1. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation Lecture 5
Maritime Christian College
Scott Jacobsen, Instructor

2. Nonsense
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

3. False Dichotomy
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Knowledge (even Bible knowledge) is contrary to caring.
I want to show you I care.
What I know is unimportant, until you know I care.
Question to ask yourself:
Is this true in any other field?
Is Bible knowledge somehow incompatible with caring?

4. “Always preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”
Nonsense 2.0
“Always preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”

5. Nonsense 2.0 “Always preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”
This assumes that the Gospel is preached by actions, not by words.
Creates a False dichotomy between words and action.
Try this:
“Feed the hungry. If necessary, use food.”

6. Further Nonsense: Last One Today
“Deeds not creeds.”

7.              
“The use of fashions in thought is to distract men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is in the least danger, and fix its approval on the virtue that is nearest the vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running around with fire extinguishers whenever there’s a flood; and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gone under.”

8. Review of Approaching the Text
Read it several times, more than one translation.
Read the book (context)
Be aware of the genre (Epistle)
Be aware of the book in the Canon
New Testament
After the Cross
Relationship to the rest of Paul’s ministry—consider especially the book of Acts.
Always ask, “What did the first readers/hearers understand from this text?”
Outline the Text

9. More on Approaching the Text (8 parts of speech)
Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection

10. Epistles
What is meant by the term “occasional,” when referring to an epistle?

11. Epistles: Historical Context
Consult a Bible Dictionary
Read the whole letter through in one sitting
Ask questions
“what you notice about the recipients themselves (e.g., whether Jew or Greek, whether wealthy or slave; their problems, attitudes, etc.)
Paul’s attitudes
any specific things mentioned as to the specific occasion of the letter
the letter’s natural, logical divisions”
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 62.

12. Epistles: Literary Context
Think paragraphs
Look for the logical flow of the argument
Connecting words
And
Therefore
But
Then

13. What does the text mean to us?
Hermeneutics
What does the text mean to us?

14. Two Basic Rules of Hermeneutics
“A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers.”
“Whenever we share comparable particulars (i.e., similar specific life situations) with the first-century hearers, God’s Word to us is the same as his Word to them.”
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2014), 77-78

15. Hermeneutics: What Matters?
What the Epistles specifically indicate as matters of indifference may still be regarded as such: food, drink, observance of days, etc.
Matters of indifference are not inherently moral but are cultural—even if they stem from religious culture. Matters that tend to p 80 differ from culture to culture, therefore, even among genuine believers, may usually be considered to be matters of indifference (e.g., wine and nonwine cultures).

16. Hermeneutics: What Matters?
The sin-lists in the Epistles (e.g., Rom 1:29–30; 1 Cor 5:11; 6:9–10; 2 Tim 3:2–4) never include the first-century equivalents of the items we have listed above. Moreover, such matters of indifference are never included among the various lists of Christian imperatives (e.g., Rom 12; Eph 5; Col 3; etc.).
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 83

17. Hermeneutics and Cultural Relativity
One should first distinguish between the central core of the message of the Bible and what is dependent on or peripheral to it.
Similarly, one should be prepared to distinguish between what the New Testament itself sees as inherently moral and what is not.
One must make special note of items where the New Testament itself has a uniform and consistent witness and where it reflects differences.
It is important to be able to distinguish within the New Testament itself between principle and specific application.

18. Hermeneutics and Cultural Relativity
It might also be important, as much as one is able to do this with care, to determine the cultural options open to any New Testament writer.
One must keep alert to possible cultural differences between the first and twenty-first centuries that are sometimes not immediately obvious.
One must finally exercise Christian charity at this point.
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 85-88

19. Assignments: Outline
Outline the structure of the text in a way that represents the author’s organization of the text. Please provide an outline that clearly indicates verse breaks for each unit and provide headings. [Consider grammar, repetition key terms, sequence, sudden grammatical/topical changes, rhetoric, etc.]

20. Assignment: Structure
What emphasis does the structure reveal?

21. Assignment: Context
How does the immediate context—the passages on both sides of your text—inform the meaning of your text?

22. Assignment: Theme
Drawing on your work in structure, emphasis and context, sate the central theme of the text in one complete sentence.

23. Assignment: Gospel
What are a few ways that your text relates to the gospel (i.e. the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, repentance, forgiveness of sins)?

24. Assignment: Aim
In one sentence, what is the author’s aim for his audience in this text? Given that aim, what implication(s) and/or application(s) for your audience would you draw out in your sermon?

25. New Assignment: Old Testament Narrative
Text: “David and Goliath”
Locate the pericope
Use the Worksheet and answer the questions
Put your name on the worksheet
If possible, show your work beneath each heading of the worksheet