3. Biblical Interpretation: Step 3
Biblical Interpretation • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 34:33
0 ratings
· 22 views9/27/2020 @ Hilltop Baptist Church
Files
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Grasping God’s Word, by Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays
Grasping God’s Word, by Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays
Duvall, J. Scott, and J. Daniel Hays. Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible. Third Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.
Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge
Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge
Question: What is the theological principle in this text?
This is perhaps the most challenging step. In it you are looking for the theological principle or principles that are reflected in the meaning of the text you identified in Step 1. Remember that this theological principle is part of the meaning. Your task is not to create the meaning but to discover the meaning intended by the author.
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Review of Step 1: Grasping the text in their town.
Review of Step 1: Grasping the text in their town.
Interrogate the text: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
Original audience: Ancient Israelites
What is the author saying? What is going on in the passage? Joshua is encouraging the Israelites to have courage as they enter the Promised Land
When does this passage take place? After the 40 year desert wandering, before the Canaanite Conquest
Where is this passage unfolding? At the border of the Promised Land
Why is this in the Bible? (For now, answer from the perspective of the original audience.) The Conquest of Canaan reveals God’s providence for his people and his faithfulness in keeping his promises.
How is the author communicating? What genre or style is he using? (Is it symbolic, allegory/parable, narrative, exhortatory, prophetic, wisdom, etc.?) Narrative Genre
Careful reading:
Repetition of words—Look for words and phrases that repeat.
Contrasts—Look for ideas, individuals, and/or items that are contrasted with each other. Look for differences.
Comparisons—Look for ideas, individuals, and/or items that are compared with each other. Look also for similarities.
Lists—Anytime the text mentions more than two items, identify them as a list.
Cause and effect—Look for cause-and-effect relationships.
Figures of speech—Identify expressions that convey an image, using words in a sense other than the normal literal sense.
Conjunctions—Notice terms that join units, like “and,” “but,” “for.” Note what they are connecting.
Verbs—Note whether a verb is past, present, or future; active or passive; and the like.
Pronouns—Identify the antecedent for each pronoun.
Questions and answers—Note if the text is built on a question-and-answer format.
Dialogue—Note if the text includes dialogue. Identify who is speaking and to whom.
Means—Note if a sentence indicates that something was done by means of someone/something (answers “how?”). Usually you can insert the phrase “by means of” into the sentence.
Purpose/result statements—These are a more specific type of “means,” often telling why. Purpose and result are similar and sometimes indistinguishable. In a purpose statement, you usually can insert the phrase “in order that.” In a result clause, you usually can insert the phrase “so that.”
Conditional clauses—A clause can present the condition by which some action or consequence will result. Often such statements use an “if … then” framework (although in English the “then” is often left out).
General to specific and specific to general—Find the general statements that are followed by specific examples or applications of the general. Also find specific statements that are summarized by a general one.
Actions/roles of God and people—Identify actions or roles that the text ascribes to God or to people
Emotional terms—Does the passage use terms that have emotional energy, like kinship words (“father,” “son”) or words like “pleading”?
Tone of the passage—What is the overall tone of the passage: happy, sad, encouraging, and so on?
Review of Step 2: Measuring the width of the river to cross.
Review of Step 2: Measuring the width of the river to cross.
Start by observing differences between your own context and the context of the original audience.
Historical/Cultural Context:
Setting: We are about 3,000 years and 10,000 miles removed from their situation
Culture, Language: We are not from Ancient Near Eastern Culture, We don’t speak the Hebrew language
Biblical Context:
Old or New Testament? Old Testament—under the Mosaic Covenant
Occasion? We are not promised a geographical land by God, God has not commanded to engage in military conquest over a group of people.
Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge
Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge
Identify similarities between us and the original audience
Though we are not Israelites, we are also the covenant people of God
We may not be leaders of Israel, but (some of us) are leaders within our churches.
We are not invading the Promised Land, but we are seeking to courageously obey God and exercise faith.
Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge
After reviewing the differences and identifying the similarities, return to the meaning for the biblical audience that you described in Step 1 and try to identify a broader theological principle reflected in the text, but also one that relates to the similarities between us and the biblical audience. In essence, the theological principle is the same as the “theological message” or the “main theological point” of the passage. (We will discuss in more detail how to develop theological principles in chapter 10.) We will use this theological principle as the principlizing bridge by which we can cross over the river of differences.
A good theological principle should:
Be reflected in the text.
Be timeless; not tied to a specific situation.
Not be culturally bound.
Correspond to the teaching of the rest of Scripture.
Be relevant both to the biblical and contemporary audience
Write out your theological principle for Joshua 1:1-9 in one or two sentences using present-tense verbs:
“To be effective in serving God and successful in the task to which he has called us, we must draw strength and courage from his presence. We must also be obedient to God’s Word, meditating on it constantly.” (Duvall and Hays, p. 48)