..."Narratives are stories- purposeful stories retelling the historical events of the past that are intended to give meaning and direction for a given people in the present (Fee & Stuart, 90)."As the book states, narratives are stories of things that have happened in the past that give meaning. A good majority of the Bible is written in narrative form. Even some of the New Testament is written as a narrative. "All narratives have three basic parts: characters, plot, and plot resolution. That is, most narratives presuppose some kind of conflict or tension that needs resolving (Fee & Stuart, 90). Some of the common mistakes readers make when engaging a Biblical narrative is believing that every narrative speaks directly to their personal, individual life. Also, many people do not take the text for what it is. They look at it as an allegory. Another mistake is being selective with the text. "It involves picking and choosing specific words and phrases to concentrate on while ignoring the others and ignoring the overall sweep of the narrative being studied (Fee & Stuart, 103). People also personalize the narratives too much. They suppose all parts of the narrative apply to them. It's a "self centered" reading of the Bible (Fee &Stuart, 104). Finally, false appropriation is another common mistake readers make in engaging in narratives. "This is another form of decontextualizing. It is to read into a biblical narrative suggestions or ideas that come from contemporary culture that...
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...Narratives What are narratives? These are stories of past events with a moral told to give some positive direction of the reader. All narratives are made up of three basic components. These three basic parts of a narrative are the characters, the plot, and the plot resolution (Granted that most narratives are addressing a conflict or tension of some sort). In Bible narratives God is always the overall focus and hero of these stories. He is the protagonist, Satin is the antagonist, and God’s people are the agonist. Over the years it’s been observed that Christians have read and interpreted Old Testament narratives very poorly. This overall abysmal interpretation of Old Testament narratives and the Old Testament in general has resulted in a lack of comprehension of very important messages of the narrator. Some reasons for the problematic interpretation of Old Testament narratives are allegorizing, decontextualizing, selectivity, and moralizing “Allegorizing is concentrating on the clear meaning of the narrative, people relegate the text to merely reflecting another meaning beyond the text.” (Fee & Stuart, 2003, page 103). Decontextualizing is ignoring the full historical and literary context, and often the individual narrative, people concentrate on small units only and thus miss interpretational clues. If you take things out of context enough, you can make almost any part of Scripture say anything you want it to. Selectivity is cherry picking your choice of words...
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...cultures, and in different languages. All of these factors must be taken into account when discerning the original meaning of the text. In addition, I specifically appreciate the fact that Stuart and Fee from very beginning of their book explained that a temptation in exegeting scripture is the motivation of pride. I completely agree that the learning of and teaching of God’s Word should be done in confident humility. In regards to the Old Testament, for example, Stuart and Fee give great caution to properly understanding the nuances of the Old Testament narratives. The Old Testament narratives are primarily, thought not solely, there to gives us a better understand of who God is. The temptation is that New Testament believers read the Old Testament and use it as way to live by rules and deeds. This misunderstanding leads to a life lived in bondage to the Law and in essence paralyzes us on the mission that we are told to be on in the New Testament. Stuart says, “Do not be a monkey-see-monkey-do reader of the Bible. No Bible narrative was written specifically...
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...They gave us a much older collection of Old Testament manuscripts 3. According to the readings the Old Testament canon was completed after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. 4. Old Testament narrative normally does not directly teach a doctrine. True 5. In our readings this week the Bible is described in part as, "the Word of God given in human words in history". True 6. The Modern View of the Bible approaches biblical documents as highly reliable. False 7. Until just after World War II the oldest OT manuscripts we had dated from about 200 B.C. / False 8. According to Fee and Stuart's analysis they think most people do a very good job of handling Old Testament narrative passages /False 9. The focus of the ___________ is on Jesus and his claim to be the Messiah. 10. Which of the following are not among the common causes people misinterpret biblical narratives mentioned in the text? 11. According to Fee and Stuart's analysis God is the hero of all biblical narratives/true 12. According to Fee and Stuart what is the antidote to bad interpretation? Good interpretation, based upon common sense guidelines 13. What do Fee and Stuart say is the "only proper control for hermeneutics"? 14. What three languages were the 66 books of the Protestant Bible originally written? Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek 15. According to our Fee and Stuart readings in their experience they believe that Old Testament Narratives are among the most correctly interpreted...
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...Biblical World View 2 I want you to know as a new Christian I have learned more in Theology, Apologetics and Bible than the 30 years of going to my catalytic church and listening to the word of God. I feel the word of God coming in to my hart and I have no problem being vigilant about sinning. The Biblical world view I am going to talk to you about is Gods image from two sides. Frist I will share with you the view of the Old Testament and second I will share the view of the New Testament. The Theological world view on the Old Testament and the New Testament on Gods image there is no big contradictions if you understand how to read the narratives and understand the Bible. I will say that in the Old Testament narratives do talk more about man made from God image from flesh narratives then flesh and bone narratives except one passage. The characteristics of prophets in the Bible we will discover similar messages on the creation of man in Gods image. “After God had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after his own image, having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfill it; and yet under a possibility of...
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...Myth and Scripture resources for Biblical Study Susan ackerman, Old testament/hebrew Bible editor number 78 Myth and Scripture conteMporary perSpectiveS on religion, language, and iMagination Edited by dexter e. callender Jr. SBl press atlanta copyright © 2014 by SBl press all rights reserved. no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 copyright act or in writing from the publisher. requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the rights and permissions office, Society of Biblical literature, 825 houston Mill road, atlanta, ga 30329 uSa. library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Myth and scripture : contemporary perspectives on religion, language, and imagination / Dexter E. Callender, Jr., editor. p. cm. — (Society of Biblical literature resources for biblical study ; number 78) includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn 978-1-58983-961-8 (paper binding : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-1-58983-962-5 (electronic format) — iSBn 978-1-58983-963-2 (hardcover binding : alk. paper) 1. Myth in the Bible. 2. Bible. old testament—criticism, interpretation, etc. i. callender, dexter e., 1962– editor of compilation. ii. callender, dexter e., 1962– author. Myth and Scripture : dissonance and convergence.. BS520.5.M98 2014 220.6'8—dc23 2014002897...
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...5 books from the Old Testament and 5 books from the New Testament. You may select which five books to summarize, but must include at least one book per genre in the following fashion: 1. Old Testament: Must include at least one narrative, law, prophecy, and wisdom book. 2. New Testament: Must include at least one gospel, narrative, epistle, and apocalyptic book. Since a sample of Genesis has been provided in the Summary Template do not include this book in the OT Project. Summaries that are not 150–170 words in length will be penalized. Also, short summaries may have additional points reduced for lack of complete information. In each of the summaries, identify the following four characteristics: 1. The Basic Genre (Please identify the genre in the first sentence of your summary.) 2. Key Themes/Purposes identified 3. Major Events and personalities for narrative, law, gospel, and narrative 4. Major issues/concerns addressed in prophecy, wisdom books, epistles, and apocalyptic Use your textbooks as you identify each of the four characteristics in the summaries. Remember, the Fee textbook explains how to identify and interpret genre. Additionally, a study Bible will be a great tool to help you craft your summaries. However, you will want to paraphrase the data into your own words to avoid plagiarism and course failure. You will submit your summaries in two stages: • Module/Week 6 – Submit the summaries for your Old Testament Books • Module/Week...
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...one else has ever seen before. 3. According to Fee and Stuart, what is the antidote to bad interpretation? Is not no interpretation but good interpretation, based on commonsense guidlelines. 4. They define “The Bible” in part as… The Bible is not a series of… propositions and imperatives; it is not simply a collection of “sayings from chairman God,” as though he looked down on us from heaven and said: “hey you down there, learn these truths. Number 1, there is no God but One, and I am he. Number 2, I am the Creator of all things, including humankind” – and so on, all the way through proposition number 7,777 and imperative number 7777. 5. Know the kinds of “communication” mentioned that God uses to convey his Word. Narrative history, genealogies, chronicles, laws of all kinds, poetry of all kinds, proverbs, prophetic oracles, riddles, drama, biographical sketches, parables, letters, sermons, and apocalypses. 6. “To interpret properly the “then and there” of the biblical texts, you must…” not only know some general rules that apply to all the words of the Bible, but you also need to learn the special rules that apply to each of these literary forms (genres). 7. Know and be able to discuss the two types of ‘context’ mentioned in the reading. Why are these items important? Historical Context: Differs from book to book and has to do with several things: the time and culture of the author and his readers, that is the geographical, topographical,...
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...Susan Niditch, in the book Ancient Israelite Religion, provides a study of Israelite religion based on critical reading of the biblical text. Niditch discusses the Old Testament story, some archaeological discoveries, and the worldview. The book looks into the experiential, mythical, ethical, and ritual components of the Old Testament story. In an effort to greater understand the way this text informs my reading and interpretation of the Old Testament, I will go through each chapter and discuss elements that impacted my understanding of the Old Testament text. Niditch begins with a discussion of the experiential elements of the Old Testament. In this chapter she looks into covenant making, annunciations to women, Jacob at Bethel, Saul’s encounter with the deceased Samuel, Moses and his return to Egypt, and visions of heaven. The most impactful element of this discussion, was perhaps that of the annunciations to women. Niditch suggests that, “[The annunciation to women] is probably male-generated, is perhaps patronizing in its implications for modern women, but is nevertheless an empowering cameo of the experiential for women.” As a young woman in the church, it has often been hard for me to read the Old Testament and feel validated. I often looked at these texts and saw the patronizing elements, and the churches response to those texts did not make matters easier. I rarely saw the empowering nature of these stories. In reading Niditch’s book, I was able to see a more...
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...the Good book, but the word bible literally means “little books,” meaning the bible is a collection of many individual books. The word bible is translated from the Greek word biblia. The definition expresses that it is a book that consists of diverse compositions, ranging from poetry, narrative to law, and prophecy. 2. Explain the relationship of the Christian Old Testament to the Hebrew Bible; define the term Tanakh, and name and describe the three main sections into which it is divided. In what way to Protestant editions of the Old Testament resemble the contents of the Tanakh? How do Catholic and Orthodox editions of the Old Testament differ from the Tanakh in content? Define the terms canon, Apocrypha, and deuterocanon. The Christian Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible are looked upon as the same even though there are significant differences between them. The most important of these variations is a change to the order of the books: the Hebrew Bible ends with the Book of Chronicles, which describes Israel restored to the Promised Land, and the Temple restored in Jerusalem; in the Hebrew Bible God's purpose is thus fulfilled and the divine history is at an end. In the Christian Old Testament the Book of Malachi is placed last, so that a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah leads into the birth of the Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Tanakh is the modern name for the Hebrew Bible. It is an acronym consisting of three consonants that represent the three major divisions...
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...Teaching from the Old Testament: A Guide for the Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2003. 222 pp. Paper. $8.99. Walter C. Kaiser Jr. is an evangelical Old Testament scholar, writer, public speaker, and educator born in 1933. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College, Bachelor of Divinity from Wheaton Graduate School, and both M.A. and Ph.D. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University. He was the president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary until 2006. He was the Colman M. Mockler distinguished Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Old Testament Ethics. Prior to this he was Senior Vice President of Education, Academic Dean, and Senior Vice President of Distance Learning and Ministries, and Professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In 1977 he was the president of the Evangelical Theological Society. Currently he serves on the boards of several Christian organizations. He is the author of dozens of books and commentaries. Also many of his articles appear in the Journal for the Study of Old Testament, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Christianity Today, Westminster Theological Journal, and the Evangelical Quarterly. His primary purpose in writing this book, Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament: A Guide for the Church, is to address the lack of preaching and teaching from the Old Testament that is currently going on in the modern church. The general consensus is that the Old Testament just does...
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...The single most common type of literature in the Bible is narrative. Narrative makes up over 40 percent of the Old Testament. The Old Testament books including Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jonah, and Haggai are largely or entirely composed of narrative material. While reading these narratives we make common mistakes as readers trying to interpret the meaning of them. The 9 most common mistakes of interpretation are allegorizing, decontextualizing, selectivity, moralizing, personalizing, misappropriation, false appropriation, false combination, and redefinition. (1) Allegorizing is not concentrating on the clear meaning of the narrative. People usually tend to relegate the text to merely reflect another meaning beyond the text. (2)Decontextualizing is ignoring the full historical and literary context. (3) Selectivity involves picking and choosing specific words and phrases to concentrate on while ignoring the others and ignoring the overall sweep of the narrative. (4) Moralizing is the assumption that principles for living can be derived from all passages. (5) Personalizing refers to reading scripture and supposing that any or all parts apply to you. (6) Misappropriation is to appropriate the text for purposes that are quite foreign to the biblical narrative. (7) False appropriation is to read into biblical narrative suggestions or ideas that come from contemporary culture that are simultaneously foreign...
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...A REVIEW OF KNOWING JESUS THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT By Christopher J. H. Wright Rick Mangrum OBST591-D17 Old Testament Orientation I Dr. Doug Wilson November 28, 2010 INTRODUCTION Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament is one of many books written by the Rev. Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright. He is also the author of The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland the son of missionary parents, he was raised as an Irish Presbyterian. He studied at Cambridge earning his doctorate in Old Testament Economic Ethics. Ordained as a pastor in the Anglican Church of England, he has worked as writer, pastor, teacher and missionary. He currently lives and works in London.1 Wright’s purpose in this work is to give the reader a deeper understanding of Old Testament teachings and how they molded and impacted the life of Christ. “For these are the words he (Jesus) read”.2 A book completely without footnotes, it represents the thoughts of only the writer. This book has been in demand and in print since its original publication in 1992.3 The easy, though sometimes wordy style clearly teaches the book’s main idea that the Old Testament begins to tells the story that Jesus completes! Through a deeper understanding of the Old Testament story and promise, and how it molded Jesus’s identity and mission as well as his values, we are lead to a deeper understanding of who Jesus truly was, why he lived the way _____________________________ 1Langham...
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...Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary BOOK REVIEW How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth A Paper Submitted to Dr. Myron Kauk In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Course Hermeneutics NBST 610 – B10 LUO By Joseph G Misiaszek L23730440 15 September 2013 Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2003. The Bible was written for everyone to read is the belief of Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart as they wrote this book to help ease the average person into reading the Bible for understanding, thus making the Bible more accessible and more applicable to the everyday layperson. Fee and Stuart break down their book into logical divisions as they start with the need to interpret and selecting a good translation. They take the time to walk the reader through the different translations, not only showing the differences in them but also walking the reader through choosing a translation that is best. They do this by answering the seven questions of language: original language, receptor language, historical distance, formal equivalence, functional equivalence, free translation, and theory of translation. From choosing translations the authors logically break down the Bible into genres and discuss how to exegesis each type of genre accordingly. Another strong aspect of this book is the fact that the authors have used numerous amounts of Scriptural references in their text, thus...
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...The Early Covenants between God and Man Gabriel B. Eagle Grand Canyon University: BIB 351 October 18, 2014 The Early Covenants between God and Man Throughout the Hebrew Old Testament and especially throughout the history of the nation of Israel, covenants have been made and used between many different parties. God has made the most significant and important covenants with his creation. Some of these early covenants provide a very interesting insight on exactly what the word ‘covenant’ means. According to the Biblical texts and narratives provided in the Hebrew Old Testament, especially in the Pentateuch, there is a constant theme and definition that can be gathered on the word ‘covenant’ and its meaning. A Biblical Definition of ‘Covenant’ After surveying the Pentateuch, one can see how a ‘covenant’ is the creation of a union between two parties, oftentimes commemorated through special ceremonies, eventually seeking to establish some kind of solemn promise, sometimes resulting in tasks needed from both parties. The clearest example of this union is seen through the Abrahamic Covenant (Beckwith, 1987). Through this covenant, God and Abraham were brought together in a special kind of union, one in which solemn and divine promises were made both by God and Abraham (Wenham, 2003). As a result of these promises, both God and Abraham had tasks to accomplish, obedience by Abraham and fulfillment of blessing by God, in order to fulfill and respect the covenant. Three...
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