Week 3 Biblical Interpretation Flashcards
NT authors considered OT historical
truthfully relating actual events
NT authors considered OT to be Word of God
spoken by God
NT authors considered context of passages
Mostly
NT authors employed OT in typological way
Some things pointed to greater thing without losing their own significance
NT authors employed OT in messianic way
Pointed to Christ in OT
Types point to antitype
Antitype is the authentic thing
Allegory did not lose original meaning
Eg Hagar and Sarah in Galatians 4
Allegorical interpretation became popular
100-500 ad. Incl Augustine
Fourfold meaning of Scripture became popular
500-1500 ad
Four meanings
Literal, moral, allegorical (spiritual), heavenly (eschatological/anagogical)
Literal
Ex Jerusalem is a physical place
Moral
Jerusalem is the human soul
Spiritual/allegorical
Jerusalem is the Christian soul
Heavenly/eschatological/anagogical
Heavenly city
Return to faithful interpretive method
1500 - present
Ad fontes and sola scriptura
mottos of faithful interpretation movement
Not just Greek but Bible
Luther returned to the Bible as authoritative
Anti Supernatural bias
1650 - present
Good interpretive principle 1: prayerful
John 14:26, 1 Cor 2:12-13 God reveals through Spirit. Need humility.
Good interpretive principle 2: Bible points to Jesus
John 5:39 you search the Scriptures
Good interpretive principle 3: Analogy of faith
Let scripture interpret scripture. By reading NT you better understand OT.
Good interpretive principle 4: Meditate
“Deep thinking for understanding”
Ps 119 O how I love your law.
Good interpretive principle 5: Attitude of faith and obedience
Ps 119
Good interpretive principle 6: Note genre
Law, prophecy, gospel, apocalypse, narrative, discourse, parable, poetry–sometimes a combination
Good interpretive principle 7: Note historical and cultural background issues
patriarchal, Jewish, pagan, Roman, Assyrian, Babylonian, pre-flood etc
Good interpretive principle 8: Context
popularly used verses often aren’t supported by context
Good interpretive principle 9: Read in community
Col 3:16 Let word dwell in you plural richly.
Good interpretive principle 10: Begin the journey of becoming a more faithful interpreter
Entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others.
Avoid gnostic search for hidden meaning
by understanding that God really spoke through human penmen, in human language who wrote in a historical context for a present audience –S Ferguson
It can’t mean more
than it meant to original writer
