3 Hermeneutical Roadblocks
There is a fantastic conversation between Ps Mark Varughese and Ps Shane Willard in an "On the Phone With Mark Varughese" session in Greenroom. Ps Shane Willard has some incredible insights on the Bible, and Ps Mark leads the discussion that keeps the viewer asking some really interesting questions.
I've personally watched this session 4 times and am left in tears every instance. Why? Not because it's an emotionally compelling story, but it is pure scripture in its divine essence. It is one of the best examples of how getting a deeper understanding of the scripture can make Jesus so much more real.
In this post I want to share about just one aspect of their discussion that had a profound impact on how I read and study the Bible. I won't spoil the whole session as I'd really encourage you to sign up and have a watch yourself, but here is a summary.
I've previously written about "Roadblocks to Studying Your Bible" being a lack of understanding WHY to study the Bible, HOW to study it, or WHEN to study it. In this session Ps Mark and Ps Shane talk about 3 of the most common errors people make when interpreting scripture - these are great examples of some HOW roadblocks
Genre confusion
Static appropriation
Lack of understanding of the historical arc
They all lead in to bigger discussions, but here's what I learnt from them and how they contributed to the development of my own Bible roadmap.
Genre Confusion
This is a big one, and could account for 80% of interpretive errors. The books of the Bible are written in various genres (and sometimes sub-genres).
These can be simply categorised as the
Torah (Genesis - Deuteronomy) - historical narratives
History (Joshua - Job)
Poetry (Psalms - Song of Solomon)
Prophets (Isaiah - Malachi)
Gospels (Matthew - John)
Apostolic Letters (Acts - Jude)
Apocalyptic (Revelations)
The authors of the books of the Bible were very intentional about how they wrote what they did and that it matched a certain type of genre. The problem occurs when we start reading something that was written with a certain genre in mind as if it’s a different genre.
If you go in to a Marvel movie expecting a romance, you're going to be disappointed. If you watch a comedy and interpreting it as a thriller, it won't make much sense.
We often do the same with the Bible - we read poetry as if it’s a narrative account, or a prophetic text as a literal meaning. Each genre is different and trying to accomplish a certain outcome.
This is what Satan did when tempting Jesus in the wilderness - he attempted to use genre confusion with Jesus, but Jesus responded with correct understanding.
Satan quotes a Psalm (poem) as if its a specific promise:
Matthew 4:6 - "and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
But Jesus responds with a law:
Matthew 4:7 - Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
To avoid genre confusion in the development of our own Bible roadmap, we need to read more about the structure and textual context of the Bible.
Static Appropriation
This sounds fancy, but makes a lot of sense the more you think about it.
We often read the Bible through our own cultural understanding and attempt to apply the culture of the text to us now. This can result in some awkward instances of reading about the treatment of slaves and women and prisoners of war and thinking that the Bible is barbaric. But in the context of the world at the time of writing, these rules were incredibly humane and innovative towards the protection of all human life.
For example, Deuteronomy 21:10-14 talks about what to do if you want to take a woman who is a prison of war as a wife. In today's context this is a rather confronting and disturbing way to treat others. But in the context of ancient civilisations that would rape and pillage those they defeated, this is huge improvement to treating others as the image of God.
This is often misunderstood as when we think about the Bible being divinely inspired - we think this means the Bible was being dictated by God. This incorrect way of understanding divine inspiration complicates things because if God is always right, then His writings show that He must change His mind a lot.
Instead, inspiration means that the authors were writing something that God has breathed on to give life.
If you compare the story to the time period, we can see that God is progressively improving society. Another example - Paul writes about a structure of the family that was impossible to have at the time, but we are living out now in our time.
To get around this, you need to read about the history and world-views of the audiences at the time - the audiences context.
Historical Arc
This is a little more complex and has less to do with how you apply what you're learning, but how you see the Bible culminating in the story of Christ. Each author is building on a better understanding of who Jesus is.
For example, Moses used a limited understanding of the world and God to write about a coming Messiah. There wasn't a lot there, but it is deeply embedded in his texts. Whereas Micah has a much more complete understanding of God and this is more evident in his writing. Then you get to Jesus who has a complete understanding of God, and this presents an incredible historical arc of the understanding of God.
When you read each book of the Bible, you need to keep in mind the author's own understanding of Christ.
This then displays a profound reality that regardless of how poorly someone understood God, He always presented His reality to them in a way that made sense.
Abraham believed that a child sacrifice was required to keep God happy. So God presented His reality and authority to Abraham in that way that resulted in animal sacrifices rather than child sacrifices. When you get to the Roman civilisation, they believed that gods could be incarnate in men. So God was able to present Himself as a living man.
The story of the Bible is the retelling of God meeting people where they are. And this story is still happening today within our own testimonies.
We can learn more about this by getting to know how each author's Christology is reflected in their writing which can be found in various commentaries.
Does this mean that everything you've learn is wrong and void?
Not at all! I fundamentally believe that all theology you've learnt, even the bad stuff, can help you build your understanding of the Bible.
By knowing where not to drive to can always help me in my own navigation.
Having a foundation of bad or inadequate theology isn't a bad thing, its a jumping point for you to move on from.
This was is only a brief summary of the first half of the video. I highly suggest you go watch the rest (or sign up for Kingdomcity Greenroom) and see what else is on there.
Regardless of your temperament or your willingness to study the Bible, these areas should start to shift your paradigms of Biblical interpretation.