Robert H. Stein - A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible: Playing by the Rules

A Basic Guide

to

Interpreting

the Bible

Playing by the Rules

Second Edition

Robert H. Stein

1994, 2011 by Robert H. Stein

Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com

E-book edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-3555-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007.

To
Steve and Liz

May the joys of your pilgrimage in life be multiplied

because they are shared,

and may the sorrows along the way be lessened

because they are borne together.

Contents

Every author discovers in the very first reading of his or her published book things that he would like to add or change. With time this wish list continues to grow. As a result I was delighted when Baker Academic suggested that I do a revision of A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible:Playing by the Rules. This is not due to a change in my understanding of the basic goal of interpreting written texts. That goal remains the same. In fact it is held even more strongly in the revision than in the earlier edition. The basic goal of interpreting the Bible and other written texts should be to understand what their authors consciously sought to convey by what they wrote. It is the understanding of the authors willed meaning, their communicative intent, that continues to be emphasized in this revision as the primary goal of biblical interpretation.

The most evident change in this revision involves the order of the chapters in part 2, The Specific Rules for the Individual Games. Here the various genres making up the individual chapters have been rearranged according to their order of appearance in the Bible: biblical narrative, covenants and laws, poetry, psalms, proverbs, prophecy, idioms, parables, overstatement and hyperbole, and epistles and letters. In addition, the last chapter in the first editionThe Games of Treaties, Laws, and Songshas been divided into two separate chapters, appearing as chapter 6 (The Game of Rules: Covenants and Laws) and chapter 8 (The Game of Songs: Psalms). In addition, the content of each chapter in the revision has undergone considerable reworking, and two additional exercises have been added involving the use of the vocabulary for interpreting literature given in chapter 2. These exercises are then discussed in appendixes 1, 2, and 3.

I want to express my appreciation to numerous individuals who have read the revised manuscript and contributed to its improvement by pointing out errors and needed corrections, as well as by providing helpful suggestions and examples. These include my sons Keith and Steve, who read the first two chapters; my brother Bill, who lent his legal expertise to the reading of these chapters; and Dr. Daniel W. Taylor, professor of English at Bethel University, who also read these chapters and gave helpful advice concerning literary theory. I am also deeply indebted to four former students who for ten years have used A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible as a text for their classes in hermeneutics. Their familiarity with this text and their careful reading of the entire revised manuscript has resulted in a far better final product than would have come about otherwise. These are Dr. Barry C. Joslin, Dr. Robert L. Plummer, and Dr. Denny Burk of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Dr. Benjamin L. Merkle of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Needless to say, any weaknesses and errors of logic contained in this revision are mine and mine alone. A final word of appreciation must be expressed to Jim Kinney, associate publisher and editorial director of Baker Academic and Brazos Press, and to the editorial staff at Baker Publishing Group, who over the years have provided guidance and care in the editing of numerous manuscripts. I have been delighted to have had their assistance over the past twenty-four years in the publication of my books.

How can I justify writing a book on the study of the Bible when so many already exist? Both on the popular and the technical levels, there are numerous books on interpreting the Bible. How can I defend the publishing of still another? As a teacher I am well aware of the many books available on this subject. Many of them are well written. Yet for various reasons I believe there is a need for still another. This book is an attempt to present in a nontechnical way a text that will help the reader understand what the goal of reading the Bible should be and how this goal can be achieved.

In the first four chapters of this book I seek to demonstrate that the goal of reading the Bible is to understand what the biblical authors meant by their writings. Once this is understood, the next task is to discover the legitimate implications that flow out of this meaning, and how this applies today. To assist in this, I discuss and describe the roles that the author, the text, and the reader play in this process. A precise vocabulary is also provided in order to avoid confusion.

I then discuss the various kinds of literature found in the Bible. The description of a biblical text as being a proverb, a parable, a prophecy, or an epistle is of little value unless the ground rules governing these literary forms are understood. We know, for instance, that Luke 15:1132 is a parable; Matthew 7:78 is a poetic form known as synonymous parallelism; and Jeremiah 4:2326 is a prophecy. But what is the value of knowing this? How does this help us understand these passages? I have sought in this book to explain some of the rules that govern the interpretation of these various literary forms. How should prophecy be interpreted? Hyperbole? A biblical narrative?

The importance of interpreting the Bible correctly cannot be overemphasized. The claim that the Bible is inspired and that it is Gods revelation to humanity is ultimately of little value without some understanding of how that divine revelation should be interpreted. When we describe the Bible as infallible or without error, these terms are meaningless if we do not know how to interpret it. What do we mean when we say that the Bible is without error? What is it that is infallible? Is it my understanding of the Bible? Is it yours? Is it the particular translation of the Bible that I am using? Is it the Greek or Hebrew text that scholars use? Who gives meaning to a text? Can a text possess more than one meaning? Should we interpret the Psalms in the same way we interpret Romans? It is hoped that this work will provide the reader with answers to these and other questions.