Hermeneutics in the Epistles

*How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth, Fee & Stuart

What do the texts mean to us?
What about cultural relativity?

Why do we need to think about Application?

Sometimes there’s no problem:
2 Tim. 4:13
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
2 Tim. 2:3
Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

But sometimes there is a problem:
We have a lack of consistency because of:
Theological heritage
Ecclesiastical (church) traditions
Cultural norms
Felt needs

For example…
1 Tim 5:23—Is it only a personal note?
(Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. )
What about 2 Tim. 3:14-16? Is it only a personal note too?
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
...we need to look carefully.

Culture:
Long hair: 1 Cor. 11:14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him
(but what about 11:15?) but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.

Church Traditions
1 Cor. 14:34-35 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself
1 Cor. 14:1-5, 26-33, 39-40 and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
Church order: 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor
Widows: 1 Tim. 5:3-15 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need
Infant baptism: 1 Cor. 1:16; 7:14; Col. 2:11-12 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas

Theological Heritage
.....Arminianism (free will) gets around some verses
Rom. 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called…
Rom. 9:18-24 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden
Gal. 1:15 But when God, who set me apart from birth…
Eph. 1:4-5 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world

.....Calvinism gets around others:
1 Cor. 10:1-13 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
2 Peter 2:20-22 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command
Heb. 6:4-6 It is impossible for those who have …shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God … if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance

We need rules to be consistent.

The Basic Rule:

A text cannot mean what it never meant to its author or his recipients
i.e., the true meaning of the Biblical text is what God originally intended it to mean when it was first spoken.

Some disregard the commands about seeking spiritual gifts because of 1 Cor. 13:10, but this cannot refer to Scripture’s completion.

What about 2nd meanings in prophecy?--We can't be the ones to give it the second meaning--we are not inspired.

The Second Rule:

Whenever our situation is like those who lived in the the first-century, God’s Word to us is the same as his Word to them.
Col. 3:2 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

If our situation is like theirs, the application is the same.
--Long hair-cultural situation was different
-- “All have sinned”-our situation is the same

Three Difficulties in Interpretation

1. The Problem of Extended Application
--Three examples
example 1
1 Cor 3:16-17 “If anyone destroys God’s temple (the church), God will destroy him…”
Can we then also conclude that God will punish the believer, indwelt by the Spirit, who abuses his own body?

example 2
1 Cor 3:10-15 If it is burned up, he [the church leader] will suffer loss; he himself will be saved…
Can we then say that believers will be judged but will be saved (as well as the poor church builders)?

....Should we extend the application?
Why try to figure out what is being said in the first place if one is just going to change what the text originally intended?
And one can find other texts that support that point. There is no need to use this text.

example 3
2 Cor. 6:14 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”
The passage doesn’t clearly refer to marriage, but it isn’t clear what it refers to.
Can we then apply it since the original meaning isn’t clear?

It appears that it is referring to idolatry, forbidding participation at idol feasts. But since we don’t know for sure, can we apply it to marriage?

Perhaps we can , but only because we can support the principle from other Scripture.

2. The Problem of Situations that no longer Exist

----1 Cor. 8:10 Eating at idol feasts forbidden
What is the Principle? Now apply the principle in genuinely comparable situations

Participating in eating is forbidden if it causes a weaker brother to sin.
Does this mean we are not to do something that someone else feels is wrong?

1 Cor. 8:8 Food is declared to be indifferent: What else should we put in this category?

1. According to the Epistles:food, drink, observance of days are matters of indifference

2. Things are not inherently moral, but are cultural

3. The sin lists….[Rom 1:29-30 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 1 Cor 6:9-10 Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.]…. never include cultural items.

3. The Problem of Cultural Relativity

What are some general guidelines that will help us see what is cultural and what is not?

1.What is Central and what is Secondary?
--Central core of Bible:
Salvation, sin, Christ
--Secondary items
Holy kiss, Head coverings,Charismatic gifts

2. What does the NT see as moral and immoral. (See “sin” lists—e.g. 1 Cor. 6:9
1Co 6:9 Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.)

3. Note where the NT is consistent and where it reflects differences.

Uniform testimony
Love
Unity
Against hatred
Against stealing
Against murder

Diverse testimony
Women’s ministries (Phoebe a deacon-Rom. 16:1-2; Junia an apostle Rom 16:7)
Retention of wealth
Food offered to idols

4. Note how the differences between the 1st and 21st centuries that might affect understanding.
---Women’s education
---Attitude towards government

5. Show Christian Love
We may differ on interpretation, but let us do this is a spirit of love. We can work together to try to come to an agreement, and if not, agree to disagree.


Case Study: Homosexuality

Is it culturally relative?

Is the homosexuality spoken against in the NT abusive and is “monogamous” homosexuality a different matter?

Rom 1:24-28 is not abusive (“inflamed with lust for one another”)
The whole Bible always speaks against homosexuality
It is included in sin lists

The Basic Tool: A Good Translation

*Taken from How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

Most people don’t know Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, so we need a good (a couple good) translations

What factors should be considered in choosing a translation?

The Science of Translation

Which text should be used?
There are 5,000 different Greek manuscripts
Medieval copies are similar to each other, but are different than the earliest copies and translations

Textual Criticism (textual analysis)
External evidence—quality and age of the manuscripts
Internal evidence--Copyists and authors

Textual concerns

1. 1 Sam 8:16
Your menservants and maidservants,
your goodliest young men and your asses ----KJV

from a medieval Hebrew text

Your menservants and maidservants
and the best of your cattle and donkeys ----NIV

from the older Septuagint (Greek) text

-------One letter difference in Hebrew

2. Mark 1:2
As it is written in the prophets --KJV

It is written in Isaiah the prophet--NIV

--(in all the best early Greek manuscripts)

Verses from Isaiah and Malachi follow, so it seems that one of the scribes wanted to indicate that.

3. I Cor 11:29
He that eateth and drinketh unworthily…not discerning...---KJV

Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing…--- NIV

(unworthily not found in the earliest and best Greek texts—but it is in v. 27 in both texts)

Textus Receptus— the only Greek text available to the translators of the 1611 King James Version. It was quite a late text. We now have access to many earlier manuscripts. This is why most all evangelical scholarship supports versions which don’t depend on the textus receptus.

Questions of Language

Historical distance:
Lamp = flashlight?
Holy kiss = handshake of Christian love?

1. Literal: Keep the words and phrasing the same
2. Free: translate the ideas into a modern context
3. Dynamic Equivalence: language, grammar and style are updated, historical items stay the same

2 Cor 5:16

Literal Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. --NASB

Dynamic Equivalence So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. --NIV

Free Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore.--The Message


Isaiah 5:10

“For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,
And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.” ---NASB

The grapevines growing on five acres of land will yield only five gallons of wine.
Ten bushels of seed will produce only one bushel of grain." ---GNT

Matthew 18:24, 28

…ten thousand talents
…a hundred denarii…--NASB

…millions of dollars
…a few dollars…--GNT

Fee and Stuart’s recommendations on translations—
one from each category

1. NIV; GNB; NAB (Dynamic equivalence)
2. NASB; RSV; NRSV (More literal)
3. NEB; JB (a little freer)

Why isn’t one translation enough?

1 Cor. 7:36
But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin… (KJV)

But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter…(NASB)

If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to… (NIV)

If a man has a partner in celibacy and feels that he is not behaving properly towards her… (NEB)

Exegesis & Hermeneutics

I. Exegesis-
“The careful, systematic study to determine the original intent of the words of the Bible”


We all do exegesis:

What Jesus meant by that was…
Back in those days they used to…
We use common sense to transfer information from Scripture and apply it to our own situation.


a. We are forced to do it when the difference between ancient culture and modern culture makes it difficult to understand. But we need to always be careful about getting back to the original intention. Otherwise we risk reading into the text something that we want it to say.

Gal 5 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

Ro 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss.

b. When we consult the experts, make sure they are real experts.

Mark 10:23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

No evidence for the small gate in Jerusalem until the 11th cent a.d.

General Guidelines

A. Scholarly knowledge

1. Biblical Languages-Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek

2. Cultural Backgrounds-Jewish, Semitic, Hellenistic

3. Original texts-There are thousands of manuscripts with a variety of different readings. Scholars have largely agreed on what the best reading, i.e., the original said, but there are some points at which they differ.

Everyone can do the following things

B. Read carefully & ask the right questions

1. Context

a. Historical Context

Time period --background of Amos, Amos or Hosea

Culture --Messianic expectations at the time of John the Baptist; Jesus’ parables and the customs of the day

Occasion and purpose What was going on at the time, and what caused the book to be written? **Galatians

b. Literary Context

What’s the point? (Keep asking this question at every point?) What is the author trying to say? What is the train of thought?

Translation with paragraphs & poetry this helps a lot and most translations do that today.

2. Content

Meaning of the words-One will need to consult a Bible dictionary or commentary.

3. Tools

Bible Dictionary
Bible Handbook
Good translation
Good Commentaries


II. Hermeneutics

-Contemporary relevance of ancient texts: What does it mean for us? How can we apply it to our own situation and our lives? But we cannot start with this. We must study first to understand what the original intent was.

A. Controlled by the original intent of the text

B. Text can’t mean what it never meant—But can there not be deeper meanings of the text? Cults use texts in this way, we should not.

*Summary from How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

The Need for Interpretation

1. The Reader as Interpreter
--all of us interpret as we read whether we want to or not
a. The cross
b. “the flesh” (translations)
c. women silent/prophecy and tongues, too (1 Cor 14:34-35)
d. Women to prophecy but not w/head covered (1 Cor. 11:2-16)
e. Adult baptism or infant baptism
f. Cults: Jehovah’s witnesses Jesus a god & Mormon baptizing for the dead
g. Prosperity & health: 3 John 2

Not NO interpretation, but GOOD interpretation.

2. The Nature of Scripture
--“The Bible is the Word of God given in the words of [people] in history.” Prof. George Ladd

a. God’s Word---eternally relevant

b. Historical Context---each document is conditioned by the language, time, and culture. There is a tension between the two.
- You can look at either extreme…
- The Bible is just a history book, and you can learn about the Hebrews, and their history.
- It is only eternally relevant: If God says something then we ought to do it (regardless of the historical circumstances). But there is picking and choosing.

1. The historical circumstances must be taken into consideration.
Different people, 1500 years, different circumstances, a different language, thought patterns and culture. The people at that time were the ones that it was written to first of all.

a. One has to understand what was said to them back then
b. We have to hear that word in today’s language.

2. In communicating with us, God chose
- narrative history
- genealogies
- chronicles
- laws of all sorts
- poetry of all sorts
- proverbs
- prophetical oracles
- riddles
- drama
- biographical sketches
- parables
- letters
- sermons
- apocalypses

We need to know
- the general rules, and
- the rules for each of these types of literary forms or genres.

*Summary of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth