The Interpreter Has Arrived!

By Jason Strange
6/15/2010

Jeremiah says, "Israel broke the covenant." God was their husband as he betrothed them to himself, but his bride was unfaithful and went whoring after other lovers, thus committing spiritual idolatry. This was all due to the hermeneutical failure of their first parents that had wide sweeping effects. Goldsworthy has said, "ever since the disastrous upheaval of sinful man there is now a hermetic of suspicion which now characterizes rebellious humanity."

And as a result of Israel's hermeneutical suspicion and confusion they were characterized as having ears, but not hearing, eyes- but not seeing; spiritually deaf, blind, and dumb as they did not understand or discern the will God (Is. 6:9-10). They had become like the idols they worshipped. Most of these people though possessing the promises and covenants walked in darkness; the law of God was only external, written only on stone and not on their hearts. Isaiah again says, "the ox and ass knew their master, but Israel did not understand (Is. 1:3)." Even dumb farm animals know their owners, but Israel was worse off and had less sense then the ass and the ox not recognizing their Master.

When the times had reached there fulfillment God in his sovereign grace sent the Interpreter, his Son. This is why the New Covenant is a fundamental consideration to Hermeneutics because when Christ came Hermeneutics changed. (now that Messiah has come we can do Biblical theology-he gives color to the shadows, and they begin to dance in three dimensions; he takes that Messianic consciousness and gives it flesh and bone, he says I am the One who was streaming through the minds of the prophets, and the priest, and the kings). The Interpreter has arrived and as such he interprets the New and unpacks the old pealing back the layers of Old Testament history and in essence says, 'look at me! see me there, see me here'; I am God I fill the Heavens and I fill every word found in Scripture and I am its focal point .

Isaiah says now within the land of deep darkness a great light has shined. The light of the world comes and shines forth the hermeneutical beacon. Jesus says' "He who follows me will never walk in darkness." There is a darkness to hermeneutics when it is separated from Christ. There is dark exegesis, dark systematics, and dark dogmatics without Christ Jesus as the hermeneutical principle and the exegetical interpreter. The New Covenant is such that when one partakes of New Covenant realities he is moved up out of a deceased Hermeneutic and is transferred into a new realm of Hermeneutical clarity. Paul said this to the Corinthians that the 'Jews had a veil covering their hearts, but when one comes to Jesus the veil is removed (2 Cor 3).'

The Christ event inaugurates the New Covenant. It is new in the sense that it is distinct, unique, one of a kind, not a spin-off of the old, but has characteristics that set it apart as exclusively special. Israel is promised that she will be given a new heart and a new spirit; new faculties to internalize God's law which will be written on the heart. These partakers in the New Covenant will all know God; they will have an awareness of who he is. And now God vindicating his holiness through Christ death and resurrection sprinkles clean water on us giving us a cleansed conscience, removes the heart of stone, removing sin and iniquity forever. Only through Jesus could all the conditions be met and the full realization of Hermeneutic ability comes to its beach-head on Pentecost where they receive the Spirit of Christ, who now indwells his people 'leading them into all truth', guaranteeing an accurate Hermeneutical outcome for all time. He promised that he is with us till the end, and so the Church is assured that Christ will continue to illuminate his Word until He illuminates the world upon his return.

The Author's Communication: Interpreting Textual Particulars

By John Ambro
6/4/2010

Communication is a funny thing. If we don't pay attention to the particulars within the context of the whole message we miss out on the true and intended meaning of the message, and we misinterpret it to mean something completely different than the original communicator intended. We have all done this to one extent or another. A prime example of this is communication between a father and son. The son is sitting in the living room playing a video game and his father is in the kitchen. The father calls to his son to “Will you take the garbage out.” The son replies “yes” but continues to sit there. That is because he understood the particulars apart from the context. He failed to realize that his father was standing there holding a disgusting, smelly, bag of trash and wanted it taken out right then and there.

We must be very diligent that we do not do the same thing with Scripture. Taking particular verses and interpreting them apart from the full context in which we find them. Isolating particulars outside from their context leads to all sorts of issues and errors. The first issue that arrises is that when one removes the particular (i.e. an individual verse) from its surrounding context, it makes the original author mute. It places a gag order on the author and states, “what you have said has no bearing on what I read from the text”. The second thing that it does is that it not only makes the author mute but it replaces the author with the reader as the interpretive authority of the isolated particulars, and makes the reader/hearer the author.

These two things lead to all types of wacked out doctrines, heresies, and outright evil lies. No where else is this most prevalent than in the Prosperity / Health and Wealth movement. Everyday thousands of “christians” are drawn away from the true gospel of Christ, yet come running to embrace the deaf, mute, and dumb idols of “self-christianity”. Pulling scripture out from here and there, like pithy little “christian fortune cookies” focussing all on self and failing to stop and see (and read) that it is little about us and all about Christ.

But is it not just the crack pots of Christianity that this happens to. Strong Evangelical pastors and leaders, that take scripture out of context (possibly unknowingly) to fit a schema or agenda. One very respected pastor (whose name I will not mention) has isolated verses out of their surrounding context to prove a point that he wishes to drive home, unfortunately instead of knocking a home run he hits scripture out foul and knocks people out with improper isolation of texts that give others leeway to do the same. We also see the effects of isolating particulars in many Evangelical churches with their dogmatic rules and doctrine that they hold on to. This error is however in the reverse, they pull verses out of the historical, non-normative context and apply it to the 21 century church body to the detriment of the body by hindering the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers. For example a church that I know of has no musical instruments, and no one sings on stage (but only in the congregation) because, that is how they did it in the early church, yet they have no issues using mics for the pastor, video displays, or recording the sermons.

The error of interpreting textual particulars outside of their context can affect anyone, no one is immune to falling into this trap. So the way to stay out of this trap is to keep verses in their context of the original paragraph, chapter, book, and the whole cannon of scripture. Only then will our interpretation of scripture fall in line and under the authority of scripture itself.

The New Covenant as a Fundamental Consideration of Hermeneutics

By John Ambro 5/22/2010

“Having eyes do you not see? And having ears do you not hear?” (Mark 8:18) These should be frightening words from Christ. In today's Christendom we have many that fail to see Christ as what He claimed to be, the New Covenant. Christ established a New Covenant among His people (both Jew and Gentile). Not only did the New Covenant bring a completion of the previous covenants but it brought full illumination to shine on the shadows of the Scriptures (the Old Testament). Christ as the New Covenant has Himself established the proper interpretive hermeneutic in which we must use to interpret the whole cannon of Scripture. The New Covenant of Christ reshapes the hermeneutical grid that the Old Testament was interpreted through. Christ and the Apostles used ALL of the scriptures to show the unbelieving and blinded that Christ was there (Luke 24). This is nothing “new” as some would claim, it has been that was from the foundation of the world (Gen 3:15). If Christ and the Apostles reasoned from the Old Testament scriptures that Christ was the Messiah and the fulfillment of the covenants, then shouldn't we do the same?

There are those that do not (or do not want to) see Christ in the Old Testament, and in doing so do themselves a disservice and also a discredit to Christ. Sure they will say that there are “prophetic illusions” to Christ in the Old Testament, as in Is. 53, Ps.110, Is. 11, etc... but they stop there. They don't see Christ within the whole of the Old Testament, but they rather see Israel as the main theme throughout it all. But Christ is not the “team's” water boy, going here and there where we see short little glimpses of Him doing some remedial task while waiting for the incarnation. No, we see Him as the Quarterback, the one calling the plays, organizing the players to reach the final goal of redemption for all of those in the stands, for the cheerers and the jeerers. We see throughout the whole of scripture archetypes of Christ. From Adam, to Noah, to Moses, Joseph, David, etc... all dimly lit signposts showing the redemptive path that points to Christ. Using an Israel-centric hermeneutic in order to interpret the Old Testament leaves one wanting more, as someone panting for water as they wander through the desert. When an Israel-centric hermeneutic is used, the foundational “theme” of the OT becomes Israel and not the redemptive plan of God. It removes God from the focus placing Him on a dusty shelf to be brought out when it is suits our needs. Israel is not the unifying theme of the scriptures, the unifying theme that runs through the whole cannon of scripture is redemption for those that God has called, in the Christ.

In order for one to bring God back to the focus one must see the redemptive foundation that is throughout the Old and New Testaments. The whole redemptive plan for God's people is worked out and completed through and in Christ in the Old and New (Heb. 11:24-29). One only has to look into the first chapter of Genesis to realize that Christ is and the active participant in the redemptive story. We see Christ at creation, Gen.1:26 and John 1:1ff., and more importantly we see Christ in Genesis 3:15 which is the first covenant that God makes to man and it involves Christ, the skull crusher, the serpent destroyer, as a promise to redeem His people. It involves the redemptive plan of God to bring His Messiah to the pivot point of human history. “The meaning of truth and reality is thus asserted to reside in the Christ.” (GSH, pg. 81) Not only is Christ a participant of the redemptive story He is the culmination of the redemptive story, the fulfiller of the story, and ultimately He is the Author of it all.

New Covenant Implications on Hermeneutics

By Max Strange 5/25/2010

Adam and Eve ushered into this beautiful world a hermeneutical disaster. They brought into God’s universe an alternate way to interpret God’s Word and all of reality. They exchanged God’s interpretation for one that is rooted in autonomous human reason. This created an upheaval that made man the center of all knowledge and understanding. And as the ages pass, this new and deadly hermeneutic cause’s mankind to drift further and further into the lonely ocean of his own alienation and suspicion of God. Yet, God in His great mercy and kindness, before all the ages, had a plan. He has orchestrated a program to reinstate His interpretation of Himself and of His Universe by Himself and eject man from his own hermeneutical center. Jesus, the Word of God, brings home the new hermeneutic in the Gospel. The catastrophe in Eden is now overturned by a hermeneutical salvation. For those who believe on Jesus Christ, a true and right understanding of God and all things begins afresh. We can see that the New Covenant promised this in the Old Testament and now with the arrival of Jesus, the New Testaments declares that the New Covenant finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Thus, each Testament is actually a uniform and seamless Testament about the Christ and His New Covenant reversal of the hermeneutical revolt so long ago.

The New Covenant in a Nutshell & Its Implications on Hermeneutics

The New Covenant is a promise of restoration. After the Fall, God promised in Genesis 3:15, despite everything that had transpired that plummited the universe into a black pit of sin, a light would shine. This foreshadow announced the first clue of many to a New Covenant, even before the Old Covenant was broadcasted! As Biblical history progresses throughout its redemptive storyline, there is a Messianic consciousness. This Messiah anticipation grows throughout Israel’s history as one who will bring about a great day of salvation and overturn the spiritual deadness and remove the veil that cloaked their understanding of God. The Messianic shadow materializes in the New Testament as the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfills the New Covenant and began the process of a hermeneutical renewal to the cosmos, which will find its completion at the last and great eschatological Day. He came to inaugurate the New Covenant by offering Himself as a sacrifice for sins, once for all, and absorb the wrath of God and all the damning effects of unregeneration. Jesus stood in the place of sinners and gives His righteousness to the believing sinner by grace and thus reversing the effects of the primeval rebellion of our first parents. No longer would there be a great clash of authority between creature and Creator. No longer would God’s people be a discern less, dull-eared, blind-eyed, more dumb than the ox and ass who knows not his master (Is. 1:3; 6:9-10; 44:18). The New Covenant declares that God has overturned the dreaded effects of sin by His Son Jesus. Jesus accomplished what the New Covenant promises and abundantly pardon, unstop deaf ears, open blind eyes, guarantee obedience, deposits the Spirit of God, and bring a genuine and everlasting understanding of God (Is. 35:4-5; Jer. 31:31-3; Ez. 36:26-27). The New Covenant is the grand unilateral move of God to lovingly act upon chosen sinners and bring the new creation within the human heart and eventually into an all encompassing scope of cosmic liberation (Is. 55:6-9; Rom. 8; 1 Cor. 15; Ez. 36-37). By a rational act of repentance and faith initiated grace by God’s grace, a restored knowledge of God would result(Jer. 31:31-34). All the defects of the fall and the unregenerate heart and mind are transformed to see and hear and love the Lover.

The New Covenant impacts hermeneutics because Jesus has made it certain that in relationship with Him by salvation through grace, the dead, blind, veiled, and calloused soul, is made alive. Thus, the sinner becomes able and free from His bondage to divine illumination and becomes illuminated. New ears and eyes, new desires, grace enabled action cause the believer to do God’s will and for the first time cause God to smile upon him. Jesus gives us His Spirit as the hermeneutical key to the Scriptures, which breaks wide-open new horizons of understanding, thought, and comprehension of God and of all reality. Saved sinners begin the journey of a continual awakening to spiritual realities of the glory of God. The New Covenant allows us, even with a greater intimacy than Adam, to walk with God not only in the cool of the day, but in every second of life.

Scriptures
(1) John 5:39, 46; Luke 24:27; 44-45; Isaiah 1:3; 6:9-10; 9:27; 35:4-5; 44:18; 55:6-9; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36-37

Hermeneutics: Parts To The Whole Machine

By Max Strange
6/4/2010

What are KO E36 OBD1 and VPO E36? They are parts to the same car. The first is a manifold kit that improves speed and air flow and the second is an under-drive pulley that adds 5-11 extra horsepower to BMW 3M series. Vital to the overall car’s performance are the parts. We see that parts work together for the good of the machine. Likewise, the Bible is made up of parts that fit together to make the whole work. We see this clearly in Biblical interpretation as the interpreter looks at words and how words fit the whole redemptive storyline. Engaged in word analysis, the interpreter seeks to understand what the original A/author’s intended by the terms he used. The terms must also be understood in view of the whole of Scripture, and in this way creating a comprehensive Biblical theology employed by a whole-canon-exegesis. In this way, the Scriptures maintain itself and God’s Word continues to be its own innate interpreter. Therefore, discovering a terms’ meaning and context, and being alert to some pitfalls of word analysis, seems the best starting point for exegetical discovery and maintains the integrity of God’s Word.

Words consist of s-y-m-b-o-l-s that when placed together have an assigned meaning to them. The meaning comes from the context. Sometimes words have a range of meaning but the goal of the interpreter is to understand the meaning in which the author used them and in the context in which he spoke. The interpreter knows that words have different meanings. Some meanings are implicit, some emotional in their force (ex. “ouch!”), some words reveal new meaning and significance (interpreting the O.T. in light of the N.T.), some words have a wide range of meaning, while other words are figurative. Analyzing the meaning of the word and the way the author used the word in it’s context is a good start to understanding a term.

It is helpful to study words that are repeated, used once (hapax legomena), used rarely, unclear, apparent synonyms/autonyms, or terms that carry the weight of a passage (structure of a text). Knowing this will help determine which words to zoom in. Yet, there are some pitfalls to watch out for as one seeks to dissect and know a term.

The following are common errors in word analysis:

1. The Etymological Fallacy: This is also know as "root fallacy" and assumes that the meaning of a word is governed by the of its root.

2. Illegitimate Totality Transfer: This assumes that a word carries all of its senses in one passage. It could be called meaning overload. The meaning of the term here is often imported from other contexts.

3. Semantic Anachronism: This error happens when a later meaning of a word is read back into an earlier term. This problem occurs, for example, when later Greek materials are used to support a first-century term that lacks clarity.

4. Semantic Obsolescence: This happens when one assigns to a term an early meaning that is no longer used. This occurs when terms no longer carry the meaning they once had as in the case with the KJV 1611 version.

5. Word-Idea Fallacy: This assumes that the word under study is the study of a whole idea. When one studies the word "King" they can also study other relevant terms such as "rule," or "reign."

6. Referential Fallacy: This error happens when one goes beyond the meaning/s that the author is referring to. This is when the author refers back to an earlier Old Testament text and interprets his situation in light of that O.T. reference.

7. Verbal Parallelomania: This refers to the practice of some who notice the same term (word) in several different context and automatically assumes that they are parallel concepts. Philo's use of the term logos does not mean the same thing as the Apostle John meant for that same term.

8. Prescriptive Fallacy: This argues that a word has only one meaning and it means the same thing in every passage.

9. Selective Evidence Fallacy: This is the most serious error wherein one cites only the evidence that favors the interpretation one wants to defend.

Overall, despite the pitfalls and challenges to word study, it is very rewarding to know what words mean. The interpreter ought to know the A/author’s parts for the parts make up the whole and the whole contains the parts. To know the specificity of random BMW car parts help us see the whole machine and appreciate, at first glance, those arbitrary parts in a more profound way. The parts by themselves do little, but as the interpreter moves from parts to whole in a exegetical pendulum/ladder/spiral fashion (from N.T. to O.T. and back again), the importance of parts KO E36 OBD1 and VPO E36 are truly revealed. Especially when all is known, embraced, and the machine is cruising at 120 mph.