Research to Interpretation to Appropriation
Research to Interpretation to Appropriation
Research – Analysis – the seed – what is there?
Data gathering – repetition, contrasts, comparisons, key words or concepts
Tools – Strong’s Concordance, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, http://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/
Thayer’s Lexicon, Bible Dictionary
Versions of the Bible
Interpretation – What did it mean to the recipients? Cultural context, Literary context,
What does it say – not what do we think it should say. Learn to ask good interpretive questions (not application).
Tools – Manners and Customs of the Bible, Commentaries http://www.biblestudytools.com/
Appropriation – What is its significance in my context?
§ Can’t I just read and apply the passage?
§ Not quite for two reasons:
§ Partiality. Any one text is only the partial witness of Scripture
§ Particularity. The message of every text is conditioned by and specific to a particular socio-historical context.
§ Application Must Be Contextual
§ Basic Questions
§ What is the function of the biblical instruction in its original context?
§ How is our context the same and how is it different?
§ How can that instruction function analogously in our context?
§ We are not obliged to canonize the cultural particulars in which biblical instructions are cast.
§ All application of the Bible is therefore an exercise of the analogical imagination.
§ Application is akin to language translation
§ Problems of Old and New Testaments (Covenants)
§ Superficial “solutions”:
§ The “solution” of unreflective literalism: the OT is God’s word; therefore it applies without qualification.
§ The “solution” of Marcionism: the OT is “old”; it has been superseded by the NT and is therefore irrelevant.
§ A better way
§ The OT is revelatory. God’s mind and purposes are really revealed in and through it.
§ But the OT is also provisional, finding its ultimate interpretation and norm in the revelation of Jesus Christ and its appropriation by the NT.
§ Therefore, the OT is appropriated by means of Jesus as its ultimate fulfillment and normative interpretation
Move from meaning to universals to present context – how can it be decontextualized and recontextualized
Character Study
Tools: Strong’s, ISBE, Bible Dictionary, Thayer’s
Stage one – Enoch – Hebrews 11:5, Genesis 5:21-24, Jude 14
Name –
Main events –
Stage two – list scripture verses, details, insights in 3 columns
Stage three – Questions????
1. Background
2. Prominent events
3. Character traits – positive negative
4. Principles
5. Lessons – interpretation, appropriation
Book Study
Book study combines all of the other studies in various ways, passage, word, character place, topical (Ephesians)
1. Read the book 2 or 3 times and define the divisions
2. What is its Genre
3. Main themes of the book
4. Background - time, place, politics, religion, culture, history
5. Characters – writer, recipients, others
6. Reasons or source for the book
7. Textual Connections
8. Key words or concepts
9. Outline important aspects
10. Interpretive questions
Textual Study
1. Is it a complete thought (Ephesians 4:11-16)
2. Discover the major thought
3. Break it open and list the parts – outline it
4. Key words or concepts
5. Content, relation with other Scriptures, Comments
6. Exegete
7. Conclusions