This article is quite helpful in understanding what biblical criticism is, how it is helpful, and also how it may be threatening to some.
Here’s a quote:
The basic point, however, is an important one: until we know what kind of material we are dealing with, we don’t know what questions it is sensible to expect it to answer for us.
TheTorah.com
Read the rest and enjoy!
No, this is not a post about the crazy ways people interpret the Bible. It’s about the way in which people make precision difficult in communication. Am I thinking about biblical interpretation? Of course I am. If you have to guess what I’m thinking about and I don’t give you a clue, “biblical interpretation” is…
Kent Eilers posts at Theology Forum on biblical interpretation and jazz. A critical sentence: “A key element is respect for the tradition, learning from it without merely repeating it.” I used a different title because I’m thinking about a particular element–the familiarity with the tradition. Jazz must become part of the musicians fundamental being. I…
Hebrews 5:11-14 describes the message of the book as difficult, chides the readers/listeners for not being ready for a meaty message, and then goes on to the more difficult message nonetheless. So what is basic, what is difficult, and what is it that makes the difficult message difficult? (OK, I take the 1,000 point deduction…
Genesis 10 is one of those chapters that Bible students often try to avoid, because it is filled with names that are difficult to pronounce, and it’s hard for our modern ears to hear it as anything other than an interruption. But to the redactor of Genesis, these genealogies were serious business. Genesis 5 provides…
The IBS is producing a new Bible, available in August, 2007, which will reorganize the books of the Bible, removing verse and chapter numbers. This is intended to provide a new and more original feel in reading the Bible. I suspect that such a format will annoy some people, but I’ll say bluntly they should…
Joe Carter at the evangelical outpost has written a post titled How to Change Your Mind. I’m not going to steal the thunder of his post, other than to say that it deals with reading passages multiple times. I have long been recommending reading a book of the Bible, or any passage you are about…
