24
What is 'hermeneutics'?
Hermeneutics is the field of study concerned with the philosophy and science of interpretation -- especially the interpretation of communication.
"Biblical hermeneutics" is specifically concerned with the philosophy and science of interpreting the Biblical text. So Biblical hermeneutics would cover all of the following sorts of ...
13
History
The Hebrew and Greek terms for 'messenger' do have this natural overlap, and can cause contention in translation. The Latin Vulgate was the first translation which tried to separate the word into divine and human, by transliterating the Greek term αγγελος to create the Latin angelus for divine messengers, and 'translating' it properly for human ...
11
Here are a few proposals. I'll update this post as I learn more, or delete it if a better answer is posted that addresses these points.
1. Chiasmus is a way of structuring a literary unit... if it is not a literary unit, then it is not a chiasm.
Given the purpose of chiasmus -- to organize a literary unit, to make the literary unit more memorable, and ...
10
Warning. Giant wall of text from my master's thesis upcoming.
tl;dr;
It is likely that the discount applied by the steward had no impact on his employer because of the practice of adding excessive commission to sales. The discount can be seen as the steward discounting his own commission in order to gain favor with the debtors.
The Parable of The Steward (...
10
Is it possible to "bracket" your bias during interpretation, enabling you to essentially approach the text in an "unbiased" manner, despite the bias that is technically present?
It is possible to "bracket" a subset of your bias but not all of it.
As an analogy, if you do not like the look of a certain food you can agree to take a blind taste test to find ...
10
Identification of genre is both simple and profoundly difficult.1 "Genre", by way of definition, is the technical name given to a "literary category". (Note that "genre can be used of other creative productions, but we're interested in texts in BH.SE.)
This answer has three main sections:
first, on locating a given text within some genre
second, on ...
10
The question as posed has done pretty much all the "homework" already! Here is how they look in Codex Leningrad:
In the scholarly literature, a fairly authoritative answer comes from Israel Yeivin's discussion in Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah (Scholars Press, 1985), § 81 (pp. 46-7) as well as Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Van ...
10
Textual Witness Analysis
Here is what the Apparatus to NA28 (which omits the verse) indicates:1
ουαι δε (− 700. 892c) υμιν γραμματεις και Φαρισαιοι υποκριται οτι
κατεσθιετε τας (− Δ) οικιας των χηρων και (− 1424) προφασει μακρα
προσευχομενοι δια τουτο ληψεσθε περισσοτερον κριμα ƒ13 it vgcl syc
bomss (p. vs 12 K W Γ Δ 0102. 0107. 565. 579. 700. 892c....
10
The Idea in Brief
Very able Bible scholars in years past have addressed this question. Both the United Bible Society 4th Edition Greek New Testament (UBS4) and the Nestle-Aland 28th Edition (NA28) indicate that the verse in question would not appear to have appeared in the original versions of the text. There appear several reasons for this conclusion.
...
9
This will be a partial answer, intended primarily as a supplement to this answer, since she mentioned that she is an expert in Jewish approaches but not in Christian approaches. (I can't add anything to her answer on Jewish approaches, so I won't bother trying to cover that material!)
There are a variety of Christian approaches to the TaNaKh (i.e. the ...
8
I think it is clear that the final redactor(s) thought of Elohim as one, and therefore as the sole-one who created mankind (human beings).
The phrase 'Let us make...' is a borrowed-motif from other Ancient Near East cultures, and alludes to the concept of a Divine Council (Assembly) - something that the final redactor(s) believed based on the following ...
8
Vanhoozer answers your question somewhat himself in Is There a Meaning in the Text? (at least from his perspective). He states (emphasis added and comments in brackets added by me):
It is most important to distinguish literalistic from literal
interpretation. The former [literalistic] generates an unlettered, ultimately
illiterate reading—one ...
8
This was a new word and a new idea to me, but I found helpful information in this link: https://www.gotquestions.org/narcigesis.html It explains that Narcigesis is
“the explanation of the Bible in a way that shows excessive interest
in oneself and prioritizes one’s own ideas… A person who interprets
the passage as if it were all about him is practicing ...
7
For OP: "Sitz im Leben" (German for "setting in life") is not itself an "approach", but is a fundamental component of "Form Criticism".
Sitz im Leben and Genre
I would like to add one caveat lector to the otherwise helpful answer from Richard. Richard was right to point out that Form Criticism combines the identification of a literary genre with the social ...
7
I may not fully understand your question, and it's difficult to parse what you're seeking, but the evidence would indicate that this story was actually a "stock trope" that Jesus leveraged to teach his audience about how to value people above possessions. In the below answer I attempt to address (Luke's) "authorial intent" in the way that he organized the ...
7
Matthew 23:14 is absent from some earlier manuscripts, which is a clue that it was not in the autograph, but not actual proof of this. David E. Garland (The Intention of Matthew 23, pages 15-16, footnote) says the evidence against its inclusion is strong, including text type and broad geographic base, while the evidence for its inclusion is weakened by ...
7
I expect this is The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, a product of the "Jesus Seminar". You can see more about this "version" on Michael Marlowe's "Bible Research" website.
This is what the Lord's Prayer (from Matthew 6:7-15) looks like (also the example chosen by Marlowe in his discussion):
One other ...
6
Genesis 4 brings us a very simple narrative of Abel bringing an offering. The text doesn't even tell us directly that the offering was sacrificed, although it is generally considered a true assumption that it was.
Genesis 4:3-4a (ESV)
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also ...
6
You seem to be thinking of chiasm as a binary – something that is either there or not there. In reality there is a spectrum of chiasms that exist in the Bible on the scale of a single verse or an entire book.
Imagine you're a literary theorist looking at poetry written in English. Your method shouldn't be to take two random lines from a random poem and ask: ...
6
PROGRESSIVE RECAPITULATORY PARALLELISM
"Parallelism" refers to the identification of seven parallel sections of Revelation:
-ch1-3
-ch4-7
-ch8-11
-ch12-14
-ch15-16
-ch17-19
-ch20-22
"Recapitulatory" refers to how each of these sections is seen as being somewhat overlapping, with one section recapitulating what another has said, but in a different way. ...
6
This is an excellent question, but if I may rephrase it slightly:
Is Hermeneutics a branch of Epistemology or Ontology?
Hermeneutics is the theory (and art) of understanding a text.
Epistemology is the philosophical examination of how people obtain knowledge. So if hermeneutics is merely an epistemological endeavour, then it's entirely possible to ...
6
Another name for Dual Fulfillment is Dual Reference:
Definition of Dual Reference
(J. Dwight Pentecost) "Two events, widely separated as to the time of
their fulfillment, may be brought together into the scope of one
prophecy. This was done because the prophet had a message for his own
day as well as for a future time . . . It was the purpose of ...
6
A Basic Definition
Hermeneutics is both the science and the art of interpreting any written communication, but particularly the Bible.
Hermes, the ancient Greek god was considered to be the herald and messenger of the other gods. (The Roman counterpart was Mercury, the wing-ed messenger.) Historically, then, hermeneutics concerns the interpretation of ...
6
This was taken from the Shabbat Tractate of the Babylonian Talmud(Mishna):
The rabbis taught: Before the passage [Numb. x. 35]: "And it came to
pass when the ark set forward, that Moses said, etc.," and at the
close of the next verse, the Holy One, blessed be He, made signs (the
inverted letter Nun, which must be inserted in the Scroll) in order to
...
6
Matthew 13:10-17 is very instructive on this point. Jesus used his parables as a sword to cut through the crowds; on one hand fell (and continue to fall) the majority who fail to understand the message, and on the other hand are those who seek greater understanding, and in seeking, find the truth.
There is a running theme in John of Jesus saying obscure, ...
5
A Dispensationalist Perspective
This question needed some input from a dispensationalist point of view. That has been the attempt here.
An Agreement
First, let me state that I (generally) agree with what has been posted thus far that:
Theology affects hermeneutics, but is not itself a hermeneutic.
Soldanarl's statement:
The hermeneutic circle entails ...
5
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 ...
5
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 ...
5
Years ago I read with interest Berger and Luckmann's classic The Social Construction of Reality. As near as I could tell, Berger was a sociologist who may have been (and still is?) a Christian. He taught at a variety of schools, including Evangelische Akademie in Germany, the University of North Carolina, Hartford Theological Seminary, the New School for ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
