31
Professor Bart D. Ehrman's Curriculum Vitae reveals an academic with impeccable credentials. Perhaps the most important line is:
Ph.D. Princeton Theological Seminary (magna cum laude), 1985
His doctoral adviser was none other than Bruce Metzger, who wrote the book on textual criticism of the New Testament. Ehrman doesn't simply ride on the coattails of ...
22
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
I don't think it's as simple as knowing when to take a verse literally or symbolically. I will attempt to propose a hermeneutical approach to the translation of the book of Revelation. I am going to approach the text from a Christian perspective (as this was the intended audience). I would not call these 'rules,' but rather 'principles' of interpretation ...
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
Always remember that to effectively use the Quadriga, you must start with the literal (i.e. grammatical-historical methodology) first. If one cannot apply a literal method then you are automatically forced to use a spiritual (allegorical) methodology. The allegorical method is then further divided into topological and anagogical where a text not only gives a ...
10
He is not respected by most conservatives when he slips into theology. Textual criticism, he is very good and knows what he is doing. However, I find him sloppy in his work if it pushes his agenda. What's worse is that he knows how to do the work, but since his faith lapsed, he misapplies and misquotes the rules of determining historicity. For example, ...
10
The two languages are related (both are Northwest Semtic languages) and eventually shared a script. Hebrew, prior to the exile used its own script called Paleo-Hebrew. It was still used afterwards in isolated places and instances, but what we now call Aramaic Square replaced it for the most part. Though they share many common words and large pieces of ...
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
From this Hebrew article from the Haaretz newspaper dated September 5, 2008, titled "The Bible in translation to Modern Hebrew", with subtitle "87 year-old teacher publishes 14 pamphlets with a translation of the Bible [OT] to modern Hebrew raises controversy in the education system", you can see that Biblical Hebrew is not easy for Israeli kids to read. ...
9
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 ...
8
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 (...
8
My understanding of sensus plenior agrees with Richard's:
Often, adherents claim that there are two separate meanings to text: the intentional (intent of the author) and the sensus plenior (intent of God).
A classic example of this is found in John 11:49-53 (emphasis mine):
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "...
8
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
Several techniques that people use to establish literary dependence include:
Identical passages of several words or more
Unusual or unexpected words matching (especially usages that are idiosyncratic to one of the authors)
Overal structure matching
Matches in narrative or parenthetical material (this precludes the possibility that both are just quoting the ...
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 ...
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
Abstract
Using the historical-grammatical method, whether a text should be taken allegorically depends on the genre of the text. Usually, the author provides sufficient clues to the genre for us to accurately determine if a text is to be taken as something more than the surface meaning.
Genre
One of the challenges of interpreting the Bible is that it ...
7
There's two important things about interpreting the bible:
You must be consistent, and not use a different method for different books of the Bible. (You can't interpret an entire book using one hermeneutic, and another book using an entirely different one. You must find a hermeneutic that you can apply consistently)
Let the Bible interpret the Bible. Almost ...
7
For a detailed explanation on Christo-centric preaching (and thereby indirectly the hermeutic), I highly, highly recommend Keller + Clowney's 16-part seminar they held on "Preaching Christ to a Postmodern world", available for free(!) on iTunes U. Here is the link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/preaching-christ-in-postmodern/id378879885
I'd agree ...
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
Hermeneutics: Is the study and the right application of scriptures make man knowledgeable, acceptable, truthful, and serviceable.
Purpose of Hermeneutics
To avoid Biblical controversies.
To correct Biblical heresies (if any)
To establish the right knowledge to the hearer (Hos. 4:6)
To equip the hearers with the right knowledge about the scriptures
To avoid ...
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 ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
