7. General Rules of Hermeneutics

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7. General Rules of Hermeneutics

• APTS BIB528

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7. General Rules of Hermeneutics - Prose

• APTS BIB528

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7.1 Introduction

• If the fundamental goal of interpretation is to
  discover the meaning of the biblical text, then
  the main objective of our task is to distinguish
  the principles and procedures that are necessary
  to accurately discern that meaning. These include
  the principles that are necessary to understand
  language communication. The writers of Scripture
  expressed their divine message in human language.
  To know what they meant by the words used, we
  have to understand their message consistent with
  the way people ordinarily use language to
  communicate ideas.

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7.2 Import of Literary Context

• 7.2.1 Context provide Flow-of-Thought
• A flow-of-thought is a series of related ideas
  strung together to communicate a specific
  concept. Most meaningful communication involves
  some type of logical thought-flow in which one
  thought leads naturally to the next in keeping
  with the genre of literature employed.

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7.2 Import of Literary Context

• 7.2.2 Context provide Accurate Meaning of Words
• Most words have more than one meaning. The
  literary context presents the most reliable guide
  for determining the most likely meaning in that
  setting.
• Interpreters are not free to pick whichever
  meaning they choose for multiple-meaning words.
  Each term must be understood according the
  meaning that is consistent with the other ideas
  expressed in the literary context.

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7.2 Import of Literary Context

• 7.2.3 Context Delineates Correct Relationships
  Among Units
• . . . most biblical books were written and
  preserved as complete documents intended to be
  read as a unit. . . . their relationship to the
  whole argument of the book.
• Problems using Chapter Verse divisions

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7.3 Hermeneutic Principles of Context

• 7.3.1 Each statement must be understood
  according to its natural meaning in the literary
  context in which it occurs.
• 7.3.2 A text without a context may be a
  pretext.
• 7.3.3 The smaller the passage being studied, the
  greater the chance of error.

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7.4 Contextual Circles

• 7.4.1 The Immediate Context Theme Structure
  (Chronological, Logical, Literary genre, abrupt
  transition)
• 7.4.2 The Book Context (Purpose(s) or
  controlling theme(s) Basic Outline Parallel
  passages
• 7.4.3 The Authors corpus of Writings Context
• 7.4.4 The Pertinent Testament Context
• 7.4.5 The Bible Context 1) Parallels in other
  books by same author 2) Same Testament
  Parallels 3) Other Testament.

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7.5 Historical-Cultural Background

• Biblical passages not only express a writers
  train of thought but also reflect a way of
  life-one that in most ways differs radically from
  that of present-day readers. The literature and
  events recorded in the Bible originated thousands
  of years ago. Beyond reflecting ancient
  languages, cultures, and lifestyles, the biblical
  writers wrote their messages for people different
  from ourselves. Consequently, every time we study
  a Scripture text, we must be aware of these
  cross-cultural and epoch-spanning dimensions.
  Each passage was Gods Word to other people
  before it became Gods Word to us. In a sense,
  the Bible always comes to us secondhand, through
  others who lived at different times and in
  different places. This is the basis of an
  important principle of hermeneutics The correct
  interpretation of a biblical passage will be
  consistent with the historical-cultural
  background of the passage. There are three
  reasons why this principle is important
  perspective, mindset, and contextualization.

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7.5 Historical-Cultural Background

• 7.5.1 Perspective
• First, the circumstances in which communication
  occurs substantially affect, if not determine,
  meaning. We need to comprehend the perspective of
  the original communicators-initiator and
  receptor-to understand the correct meaning.
  Because both the writer and the recipients
  typically share the same cultural background and
  information and live at the same time in history,
  perspectives are not mentioned.

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7.5 Historical-Cultural Background

• 7.5.2 Mindset
• The second reason why a passage must be
  interpreted consistent with its
  historical-cultural setting grows out of the
  possibly subtle factor of mindset. Statements not
  only communicate ideas they also cause emotional
  impact. Each culture manifests a system of values
  that regulates this affective or feeling
  dimension of discourse. The effect of a statement
  may vary from culture to culture, depending on
  each cultures standards of right and wrong or
  scale of values.

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7.5 Historical-Cultural Background

• 7.5.3 Contextualization
• While the first two reasons, perspective and
  mindset, stress the importance of knowing the
  historical-cultural background for discovering
  the meaning intended for the original recipients,
  this reason focuses on expressing that message
  accurately in todays world. The word
  contextualization captures this perspective.
  Contextualizing biblical truth requires
  interpretive bifocals. First, we need a lens to
  look back into the background of the biblical
  world to learn the intended meaning. Then, we
  need another lens to see the foreground to
  determine how to best express contextualize
  that truth for todays world.

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7.6 Principles - Historical-Cultural

• 7.6.1 The Original Historical-Cultural
  Background
• First, we must understand each passage
  consistent with its historical and cultural
  background. For any interpretation to qualify as
  the intended meaning of a text, it must be the
  most likely meaning given the circumstances of
  the original writing and reading of the passage.
  Any suggested explanation of a passage that would
  have been inconsistent with or inconceivable in
  the historical or cultural setting of the author
  and recipients cannot be valid.

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7.6 Principles - Historical-Cultural

• 7.6.2 Original Impact
• The second principle moves from the factual
  information about the biblical setting to the
  emotional dimension We must determine the impact
  that the biblical message would have had in its
  original setting. This principle involves the
  factor of mindset. Interpreters should seek to
  know . . . How the original recipients would have
  reacted to what was written. . . . We seek to
  discover if a text would conflict or agree with
  the readers value system and to identify whether
  their feelings about it would resemble or differ
  from ours.

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7.6 Principles - Historical-Cultural

• 7.6.3 Correct Expression
• The third principle relates to the
  contextualization aspect of historical-cultural
  interpretation We must express biblical truth in
  our language in ways that most closely correspond
  to the ideas in the biblical culture. The
  challenge for the interpreter is to find adequate
  contemporary idioms to articulate the intention
  of the passage so that people today will sense
  the meaning and impact that the original readers
  sensed.

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• 7.7.1 Exploring the General Background of the
  Book
• Before studying a particular biblical passage,
  the student should become familiar with the
  historical-cultural background of the book in
  which it occurs. This includes pertinent facts
  about the writer/editor, recipients, date, and
  purpose of the book.
• Read through the book in one sitting and record
  things about the writer, recipients, date, and
  purpose of the book.

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• 7.7.1 Exploring the General Background of the
  Book
• Date Knowing when a book was written enables
  the student to include in the analysis historical
  information from other sources for that period.

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• 7.7.2 Examining the Historical-Cultural Factors
  of a Specific Passage
• Determining the meaning of a passage requires
  interpreting each paragraph consistent with its
  natural meaning in its specific, original
  situation, that is, what the writer most likely
  meant by these words to these recipients in this
  set of circumstances. . . . A proposed
  interpretation of a passage must fit the
  historical-cultural background of the whole
  book.
• Specific historical-cultural features!

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• 7.7.2 Examining the Historical-Cultural Factors
  of a Specific Passage
• Culture
• Worldview values, or outlook of the
  writer/editor, recipients and others mentioned in
  the text.
• Societal Structure marriage and family patterns,
  roles of men and women, or racial issues.
• Physical Features climate and weather, or ease
  and means of transportation.
• Economic Structures means of making a living,
  issues of wealth and poverty, slavery, or
  economic mobility.
• Political Climate structures, or loyalties.

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• Behavior Patterns, dress, or customs.
• Religious Practices, power centers, convictions,
  rituals or affiliation.

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• 7.7.2 Examining the Historical-Cultural Factors
  of a Specific Passage
• The Goal of historical-cultural research is to
  reconstruct . . . The historical setting and
  cultural features of a specific passage
• 1. The situation of the writer, especially
  anything that helps explain why he or she wrote
  this passage
• 2. The situation of the people involved in the
  text and/or the recipients of the book that can
  help explain why the writer penned this material
  to them

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7.7 Retrieving - Historical-Cultural

• 3. The relationship between the writer and
  audience or the people involved in the text
• 4. The cultural or historical features mentioned
  in the text.

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7.8 Word Meanings

• By its very nature language communication
  employs words. People transmit ideas by combining
  words together into larger units of thought.
  Without words people would be limited in their
  ability to express their thoughts precisely. They
  would be restricted to nonverbal sounds, symbols,
  and pictures. The centrality of words in language
  communication underscores the importance of the
  lexical principle of hermeneutics The correct
  interpretation of Scripture is the meaning
  required by the normal meaning of the words in
  the context in which they occur.

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7.8 Word Meanings

• On the surface words seem so simple. They make
  up such a routine part our lives that we seldom
  stop to think about their complexity. To fully
  appreciate what is involved in the normal
  meaning of words, we must first understand
  several characteristics of words nature, range
  of meaning, semantic fields, change meaning, and
  nuances of meaning.

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7.8 Word Meanings

• 7.8.1 Nature of Words
• Words are Arbitrary Signs a word is the
  smallest combination of letters that is
  meaningful by itself in a language . . . A
  semantic sign a combination of symbols or
  sounds that represents an idea.
• Each word comes to represent a given idea (or
  ideas) only by its repeated use within a common
  language group.
• Interpreters must deliberately pursue what the
  original words of a passage meant at the time
  they were written in the context in which they
  occur.

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7.8 Word Meanings

• 7.8.1 Nature of Words
• Range of Meanings a word may have more than one
  meaning. . . . Most words have a range of
  meanings.
• Word Meanings Overlap each meaning of a word
  forms part of a distinct semantic field or
  domain.
• Synonyms out of their total range of meanings,
  at least one of their meanings overlaps with each
  other.
• Word Meanings Change Over Time

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7.8 Word Meanings

• 7.8.1 Nature of Words
• Words Have Connotative and Denotative Meanings
• Connotative a figurative meaning
• Denotative explicit reference

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7.8 Word Meanings

• 7.8.2 Steps for Performing Word Studies
• Select Words that Require Detailed Analysis
• Determine the Range of Meaning for the Word
• Select the Meaning that Best Fits the Context
  The use of a word in a specific context
  constitutes the single most crucial criterion for
  the meaning of a word.

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7.9 Grammatical-Structural Relationships

• People communicate by combining words together
  in larger units. The final component of language
  communication we must assess to understand the
  writers meaning encompasses the grammatical and
  structural relationships of words and
  word-groups.
• Technically speaking, grammar consists of two
  elements morphology and syntax. Morphology
  concerns the form of individual words-typically
  how words are inflected to indicate their
  function in a language. . . . Syntax describes
  the system each language has for combining its
  various constituents in order to communicate.

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7.9 Grammatical-Structural Relationships

• 7.9.1 Importance of Grammatical Relationships
• To understand the meaning of any statement one
  must understand how words, phrases, sentences,
  and larger units interact (or are interrelated).
• Importance of Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic
  Grammatical competence . . . .

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7.9 Grammatical-Structural Relationships

• 7.9.2 Steps for Discovering Structural
  Relationships
• Natural Divisions
• Flow of Thought How does the writers logic
  develop in the passage?
• Isolate units Paragraphs typically develop a
  unit of thought, often incorporating a topic
  sentence that the paragraph develops.
• Analyze sentences how their assertions or
  propositions develop the writers argument.
• Identifying the main statements

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7.9 Grammatical-Structural Relationships

• Analyze nouns, adjectives, adverbs, then verbs
  and how they influence the sentence.
• Connectives conjunctions and relative pronouns.

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8. General Rules of Hermeneutics O.T. Poetry

• APTS BIB528

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8.1 Introduction

• Poetry comprises about 1/3 of the entire Bible.
  Such books as Psalms, Job, Song of Solomon and
  Lamentation are traditionally considered poetic.
  However, the prophets are also recognized as
  poetic by scholars.
• Poetry is found in the N.T. as well.
• Figurative language that is characteristic of
  poetry is also ubiquitous.

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8.2 Dynamics of Poetry

• 8.2.1 Definition Poetry consist of written
  compositions typified by terseness, vivid words,
  and a high degree of structure . . . . Poetry
  displays a higher degree of structure, sound,
  language than prose.

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8.3 The Sounds of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.3.1 Rhyme and Meter
• Hebrew poetry differs from English poetry in its
  uses of sound. - Rarely uses rhyme
• Meter usages is a debated question.
• However there are syntactic units, with equal or
  similar length couplets.

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8.3 The Sounds of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.3.2 Sounds of Poetic Words
• 1. Assonance repetition of the same or closely
  similar vowel sounds in a series of words. Its
  primary purpose is to give a feeling of unity to
  a poetic unit, whether a single phrase, a single
  line, or a series of parallel lines.
• 2. Alliteration the repetition of the same or
  similar sounding consonants within a poetic unit.
  Alliteration . . . give its poetic unit a sense
  of wholeness as well as special emphasis.

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8.3 The Sounds of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.3.2 Sounds of Poetic Words
• 3. Word Play with the root
• 4. Word Repetition
• 5. Onomatopoeia

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.4.1 Parallelism
• 1. Definition Parallelism is that phenomenon
  whereby two or more successive poetic lines
  strengthen, reinforce, and develop each others
  thought. As a kind of emphatic additional
  thought, the follow-up lines further define,
  specify expand, intensify, or contrast the first.

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.4.1 Parallelism
• 2. Basic Units of Parallelism
• Traditional synonymous, antithetical and
  synthetic.
• 3. How Parallelism Works
• The relationships that bind parallel stichs
  range across a continuum of increasing
  complexity. . . .
• N.B. Grammatical Factors, Lexical-semantic
  Factors, Phonologic Factors,

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.4.1 Parallelism
• 4. Types of Parallelism
• Biblical poetry often displays a parallelism of
  subordination. Ps 111.6
• He has shown his people the power of his works,
• Giving them the lands of other nations

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 4. Types of Parallelism
• A parallelism of contrast occurs when a poet
  juxtaposes stichs that contrast each other.
  Prov 11.20
• The Lord hates those with evil hearts
• but is pleased with those who are innocent

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 4. Types of Parallelism
• . . . Parallelism of continuation, succeeding
  parallel lines present a progression of thought.
  Isa 40.9
• You who bring good tidings to Zion,
• go up on a high mountain.
• You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem,
• lift up you voice with a shout,
• Lift it up, do not be afraid,
• say to the towns of Judah,
• Here is your God!

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 4. Types of Parallelism
• In a parallelism of comparison, parallel lines
  form a simile, that is, a comparison. Ps 103.13
• As a father has compassion on his children,
• so the Lord has compassion on those who fear
  him.

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 4. Types of Parallelism
• In the parallelism of specification, each
  succeeding stich makes more specific what the
  opening stich states in general terms. Isa 45.12
• I made the earth
• and created humankind upon it
• It was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
• And I commanded all their host.

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 4. Types of Parallelism
• Intensification occurs when the second stich of
  a couple restates the first in a more pointed,
  extreme, or forceful way. Deut 32.30
• How could one man chase a thousand
• or two put ten thousand to flight . . . .

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.4.2 Other Poetic Structures
• 1. Staircase parallelism is a couplet (or
  tristich) in which the succeeding line develop in
  steps. That is, they add things not found in the
  opening couplet, frequently with the use of
  ellipsis.
• 2. Chiasm (chiasmus) is another common structural
  device in which the word order of a parallel line
  is the reverse of its predecessor.

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8.4 Structure of Hebrew Poetry

• 8.4.2 Other Poetic Structures
• 3. Merismus is another literary device that
  appears in both prose and poetry. Merismus occurs
  when a writer mentions the extremes of some
  category in order to portray it as a totality
  that is, those opposites and everything in
  between them.

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8.5 Language of Poetry

• 8.5.1 Imagery words that evoke a sensory
  experience in our imagination.
• 8.5.2 Devices of Poetic Language
• 1. Similes and Metaphors
• A simile is a figure of speech that compares two
  things using the words like or as.
• A metaphor also draws a comparison between two
  things however, the metaphor draws the
  correspondence more bluntly. Omitting the words
  like or as . . . .

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8.5 Language of Poetry

• 8.5.2 Devices of Poetic Language
• 2. Personification a poet writes about
  something nonhuman as if it were human.
• 3. Apostrophe a direct address to someone or
  something absent as though it were present.
• 4. Hyperbole
• 5. Metonymy the substitution of a word or idea
  for one closely associated with it.

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8.5 Language of Poetry

• 8.5.2 Devices of Poetic Language
• 6. Synecdoche a part of something serves to
  represent the whole idea or item.

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8.6 How to Interpret Poetic lang.

• 8.6.1 First, identify the kind of figure of
  speech present (i.e., simile, metaphor,
  personification). Remember that more than one
  device may be present in the same biblical text.
• 8.6.2 Second, interpret the figure of speech.
  From analysis of its literal meaning determine
  its figurative meaning.

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8.6 How to Interpret Poetic lang.

• 8.6.3 Determine the function of the figure in
  its context.

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8.7 Larger units of Poetry

• 8.7.1 Sense Units
• A sense unit constitutes the major subdivision
  of a poem
• The key indicators of a poems sense units are
  as follows 1) changes in content, grammar,
  literary form, or speaker 2) the concentration
  of keywords in a section and 3) the appearance
  of refrains or repeated statements.