Download global interpretations of christian scriptures

GLOBAL INTERPRETATIONS OF
CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES
RLST 206 AND DIV 3845
Feb 7 2011
Today
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a) 3:10 Contemporary Models for the
Interpretation of Scriptures: INTER(CON)TEXTUAL
HERMENEUTICS: In a World Context pp. 33-49, 71-75.
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b) 4:10-4:55 Group Discussion
(inter(con)textual interpretations of :
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Lamentations
Gospel of John
d) 5:00 Lecture: Classical Models for the
Interpretation of Scriptures: Apocalyptic
Judaism, Matthew, and Paul
Next Sunday Sunday Feb.
13:
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Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church 4905
Franklin Pike Nashville, TN 37220
“The Divine Liturgy” (worship service; 10:00 am)
followed by Q & A with Fr. Gregory Hohnholt
Have questions ready out of your readings of Greek
Orthodox interpretations of the Gospel of John
and of Hebrews in the Global Bible Commentary
Who needs a ride (leaving campus 9:15)? From
where?
Who can provide a ride?
Next Week: Sign up
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Group 1: John GBC by Petros Vassiliadis
(Greece)
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Presenter of GBC : Taylor Schomp
Leader: Anna Leigh Keith
Group 2: Letter to the Hebrews by Stelian
Tofanâ
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Presenter of GBC : Anna McReynolds
Leader : Jordan Nelson
Scriptural Criticism:
3 dimensions of reading Scripture
Two weeks ago
We have seen that
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all interpretations are “inculturated” =
influenced by the (cultural) context from which
we read. This means that our
Textual Choices are viewed as LEGITIMATE, =
grounded in the text, according to our culture
Theological/hermeneutical choices are viewed
as PLAUSIBLE according to our culture
Contextual Choices are viewed as VALID (=
valuable) according to our culture
Last week, Liberation
Interpretations
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Focused on Interpretive Contextual Choices
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Ethical/moral test: Loving Neighbor
How is this text as interpreted helpful in a specific
life-context?
Is it the “best”? The most helpful? And avoiding
negative effects?
Involves a particular Theologicalhermeneutical choices:
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Scripture as corrective lenses
Last week, Liberation
Interpretations We have seen that
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Using scripture as “corrective glasses”
believers purposefully use Scripture to
see their social life-context in a new light
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Scripture as Prophecy: giving believers to
see what others cannot or will not see
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Prophecy as critique of society as it is
And as utopian ideology. A critique of culture as
present (problematic) ideology
Yet, NOTE: ALL Scriptural
Interpretations involves seeing the
believer’s life-context in a different light
Reading the Bible as a word-to-live-by
believers necessarily see their social
context in a different way.
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Envisioning a certain way to interact
with others and their social contexts
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Constructively
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E.g. affirming what is positive in this context; Schools,
Hospitals, church programs, Room in the Inn (churches
offering shelter for homeless during cold nights); TenThousand Villages (fair-trade store)
Antagonistically
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E.g. denouncing injustices; oppression; slavery; abuses;
denouncing systemic evil—colonialism… and today neocolonialism…
Despite common views, most
Interpretations by believers are
Legitimate and Plausible
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As long as we do not recognize that other
people’s interpretations
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Interpretations by CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS from all
kinds of origin and cultural contexts around the world
As well as interpretations by ordinary CHRISTIAN
BELIEVERS in Western churches, including
Fundamentalist, Charismatic and Prosperity Gospel
Christian movements
are as LEGITIMATE and PLAUSIBLE as those by
biblical scholars
It is IMPOSSIBLE to discuss with them the validity
of our respective choices of interpretations
Finding that other people’s interpretations
are strange or seem wrong is a call 1)
to understand
how their
interpretations
are nevertheless
legitimate
Which textual
features do they
view as most
significant and
do we ignore?
Finding that other people’s interpretations
are strange or seem wrong is a call 2)
to understand
how their
interpretations
are nevertheless
plausible
When viewed
from their
different religious
experiences and
cultural views
Respecting the interpretations of
others = Reading with them
Then we truly
READ WITH THEM
And are in a position to
Discuss with them the
VALIDITY
for specific contexts
of our respective
interpretations.
Today: Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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Focused on Interpretive Theological
/Hermeneutical Choices
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How to make sense of the biblical text?
Issue: PLAUSIBILITY of the text and what it
says about human life.
The Biblical Text Makes Sense for us if, and if
only, we read it in terms of other texts or
significant events of our lives and cultures.
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Read over against other texts or in line with other
texts
Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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Christian believers always read the biblical
text TOGETHER WITH OTHER UNRELATED
TEXTS of their culture and life . . .
Otherwise. . .
The biblical text does not make sense (is not
plausible)
Believers cannot live-by the Bible, as long as
they cannot relate it in a meaningful way to
their lives.
Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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How to make sense of life? Through texts
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Role of the “master narrative,” the big story (the story that
generates all the other stories in our culture, or community,
or life)
Texts make sense by presupposing the master
narrative;
Example: journalistic texts.
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E.g., Standard journalistic coverage of political events… in
election time, a lot of stories about the candidates on all
kinds of issues… What is happening? Yes… but, look at the
story of their lives.
ALL follow the master narrative about winning… who is
going to win, issues important for winning, people
contributing to the candidates; winning or not winning….
Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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Super Bowl makes sense when seen through a
master narrative of winning
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Winning is all what counts; all eyes are on the XXXXX
(those who lost are soon ignored and forgotten… who lost?)
“Classics” of a culture are expressions of the master
narrative (Gadamer)
Everything which does not fit the master narrative is
ignored, silenced, excluded.
Inter(con)textual Interpretations: Biblical Texts
making sense by presupposing the master
narrative:
Inter(con)textual Interpretations
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Texts make sense for Americans in terms of
an American Master Narrative
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Actually, several American Master Narratives. For each:
What is the ultimate goal of life?
What is success?
How to attain success?
What are the obstacles? Their root problem?
How are obstacles overcome? By whom?
What happens to other people?
Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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Everything which does not fit the master
narrative is ignored, silenced, excluded.
YET Counter-Cultural Texts make sense of
life by challenging the master narrative
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Novels; poetry; arts= Showing there is more to
life than what the master narrative allows us to
see
by-passing the master narrative
Giving voice to what is ignored, silenced,
excluded.
Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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Making sense of a biblical text by reading it with other
texts that reflect the master narrative:
Positively: Finding concordance between the biblical
text and these other texts:
 How does the biblical text prolong and reinforce the
master narrative (and the other texts)?
 What Kyung-mi Park does with Buddhist traditions
Negatively: Emphasizing the differences between the
biblical text and the other texts and their master
narrative
 Reading Biblical, Scriptural text as resistance literature
= as iconoclastic
Inter(con)textual
Interpretations
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Making sense of a biblical text by reading it with texts
that challenge the master narrative:
Positively: Finding concordance with these other
texts
 Biblical text as resistance literature with other
resistance literature = iconoclastic
 What Lee does, reading with the counter-cultural
poems of the mothers of Tiananmen Square
Negatively: Challenging these “other texts” which
challenge the master narrative
 Conforming = condoning the master narrative
Inter(con)textual Interpretations Role
of Scripture: Making sense of life with
Scripture while reading it with other texts
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Scripture as providing a Master Narrative:
Scripture as Family Album – Book of the Covenant.
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Scripture as Good News – Providing a totally different master
narrative – with glorious outcome
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EITHER Finding concordance between biblical text and our
master narrative and its texts; rejection of Iconoclastic literature :
How the biblical text give the complete master narrative –
completing the master narrative of other texts?
OR Using Scripture as a Counter-Master Narrative
The Good News for which iconoclastic texts (counter-master
narrative texts) are longing
Scripture as “the Whisper Putting on Flesh” (Brian
Blount, 14-15)
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Biblical text as resistance literature
Additional Issue for Discussion
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What is the inter(con)text … the
intertext YOU presupposed?
What is the master narrative you
presupposed?
What is the root-problem for it?
What is the “solution” for it?
What is the role of Scripture you
presupposed?
Lee Chi Chung Archie
李熾昌 教授
Lamentations and Poems of
Tiananmen Square massacre
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Presenter of GBC : Annie Wong
Leader : Iris Ankron
Respondent: Mark Wells
Anna McReynolds
Matthew Calderwood
Jordan Nelson
Wendy Aluoch
Arlonzo Williams
Kyung Mi Park,
Sawako Nakayasu, Kiriu
Minashita, Takako Arai, Rachel Levitsky
GROUP # 2 GOSPEL OF
JOHN
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Presenter: Chance Dillon
Leader:
Ben Pflederer
Respondent: Lakendra Scott
Taylor Schomp
Anna Leigh Keith
Erin Higgins
Adesewa Adelekun
Basye Holland
Park Kyung-Mi’s Inter(con)text
as she reads John in Korea:
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Making sense of John by reading it with
Buddhist texts from her context
The mantras recited by Buddhist monks = like Jesus'
mysterious language in John when Jesus interacts with
people (= VISION)
Zen concept regarding the “spirit within,
energy without” 內有神靈 外有氣化
Give to the de-spirited Christians a vision of
the Paraclete (the Spirit, 14:26) as the divine
external energy that helps the community to love and
is correlated to the internal spirituality through which
the community is in communion with Christ and/or
God
Park Kyung-Mi’s interpretation of
John (Ewha Women’s University)
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I. Specific Context. Korea and globalization
as an economic and cultural phenomenon
Problem: globalization tears down economic
walls that separated nations (good!) BUT a
formidable challenge for humanity as a whole
as well as for individuals as it deeply affects
people’s vision of life or “inner world”
Root-problem: vision of life
Park Kyung-Mi’s Inter(con)text
as she reads John in Korea:
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Buddhism often tells people that suffering and
hardship are in essence a path to peace and to
the ultimate life; peace and life are hidden in such
suffering. = To abandon oneself to God is to
accept abandoning life.
Not so for John; John “demands that people rush
into the world that refuses them and hates them, and
wrestle with this world to reform it. John’s gospel
demands that the community be both courageous
and proactive in its interaction with the world.”
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Intertext used negatively as resistance literature
Park Kyung-Mi’s Inter(con)text
as she reads John in Korea:
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For John (read positively with a Buddhist intertext), “the
oneness between God and human beings is possible only when
we free ourselves from all the existing dualistic conflicts” (good
and evil, man and woman, and you and I); transcend selfcenteredness.
BUT John readily sees the flower of the resurrected life
blooming on the cross, the frame of death.
This perspective enables us to be truly loyal to life, to obey its
order to go on living (生命 =life =order to live). When one
accepts this order, all individual fears, dreads, and pains
become secondary.
Being in touch with God in this way requires that we
(生命=life) live on against all odds.
= NEW VISION for dispirited Christian in Globalized Christians
Matthew and Paul
Classical Models of
Interpretations of Scriptures
COVENANT (Exodus 19 and 20) as
Hermeneutical/Theological Frame
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Election (as the Chosen People of God)
= God’s freeing the People from
bondage
Vocation (to be a people of priests =
Sanctification of the Name)
Law = Way to walk… How to fulfill this
vocation (to sanctify the Name)
Early Rabbinic/Pharisees: Covenant
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Covenant:
1) God’s intervention, redemption from
slavery = election;= haggadah (past)
2) Vocation: people of priest for the
nations; haggadah = sanctification of the
Name
3) Law = how to walk: halakah
Early Rabbinic/Pharisees:
Sanctification of the Name
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School: Halakah
Oral Torah = living tradition= harmonize
Torah and life
 Gezeroth = teaching independent from
Scripture
 Takkanoth = teaching radically changing
the teaching of Torah = Prosbul of Hillel
Sanctification of the Name
 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name.
Early Rabbinic/Pharisees: School:
Halakah Sanctification of the Name
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Making a fence around Torah
Always changing and growing tradition:
Mishnah, Talmud; reinterpreted in terms of
the new situations in life;
Here Revelation, Scripture = open; on
going; discerning what is God’s will = how to
sanctify the name today
Being faithful = adapting, changing…
Exodus 19:3-6
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3 "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob,
and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what
I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on
eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5
Now therefore, if you obey my voice and
keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the
whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for
me a priestly kingdom and a holy
nation. These are the words that you shall
speak to the Israelites."
Exodus 20:1-4
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1 Then God spoke all these words: 2 I
am the LORD your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of slavery; 3 you shall
have no other gods before me. 4 You
shall not make for yourself an idol,
Pharisees and Apocalyptic Models
See Early Jewish Hermeneutics in Palestine
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Pharisees = One Covenant
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Election: complete = everything
has been revealed on Mount Sinai
(Oral and Written Torah)
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Haggadah: Closed sacred history;
Liturgy; interpreting Scripture by
Scripture (Midrash)
Halakah: needs to be
reinterpreted again and again
(Mishnah, Talmud, constantly
interpreted in terms of social,
cultural situation)
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Apocalyptic = New Covenant
(people still in bondage)
Election: God is electing, choosing
a remnant/a new faithful people =
new interventions of God
Typology; Prophecy are fulfilled
Haggadah = Open sacred history,
ongoing activity of God ,
establishing and reestablishing the
covenant through choosing/calling
a new people, through
interventions of power
Halakah = Very strict; AS BY
PRIEST IN THE TEMPLE
Deadly Letter of Scripture and
Life Giving Spirit of Scripture
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2 Corinthians 3:6-7 [Paul and others are] ministers
of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for
the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if
the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone
tablets…
3:14-17 But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to
this very day, when they hear the reading of the old
covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in
Christ is it set aside. 15 Indeed, to this very day
whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds;
16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom.
Formula Quotation: fulfilling prophecy:
Jesus = the child who was sign of
liberation
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Matthew 1:22-23 All this took place to fulfill what
had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23
"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and
they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is
with us." = Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 7:14 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give
you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and
shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. … 16
For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and
choose the good, the land before whose two kings you
are in dread will be deserted. 17 The LORD will bring
on you and on your people and on your ancestral
house
Formula quotation; Fulfilling
Unknown Prophecy
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Matthew 2:23 There he made his
home in a town called Nazareth, so that
what had been spoken through the
prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be
called a Nazorean."
Formula quotation: Jesus Fulfills the
Type David and Abraham
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Matthew 1:1 1:1 An account of the
genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the
son of David, the son of Abraham.
Etc. etc.
= Jesus Fulfills the Types, David,
Abraham, etc. etc.
= in Jesus the “types” of scripture are
fulfilled
Formula quotation: Jesus fulfills
the Type Israel
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Matthew 2:14-15 Then Joseph got up,
took the child and his mother by night, and
went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until
the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what
had been spoken by the Lord through the
prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my
son."
Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I
loved him, and out of Egypt I called my
son.
Formula quotation: Jesus fulfills
the Type Israel
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Matthew 4:1-2 Then Jesus was led
up by the Spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted
forty days and forty nights, and
afterwards he was famished.
Jesus: Fulfilling the Type
Moses
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Matthew 5:1-2 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went
up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples
came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught
them, saying:
Sermon on the Mount = New Law
18:20 = Jesus = Torah = Presence of God “For
where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them."
Everything has been revealed in Jesus
28:20 teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you
always, to the end of the age."
Christian Haggadah
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Sacred History = re-opened (as in Apocalyptic) =
new covenant in Jesus = New Moses
Jesus = New Israel
Jesus = new liberation from oppression
Commission of disciples: Matthew 28:18-20
Sacred History = closed again = everything is
revealed in Jesus
Being disciples = following Jesus, reentering the
story, imitating Jesus, teaching what he taught them
Matthew 28:18-20
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And Jesus came and said to them, "All
authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything that
I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the
end of the age."
18
Jesus as Fulfilling “all
righteousness” = Halakah
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Matthew 3:13-15 Then Jesus came from Galilee to
John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John
would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be
baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But
Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is
proper for us in this way to fulfill all
righteousness." Then he consented.
Matthew 4:3-4 The tempter came and said to him,
"If you are the Son of God, command these stones to
become loaves of bread." 4 But he answered, "It is
written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Jesus as Fulfilling “all
righteousness” = New Halakah
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Matthew 5:17-18 Do not think that I have come
to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not
to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you,
until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not
one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all
is accomplished.
Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that it was said
to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and
'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' 22
But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother
or sister,
Jesus as Fulfilling “all
righteousness” = New Halakah
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Matthew 5:38-39 38 "You have heard that it was
said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' [Ex
21:24] 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the
other also;
Matthew 5:43-44 43 "You have heard that it was
said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.' [Lev 19:18] 44 But I say to you, Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Paul
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1 Corinthians 10:1 I do not want you to be unaware,
brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under
the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in
the sea,
3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they
drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the
rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them,
and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as types [often
translated “examples”] for us, so that we might not
desire evil as they did.
1 Cor 10:1ff
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Exodus 14:22 Israelites went into the sea on dry
ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right
and on their left.
Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am
going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day
the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.
In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my
instruction or not.
Abraham, as “type” of
believers
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Galatians 3:6-9 Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness," 7 so, you see, those who
believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8 And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by
faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
"All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you." 9 For this reason,
those who believe are blessed with Abraham who
believed. [see also Romans 4]
What is the “gospel”?
1) = the fulfillment of the type Abraham in the
believers’ life;
2) = a promise fulfilled in the present
Abraham = allegory =
typology of his two sons
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Galatians 4:22-28 For it is written that Abraham had two
sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.
23 One, the child of the slave, was born according to the
flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born
through the promise. 24 Now this is an allegory: these
women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar,
from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. 25 Now
Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the
present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26
But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above;
she is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
"Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children, burst
into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs; for the
children of the desolate woman are more numerous than the
children of the one who is married." 28 Now you, my
friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac.
1 Thessalonians
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1:4 For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by
God, that he has chosen you,
5 because our message of the gospel came to you
not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy
Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what
kind of persons we proved to be among you for your
sake.
6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
for in spite of persecution you received the word with
joy inspired by the Holy Spirit,
7 so that you became an type (trans. Example) to
all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
1 Thessalonians
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1 Thessalonians 2:14 14 For you,
brothers and sisters, became imitators
of the churches of God in Christ Jesus
that are in Judea, for you suffered the
same things from your own compatriots
as they did from the Jews,
Summary
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Matthew
Pharisaic/Rabbinic
Model BUT
Haggadah: Closed
sacred history Jesus and
new covenant, etc replace
Moses and Mt Sinai and
the Covenant on Mt Sinai
by.
Halakah: needs to be
reinterpreted again and
again, as counterculture
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Paul
Apocalyptic model BUT
Haggadah = Open
sacred history, ongoing
activity of God ,
establishing and
reestablishing the
covenant through
choosing/calling a new
people, through
interventions of power
Halakah: in the world,
because you cannot be
separated from the world.