Welcome to Day 1549 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Bible Study – The Details and Context of Bible Interpretation – Meditation Monday

Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! Wisdom is the final frontier in gaining true knowledge. Our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, seek out discernment and insights, and boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; this is Gramps; thanks for coming along on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy Today is Day 1549 of our Trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy. For you, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. You may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life, Meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and in prayer. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and making sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you, too, will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind.

 We are continuing our series this week on Meditation Monday as we focus on Mastering Bible Study through a series of brief insights from Hebrew Scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Our current insights are focusing on accurately interpreting the Bible. Today let us meditate on:

Bible Study – The Details and Context of Bible Interpretation

·      Insight Forty-Nine: “Level of Detail” Is Not a Key to Bible Interpretation

I’ll have to explain this one. It’s a pet peeve of mine.

The ‘level of detail approach to interpretation is something that careless Bible teachers and even scholars use to justify certain “literal” interpretations of prophecy, whatever “literal” means. The more detailed an Old Testament prophecy (so we are told), the more it demands a literal fulfillment in the “end times.”

Really? Let’s think about that logic.

More detail in a prophecy = literal interpretation. If so, what does that mean for prophecies that have less detail? Should we presume their fulfillment is nonliteral? The truth is that the amount of words or the length of a prophecy is no indication of how it should be interpreted.

For example, the prophet Ezekiel uses nine chapters (40-48) to envision a future, idealized temple that would replace the recently destroyed Jerusalem temple. The densely detailed description is often used to justify the interpretation that the vision requires a literal fulfillment— that Ezekiel’s vision is the blueprint for a structure that will someday be built in Jerusalem. Other interpreters point out that the level of detail omits items that are crucial to a functioning temple. The prophecy is almost entirely devoid of height dimensions, an odd omission if these were building plans. Essential furnishings found in the earlier temple and the tabernacle, such as the ark of the covenant and the golden lampstand, are missing from Ezekiel’s description. There are no lavers for priests to wash themselves. There is no wall around the inner court and no roof to any part of the envisioned temple, which are both essential to preserve the sanctity of the sacred space. While nine chapters offer a significant amount of detail, these omissions would produce an incomplete, nonfunctional building. Detail alone cannot justify literal interpretation.

Alternatively, prophecies of little more than one line were certainly envisioning a literal event. But that often didn’t matter. They were still difficult. Even after the resurrection, the disciples had trouble processing what had just happened and what it meant (Luke 24:36-49). The risen Jesus had to ‘‘open their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). The Gospels were written in hindsight, and only in hindsight could the disciples discern the importance of prophecies like Zechariah 9:9 (“your king is coming to you . . . humble and mounted on a donkey”; cf. Matt. 21:5), Psalm 41:9 (“my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me”; cf. John 13:38), and Psalm 78:2 (“I will open my mouth in a parable”; cf. Matt 13:35).

The point is that level of detail isn’t a hermeneutical method for interpreting prophecy. This is especially true when the New Testament itself gives us an interpretation. At times, these New Testament interpretations defy any sort of literalism. Prophecy gets fulfilled in a variety of ways. But that’s for another day.

·      Insight Fifty: The Proper Context for Interpreting the Bible Is the Context That Produced the Bible

We often hear the mantra “interpret the Bible in context.” But what that means can be easily misunderstood. Positively, there is more than one context that needs consideration for Bible interpretation. But the negative aspect of context is also essential. By “negative,” I mean interpreting the Bible through the lens of a context alien to the biblical writers.

Biblical theology must derive from the biblical text. That makes getting the whole ‘context’ thing right.

The context for correctly understanding the Bible is not the early church fathers’ writings, men like Augustine, Irenaeus, and Tertullian. It is not the Catholic Church, despite the brilliance of theologians like Aquinas. It is not Reformation thought, the works of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. It is not the Puritans, the Wesley brothers, or the famous Princeton theologians like Warfield, Machen, and Wilson. It is not evangelicalism. The proper context for interpreting the Bible is the context that produced it. Every other context is a foreign context.

While this seems obvious, it is frequently not observed in real life—and authentic Bible interpretation, preaching, and teaching. Filtering the Bible through writers, creeds, and confessions happens every day. It is the biblical text that’s inspired, not these other leaders and their writings. If we fail to observe this truth, we’ll end up in interpretive places that the inspired writers of the Bible never intended.

This is not to say historic Christianity got everything wrong. That would be a silly exaggeration. My point is one of priority and perspective. Bible interpretation that arose after the biblical period must take a back seat to the Bible itself. We must allow the world in which the biblical writers lived—their intellectual and cultural circumstances—to inform us about what the biblical authors wrote, how they wrote it, and why they wrote it. Only then will we be able to see the Bible as the original audience saw it. Only then can we avoid imposing a foreign context on our Bible interpretation.

Joshua 1:8

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

That is a wrap for today’s Meditation. Next week we will continue our trek on Meditation Monday as we take time to reflect on what is most important in creating our living legacy. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

If you would like to listen to any of the past 1548 daily treks or read the daily Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and Journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you tomorrow!