Most Common Old Testament Interpretive Mistakes
According to Fee and Stuart’s description, a narrative is a story that retells historical events meant to give both direction and meaning to present life. Narratives consist of three parts, character’s, plot, and plot resolution (Fee & Stuart, 2003). Biblical narratives are different from all others in that they are divinely inspired. They are in essence, the story of God. With such lofty material it is not surprising that most people put a lot of thought and effort into reading, interpreting, and understanding these stories. It is this consorted effort that seems to get them into trouble.
One of the most common issues is a matter of decontextualizing or ignoring the context in which the narrative is written. Taking passages and phrases out of context, as we see often in stories reported present day, can dull or even obliterate the meaning of what is being said all together. By doing this, the reader can use any part of the scripture to mean almost anything he or she wishes, and in turn misses out on the true meaning of the text. Selectivity, another common mistake, also plays a part in this misinterpretation. Readers pick through selecting only certain phrases or sections to concentrate on while ignoring the broad scope of the narrative. By doing this, the big picture is lost amongst the details and a larger message can be missed (Fee & Stuart, 2003).
Moralizing is another one of the most common errors, and I must say one that I have often made. While reading through these rich historical narratives one gets lost by searching the moral message. Although there is moral content to be found, that is not the intent on these narratives. These stories were not written to illustrate to future peoples how to handle adversity or use moral judgment in their everyday lives. These narratives where written as historical documents to show the progress of God’s people, not to illustrate principles. (Fee & Stuart, 2003)
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