Getting What Was Said
It can be hard to go from a text to a sermon. The line from past to present can be hard work. But at the root, one must hear clearly what was said. Dave Black looks at a text.
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Lexical Entries and Word Meanings
Byhenry
This post by Eddie Arthur from Kouya.net makes and illustrates clearly an important point, one that is missed by many Bible students. You can’t just grab glosses or even definitions from a lexicon/dictionary and apply them to the verse of your choice.
Biblical Decision Making
Byhenry
My previous post, Does the Bible Condone Slavery?, has produced some interesting responses, and one very valid question is just how I think the Bible should be used in making decisions. I’m going to try to keep this brief, but I’m not very good at that, so bear with me! The most common analogy I’ve…
Bible Quiz Score
Byhenry
Hmmm. Having read about this at Abnormal Interests (Is a Better Score Better or Worse?) I decided to take it. I got 100%, though actually I’d give the test only about 80%. Does this qualify me to be an unbeliever? 🙂 You know the Bible 100%! Wow! You are awesome! You are a true…
Italics and The Voice
Byhenry
I’ve always regarded the use of italics to indicate words that “aren’t in the Greek” one of the sillier notions in translating. Considering there are no English words in the Greek text, one could put everything in italics. On the other hand, if an English word isn’t in some way justified by the Greek (or…
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Byhenry
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Thursday Night Eschatology Study – Isaiah Part 2
Byhenry
I’m starting in about 15 minutes. Tonight I’m going to be looking at Revelation 21 & 22 and their use of 3rd Isaiah (chapters 56-66). I want to look at how imagery is used and reused and how this impacts the way we interpret. Google+ Event Page
This is well done—but only if you take the Bible literally. I am particularly referring to Dr. Black’s 6th point: “We can endure suffering and persecution because we have placed our hope in Jesus and in His coming back to earth.” Interestingly, Paul could say this because he believed Jesus was to return in his (general) lifetime. But he didn’t. Apocalyptic theology which permeates Paul and most of the New Testament mislead many, including those today who knowingly or unknowingly incorporate the ancient (and now discredited) cosmology of a three-tiered universe where Jesus is located “up there” and will come “down here” sometime. Exegesis that lives only in the ancient world and not in ours where there is nothing outside the cosmos including God, led Paul and continues to lead many others to a false conclusion.
It’s revealing that only Luke’s Gospel has a literal ascension with a projected literal return. In the others, Jesus just fades away. (I know, I know—one is enough.) And Matthew just declares that Jesus never goes away and will be with the church to the end of the age. Seems he need not return because he never left. All this is to say that we have reason to doubt a literal Second Coming based on faulty cosmology.
To move from the first century or from 1000 BCE to our day is no easy thing. Especially if you don’t clarify biblical misconceptions (and they abound) along the way. Imagine the difficulty Abraham would have negotiating our world. Well, we have the same difficulty negotiating his. Yet the move from the text to sermon seems too often to ignore this.