How Not To Read The Bible [repost]

A semi-imagined conversation – Right.  Bible reading.  Here we go – Speak Lord, your servant is listening.  Ok, Matthew 11:28.  Jesus said “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  Ok, good verse.  Well said Lord.  Now let’s get down to business.  What’s this verse really saying… [...]

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The literal IS the christocentric (repost)

I recently re-read Nathan Pitchford’s excellent short article on the reformers’ hermeneutic. His basic point is that Sola Scriptura always leads to Solus Christus.  The literal reading simply is the christocentric reading. For Luther, the grammatical-historical hermeneutic was simply the interpretation of scripture that “drives home Christ.” As he once expressed it, “He who would read the [...]

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Interpretation is theology all the way down – a repost

It would be tempting to think of theology as a two stage process.  First a pure biblical scholar can dispassionately read off the meaning of the Bible through the use of objective interpretive tools.  Then a systematic theologian comes to co-ordinate these propositions into a logically cogent order. But Ben Myers writes brilliantly against such [...]

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Barth on “Interpretation”

Recently I quoted Dick Lucas on the duty of preachers to be waiters not chefs.  We don’t cook up its material, we serve it up.  Thus… The Bible is not asking us to interpret it. The Bible is an interpretation. Some might wonder at that statement.  Surely we’re always interpreting. Isn’t that what Kant taught [...]

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Luther on Scripture 3 – The Meaning is Christ

Taken from this paper on Luther’s exegesis of Genesis 3… The meaning is Christ Rescuing the Scriptures from the Judaizers ‘Christ is the Lord, not the servant, the Lord of the Sabbath, of law, of all things.  The Scriptures must be understood in favour of Christ, not against Him.  For that reason they must either [...]

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Luther on Scripture 2 – The Meaning is in the Scriptures

Taken from this paper on Luther’s exegesis of Genesis 3… . The meaning is in the Scriptures, not conferred on them Rescuing Scripture from the Magisterium In Luther’s commentary on Genesis he stands against the tradition at key points.  First, we will note this issue of 6-day creation: Therefore it is necessary to understand these [...]

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Luther on Scripture 1 – The Meaning is Literal

Here are some excerpts from a paper I wrote about Luther’s exegesis of Genesis 3.  In these next three posts I’ll tease out three key convictions underlying all Luther’s exegesis: The Meaning is Literal – Rescuing the Bible from the Allegorists The Meaning is in the Scriptures – Rescuing the Bible from the Magisterium The [...]

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Christology and Hermeneutics [Thawed out Thursday]

It’s common to see a link between christology and our approach to the bible.  There are limits to this but also benefits.  Our approach to both Christ and the bible requires us to encounter something fully human which nonetheless is the Word of God.  Christology can therefore teach us a great deal about how the [...]

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Irenaeus on the Old Testament

Leon Sim (sometime commenter here) has written a cracker of an essay on Irenaeus’s understanding of the Old Testament.  Of course that understanding is explicitly christocentric and Trinitarian. Here are a couple of great quotes from the essay: Not only does Irenaeus see Christ and the Trinitarian God to be the object of revelation, but [...]

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Beating importunately on Scripture

A friend preached a wonderful sermon on the bible last Sunday.  He spoke, among other things, of Luther’s attitude to the bible: The whole reformation was birthed by a tenacious asking, seeking and knocking at the door of Scripture: I beat importunately upon Paul at that place (Rom 1:17), most ardently desiring to know what [...]

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Reading Scripture trinitarianly

. . . There is no such thing as a non-dogmatic or non-theological engagement of the biblical text, or of any text or language for that matter. Moreover, anti-Trinitarian frames of reference lead to fundamental problems for approaching the Bible and revelation. To illustrate by way of a historical parallel, the early Socinians, whose orientation [...]

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Are you a bible nut??

Take the Christ the Truth patented quiz: What is your response to the following Scriptures?   Scripture 1: Josh 10:12-15 - the sun stays up for a whole extra day A) What a rich and enigmatic text! The main thing we glean is that the LORD can be trusted in difficult circumstances. B) [Muffled] I suppose [...]

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My new favourite word…

…Are you ready?  It’s really particularly awesome.  Here it is: exeJesus How cool is that? What do we want from our exegesis?  ExeJesus that’s what! Nice one Dave Ingland. .  

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Servant Songs help

Isaiah’s servant songs are: Isaiah 42:1-7 Isaiah 49:1-6 Isaiah 50:4-9 Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Now in the songs, the servant is clearly a figure who acts on behalf of the people.  He is a covenant for the people (42:6).  He will bring Jacob and Israel back to the LORD (49:5,6).  His word is the word the people should [...]

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The literal IS the christocentric

I recently re-read Nathan Pitchford’s excellent short article on the reformers’ hermeneutic. His basic point is that Sola Scriptura always leads to Solus Christus.  The literal reading simply is the christocentric reading. For Luther, the grammatical-historical hermeneutic was simply the interpretation of scripture that “drives home Christ.” As he once expressed it, “He who would [...]

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All interpretation is theological

This is a repost of Theology – the end of the process?? Is “systematic theology… the end process of exegesis and biblical theology”??  Ben Myers writes brilliantly against such a conception.  To imagine that a pure biblical scholar can dispassionately read off the meaning of the Bible through the use of objective interpretive tools is ludicrous.  [...]

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Tricky verses

Kyle has asked about this verse from Genesis 4: 23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Thought it provided [...]

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NT use of OT

Justin Taylor points us to a very helpful book review by Andy Naselli, whose blog looks great!  What follows is taken straight from Andy’s blog – do check it out for yourself. Three views on the New Testament use of the Old Testament outlines the following three positions: Walter Kaiser Jr: “Single Meaning, Unified Referents: [...]

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