How to Baptize the Bible So That It’s Not a Dangerous Book, Part 3

The background work that needs to take place before the biblical words are considered

Lecture 2: The background work we need to do before coming to the biblical words themselves (Summary)

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Hermeneutics, in short, is the science and art—both are involved-–of establishing the original meaning of a work of ancient literature and then, if desired, applying its meaning to contemporary individuals and circumstances. Hermeneutics is not the private possession of interpreters. Interpreters of Sappho and Terentius, and Homer also utilize hermeneutical processes.

Please take note of the following statement from my dear friend and HIGHLY HIGHLY esteemed former colleague, Dr. David Albert Farmer.

I just love David. We are in hopes we can lure him out of retirement and back into preaching classrooms like ours

The ability to understand any literature written in a time and place not our own is enhanced by as much information as we can gather about the following:

• Date. When was it written?

• Locale. Where was it written?

• Language. Even if you don’t read it, in what language was the original material spoken or written? And in what language or languages has it been written on the way to your native tongue? (With every step beyond original language, nuance becomes more difficult to detect idioms and irony may become lost to us permanently.)

• Author or authors. By whom was it written?

• Recipients or audience. To whom was it written?

• Purpose. What was the original speaker’s or writer’s motivation in sharing this information.

• Form or format. What kind of literature was it?

The literary form dictates how we will interpret. In considering some of the forms, we can establish with relative certainty that all biblical literary forms are fundamentally theological. Whatever else they are, their primary mission was to say something or avoid saying something about God. Even passages that appear to be recounting. History are doing so with a theological bias.

Beyond being theological compositions (theological writing or speaking—absolutely adding speaking since much of Hebrew scripture and Christian scripture began orally, only later to be written down—sometimes years later; sometimes generations later) we have numerous forms including:

• apocalyptic proclamations

• dramas

• epistles

• fables

• gospels

• historical events reports (remember: always theo-historical)

• hymns

• miracle stories

• myths

• parables

• poems

• prayers

• prophecies

• proverbs

• sermons

• vision analyses

• wisdom sayings

• wise cracks

(Do let Jesus keep his wonderful sense of humor!

Don’t stand for making him a drab bore with a soulless face like Kristi Noem!)

This list is not exhaustive. A given passage of scripture can be purely one form or a blend of two types.

If we are interpreting literature written in our own time and places, it still must be interpreted. One interpretive determination we make rather naturally is whether the type of literature we are experiencing at a given moment requires literal understanding or if a figurative reading or viewing is preferred.

Poets often use poetic license. Dramatists may rely heavily on summary and symbolism. Even history books are rarely if ever purely objective; recorders of history until fairly recently have exclusively or almost exclusively been among the winners in war or silver-spoon-carrying members of society’s power cliques.

If you believe all scripture must be read literally to be true, you will limit severely how much scripture will make sense to you. Truth is not the sole possession of literalists.