Introduction to Biblical Interpretation Critique - Book Report/Review Example

?Introduction to Biblical Interpretation by William W. Klein The book Introduction to Biblical Interpretation has been originally penned by William W. Klein but the latest edition has been improved with the help of certain bits - written by Craig L. Blomberg and Robert L. Hubbard Jr. - being added in the book. Dr. William W. Klein is a member of the Denver Seminary which he joined in 1978. He teaches the New Testament, chairs the section of the biblical studies and is a member of several societies related to Biblical Research. He studied in the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and got a Ph.D. from there and did his earlier education from the Denver Seminary and Wheaton College. Klein has written several articles, essays and even books about the religion, including this one. Craig L. Blomberg is also a professor at the Denver Seminary where he teaches the New Testament, too. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, his M.A. and B.A. from the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Augustana College, respectively. Blomberg is the author of many works and is also known for giving lectures at home as well as in the overseas. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr. used to be a professor at Denver Seminary but is currently teaching Biblical Literature at the North Park Theological Seminary. He earned his Ph.D from the Claremont Graduate University and did his earlier studies from Wheaton College and Fuller Theological Seminary. He has written quite a few books related to religion as well. The Bible is said to be one of the oldest books up to date. It has been written in various languages, has been edited in and out – parts cancelled, parts added – so much so that the reader does not even know how to read it. Everyone has a different perspective as to what exactly certain passages in the Bible mean, there are different stories attached to them, which give them different meanings. It was written in over a period of 1500 years and in this day and age; it is certainly not easy to understand what the Scripture says, i.e. understand it in the way it was supposed to be understood. Thus, the authors, using all the knowledge they have gathered over the years, have written this book which gives the readers a guideline as to how to interpret the Bible. “We propose the goal of hermeneutics to be the meaning the biblical writers ‘meant’ to communicate at the time of the communication, at least to the extent that those intentions are recoverable in the texts they produced”. (98) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) The official term used to describe the process of learning how to interpret the words of the Bible and then applying them in real life is called biblical hermeneutics. Klein’s book is all about that but in a comprehensive manner so that even those who are new to the subject can easily understand the matter. And then use the teachings they have learned to bring about positive changes in their lives, make decisions which are influenced by the teachings in the Bible. The authors say that the main aim, what they want to accomplish by writing this book is “to establish, explain, and demonstrate precepts and methods to guide those who want to understand Scripture correctly”. (5) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) Introduction to Biblical Interpretation has been divided into five slots; each further cut down into smaller chapters with headings or sub headings, so that the authors can give complete attention to one particular topic. In this book, Klein has talked about: “The Task of Interpretation”, “The Interpreter and the Goal”, “Understanding Literature”, “Understanding Bible Genres”, and “The Fruits of Interpretation”. Each chapter is written in such a manner that they can be read separately and still be understood. On the same hand, they are also linked together so some things might feel repetitive but they only lead to a better understanding of the subject for the reader. In the first part of the book, which is titled ‘The Task of Interpretation’, there are three chapters. These are written to establish the basic groundwork of what interpreting the Bible really means and why it is necessary to do it properly. How one can interpret it, understand the literature and the various genres in the Bible and, finally, how to follow it in one’s life. The first chapter starts off with talking about what hermeneutics is. The understanding of this term is what is important and only then can one carry on with the rest of the material in the book and make sense of it. They have written about the challenges faced by those who want to understand the Bible. The fact that it was written such a long while ago, in the day when everything was so different than how life is today. It is not just the gap between years but also the geographical distance as well as the changes in the language, the history and even the particular circumstances it was written in. The word then meant something else to the people of those times and the same word would mean something else to the people of the current time. The authors focus on taking the word of God revealed centuries ago and interpreting it so that it can be related to the life we now have and we can use it to guide us to the right path, make the right choices. In the next chapter, the authors write about the history of interpretation. They say that to actually understand the way to interpret the Scripture during these times, we need to have know-how, know the history about our predessors’ relationship with the Biblical faith. Keeping this in mind, they start with the inter-testamental period and write about interpreting the Jewish history, focusing on Hellenistic Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism as well as the Qumran Community. They write about the Apostolic Period, even the Patristic Period, even talking about the apostolic fathers, comparing Alexandria and Antioch along with the church councils. Then they move on through the first century and there are passages on what happened during the Middle Ages, the time of the Reformation and even after that period. Then they reach the Modern Period, the nineteenth and twentieth century, particularly focusing on life before the two World Wars. The reason behind the summarizing of the history is to see the good and the bad, to follow the good and avoid doing the bad again. That we learn from the mistakes made by the people in the past and focus on doing the good things. The third chapter is regarding the many translations of the Bible. The Scripture consists of all the biblical books all collected together and universally acknowledged by all Christians. This chapter consists of the addition of the Old Testament as well as that of the New Testament, what the criterion for the authenticity of a text is, etc. That canon is the text that is generally accepted by the Christian Church as God’s word. The authors also pay attention to the current critical versions of the Old and the New Testaments as well as the different translations, which are out and available for everyone to read through. One is introduced to how to criticize the text as well as the translation techniques. Also, the reader is made familiar with the more popular English translations and given instructions which may help them choose a particular translation. They point out that one should see how much the discoveries of the modern textual criticism have been utilized, what the group’s philosophy for translating is, and what the reason behind reading the Scripture is. Talking about the textual criticism allows the writers assure the reader that the majority of the text of the Bible is secure, is authentic. The writers also give instructions as to how to manage the Bibles whose texts may not seem authentic. They state that one should not develop principles, be they theological or ethical, only by looking at the passages which one is not certain about. The second part is titled ‘The Interpreter and the Goal’ where the authors talk about the interpreter himself and what his goal of interpreting should be. Chapter four is regarding the interpreter, what qualifications he should have and also what beliefs he already has and follows as they play an important part to in what manner they think of the Bible. Thus, an interpreter should have the subsequent qualifications: obedience, illumination, faith as well as be a part of the church to see that there is not too much of individualism going on. An interpreter will also have to be diligent and show commitment to their work, be willing to give their all and be disciplined. Then, there will be some reflection over the already present conjectures - “what the interpreters bring with them to the task of interpretation” (xxii) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) - as well as how the person has already understood the Scripture as. The fifth chapter moves on to talk about the goal of interpretation. The authors state that the main aim is to determine the message which is already present in the text. To help create a precise way of interpreting the text, the authors have thought up of four deliberate questions which may assist in discovering the correct meaning of the Scripture. They are: “Does the text have one fixed meaning or several levels of meaning?”, “Is textual meaning the singular goal of interpretation?”, “Can we achieve a legitimate reader-response interpretation?” and “How can we validate our interpretation?” (xxii) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) They insist that these are the basic questions that have a huge impact and will greatly help for the job of interpreting the text. The third part of the book is titled “Understanding Literature” and has just two chapters. This section focuses on establishing the principles which are normally accepted for comprehending the manners in which the literary forms like prose as well as poetry work. Chapter six is about the rules and regulations to be kept in mind when one is interpreting prose. To understand the complete meaning of a passage of prose, first one needs to understand it in its literary background. Reading it in the literary context allows one to properly understand what every word means, the thought behind the passage and it forms a certain understanding between the units. The authors also state that for interpreting any biblical passage correctly, one has to pay attention to the historical as well as cultural background, what the words exactly mean, and even the way the sentences are grammatically structured. The writers have further explained the reasons as well as the methods for how to look into these details. The seventh chapter is about the basic rules used to understand the poetry in the Old Testament. It is a generally agreed fact that the second most used literary feature in the Scripture is poetry. The authors say that poetry can mean a lot of things and to actually understand the depth of it, one must experience a line of made up sensory circumstances. They also talk about meter and rhyme, alliteration as well as sounds of assonance and even onomatopoeia. The authors have also discussed the Hebrew poetry, particularly focusing on parallelism, merismus, chiasm as well as inclusion. Biblical poetry is said to be having a distinctive structure and sound, as well as a unique language and gives quite vivid images and shows the usage of poetic devices. The writers go into too much detail and this may even confuse the reader but their main aim is to allow the reader a better understanding of the subject. Languages work according to particular principles and rules, and to understand the text properly, the interpreters have to know those rules first. The fourth section is called “Understanding Bible Genres” and has chapters which explain the genres one can come across when reading the Old and the New Testaments. Chapter eight focuses on explaining the different genres in the Old Testament, including the biblical narrative, which consists of forty percent of the Old Testament. The biblical narratives consist of reports, stories about the prophets, heroic narratives as well as comedies – those stories which have happy endings. There are also farewell speeches as well as popular proverbs, some riddles, parables and fables, even the songs and lists. To develop a biblical and literary know-how, one must be able to understand the narratives and what separates them from each other. The rest of the chapter is about how to properly define the interpretation of the various genres in the Old Testament like poetry, law and prophecy as well as wisdom literature. The aim of the authors is to let the readers cultivate a “literary competence” (322) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) which is the knack of being able to read a text and understand it according to its background and what it is supposed to mean. The directions given by writers help in allowing this happen. The ninth chapter has the writers stating how to understand the various genres mentioned in the New Testament, they give the term “theological biographies”(325) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) to describe the gospels. They address the implications for interpretation as well as the main theological problems which one can find in the gospels. The authors also write about how to interpret parables as well as the miracle and pronouncement stories, even the other forms of gospel and theological history. The rest of the chapter talks about the Acts and the epistles, also the Revelation and how to interpret them. The fifth and the last part of the book is called “The Fruits of Interpretation”. This section is mainly about making the words of the Bible accessible by investigating the many means by which it ministers to people. Chapter ten has the authors talk about the different ways that the Bible is being used currently. Some of those uses are for getting more information, understanding, even how to worship God, expressing liturgy and also theology. Other uses are preaching and how to teach, provide pastoral care to people, the spiritual formation in any Christian’s life and also how to remain abstinent. Chapter eleven, which is also the closing chapter of the book, talks about how to apply - what has been taught earlier - in real life. Once the right meaning of the Bible has been approved, then it must be applied as well. The authors have come up with three things which must not be ignored at all if one is to properly interpret and apply the Biblical text. The three mistakes one has to look out for are: completely neglecting the literary text, partially neglecting the historical and even the literary context, and not properly comparing parallel situations. But the writers do give a methodology which has four steps and is to be used for proper application. First, one has to see what the original application is; once that is done, one has to assess and see the specificity of the application; then one has to identify the principles which are cross-cultural; and, finally, look for the suitable applications which represent the general principles. The book ends with highlighting the part played by the Holy Spirit in the course of interpretation: “Everything we have taught in this book falls short of the intended goal if interpreters do not simultaneously pray and rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them in the hermeneutical task.” (425) (Klein, Blomberg, & Hubbard, 2004) A lot of research was carried out to write this book and considering that this is written by members of the faculty of the Denver Seminary. They have taught the subject for years, have received their doctorates in it, so obviously they are very knowledgeable in it. But, if one is still not satisfied, there are footnotes given at the end, which, whilst giving it a more scholarly look, allow the readers to crosscheck the facts and go into further detail while studying. The authors also see to it that they pick one meaning of the text and stick with it throughout. The Scripture may be interpreted in different manners but if the writers themselves do not know which to follow, they can surely not preach to the others who want to learn more about the text of the Bible. They can only succeed in confusing the novices further, so it is good that Klein, Hubbard and Bomberg pick one and just follow it. They say that the passages may have different significance regarding different situations, but, in the end, they all have one meaning only. There is a whole chapter in the early part of the book which focuses on how important it is to keep the time and place of where and when the passages of the Bible were revealed in mind. The authors have done the same, they have looked at the history, the culture, the way the language was used then, even the grammar. All this helps in properly interpreting the Scripture. The writers have also seen to it that every time they talk about something which may not be a common knowledge, for example, the part where they are discussing how to use an ethereal hermeneutical principle, they have given examples to illustrate what they mean further. They have set certain situations throughout the book and this makes it easier for the reader to understand and follow what they mean. The three professors seem to work very well and in almost perfect accord with each other. And this is clearly shown in the way the book is written. The chapters are all well-presented and organized and carry out smoothly, which is surprising since most books that are results of a collaboration of two or more authors generally seem to not flow out quite well. The book has a lot of matter in it, and it is quite informative which is good for those who want to learn more. But the sheer amount of the knowledge present in the book may scare of a beginner. They might just be put off and never pick up the book again. Since the book is called the Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, one expects that it will only touch the basics. That any novice in the field should be able to pick it up, learn a few terms, have a basic understanding of the subject and if he likes it, and is comfortable with it, he can move on to a next level book and learn more from there. But the writers seem to give it all in this book. That aside, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation written by William W. Klein - with additions by Craig L. Blomberg and Robert I. Hubbard Jr. - is a well written book and has more of the pros than the cons. It increases one’s knowledge about the subject, and helps increase one’s understanding as to how to interpret the Bible and that is all that eventually matters. Works Cited Klein, W. W., Blomberg, C. L., & Hubbard, R. I. (2004). Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Thomas Nelson; Revised & Updated (2004) edition. Read More