Hermeneutics: Old Testament Flashcards
Exegesis vs Eisegesis
Exegesis = Proper interpretation. Discovering the meaning God intended as expressed in the text
Eisegesis = Bad Interpretation. Putting your own interpretation into a text
We want God’s word not our word.
Hermeneutically speaking, what is the most important element of understanding scripture
Context. Most of the time, if you have the context correct, you can figure out the meaning of the text
How to Discover the Context
STOP
Situation: What is happening before and after the text?
Type: What type of literature is this?
Object: Who is the object of the passage?
Prescription: Is the text prescriptive or descriptive
Key Questions
What is being said? How is it being said? Who is it being said to? When is it being said? Where is it being said? Why is it being said?
STOP Deuteronomy 7
Deuteronomy 7: Destroy the Nations
Situation?
It is 1408 BC The Israelites have just fled Egypt and have been wondering the desert for about 40 years.The conquest of the promised land is about to begin
The nations that live there are larger and stronger than Israel, and are all IN in the pagan practice of sacrificing their children to pagan gods, and idol worship, and sexual immorality. The child sacrifice is attested to by both the bible and Greek Historians, like Plutarch, which described the acts of child sacrifice in his writings, saying “The drummers in the town would drum louder when they put the children on the sizzling hot idol of molech, so that the parents couldn’t hear the cries of their burning children”
God’s purpose is to keep Israel holy by not becoming polluted by the Pagan cultures in the land
Type of Literature and Literary Devices?
Law (Do this, Don’t Do that)
Hyperbole (Destroy them completely)
example of hyperbole “We annihilated them” in sport doesn’t mean they are all dead, simply that they are badly defeated
Object? Who is it written for?
It is written to Israel, not us.
Prescription, or Description?
It is a Prescription for Ancient Israel, For us reading the book today, it is a Description of History
Is God Immoral for Killing the Canaanites?
- If there is no God, why is any OT “atrocity” wrong? By what moral standard are you making that judgement if there is no such thing as God?
- Is God arbitrary or does He give reasons for judging people in the Old Testament?
- Why complain that God doesn’t stop evil, but then complain when He does?
- Is God committing murder by ending lives on earth? It is wrong for us to kill people because we are not the creator and we cannot resurrect people, but God can
- God has the right to usher people into the next life, whether they are 2 years old or 82 years old. (People never die, they just change location)
- OT theocracy was unique and temporary. It was not the Ideal for all time
How do we know the old testament no longer applies to us?
Heb 8:13
Gal 3:28-29
Rom 7:6
Rom 6:14
Gal 5:6
Acts 15
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love
Old testament was not the ideal
“Contrary to the common Neo atheists caricatures, the Old Testament laws weren’t the permanent, divine ideal for all persons, everywhere. God Informed his people that a new, enduring covenant would be necessary (Jer. 31, Ezek 36) By the Old Testament’s own admission, the Mosaic law was inferior and future looking.”
Matt 19:8-9 Jesus tells us that the old covenant was not perfect and not intended for all time as God accommodated the hard heartedness of the Jews in his laws because He was bringing them along incrementally, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery
The old testament still serves as examples for us today, especially as to what not to do! “these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” In 1 Cor 10:11-13 the bible tells us that “no temptation has seized you except what is common to man” So what is common to man? The same temptations that seized the Israelites in the old testament(Sex, Money, Power etc.)
Bible study tools
- Study Bible
- Conservative Commentaries: The bible knowledge commentary
- Bible Dictionary
- Big Book of Bible Difficulties
Deuteronomy 7 Did God command the destruction of these pagan nations because of their ethnicity? Was God a racist?
No
God judged them because of their sin.
In Exodus 32:37 God tells Moses to kill about 3000 Israelites who had worshiped the golden calf. God also commands teh execution of the Israelites who were worshiping Baal of Peor. In other words God was not ordering judgment because of someone’s ethnicity but because of their sin.
Israel was threatened with divine judgement more often that the pagan nations
