this week’s assignment be similar to last week’s, but we will be looking at John 4.
1.
Read the passage at least three
times.
2.
Note the paragraphs and write a
pericope for each paragraph as well as for the entire chapter.
3.
Make an
observation from somewhere in the chapter as well as it’s accompanying interpretation.
4.
Make a second observation from
another place in the chapter, an interpretation, and an application.
For extra credit, pay attention to Caleb’s message on Sunday and see if you
can identify an observation, interpretation, and application.