Missional hermeneutics 5/5

Tool to fulfil duties

Having all Scripture, the God-breathed instruction book we have the major tool in taking up our duties. Having the most valuable Book for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living those who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work, and should not bring any excuse not able to bring the Word of God to others. We do not have to be university schooled scholars to  exhort anyone. In view of God’s mercies we all can offer ourselves as a sacrifice, living and set apart for God. This will please him; it is the logical “temple worship” for you. In other words, do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the ‘olam hazeh‘ or this common world. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what He wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed (Romans 12:1-2)

For us to succeed in our study of the Bible, tools such as a concordance or Bible Reference Book would make the job easier. Ideally a Bible where the text contains references to other verses, and in which an index of Bible Words is provided, would be the best study Bible. That’s really the only thing necessary to get us further on our way. All the rest are welcome tools. This may be works as a Bible encyclopaedia and a “Where to find in the Bible” which could be useful.

English: The Bible (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you believe Jesus was sent by God and was allowed to speak in the Name of God you must judge whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to all those worldly writers and theologians or rather than God. Real believers should be stripping off falsehood, and speak truth with his neighbour.  {Zecharia 8:16} We should make an honest living, so would have to do something next to the preaching, to bring in money to survive. But earning by our own efforts we will be able to share with those in need,  holding fast to the hope we acknowledge, without wavering; for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. Therefore let us keep paying attention to one another, in order to spur each other on to love and good deeds, not neglecting our own congregational meetings, as some have made a practice of doing, but, rather, encouraging each other. And let us do this all the more as you see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Spreading the Word of God

Those who have come to the Truth have the mission to spread the Word of God in peace and to assemble the people — the men, the women, the little ones and the foreigners they have in their towns — so that they can hear, learn, fear the Elohim Hashem Adonai, the Only One God, whose name is Jehovah. Going out, working and living in the world we have to take care to obey all the words of this Torah or Law God has given to us by His Words. That as many people can  read clearly from the scroll or books, in the Torah of God, translated it, and enabled them to understand the sense of what was being read. (Nehemiah 8:8)

“But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29 ASV)

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and {1} fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. {1) Or [in fellowship]}” (Acts 2:42 ASV)

“For this is the covenant that {1} I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people: {1) Gr [I will covenant]}” (Hebrews 8:10 ASV)

“Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, {1} Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. {1) Or [Thou sayest] it, [because I am a king]}” (John 18:37 ASV)

“and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together {1} with the church, and taught much people, and that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. {1) Gr [in]}” (Acts 11:26 ASV)

“But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ASV)

“46 and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance {1} and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the {2} nations, beginning from Jerusalem. {1) Some ancient authorities read [unto] 2) Or [nations. Beginning from Jerusalem, ye are witnesses]} 48 Ye are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48 ASV)

“16 {1} Every scripture inspired of God [is] also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for {2} instruction which is in righteousness. {1) Or [Every scripture] is [inspired of God, and profitable] 2) Or [discipline]} 17 That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ASV)

“1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, {1} acceptable to God, [which is] your {2} spiritual {3} service. {1) Gr [well-pleasing] 2) Gr [belonging to the reason] 3) Or [worship]} 2 And be not fashioned according to this {1} world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is {2} the good and {3} acceptable and perfect will of God. {1) Or [age] 2) Or [the will of God,] even [the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect] 3) Gr [well-pleasing]}” (Romans 12:1-2 ASV)

“18 And they called them, and charged them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye: 20 for we cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20 ASV)

“25 Wherefore, putting away falsehood, {1} speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. {1) Zec 8:16} 26 {1} Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your {2} wrath: {1) Ps 4:4. 2) Gr [provocation]} 27 neither give place to the devil. 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.” (Ephesians 4:25-28 ASV)

“23 let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised: 24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting [one another]; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.” (Hebrews 10:23-25 ASV)

“Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and thy sojourner that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Jehovah your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;” (Deuteronomy 31:12 ASV)

“And they read in the book, in the law of God, {1} distinctly; and they gave the sense, {2} so that they understood the reading. {1) Or [with an interpretation] 2) Or [and caused] them [to understand]}” (Nehemiah 8:8 ASV)

Faithproces

You could take hermeneutics as being the process of interpreting ancient literature. In the end it will lead us to a transformed personality, if we are willing to give ourselves totally to the Holy Scriptures. You will see that by examining the nature of the Bible, the events it records and how it was written, it is possible to come up with a method of interpretation that is sensible and understandable, but that shall let you grow and become wiser. To stray from Scripture in faith or conduct is disloyalty to our Master Jesus.

Title page from the Great Bible published by Grafton and Whitchurch in 1539. It depicts an enthroned Henry VIII receiving the Word of God and bestowing it upon his bishops and archbishops (top third), who in turn deliver it to the priests (middle third). Finally, the laity hear the Word and loyally recite, “Vivat Rex” and “God save the kynge” (bottom third). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As our Prophet, Christ testified that Scripture cannot be broken. As our Priest and King, he devoted his earthly life to fulfilling the law and the prophets, always obeying, following, praising and praying to his Father. Jesus became the fulfilment of the promise and Plan of God, dying in obedience to the words of Messianic prophecy. As he bowed to his Father’s instruction given in His Bible (our Old Testament), so he requires his disciples to do — not, however, in isolation but in conjunction with the apostolic witness to himself which he undertook to inspire by his gift of the Holy Spirit. So Christians show themselves faithful servants of their Lord by bowing to the divine instruction given in the prophetic and apostolic writings which together make up our Bible.

We can affirm that the text of Scripture is to be interpreted by grammatico-historical exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices, but that Scripture always has to interpret Scripture.
Recognition of the total truth and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture is essential to a full grasp and adequate confession of its authority.

In case we would like to come to the best hermeneutics we do have to recognise the value of the Holy Scriptures as being from the Hand of the One God who has full authority, and was willing to reveal Himself to His creation.
Those that share the satisfying desire and goal of pleasing Him by worshipping with their whole being which includes their minds shall be able to help each other out to find meanings from all parts of the Scriptures. Together playing careful attention to the important questions of who, what, where, when, how, why, and etc., appreciating the cultural context of the given commands of God, recognizing the difficulties of time, culture, geography, and language but humbly going forward with the realization that the people of God need the Word of God, we shall be able to see more clear.  This when we are prepared to consider historicity and placing everything in the according context. The exegesis demands careful use of the languages of the original text such as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and therefore Bibles in that language or translated directly from those languages would give an extra dimension to the Bible reading and understanding.

Missional hermeneutics should involve action, as well as reflection.

Figure of a Missional Perspective (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Preceding: Missional hermeneutics 4/5

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Missionaire hermeneutiek 5/5

Do find the beginning article: Missional hermeneutics 1/5

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Please do read:

1. My exegesis and hermeneutics
2. Full authority belongs to God
3. Bible in the first place
4. Worship and worshipping
5. God’s instruction about joy and suffering
6. Knowing old sayings to understand the Bible
7. Accuracy, Word-for-Word Translation Preferred by most Bible Readers
8. Hebrew, Aramaic and Bibletranslation
9. Not able to ignore The New Testament
10. Obstacles to effective evangelism
11. Unsure about relevance Bible
12. Possibility to live
13. Power in the life of certain
14. What English Bible do you use?

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Do also find:

• What is the Torah
• Gathering or meeting of believers
• Works of first century ecclesia

• Barram, M. ‘‘Located’ Questions for a Missional Hermeneutic‘, unpublished paper on GOCN website.

  Brownson, J.V. Speaking the Truth in Love: New Testament Resources for a Missional Hermeneutic (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1998).

  Guder, D. ‘Missional Hermeneutics: The Missional Authority of Scripture‘, Mission Focus, Annual Review, 15 (2007), 106-121.

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• Evangelicals and Feminism, Part 3: Biblical Theology and Progressive Revelation (apmarshall.wordpress.com)
  “Why is it that anyone writing polemical texts against conservative or traditional Christianity end up being the best Biblicists and literalists one has ever seen?”
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  If we believe that scripture is the actual word of God, the very words God intends for us to hear, spoken/inspired by the divine breath itself, and if we assume that God is a coherent, systematic being who speaks with one, non-contradictory voice, then we very quickly get to the belief that scripture must speak with one voice and contain no contractions and that its words rest on the authority of God.
• Does the New Testament Affirm “Faith Without Reason”? (Cont.) (christmyredeemer.wordpress.com)
  When deriving the legitimate meaning of the text it is recommended that one keep in mind general principles of interpretation. This brings us to the meaning with which we are concerned, namely, the normative meaning, which is the wider meaning of the passage/verse as discerned through the study of the following: background information; genre; general structure of the book; the relationship between the passage/verse being studied and those immediately surrounding it; significant textual issues, words and syntactic features; the meaning of the passage/verse within its immediate context; and the meaning of the passage/verse in regards to the greater text (the book, and the wider canon).
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  Commonsense hermeneutics is the assumption that “the best way to understand biblical texts is by reading them in their explicit, plain, most obvious, literal sense, as the author intended them at face value, which may or may not involve taking into account their literary, cultural, and historical contexts” (Smith 4).
• Accurate Hermeneutics: Interpreting The Bible Correctly (Part 5) (preacheroftruth.com)
  The Old Testament continually points to Jesus Christ through numerous prophecies (e.g., Deut. 18:15-19)  We know these prophecies are about Jesus because the New Testament proclaims them to fulfilled by him (e.g., Acts 3:18-24).  In fact, Jesus declared himself to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament (Matt. 5:17).  However, the Old Covenant also foretold of a time when it would be replaced by the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34), something which the New Testament acknowledged as having taken place (Heb. 8:7-13).  The New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant at the moment Jesus died on the cross (Heb. 9:15-17; Eph. 2:14-16; Col. 2:13-17).
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  However, proper hermeneutics require that we recognize that the laws given to Israel in the Old Covenant which regulated their theology, their worship, their eating habits, their holy days, etc., do not apply to Christians today unless we read of those same regulations given to us in the New Covenant.  For example, all ten of the commandments God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai are also commandments found in the New Testament except the one concerning the Sabbath Day.  In like manner, the commandment to love our neighbors the same way in which we love ourselves is found in both testaments (Lev. 19:18; Rom. 13:9).
• Learning Hermeneutics from Holmes (str.typepad.com)
  I love Eric McKiddie’s post, “10 Tips on Solving Mysterious Bible Passages from Sherlock Holmes”—possibly because I love hermeneutics and I love Sherlock Holmes.
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  I would argue that so-called “hard” passages of the Bible aren’t hard because they’re difficult to understand but because we’re so unwilling to accept them.I’m not saying that a Christian will be able to just read and understanding everything first time through; of course you might have to do some research into cultural and historical context to get at what the author intended, as well as apply basic critical reading skills.
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  Like all of the other mumbo jumbo Pharisees or theologians push, hermeneutics is more a matter of pedantic sloganeering than an honest search for the truth. Evangelicals use it the way they use the term “Sola Scriptura.” What they really mean by “Sola” is their interpretation of Scripture alone; they don’t actually let the Bible speak for itself. It has always been a matter of faith plus reason.
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  If faith alone were all that were needed for Abraham to receive the promises of God, then he didn’t have to leave everything behind as the disciples of Christ did; he didn’t need to sacrifice Isaac, & he didn’t need to walk blameless before God to establish the promise. (Gen.17: 1, 2) 3 times God said “because” Abraham obeyed God’s Voice in the matter of Isaac that He would give him what He had promised. (Gen.22: 15 – 18; 26: 4, 5) God “knew” Abraham because Abraham “knew” God.

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  With regard to theology, a person should learn to take doctrines or interpretations & subject them to this process so that he or she does not ignore Scriptures that do not fit that view or rely on proof texts.