The Hermeneutical Bridge.....

Mr. Anonymous has made another comment....and I feel like replying. If you go back a few days you will find the following comment to my post:

An exciting and pertinent text to be sure, but still, just a text- a starting point. And we're right back to the question of what does the text mean? If texts were self-explanatory, then we would have a single world wide church all pulling in the same direction. So we've got to work on the meanings - learn the context, understand how the hearers may have heard them, read what scholars have said over the ages, figure out their place in God's great narrative about how He's going to put the world to rights, and pray over them. The more of us who try to do this in the Spirit (collectively, I'm thinking, not just individually), the more we'll discover what "authentic" Christian life is about. -Anonymous

Scripture is more than just a "starting point"....however, if you want to talk biblical hermeneutics, pull up a chair. For any who may not know what hermeneutics is...it is the process one uses for interpreting the bible. How do we get from the "then and there" (the ancient context) to the "here and now" (modern day). It is the process that one uses to understand an ancient text and how to bring it's intended meaning to modern day. I think of biblical hermeneutics as being a bridge....and on this bridge are tools or methods that help us get from one side to the other.

In any case, I firmly believe that a text can never mean what it never meant and that too many readers of God's word jump far too quickly to application without proper study or even a hint at proper interpretation. Mr. Anonymous is right to ask, "what does the text mean"....we must seek to understand the author's intended meaning. When attempting this, it is so helpful to understand the historical, cultural, and literary context.

Let me give you an example of understanding the literary context. When we pick up a newspaper, there are many different "genres" and with each genre we bring a different set of interpretive tools when reading. In other words, we don't read the obituaries like we read the comics...we read the classified ads differently than we do feature stories. In this example, we don't even think about our intrepretive skills, but nevertheless, they are at work. Similarly, with the bible, there are many different types of literature; for example: narratives, poetry, historical, apocalyptic, prophetic, etc. Now, just because we may not know what Hebrew parallelism is, does not mean that we will never understand the Psalms. But, when we understand that the Psalms are written upon the principles of Hebrew parallelism, it opens up a whole new world of meaning. What's Hebrew parallelism? In simplest terms, it is a style of poetry which is made up of two parallel lines. Sometimes the second line says the very same thing as the first line....but, uses different words. At other times, the second line is in direct contrast to the first. And still other times, the second line provides additional meaning to the first line. Take a quick look at the book of Psalms. Open up to any chapter and simply read one verse. I can almost guarantee that there will be two parallel lines. Just ask yourself, how does the second line interact with the first line? You will find this simple literary tool very helpful whenever you read the Psalms.

Now, if I may be so bold, while I am so grateful for Mr. Anonymous's encouragement toward bible study, I am afraid that Mr. A will never be fully confident to stake a claim of understanding the text....let alone derive certain principles and then seek to apply it to his life. But, I am probably wrong about that.

Obviously, there is so much more to biblical hermeneutics....for another day.

P.S. Please correct me if you are female...I will refer to you in future posts as Ms. Anonymous