Lecture 10: Methods of Biblical Interpretation: Part 2

Question 1

The History of Modern Biblical Criticism

Answer 1

• Modern biblical criticism seeks to establish the historical reality behind the text, and the intentions of the author or authors
• By contrast, Christian use of the Bible seeks to figure out what God has revealed about himself and his will for humanity
• Modern biblical criticism came out of the Enlightenment and its critiques of religious traditions and authorities - it was created to test the reliability of the Bible, according to current accepted standards of knowledge - Supernatural elements in the Bible needed to be rejected or reinterpreted on rationalist and scientific grounds - it was believed that to be truly objective, one must set aside any religious commitments which would bias the investigation - there were also Christian attempts to incorporate these secular rationalist observations and findings with Christian use of the Bible in order to strengthen it

Question 2

The Enlightenment

Answer 2

an 18th century philosophical movement which rejected traditional and religious authorities in favour of individual human reason as the best way to discover truth

Question 3

Two Principles of Modern Biblical Criticism

Answer 3

1. Naturalism
2. A Hermeneutic of Suspicion

Question 4

Naturalism

Answer 4

the philosophical presupposition that the natural world is all that exists, and therefore that we should only look for and accept natural explanations of any events
- naturalism is one of the central presuppositions of science, which studies the natural world
- The success of science would lead to it all being seen as the only valid way to acquire knowledge
- In biblical criticism, this means the supernatural elements of scripture have to be rejected, without any investigation of their plausibility

Question 5

A hermeneutic of suspicion

Answer 5

a way of approaching the text that assumes the author is not telling the truth unless their claims can be independently verified
- adopted by Modern biblical criticism as a reaction against religious authorities who had uncritically accepted everything the biblical writers said as true
- as a result, the ability of modern biblical criticism to arrive at the truth behind the biblical writings is compromised

Question 6

Modern Biblical Criticism in Practice

Answer 6

• The goal of the historical-critical method to get behind the text to the historical reality shows a strong distrust of the biblical writers
• sources criticism: the method of interpretation that searches for the original sources that are thought to form the basis of the text being interpreted
• the assumptions of Modern Biblical criticism are inappropriate for the task of theology
• distrusting the biblical writers and rejecting supernatural explanations is contrary to the Christian faith
• the theological use of scripture needs to keep in mind both the importance and the problematic nature of modern biblical interpretation

Question 7

Two Correctives to the Protestant Reliance on Modern Biblical Criticism

Answer 7

1. Ensuring our interpretations are formed by the history of Christian interpretation of Scripture
2. A new approach: Theological Interpretation of Scripture

Question 8

Theological Interpretation of Scripture

Answer 8

Definition: a group of methods of interpretation that:
- treat the biblical text as scripture, rather than just any book
- believe that biblical interpretation should be done for and by the Church
- Seek to do justice to the theological nature of the texts

Question 9

Assumptions of theological interpretation of scripture

Answer 9

• the community that is best positioned to determine what the scriptural texts are trying to say is the church - to whom it was written
• the tradition is the record of the church’s understanding of the meaning of scripture, and the rule of faith is the set of instructions for how scripture should be interpreted
• Jesus Christ is the subject of scripture, and this assumption should guide its interpretation