How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth Week 5: The Epistles: Learning to Think Contextually Review Week 1: The Need to Interpret We covered the need to take the then-and-there of Scripture to the here-and-now of our lives through careful reading and study. We emphasized that we are aiming at obedience to God s word, not just simple knowledge of what s in the Bible. Week 2: The Tools You have many tools at your disposal for reading the Bible for all its worth. Most importantly, you need a good translation. Other tools you might make good use of are Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, commentaries, and concordances. Week 3: Definitions; The Intent of the Author In week 3, we gave some precise definitions to the words meaning, implications, understanding, and significance. We underscored the fact that the author is the source of the meaning of any given text. Week 4: The Role of the Holy Spirit Last week, Eric explored the role of the Holy Spirit in our reading of the Bible. We concluded that anyone, with or without the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, can understand the Scripture. However, without the Spirit, no one can respond in faith to the call of God s grace. Something We Didn t Cover: The Clarity of Scripture In all of this discussion about getting ready to dig into the Scriptures, we never mentioned one of the most important points underscoring this entire course: the doctrine of the clarity of
Scripture. This doctrine holds that the Scripture is basically readily understood. This is why devotional reading of the Bible has so much value. For the most part, you can just open your Bible, start reading, and get some value out of it. There is also a reason we call it devotional reading it flows from your devotion to God and his word. In other words, you do it for the love of it. Here s an illustration: consider Michael Jordan. His prowess on the NBA was a professional effort in which he was doing his best, taking no chances, with the game on the line and his team and even the entire city of Chicago watching. But did you ever think what it would look like to see MJ playing a game of pick-up? I bet the guy loves that it s a whole new ball game. Similarly, there s a difference in the way you read the Bible on a day-to-day basis vs. the way you read it to unpack it and discover the depths of the treasures that are there. Note also: the two are not unrelated. Your daily devotional reading informs your deep study, and vice-versa. To close the point on the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture, Theopedia.com has a great, short summary: The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture (often called the "perspicuity of Scripture") teaches that "the meanings of the text can be clear to the ordinary reader, that God uses the text of the Bible to communicate His person and will." "The witness of the Church throughout the ages is that ordinary people, who approach it in faith and humility, will be able to understand what the Bible is getting at, even if they meet with particular points of difficulty here and there." This doctrine is in contrast to other positions like that of the Roman Catholic Church, which asserts that Scripture is imperspicuous (unclear) apart from the interpretative framework of the Catholic church and tradition, and of positions like that of Postmodernism and Mormonism, which assert that subjective experience should be preferred over knowing the originally intended meaning of scripture, since it is basically unclear.
Christians who love and promote the clarity of the Bible encourage others to read it for themselves. Those who deny the perspicuity of the Bible have not historically encouraged a personal devotional time of studying the Bible, and have even "denied free access to the Scriptures lest [others] interpret them improperly and disseminate false doctrine." The issue of perspicuity is not entirely unique to the Bible, as it concerns the basic principles of hermeneutics which are relevant to all texts. That the scripture is clear does not ensure, however, that man will receive it for what it is. Man is depraved and needs the illumination of the Holy Spirit in order to see the meaning for what it is. So since we love God and his word, and knowing that the Scripture is basically clearly understood just by reading it, we set about our task. We still need to work hard, make good use of our tools, read humbly and carefully to discover the author s intent, and rely on the Holy Spirit to drive the truth of Scripture home so that we may obey it. With this background, let us move on. Introduction This week and next, we will introduce the epistles. We will spend two weeks on this first literary genre so that we can spend more time on the difference between exegesis and hermeneutics. This week, our focus will be on exegesis, the careful reading of scripture to draw out of the text what it means. Next week, Eric will focus on hermeneutics, or the interpretation of Scripture. Here s another way we might characterize the difference between exegesis and hermeneutics. Exegesis might best be thought of in terms of meaning, implications, and understanding all of which flow from the author s intent. Hermeneutics might be thought of in terms of significance how a reader responds to a text. That s a pretty sketchy way to break things down, but my point is this: when you are doing exegesis, you are not thinking about yourself. You are entirely occupied with getting into the text and discovering what s there.
Epistles and Letters Did it ever occur to you that when you read most of the documents in the New Testament, you re reading somebody else s mail? It turns out that, in an age before e-mail, blogs, word processors, radio, television, and mass printing capability, the primary means God chose for recording his message for history s sake was the correspondence between his apostles and either churches or individuals. The difference between an epistle and a letter is not necessarily an important one, but it does inform your understanding of the author s intent. Did Paul write 2 Timothy for us to read? It seems very personal compared to, say, 1 John, which reads like an open letter that was intended for a broad audience. The Form of Epistles and Letters If you check your e-mail, there s a certain form to it. The e-mail starts with a bunch of things like: From To Date Subject and it goes on with the body of the text. Epistles and letters generally have a similar structure: From To Greeting Prayer Wish/Thanksgiving Body Farewell
Why is this important? One reason is that you can tell something about a letter by its departures from that form. For example, Paul includes a prayer wish or thanksgiving in all of his letters: Romans First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. (1:8) 1 Corinthians I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus (1:4) 2 Corinthians (nothing) Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel (1:6) I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers (1:16) I thank my God in all my remembrance of you (1:3) We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you (1:3) 1 Thessalonians We give thanks to God always for all of you (1:3) 2 Thessalonians We ought always to give thanks to God for you (1:3) 1 Timothy (nothing) 2 Timothy I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. (1:3) Titus Philemon (nothing) I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers (1:4)
In three letters, there isn t anything resembling a prayer wish or thanksgiving. This might be a clue that Paul had different intentions for those letters. But note Galatians suppose you re the recipient of the letter. You open the scroll, expecting something along the lines of I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, only to find him slapping you for abandoning the faith! That s a significant departure from the typical form of these letters, and it serves as a strong indication of the author s intent. Occasional Documents All of the New Testament letters fall under the category of occasional documents which simply means they were occasioned by something. If you are to get at the author s intent, you are going to have to get at whatever it is that occasioned the writing. This also means that no single letter should be taken as a statement of Everything Paul Believes About Salvation or about anything else, for that matter. The theology contained in each letter is an applied theology, or as Fee and Stuart call it, a task theology. It represents what Paul believes as applied to a certain situation. To The Text! Now, let s dig into our text. For this week, we will consider 1 Corinthians. How do you start? I m going to suggest you start elsewhere. Specifically, the place to start reading 1 Corinthians is in Acts 18. That s where you will find Paul s establishment of the Corinthian church. Next, I suggest you go to your Bible encyclopedia and find out what you can about Corinth. Fee and Stuart tell us quite a bit about Corinth on page 59: it was a young boom town of sorts that had more in common with Las Vegas than a tiny rural town somewhere. (I always remember the time I heard Chuck Swindoll call 1 Corinthians First Californians. )
So, having read the biblical account of the foundation of the Corinthian church, and having read up on the history of the city of Corinth, the next thing is to do a quick read of the entire book in one sitting. In the ESV, it s just under 10,000 words. If you read at 200 words per minute, that means you can knock it out in 45 minutes to an hour. Next, spend some time outlining the text. You are trying to get a sense of the structure as you do this. Note the points Paul raises. Note the transitions in the letter as Paul moves from one topic to the next. Note the attitudes Paul seems to convey about certain topics. Note what Paul spends more ink on and consider whether that might be a good indication of what Paul thinks are the most important points he s seeking to communicate. So this is your homework assignment this week: it should take you about two to three hours, with about one uninterrupted hour spent on reading 1 Corinthians itself. 1. Read Acts 18. 2. If you have a Bible encyclopedia, read the entry on Corinth. 3. Read 1 Corinthians. 4. Create an outline of 1 Corinthians. The Last Word Note that what we are really trying to get at is context. We are trying to keep the words of Scripture in their historical and literary contexts. This way, they can speak to us with as much faithfulness to their original intent as possible. Discussion Questions 1. What does it mean to think contextually? What are the advantages of thinking about Scripture in a broader context? 2. Why might it be important to differentiate between letters and epistles?
3. Why is it important to differentiate between task theology and systematic theology? 4. What are some questions that will help you interpret and understand the epistles? 5. How does the occasional nature of the epistles influence the way they were written?