Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Hermenutics- I like it!




I am going to respond to that which Michelle wrote on her blog because I like the topic and I have a few discrepancies or at least comments:


Michelle Writes:
I really am fascinated by this new section of Christian theory / hermeneutics that we are studying in class, one that I think is so often neglected when studying the Bible in general. I thought of this quote when we were discussing the question of Biblical interpretation. Someone actually brought up the fact that when we interpret the Bible today for ourselves, we are actually "interpreting an interpretation," since the Bible wasn't originally written in English, but translated from the Greek, Hebrew, and Latin (not necessarily in that order - see, I don't even know how our English translation came about!). Therefore, choices were made when interpreting words and phrases from language to language, since Augustine himself talks about the discrepancies sometimes found between languages. And from this short talk on the topic, I was left with a lot of questions and thoughts on Biblical interpretation.
My Response:
Hermenutics not talked about? Certainly we must hang out in different circles. I feel like I am constantly in conversation over biblical interpretation. Then again I am studying in the biblical and religious studies department and I am going to divinity school next year. Maybe I am the one who usually strikes up these conversations, but I don’t know they seem to be preeminent in my life. Indeed we are interpreting an interpretation. The good news (pun- ha) is that the interpretations that we have of the Bible are fairly similar to one another there is nothing vastly different about the way scholars have translated from the biblical language to the language of our context. It is true, what Augustine writes about translating biblical language. There are simply some words that can’t be translated from say Koine Greek to English. In example, take the word Amen we leave it as Amen in the English but really it means something like “so let it be” if I remember correctly back to my days of studying Koine Greek.
Michelle Writes:
First off, let's just think about one of the questions we discussed in class as a spin-off from this main theme: Do all readers have authority to interpret a text, or do scholars have greater authority based on their greater expertise? From looking at the above context, it seems that only scholars would have the means to go back to the Greek, Hebrew, and Latin to see what the original texts actually said. Then they are able to aid us in our present-day interpretive quandaries. But the common person is not fluent in any of these languages, and therefore cannot even begin to see their original meanings. And with meanings also comes connotations to words. Each society attaches connotations to words and phrases, and different meanings come about for words as the years go on (just look at where a word like "gay" has come from over the centuries, and what it means now). So words and phrases that mean something to us now meant something totally different to the Biblical writers, hence where many of our interpretational difficulties come from. Now, commentaries are available for the common person who does not go to school for Biblical studies or for languages such as the ones mentioned above, but really, let's be honest, when was the last time any of us picked up a commentary or concordance when we read the Bible. I'll be honest: I never have, unless I had to for a class. And I've forgotten most of what I learned there.
My Response:
Certainly, not all of us can read translate the Bible from the original, but thankfully that is done for us. Our job is to understand, or to interpret the meaning of that which has already been interpreted into our language. Michelle…I will be honest…I am a dork and I care about biblical interpretation and I do often use a Greek concordance and practice translation when reading the New Testament…there are some of us weirdos out there…
Michelle Writes:

I took my last Bible class last semester, and I will never forget something the professor said. Our study was going deep into historical contexts and into many other areas that I had never heard of in the church. The professor said that the average preacher would not know half of these things, for they do not go to school and study all the same things that Biblical professors study... their classes are different for the different degrees (I'm sure I'm grossly misquoting, but the point was that Biblical scholars often "know more" than the average preacher, and if they do know the same amount, there is no way they can cover such intense and obscure topics as we are talking about here in a Sunday sermon - they'd lose half the audience!). That leaves us with scholars who know more about the Bible, or can talk more about the Bible in different ways than the average preacher can on a Sunday morning, and therefore they have authority to help us interpret in ways we couldn't do because of lack of knowledge.
My Response:
HOLD UP! Dare I say…don’t believe EVERYTHING your professors say. I would say it depends largely upon whether the pastor has had a seminary/divinity school education. Most denominations today require such an education. So if a pastor has his or her MDIV degree they most likely had to studying biblical languages as part of their education. I would know I have looked into many divinity school curriculums. I have heard the same kind of response from Bible professors who have liberal theological views. They say they hold these views because they have studied Hebrew and Greek and that their knowledge from such has led them to have these view- to which I say…HOG WASH there are many conservative biblical and theological scholars who have studied just as much biblical language. I argue it is all about one’s presuppositions
Michelle Writes:
Going back to the beginning, the study of languages opens up a whole new arena for Biblical interpretation, because we are seeing the original language and what those words really were. And if we go into the historical context, we see what those words really meant to the people of that day. My Bible professor last semester often gave us the Greek interpretation of the passage we were reading, focusing on what the words really meant for the people then. It was an awakening for me. But in the end, that's as far as it went. I haven't researched any deeper into it (mostly for lack of time and energy, since life takes over with all its busyness). And that leads me to not be as much as an "authority" as my professor, since I do not know all that he knows. Yes, it is at my disposal with the advent of such a large dissemination of print texts, but I also need the time to go and find those books... and then read them.
My Response:
I of course don’t know who your professor is or what his agenda but all I can say is you have to use discretion. This is why I am such a proponent of doing my own study. Maybe one of the reasons I am headed off to divinity school next year myself. I think we have to be aware that scholars often use their authority to bend the truth, or simply just to interpret it in a way that suits themselves and it is easy to fall into the trap of believing them simply because they have Ph.D by their name…I say…I’ll do the study myself thank you.

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