1. I will finish my series on imputation on Monday.Â
2. Ben Witherington writes on authorial intent hermeneutics. His three basic guidelines: 1) It means what is means, not what you want it to mean or your presuppositions determine it means. 2) Context is king. No proof texting. This is one of the biggest interpretive problems in the church today. 3) Genre Matter. You have interpret according to the rules of engagement determined by the type of literature. Oh that people would embrace these principles. Here is an excerpt.
“When I say ‘what it meant is what it means’ in reference to any text, but especially the Bible, I mean that the meaning is encoded in the complex of words and phrases we find in the text. Meaning is not something we get to read into the text on the basis of our own opinions or ideas. Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder. Meaning is something that resides in the text, having been placed there by the inspired author and requires of us that we discover what that meaning is by the proper contextual study of the text. ‘Significance’ however is a different
matter altogether. A text can have a significance or even an application for you or me, that the original author could never have imagined. But the text cannot have a meaning that the original inspired author did not place there. Meaning is one thing, significance or application another. The job of hermeneutics is to help us rightly interpret the meaning of these important Biblical texts.”
3. Evangelical Outpost plugs The Theology Program which starts Sept 11 online. Thanks Joe!
4. Read N.T. Wright’s lecture “Can a Scientist Believe in the Resurrection.”
5. Is Godtube.com the internet’s worst website? Sounds like just a bit of an overstatement.
6. J.P. Moreland writes about how Jesus argued.
7. Problems with this blog and some posters: This blog has become extremely busy over the last few months. There has been some trouble with some people who don’t understand our purpose and philosophy. Please go out of your way to be respectful and irenic, knowing that this is a place to discuss with kindness, not call people out for debate or accuse of heresy (please reserve that for the bloggers!). As well, since the size of this blog has grown so much, people are beginning to use the comments area for their own personal blog. While we encourage discussion, please do so with discretion and stay on topic. I will send one warning by email and then I will remove your privileges. Those of you who have not received a warning, then you are fine…post on!
8. The Conservative Reformed Mafia continues to impress and Michael Spencer does what he does best (say things others are afraid to say).
10. Superman: Doomsday is released next month
Oh yeah.
3 replies to "Friday Night Odds and Ends"
Michael:
I find myself divided on Witherington’s hermenuetics (which are pretty much mine as well) Most of the time I feel like this is the way we are supposed to interpret the Bible. It prevents most errors.
But when I read the NT, this hermenuetic doesn’t seem very Bbilical :O
Jesus and his apostles spent a lot of time showing the Jews that “what it meant is NOT what it means” They promoted instead a “Christological” hermenuetic. All scripture is about and interpreted in light of Christ (we don’t actually know what Christ said to the ones he walked thru the Scriptures after his Resurrection) Isa was about Jesus, not what the people it was written to thought it was about.
Even if it is true that we don’t have Jesus or the apostles authority to interpret scripture this way, can we have a “rule” that is regularly broken by those we are to emulate?
The White Horse Inn had a recent broadcast about this:
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/previous_programs.htm#0701
“Apostolic Preaching”
“Between his resurrection and his ascension to God’s right hand, the Lord Jesus taught the original apostles that the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms all predicted the Messiah’s suffering, rejection, death, resurrection, outpouring of the Spirit, and worldwide reign through the servants of his Word. The fruit of this intensive forty-day hermeneutics course is heard in the apostolic sermons preserved in the book of Acts, as well as in the Gospels themselves and the other New Testament books. Apostolic preaching, therefore, must be Christ-centered.”
(Taken from Dennis JohnsonÂ’s Him We Proclaim (P&R, 2007): 14-15.)
Is it me or does anyone else notice that Michael and Superman look a like? Funny how you never see the two of them togehter in the . . . . . . . . Hey! Wait a second!