New answers tagged hermeneutical-approaches
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If an author intends to communicate through symbols he must either rely upon a community's preexisting symbolic language or make an effort to define the meaning of the image within the text itself. Ruben Zimmermann in his book Imagery in the Gospel of John thus offers two criteria for weighing a symbols plausibility: (1) conventional plausibility and (2) ...
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Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch dedicated many essays to this subject. They may be found in English translation in his Collected Writings, Volume III; ISBN:0-87306-786-X.
The primary tools Rabbi Hirsch uses in his analysis are the following ground rules, which he develops in the introductory chapter (slightly abridged for convenience):
The symbolic ...
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Here are a few things that might help point the interpreter in the right direction. (NOTE: This answer is from a Christian perspective)
The referential nature of language
Language is referential. If I say "I own a house," any English-speaker will recognize that I am referring to a place of residence. However, if I said "I own a lamaroutous" that would be ...
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As is the nature of historical fields, such as the anthropological and linguistic fields which serve as our surest means of understanding such colloquial forms of language, at least some uncertainty or ambiguity will always haunt our attempts at determining the meaning of symbols, or most any other metaphor for that matter. Rationally speaking, it is a ...
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May I suggest an approach to this question which seeks to understand the motives rather than find or not find scriptural support for either concept?
I believe either concept can legitimately be seen as correct. The important question would be what it means for the one stating it (and those being addressed).
We tend to think in (and this way making ...
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To my mind the principle is (and has been for centuries) violated by the practice of depicting what is not (and can not) be depicted. There is need to leave all this behind. (It is - still - both unlawful and unreasonable.) Paul wrote that even those who knew him physically as the man he was, did not know him any more like this. He who had now received all ...
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In one sense there is no limit to a Christological hermeneutic as it is arguable ‘the’ New Testament hermeneutic of the scriptures. In some ways it is more of a Biblical attitude or higher framework directing other hermeneutics in how biblical truth theologically fits into an understanding of self, God and our relationship to him. It is not a precise guide ...
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