LONG LONG AGO AND FAR FAR AWAY - THE NEED FOR INTERPRETATION

The Bible is the selective written record communicating the intent, origin, history, and development of the relationship between God and humanity.

In Unit 2 we discovered what a record is, examined its key components, and tried to understand some of the concepts involved in its Divine authorship: inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility.

Unit 3 took us on a fascinating journey through the development of writing and its use in creating God's written message to humanity, and the role God's people played in this process.

Unit 4 focused on the historical development of that record, how it was compiled and written down, and how it came to us today as a complete record, in a form that we can understand.

But while it is a complete record in terms of what God wanted to communicate to us, the Bible is also a highly selective record. Unit 5 tackled the difficult questions around the selection process behind the compilation of the Scriptures (what was included, and why) and tried to better understand the process of inspiration: how did the human authors hear from God and decide what to include?

In units 6-9 we conducted a quick survey of the history contained in the Bible:
Unit 6 covered the longest time period, from creation to the time of the Patriarchs, ending with the family of Jacob settling in Egypt.
Unit 7 started at Israel's slavery in Egypt, and ended with the kingdom of Solomon, and a prophecy of its coming division.
Unit 8 took us from the division of the kingdom, through the Exile and Israel's subsequent return to their land, to the arrival of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets.
Unit 9 started with the ministry of John the Baptist, and his annunciation of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Then we looked at the life, death, resurrection, and ascencion of Jesus, before covering the history of the early Church, from its beginning on the day of Pentecost to the death of John, the longest-living apostle, in AD 100.

Thousands of years, with fascinating characters, breath-taking action, all ultimately portraying God's activity and communication in human history. As we progressed, we recognised God's repeated promise of a Messiah, the One who would come to undo the effects of the Fall of man, and finally usher in God's kingdom on earth.

The question now is: what do we make of all of this? What does all this history, all God's efforts to create a record communicating with humanity, all the efforts and suffering of God's people and their preservation of this record, say to us? What does it mean for us, living today? And how do we extract the correct information and intended meaning from a book more than 2000 years old?

Which brings us to the question of Biblical interpretation: how to apply an ancient document to the world we find ourselves in. Keeping in mind that the purpose of the Bible is to be a record, a communication, about the relationship between God and humanity, how do we attempt to understand this communication? How do we discover in history and people, geneaologies and strange lands, varied cultures and societies, the word of God to us today?

WHAT TYPE OF COMMUNICATION?

Everybody knows what an e-mail is: an electronic record containing words, images, attachments, and sometimes dangerous viruses, intended to convey information to us. Sometimes it is just casual information about our lives: the dog ate my student's homework (again), we're finally settling into our new home....up to and including job offers and terminations, and life's beginnings and ends.

And obviously the contents determine (to a large extent) an e-mail's value to both receiver and sender. The product key to the operating system of your computer is worth much more than some neighborhood gossip, and will be handled and saved accordingly. The first e-mailed photo of a grandchild from the other side of the world will be cherished and looked at again and again. And that final "Dear Johnny, this isn't working..." letter might be kept to mope over or (more probably) be deleted immediately with accompanying anger/distress/sadness and perhaps some choice words.

The point is, contents determine value. So what does the Bible say about its contents? Perhaps more to the point, what does the Bible say about, and claim for, itself?

As we have seen in Unit 5, the Bible authors claimed unapologetically that their words and writings were from the LORD, not themselves.

The apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, declares that "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Greek term theopneustos, rendered "God-breathed," is striking in its construction. Paul does not say merely that Scripture is inspired by God in the sense of being spiritually uplifting or divinely influenced; he asserts that it is, in its very substance, the product of God's breath. The image recalls Genesis 2:7, where God breathes life into Adam, suggesting that just as human life originates in the breath of God, so too does the life and authority of the scriptural text originate in that same divine breath.

It is important to note that Paul applies this claim to "all Scripture," not merely portions of it: the whole canon, as it was organically formed, first by the Jewish scribes and later by the New Testament writers and the church itself, is the inspired word of God - not just some passages deemed spiritually edifying by the readers or critics.

The apostle Peter restated that claim in 2 Peter 1:20-21: "no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things," because "prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit". And two chapters further he included the writings of Paul as being on par with "the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:16) being distorted by people.

The writers of the Scriptures as well as the shapers of the canon had no doubt about what they were doing. And as we approach this ancient communication, our starting point and foundation is that "God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (Heb. 1:1-2).


 
 
 
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