Interpreting the New Testament
Texts
Lecture Notes for Topic 2.0-
Religion 492
Last revised: 2/10/04
Explanation:
Contained below
is a manuscript summarizing the class lecture(s) covering the above specified
range of topics from the List of Topics for Religion 492. Quite often
hyperlinks (underlined)
to sources of information etc. will be inserted in the text of the lecture.
Test questions for all quizzes and exams will be derived in their entirety
or in part from these lectures; see Exams
in the course syllabus for details. To display the Greek text contained
in this page download and install the free BSTGreek
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2.0
Assigned Readings for This Topic:
Gerald Bray, "Introduction: The purpose and method of this book,"
Biblical
Interpretation: Past and Present, pp. 7-13
With chapter two in Bray's textbook a new format for presenting the material
takes shape both in the textbook and also in the class room. The above
assigned pages will help provide understanding of how the author went about
organizing the materials for presentation in the textbook. They should
be read at the outset of this study.
2.0.1
The Design of the Textbook
Assigned Readings for This Topic:
Gerald Bray, Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present, pp.
45-46
Resource Materials to also be studied:
First the textbook. Chapters two through thirteen at the end of the book
have a common core organizing structure:
The period and the subject
The Interpreters and their work
The issues
The methods of interpretation
A case study
From the IV website (http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=1565)
this publisher's description is found regarding the chapter organization:
Each section is divided into chapters
focusing on periods or schools of interpretation. And, as a further aid
to readers, each chapter is divided into standard subsections:
* an introduction to the period or
school of interpretation
* a brief who's who of major interpreters
and their works
* an introduction to key critical, doctrinal
or hermeneutical issues
* discussion and illustration of principle
interpretive methods
* an examination of an particular book or
passage that played a crucial role in biblical interpretation for the period
or school under discussion
Bray's organizational scheme allows readers to
quickly grasp the issues, methods and interpreters of each period or school
and to observe how classic issues and pivotal questions have shaped the
church's use of the Bible in various historical contexts. Seminarians,
pastors, teachers and lay leaders will welcome Biblical Interpretation:
Past and Present as an instructive guide to both the high points and the
impasses of biblical interpretation. Here is history with a clear message,
written out of the conviction that biblical interpretation and Christian
doctrine go hand in hand.
This organizational structure has both strengths and weaknesses to it.
The strong point is the repetitive consistency of presentation of material
from chapter to chapter. Once the reader gets into the rhythm established
by this, he/she can anticipate what is coming next, as well as have a clearer
picture of the flow of thought. The sub-topics that Prof. Bray has chosen
for the framework of each chapter carry a clearly perceivable flow of ideas
in a logical arrangement. The weakness of this approach is that different
periods of interpretive history are so different that fitting all of them
into this framework risks generating artificiality in handling the material.
This -- I suspect -- has been a major criticism of the book by those who
have written critical reviews of the book in various theological journals.
Some insight can be gleaned from the publisher's interview with Prof. Bray
in regard to the writing of this book, although this is more PR rather
than critical review: http://www.gospelcom.net/ivpress/title/int/1880-q.php.
The following reviews of the book are located at Amazon.com:
Reviewer:
J. Robert Kirkham (see more about me) from Rushville, Illinois USA
This
is the first time I've ever commented on other reviews while filling out
a review of my own. I was amazed at the low ranking of this book until
I read through the other reviews. At the time of this review there are
two reviews that are generous, but have no stars listed. They are both
similar. It seems plain that a mistake has been made and the computer averaged
them into the total score.
POSITIVES:
Biblical Interpretation is an excellent textbook that is easy enough for
the average lay person to read AND enjoy. It deals with the majority of
biblical debates through history and does it in a chronological fashion
that allows the reader to grasp a good overview of the subject.
PROBLEMS:
A criticism could be leveled that this book leans too much on an evangelical
perspective. I do not believe this is a negative. We all have perspectives
and Bray gives his in an intelligent manner without putting down those
from other theological camps. A nonevangelical reader might wish Bray had
included a bit more from their his or her personal perspective but I can't
imagine any scholar being offended or disagreeing with what is written.
RECOMMENDATION:
By all means, add this book to your religious library.
But one must remember that the above reviews
are written as critical reviews by colleagues to be published in a scholarly
journal. The above is more of a popularity poll, and thus not as helpful.
These chapters are then grouped into three
parts:
Part 1: Before historical criticism
Part 2: The historical-critical method
Part 3: The contemporary scene
From the IV website (http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=1565)
this publisher's description on the overarching structure of the book is
found:
Bray begins by introducing basic concepts
in biblical interpretation that have remained constant through the ages:
divine revelation, the nature of the canon, the relation of the biblical
text to the life of Christian churches, and the tensions inherent in the
act of biblical interpretation. He follows this introduction with three
main sections, each covering an epoch of development within the history
of biblical interpretation. The first surveys the period from the ancient
church to the beginnings of modern historical-critical interpretation in
the Renaissance and Reformation. The second engages the rise of modern
historical-critical interpretation from the late seventeenth century through
the twentieth century. The third investigates current trends in biblical
interpretation that seek to offer alternatives to the dominant school of
historical criticism.
Although different books on this subject come
at the material differently, this organizing structure provides one rather
coherent way of getting into a very complex and detailed subject. The division
of NT interpretive history into three segments follows a logical framework
and the break points for his grouping can be defended fairly successfully.
Some limitations do occur, however. A major gap in the textbook is the
emerging post-modern approaches which appear to be gaining influence among
biblical scholars in general. The closest the book gets to touching on
this is on pages 482-490, but the discussion fails to give adequate emphasis
to the significance of these emerging approaches and is weighted to the
early stages of the new literary criticism and the new hermeneutic, rather
than to the more developed forms of these approaches. Structuralism now
is mostly a dinosaur of the 1960s literary concerns that never really caught
on. These ways of reading texts are not commonly found among evangelicals,
but, nevertheless, deserve more attention than they receive in the book.
2.0.2
The Design of Unit Two: Interpreting New Testament Texts
Assigned Readings for This Topic:
none
Resource Materials to also be studied:
With Unit 2.0, we turn a different direction in the course. The entire
semester is largely arranged around answering two central hermeneutical
questions: (1) What is it that we're trying to interpret? [Unit
1.0] and (2) How should we best interpret the sacred text? Especially
in light of almost two thousand years of history of Christians doing this.
[Unit 2.0]
With Unit 2 the rhythm of the class will change as well. Through Unit 1.0
the class time has centered around a combination of lecture and discussion.
During Unit 2, that format will continue only on the first class period
of each week. The second class period each week will become paper presentation
time. Either one or two students will present papers related to an assigned
topic under consideration for that week. With the Bray textbook this means
that an individual chapter of the textbook is the assigned reading for
the week. In a few instances the material in a given chapter will stretch
over two weeks of discussion. You should check the Schedule
page for specifics.
How should you prepare for each week during the study of Unit 2? Basically,
the following pattern should prevail.
(1) Over the preceding weekend,
read the assigned material in the Bray textbook for the upcoming week.
Make notes during your reading. Try to understand Prof. Bray's presentation
of the material as well as possible. Awareness of the format and design
of the textbook, as presented above in topic 2.0.1, is helpful.
(2) Read through the Lecture Notes page
for the topics under consideration that week -- as I can get them posted!
During this first time through the material, staying up with the posting
is somewhat difficult for me, since writing out my appraisal requires extra
background reading and reflection beyond what is going on in the class
room itself. The Lecture Notes will attempt to synthesize the Bray discussion,
as well as bring in other sources of insight into the discussion.
(3) Hyperlinks
to the presentation papers on Thursday will be posted be late Tuesday afternoon
or evening in both the Schedule page and the
Bulletin Board page. The papers will be posted
in both Microsoft Word doc format 
and Adobe Acrobat pdf format 
.
Choose whichever format works best with the computer system that you're
using. A copy of the paper should be printed out, read carefully with evaluative
notes made, and brought to class on Thursday.
(4) Come to class on Thursday prepared
to enter into the discussion segment after each presentation. A ten minute
time slot is reserved for discussion after each paper presentation. The
questions should reflect (a) requests for clarification of information
in the paper, (b) expression of opinion about the content of the topic
under consideration, (c) expression of disagreement with the stance(s)
taken by the paper presenter. Remember: the class participation grade is
heavily weighted toward class members regularly participating in the class
discussion. This is beyond the basic structure of attendance, tardiness
etc. To be certain, within the ten minute time limit not every student
in the class will get to raise questions with each presentation. But over
a reasonable period of time, every student is expected to enter into the
discussion!
This format is pretty much traditional for
a seminar type class all across North America and Europe for universities
and seminaries. As a senior level undergraduate class, the expectation
upon each student is for maturity of judgment and respect for one's peers
in the class. Yet, vigorous exchange of ideas is the key to the learning
experience in this type of class. This I expect from each student in the
class.
This means, much more than in the more common lecture type class, the learning
experience depends on everyone in the class pulling his/her share of responsibility.
When a single student slacks off and doesn't come to class adequately prepared,
everyone else in the class suffers. Thus a faithful stewardship of learning
is central to the class experience.
Bibliography
Check Bray's bibliography in appropriate chapter of the textbook.
Check the appropriate Bibliography section
in Cranfordville.com