Notes
Slide Show
Outline
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7 ideas for enriching Bible understanding
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Place yourself in the shoes of those who read those documents for the first time
  • “The aim of good Biblical interpretation
  •  is simple: to get at the plain
  • meaning of the text.”
  • -- Gordon Fee
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As we approach the Bible we must deal with . . .
  • 1.  The historical gap between Bible times and today.


  • We do not live in 800 B.C.
  • We don’t even live in 33 A.D.
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As we approach the Bible we must realize deal with . . .
  • 1.  The historical gap
  • 2.  Social and cultural gaps
  • We are not Jews,                                                     nor do we live in                                                   agrarian Mediterranean society
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As we approach the Bible text, we must deal  with  . . .
  • 1.  The historical gap
  • 2.  Social and cultural gaps
  • 3.  Language differences
  • We aren’t reading the Bible in the original languages in which Moses or Paul or  others wrote.
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As we approach the Bible text, we must deal  with . . .
  • 1.  A historical gap
  • 2.  Social and cultural gaps
  • 3.  Language differences
  • 4.  Hand copied manuscripts
  • None of the original manuscripts written by Paul or Moses or Isaiah have been found.
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As we approach the Bible text, we must deal with . . .
  • 1.  A historical gap
  • 2.  Social and cultural gaps
  • 3.  Language differences
  • 4.  Copied manuscripts
  • 5.  Incremental (or unfolding) divine revelation
  • We have the entire Bible; Joshua, for example, only had the material in the first five books.
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As we approach the Bible text, we must deal with . .
  • 1.  The historical gap
  • 2.  Social and cultural gaps
  • 3.  Language differences
  • 4.  Copied manuscripts
  • 5.  Incremental revelation and growth of human understanding
  • 6.  A variety of literary genre (types)
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Bible literary types (genre)
  • History
  • Laws
  • Biography
  •  Riddles
  • Drama
  •  Poetry
  • Letters
  • Parables
  • Wisdom
  • Apocalypses
  • Sermons
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As we approach the Bible text, we must deal with . .
  • 1.  The historical gap
  • 2.  Social and cultural gaps
  • 3.  Language differences
  • 4.  Copied manuscripts
  • 5.  Incremental revelation and growth of human understanding
  • 6.  A variety of literary genre or types
  • 7.  Its divine inspiration
  • The Bible is at the same time both human and divine.
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Interpretation of the Bible is shaped by the tension between:
  • 1. Eternal relevance
  • (“God’s Word never changes!”)
  • 2. Historical particularity
  • (anchored in time)