Holy Words.ppt

7/27/2019 Holy Words.ppt

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HOLY WORDS--HOLY WRIT

The discussion of the Word of God too

often limits itself to either the text or the

person

This overlooks that before the text and

before the Incarnation there was already the

Word of God spoken, and the oral word

continued to be called Word of God

This is not surprising since the Bible arose

in predominantly oral cultures


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

In an oral culture the spoken word was

surpreme and seen as a living thing,

especially in its prophetic form

Both the ANE cultures and the Greco-

Roman world believed in prophetic

pronouncements from a divine source

Jews and Christians were no different in this

beliefas monotheists they called it the

Word of God


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

It was a fundamental belief of monotheistic

Jews and Christians in Biblical times that an

Almighty God could indeed speak the

divine word accurately and adequately

through human vesselswhether they were

prophets, priests, or kings, or ordinary

people (see my Jesus the SeerHendrickson Press)

To deny the reality of this phenomenon was

to deny that true prophecy was possible


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

Jews reasoned that if God could speak all of

creation into existence (Gen. 1) that God

was perfectly capable of truthfully revealing

his word and will through human agents and

oracles

It is then not surprising that we find the

equation already in the Hebrew Scripturesthat what Torah says, God says (Ps. 119)


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

Thus the idea of Holy Writ was not a new

one in NT times, much less an idea that the

church dreamed up after NT times

In fact we see it clearly, applied to the OT

in 2 Tim.3.16all Scripture is God-

breathed and is useful for teaching,

rebuking, correcting, and training inrighteousness.

Notice the stress on God ex-spiring

breathing out these words.


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

While 2 Tim. 3.16 enunciates a theology of

Holy Writ, this is not a new innovation, nor

a specifically Christian one.

Notice that it is given in a context where

there is a strong belief that oral

proclamation is also Word of God

1 Thess. 2.13when you received the

Word of God, which you heard from us,

you accepted it not as the word of humans,

but as it actually isthe Word of God


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

Notice Lukes penchant for speaking of the

fact that the Word of God

grew/spread/increased Acts 6.7; 12.24

The idea is of a living Word which can

grow or spread or increase

To sum up, the concept Word of God was

applied to oral communication, and written

communication from God, before it was

applied to a personJesus.


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

It appears clear that in the NT period there

were already two developments that went

beyond the idea of Holy Word (oral) or

Holy Writ (Hebrew Scriptures)

The first of these was the treating of

Christian documents as also Holy Writ. 2

Pet. 3.16 speaks of Pauls letters ascontaining some things that the unstable

distortas they do the other Scriptures


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

This move, treating Pauls letters as one

form of sacred text, is not surprising, since

the NT movement was initiated and carried

on by prophetic figuresJesus, Peter, Paul

and others, people who were inspired to

speak Gods Word, and the inscripturation

of it was simply the natural further step topreserve the God-whispered words.

Oracles spoke verbatim Gods words, being

Gods mouthpieces1 Cor. 14.36-37


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

The final and in some ways most intriguing

step in this process was the identification of

Gods Word with the pre-incarnate Son of

God, who took on fleshJohn 1The

Word became flesh

What was previously predicated of Wisdom

(Prov. 3,8; Wis. Of Sol.) and of Torah(Sirach), is here predicated of an historical

personJesus, or in Rev. 19.13 of the

returning exalted Christ


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HOLY WORDSHOLY WRIT

CONCLUSIONS: A clear and multifaceted

Word of God theology already existed in

Biblical times. It was not later imposed on a

series of texts which were not thought to

convey Gods message.

This theology involved oral proclamation,

texts, and a personJesus.

Texts like Ps. 119 and 2 Tim. 3.16 show it

was believed that what Scripture said, God

said, and it was trustworthy and true.


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THE WORD AND THE WORK

Hermeneutical issuesHow much of the

OT applies to Christians, since we are under

the new covenant not the old ones?

Hermeneutical move 1all that is not

specifically abrogated in the NT still applies

Hermeneutical move 2only that which is

reaffirmed in the NT are Christians

obligated to keep or follow


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An understanding of covenantal theology

and church historical usage leads to the

conclusion that the second hermeneutical

move was deemed to be the correct one.

This conclusion arose because texts like the

Sermon on the Mount or Pauls letter to the

Galatians assumed that the followers ofJesus were in an eschatological situation

and no longer bound to the Mosaic Law


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HERMENEUTICAL ISSUESIt needs to

be stressed that claims about the Word of

God applied in antiquity, as today, directly

to the original text in its original languages

not to some specific translation in whatever

language.

Every translation is already aninterpretation, unavoidably so.

This is why original language study of

Gods Word is essential to good preaching.


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Nevertheless, in a derivative sense, a careful

and accurate translation while not infallible

or inerrant can certainly adequately convey

the Word of God, and as such be called the

Word of God in this derivative sense

A text without a context is just a pretext for

whatever one wants it to mean. The Wordshould always be studied and preached

based on a knowledge of the various

contexts


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Careful contextual study of the Word is the

best hedge against anachronism, or reading

into the text things that are not there

It is also the best protection against asking

the wrong sorts of questions of the Bible.

For example, the Bible says nothing about

whether we should fly in planes or not, orelect Presidents or not. All too often

misunderstandings come from misreadings

and false presuppositions.


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At a minimum an openness to the concept

of miracle, including the concept of

revelation from God is necessary is one is

going to deal with the Bible fairly and on its

own terms

There is also always the temptation to

whittle off the hard edges of the texts wefind offensivethis is a mistake. Those

texts will tell us some uncomfortable things

we need to know about ourselves and God.


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The dictum of J. Bengel was a good one

apply the whole of the text to yourself;

apply the whole of yourself to the text In

this context one can deal with problem

passages and problematic ideas. In this

fashion one avoids assuming a posture of

standing as an authority over the text andassuming ones own judgment should have

the last word and be the arbiter of truth.


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Rather Gods Word should have the first

and last word, in ones dialogue with

Scripture. The Reformers including the

Anglican ones did not come up with theslogan sola Scriptura for nothing.

The authority of tradition, reason, or

experience should not be allowed to trumpthe authority of Scripture. Otherwise it

ceases to be canonthe measuring rod of

truth.


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Rules of thumbif the Bible is indeed a

perspicuous though not exhaustive

expression of Gods truth and will, then one

must beware of those who say the Spirit (orexperience or reason) is now saying to the

church. when the content of those

remarks clearly contradicts Scripture. Thisis a recipe for moral relativism and anarchy

in the Church. Experiences can be genuine

and at the same time false and deceptive.


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Careful contextual exegesis in dialogue with

commentaries and other resources is the

first step in a clear proclamation of the

Word of God in the Bible.

Like it or not, ministers are called to be the

resident experts in the Bible in their parish,

since they are the primary exponents andexpositors of the Word.


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There is a leading of the Spirit into all truth

of course, but what that leading entails is

Christological in character. As the Gospel

of John suggeststhe Parakletos is one whocalls to mind the teaching and example of

Jesus. The Parakletos is Christs agent and

does not speak on his own authority.


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Tips for interpretationNT books should be

interpreted according to their ancient genre

(biography, historical monograph, letters,

sermons, apocalypse)

Ancient writers were not nearly so

concerned about chronological precision as

we are

There are both figurative and literal types of

material in the Bible


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Tips for Interpretationapocalyptic

prophecy is perhaps the most complex

material in the NT. One should never start

the study of the NT with this material

Parables in early Judaism are a form of

wisdom literature that involves extended

metaphor or analogy, but can haveallegorical elements. Riddle, proverb,

aphorism, parable, allegory all fall under the

heading mashal/parabolos


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Errors are to be defined within the

parameters of assessing what the author was

trying to dofor example if the author was

trying to give a general description of anevent, not a precise one, he should not be

faulted for imprecision

Accurate reports of lies, mistakes, literaryfictions, jokes, dramatic hyperbole likewise

do not fall into the category of errors


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Paraphrastic or midrashic use of the OT was

common in early Judaism and does not

constitute a misquotation of the Scripture.

Again one has to ask what the author isattempting to do and how he is using the

text.

Mistranslations by modern translators donot constitute ancient errors (e.g. Heb. 12.1-

2 or Phil 2.4).

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Holy Words.ppt

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