Analysis of Grasping Gods Word by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays - Book Report/Review Example

A critical Review of the book “Grasping God’s word by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays This paper is a critical summary and review to Duvall and Hay’s book “Grasping God’s Word” by Zondervan House. This paper in its attempt therefore looks at the various themes as put forward by the two authors regarding their topic. The paper thus concludes with the book and its implications towards understanding the Bible. Authors background This literary piece is authored by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. J. Daniel is the serving Chairperson of the Pruet School of Christian Studies. At the same time, Daniel is an Associate Professor of Biblical studies stationed at Ouachita Baptist University where he specializes in teaching Hebrew, Bible Interpretation and Old Testament studies. Daniel received a Thea. M from the Dallas Theology Centre and a Ph.D from South Western Baptist Seminary. During his teaching career, Daniel has served in various capacities and missionary to Ethiopia between the years of 1982-1987 before joining the Ouachita Baptist University as a faculty member around 1992. Prior to teaming up with Duvall, he participated in writing numerous Christian articles focusing on Bible review, Eerdmans Bible Dictionary and numerous Christian journal articles to the Journal of Translation and Textlinguistics. Scott Duval is the serving Dean of Pruet School of Christian Studies and a Full Professor at Quachata Baptist University where his teaching focuses on spiritual formation and the sanctity of spirituality. Duvall is a distinguished author and a member of various Christian bodies including the Evangelical Theological Society, Society of Biblical Literature and Institute of Biblical Research. Prior to this, Dr, Duvall was conferred his Ph.D and M. Div from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Southwestern and Bachelor of Arts Degree from Quachita Baptist University. In his long serving years as a faculty member, Dr, Duvall has specialized in the formation Spirituality, and New Testament having joined the University in 1989. Dr. Duvall is also credited for having co-authored “Biblical Greek Exegesis: A Graded Approach to Learing Intermediate and Advanced Greek”. Similarly, Dr. Duvall has great specialty in Biblical Interpretation and Greek Exegenesis which also form his area of teaching at the University. The Authors Point of View “Grasping God’s Word” is organized in a such a manner to make the readers believe that there is a process by which people can “grasp” or more literary understand the arguments as put forward in the Bible by various authors. In this analysis, Duvall and Hays, elucidate this process of biblical interpretation and understanding as comparable to someone taking a journey through a long road. This journey according to Duvall and Hay starts with one carefully reading through the entire biblical text and ending up to getting to understand what the contents of the bible mean so that these understandings can be used in the process of changing the human life for the betterment of Christianity. [Duv12] In trying to make clear their arguments, Hays and Duvall are being guided by four main hypothetical considerations. First, that the Bible is the pathway through which God communicates with us, and it provides the foundation through which we as Christians are able to discover the sanctity and the existence of God and his desires for mankind. Further, that in reading the bible, people do not form meaning from biblical scriptures but rather we are recipients of the holy book and should therefore strive to find meaning from the holy book. Equally, Hays and Duvall hypothesize that there exists certain theological principles that are relevant to the biblical audience and that which can similarly apply to everyone in today’s context. Finally, the authors posit that humans can be able to bridge these foreseen differences so that we can be able to get at an understanding of the biblical writings. The audience is therefore challenged that there exists a river of dissimilarities between the persons to whom the bible was written for and the general public. These differences manifest themselves in the form of cultural beliefs, convenient, time and language. The journey of understanding the bible therefore seems like a flowing process of crossing the bridge of the differences from what the authors in their own view regard us principles so that one be able to arrive on the other side of the river which entails understanding of the meanings implied in the bible. To quantify their hypotheses, Duvall and Hays cite a number of books and articles in their entire writing to elucidate their sources of ideas and from which they anchor their principles. These sources are largely drawn from biblical teachers and interpreters. The meaning of the book title: Grasping God’s Word The book is fully titled: Grasping God’s Word: Hands- On Approach to Reading, interpreting, and Applying the Bible. For this, Duvall and Hays argue that their writing is inspired by the Bible to which they assert that is “authoritative” word of God. Their writing places more emphasis on ‘grasping’ the holy book, suggesting that the bible is not for mere scrutiny and analysis, and instead arguing that this approach to biblical understanding takes into account full understanding one’s careful reading, and interpretation leading to commitment so that we are in a position to make meaning of what we know already. The emphasis here is “A person who truly grasps God’s Word will find that word grasping them.” A further choice of word in the title is the “Hands-on approach.” This is further exemplified by the use of the numerous examples and practical exercises, in the hope of involving readers in interpreting the biblical scriptures. The book is therefore written with an intention to assist serious believers in the process of learning and interpretation of biblical meanings. There seems to be a much much emphasis that the book was intended to help deeper understanding beyond the basic understanding of the bible. To enable this understanding, the book has been divided into three main components: careful reading of the bible, an address of the issues that face biblical interpreters including the role of the Holy Spirit, interpretations of major literary genres in both the New and Old Testament. Organization of the book There seems to be a pedagogical approach in the organization of the book rather than a logical book arrangement. The book therefore in the author's own words moves from practice, to theory and then adopts the practice approach as an attempt to elicit readers to gain interest in reading the book. The five units of the book are therefore arranged as follows: The basic tools are covered under part 1 of the book with insights on how to read the book which seems rather as a practical approach to readers. The second unit takes a more theoretical organization and covers the second and third part in the context and meaning and application respectively. The last parts of the book bring a combination of theory and practice into part four and five in taking readers through an interpretive journey of the New and Old Testament. A common approach is therefore used in every chapter, where the authors open every chapter with a chapter introduction then moving towards an analysis of the main issues as they come up in the text. At the end of the every chapter, the author concludes with the main issues of interest in the chapter accompanied by an assignment to assist in re-learning the main issues of the chapter. The accompanying appendix to the book seek to give readers an inspiration and practical guidelines to be able to come up with an exegetical document and suggestive tools on how one can come up with a personal Christian library for personal references. The Five Step Interprative Approach The different bibliographies, illustrations and references that have been added in the latest edition of this book brings more reality to the book with significant differences than the earlier editions since 2005. The authors therefore try to make their work more of biblical narrative in making it one of the God’s greatest writings. There are also notable changes where instead of writing four processes of the New Testament and Five for Old Testament, there seems to a unified integration of both testaments into Five step process, that can be easily identified as: Summary of the ancient texts that have been adapted for the modern biblical audience, measurement or quantification of the similarities and dissimilarities of the biblical times and contemporary moments, a directory of the main theological principles and underpinning, reference of the biblical map and its contribution to the overall understanding of the entire narrative and an understanding of the bible in contemporary times and how it can be applied in the everyday life situation. The main understanding that generally drives the whole of this process is that this entire process of understanding the bible can only be made meaningful if people holistically and wholesomely look at the bible and the scriptures with a Godly touch. The universal understanding that bears meaning for the full understanding of this book is that it is aimed at equipping readers with vital skills to do three main things: read, interpret and apply biblical principles. These three themes are therefore carefully blended into the Five parts of the book. Summary of Part One: How to read the Book-Basic Tools In Part one, Duvall and Hays utilize five wholesome chapters to help readers to read the bible. The part places some emphasis on how the bible has been translated taking an issue with the English translation of the bible. The authors make their case that due to the ever increasing changes in bible translations that are available in the market today, there exists some degree to a level weakness and strength that is associated with each translation in the market and therefore, this part provides a useful tool for evaluating these translations based on their weaknesses and strengths. The subject of Bible translation has therefore been given much attention in chapter one, with the author suggesting to the readers the journey of the English Bible translation and the various techniques that have been used in an attempt to translate the bible into English language. In making such an analysis, the authors look at the man approached used in Bible translation and further guides the reader on settling for the best approach. A special effort is placed to enable readers understand the history of Bible translation and its origin, and comparisons made for each translation, and ends into an insight of the various categories of Bible translation. Chapter two looks at a process called “Interpretatuve Journey” that makes an analysis in the biblical process of reading, interpretation and applying the scriptures. In this process, the authors argue one that one starts with the reading process as this provides information into what the Bible really imply in the original meaning, so that we are then ready to use the read information to apply in our own time, however, a caution is provided here that readers need to understand the bridge that seek to separate people from the actual words of the bible. Until that time when people are in a position to notice such difference, then it is not possible to put the meanings of the scripture in useful ways. In chapter three, the authors put some meaning of how the interpretive journey can be actualized with the use of deeper words as used in the text so that you are able to replace the superficial meaning of the words. This process requires one to look at special things such as repeated words in the bible, use of comparisons, figurative speech, nouns, influential verbs and conjunctions. The essence here is that readers should be able to read very carefully and with a lot of keenness so as to make meanings of these deliberate use of words especially when used in a sentence. As if that is not enough, chapter four and five moves beyond the sentence level to look at more complex sentences and jargoned texts as used in the Bible in regards to paragraphs and sentence discourses. An attempt is therefore made to make readers to able to detect the use of things such as dialogues, tonal variations, connections from one episode to the next, question-answer technique and shifting from one story to the next. Such kind of analysis is essential in making readers understand God’s message through his Holy words as used in the bible. These five chapters therefore use the practical approach to understanding the bible about biblical translations and deeper into the process of interpretation the bible. There is therefore careful and meaningful reading on the part of the readers as this chapter lays the foundation into what the bible is really all about and how it can be applied in the modern contemporary society. Part Two: Contexts-Now and Then In this chapter, numerous theoretical analysis is used in trying to bring into context an extensive framework of the then ancient cultures and the modern contemporary periods. Through an extensive use of questions, Duvall and Hays show readers how they can read the text with an aim of understanding the meaning of the text. The issues that one can easily relate to and which can be so useful in making such an analysis include the background of the author, conditions under which the passage was drafted and the level of relationship the author has with the audience. Quite deliberately, Duvall and Hays include a chapter in this part on how a reader can read their personal circumstances in the text, something that is referred to as ‘redaction criticism’ or more plainly ‘reader response criticism.’ Reading through this part offers readers an opportunity to appreciate the level of guidance offered by the two authors to enable a holistic understanding of the text. Part Three: Meaning and Application This is more of a theoretical driven part that moves in meaning and application of the literary texts, and marks the actual application of the details learnt in the previous parts. It is therefore empirical to suggest that a good understanding and mastery of the issues brought in the previous parts therefore forms the yardstick for making the interpretations and applications of the meanings so far learnt easier. It is also important that having meaning of the texts at this stage is therefore very crucial at this stage. The importance of the communication process cannot be understated at this process. Quite significantly, one needs to understand why the writer for a particular passage is written and the particular audience the writer is writing for. The meaning of the message God is communicating to the readers is also important for consideration at this stage. At the end of this part, a reader to a certain Biblical passage should then be able to answer the fundamental question concerning the meaning as implied in the text and the particular passage context it is used. The authors therefore have taken much of the time in making sure that the readers are able to understand a lot of information as much as possible in trying to relate the meaning and application of a particular biblical reading. Part 4 & 5: Interpretative Journey- New and Old Testament The theory and teachings covered in the previous chapters have made sense in this part through the analysis of the biblical testaments. The former part of this end is concerned with analyzing the chapters of the New Testament including, the Gospels, the letters, Acts and Revelation. Equally, the latter analysis of this part looks into the Old Testament and the several genres that are contained in it including: the Law, the narrative, Poetry, Prophets and the Wisdom writings. These analyses are important in making the reader understand the theory and teachings in a more practical manner twisted in a theoretical framework. In the Old Testament for instance, when analyzing the Prophets, Duvall and Hays first examine the nature of prophetic literature, the historical context of prophetism in a cultural and theological framework, then moves to what the prophet's message contains, to its interpretation and application in the modern society. Appendices For student readers, this part seems indispensable to read. There is an informative and voluminous amount of information here as Duvall and Hays devotes a full chapter on the canon formation and matters of inspiration and inerrancy. This therefore is a bonus of knowledge for readers as it contains authors point of view on religion controversies and debates that have been brought about be theology critics such as DA Vinci Code. Conclusion Above all, this book is far much a boost to the understanding of theology in its current context. It makes the learning of the Bible with a third eye approach rather than focus on the literal meaning of the Bible which in essence tend to lack contemporary issues. It is no doubt that other books seem too practical that they come short in assisting the readers to understand the Bible and Historical arguments adequately. In fact, Grasping God’s Words, as exemplified by Duvall and Hays fills the gap in Bible study, thus taking the reader to the level of reading the Biblical text as though it was the original audience reading it and understanding it, a fact that falls well within the author's intentions. It demystifies the the cultural baggage Bible learners naturally come with when reading and understanding the biblical text. The organization of the book also seemed quite friendly and informative. The synopsis laid out by the authors at the beginning of each chapter, the catching introduction, the illustrated text, questions for review and assignments for students placed at the end of each chapter to emphasize what has already been learnt makes it easy for one to read and understand the Biblical text. Equally, the way the authors have used the sidebar to highlight important points apparently was informative for a reader. One can therefore comfortably say after reading the entire book that Duvall and Hays put their emphasis in understanding the meaning God put in Biblical text not one coming up with his or her own meaning, which in essence forms a very crucial concept in studying the Bible as a spiritual text. Work cited Duv12: , (Duvall and Hays), Read More