Stone's Fence

I'm a Bible scholar, and "correct" interpretation is what I spend my days fretting about. I caution students that wrong principles of interpretation will cause them to use the Bible in ways that are harmful to those whom they teach. At the same time, I see lots of examples of "correct" interpretation that is simply devoid of insight, lacking power, and somehow missing the thrust of scripture. So I began to wonder just what goes into interpretation that really works. While there are a great many very good rules for proper interpretation in all the hermeneutics manuals, over time I have developed some axioms of my own that have helped me to avoid a lot of grief and folly in handling the Bible. Over about 15 years I shared these sporadically with students, and then one day about 3 years ago decided to start compiling these little aphorisms into a list. To my surprise, the list ran to over 35 items, so I think I'll share a few here, without commentary, just stating the axiom.

1. Never do with God's words something I would not want done to my own,
2. The greatest barrier to understanding the Bible is thinking I understand the Bible
3. Don't cling to any belief or opinion that cannot survive one reading of the Bible, including beliefs and opinions about the Bible
4. Read the whole Bible through at least once during seminary, and regularly thereafter.
5. Exegetical methods are not means by which we control the Bible; they are means by which the Bible controls us
6. Beware of illiterate exegesis. Interpretation is reading in depth. Reading is not shredding, ripping, tearing apart, or otherwise doing violence upon a text. Interpretation is not predatory. It is READING, an act of hospitality and receptivity. Study and analysis are just preparing the house to receive our beloved guest.
7. On the human & divine dimensions of Scripture: this is not a proportion like 60/40, 50/50, it is a relation, it's 100/100.
8. No scholars or interpreters are as stupid as their detractors make them look. Remember that when you read them or debate them.
9. Every interpreter is a human being. You are not having a war with ideas, but a conversation with people, even the dead ones. People whom God loves and for whom Christ died, and whom you might see in heaven one day. Find their picture. Put it in front of you when you analyze their ideas.
10. Despite the hype, "presuppositions" really don't end up counting for much in most exegesis. People with all the wrong presuppositions often read the text profoundly, and people with impeccable presuppositions can miss insights the size of elephants. Bottom Line: If you want more profound interpretation, you have to be a more profound person.
11. The value of reading the Bible in Hebrew and Greek is that you get so confused and lost, you forget what the text was supposed to mean...with the result that...
12. If we get sufficiently confused and disoriented, we stand a good chance of temporarily losing track of our own agenda and ideology, thus simulating objectivity. This is the principle value of learning Greek and Hebrew
13. Don't be an F-16 Fighter jet on the gunnery range. (worth a separate article)
14. "Theology" is not defined as whatever is left when I'm finished; i.e. "meaning" is not defined as "that which has survived my exegesis"
15. Don't be the Hindenberg, DO be the Goodyear Blimp(worth a separate article)
16. DO be the Memphis Belle (worth a separate article)
17. When in doubt, work on the textual problems, grammar, and syntax. In the end, it's all text, grammar, and syntax.
18. Do a word study on the word you think you understand the best. You'll be surprised.
19. All interpretations eventually fail. The goal is to fail productively. If you do not know what a productive failure is, you have not ever been in ministry
20. Beware of becoming the kind of interpreter who goes down deeper, stays down longer, and comes up drier than anyone else.
21. The best commentary on any book of the Bible has probably already been written, the author is dead, and the book can be found used. Insight is not a function of recency, nor is stupidity.
22. The Law of the Third Sermon: Don't preach the first sermon you find in a text. Everyone else has beat you to it. Don't even preach the second sermon you find in a text. The really good preachers have already done it. The good sermon will at least be the third one you find in a text...
23. Humanly speaking, never forget who is the enemy and who is the client. We work for the client, and against the enemy. We want to help the clients and defeat the enemy. For example, Fundamentalists, people too conservative for our tastes, Pentecostals, etc. are CLIENTS...The enemy (ecclesiastically speaking) is...relavistic theology that denies that God effectively reveals absolute truths (i.e. all most all forms of liberalism)!
24. The parts of the Bible that have the best archaeological and extra-biblical support are typically the parts that are the most trivial
25. Invariably, the most vexing textual and translational problems will occur in the most precious and beloved passages of scripture.
26. Forget the "kernal and husk" theory of "cultural packaging" and "timeless truths." From a certain point of view, it's all kernal, and it's all husk. Again, the connection between God's truth and the cultural forms it takes in Scripture is not a proportion but a relation.
27. On relevance: Our job is translating God's word to make it accessible, not transforming God's word to make it acceptable. We hope to change humanity, not the Bible.
28. God does not need our help, especially if our help involves lying, distorting facts, using false arguments, or special pleading.
29. We are neither the first, nor the last, neither the best, nor the worst, interpreters of scripture in the history of the church. Nevertheless, in God's good economy, we have something distinctive to add to the conversation.
30. Lots of biblical scholars obsess over the "goal" of biblical theology. Why not me? I think the goal of Biblical Theology is discovering, for our time, with our tools and for our needs, how God, by the Spirit, uses the Bible to rule the church.
31. The Holy Spirit will not tell me something about the Bible that I can look up in a book... usually...at least, not very often...well...anyway...don't presume on it, but if He wants to...
32. You cannot decide in advance what you don't need to know about a text. Ignorance is not a method!
33. When somebody smarter than me, older than me, more experienced than me, and more educated than me, seems behind me, they are probably lapping me.
34. I would not entrust the Bible with someone that I would not trust with a loaded gun.
35. Someone who can't make sense out of a modern text in their native language will probably not do any better on the Bible with Hebrew or Greek.
36. On Supernaturalism: believing that miracles can happen, that they do happen, does not mean any one claimed miracle actually did happen. This illustrates how presuppositions, in the end, might not decisively change the outcome of interpretation.
37. The best theology is often found not in theology books, but in poetry, fiction, music, and even movies. I personally do not trust any interpreter who hasn't at least tried to play a musical instrument.
38. I don't trust interpreters that I would not trust belaying me on a rock climb
39. Laugh. Don't take yourself too seriously; but take what you do very seriously.
40. Ask your mother, spouse, or your kids, what they wish someone would explain about the Bible. Answer their questions.

As one of my colleagues is fond of saying, "Much more could be said..." but this topic is probably worn out by now. Time to think of something else.