Is Jesus a loaf? Hermeneutics for Dummies!

Red Sky at Morning

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Great talk by Walter Martin!

Literal and Figurative Language - how to avoid being dumb!

About 25 minutes in, he addresses one of the most common errors people make when interpreting statements in the Bible. I think Transubstantiation is the most famous example of this...

 
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Red Sky at Morning

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I thought I was just going to put up one post but it might go somewhere - in the first talk, Walter Martin discussed the error of what he called “letterism”, or the deliberate reading of clearly allegorical language as though it were literal.

An example of this include the way that Mormonism make God the Father a flesh and blood man by taking phrases like “His outstretched arm” as a concrete thing (whilst ignoring the implications of God being a mother hen in other passages!).Another historic misreading would be Catholicism’s belief in Transubstantiation where supplicants receive the actual body and blood of Christ, yet Jesus manages to avoid being literally made of wood with a hinge when He says “I am the door”!!!!

While these errors are commonlt known, the opposite is more insidious and more popular with the gnostic mind - where apparently literal language is taken figuratively to unlock meanings that would not be obvious without the interpretive framework offered. A good example of this would be the “Mind Science” cults like Mary Beker Eddy with “Christian Science” who provides a glossary of terms with which to (completely misinterpret) the message of the Bible through...

 
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Red Sky at Morning

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The meaning of the Resurrection

Liberals and cultists like Jehovah’s Witnesses fragment the testimony of the Bible and break the rule of “comparing scripture with scripture”.

Walter Martin incisively explores how people try to deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus using bad hermeneutics.


and

 
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Gnome

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Likewise, we know that by "I and the father are one" that he isn't claiming to be God, because only YHWH is God (as per Torah)
 

Red Sky at Morning

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Likewise, we know that by "I and the father are one" that he isn't claiming to be God, because only YHWH is God (as per Torah)
Now we get into the “my interpretation” vs “your interpretation” issue.

Take the word “one” in this passage - it has a number of possible meanings based on context -

agreement (1), alike* (1), alone (3), common (1), detail (1), first (9), individual (2), individually* (1), lone (1), man (1), nothing* (1), one (282), one another (1), one man (2), one thing (5), one* (2), person (1), single (1), smallest (1), someone (2), thirty-nine* (1), unity (1).

The context...

John 10

The Shepherd Knows His Sheep

22Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. 24Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

25Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30I and My Father are one.”
 
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Red Sky at Morning

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If you have ever been in a debate where two bible passages were used along side one another, perhaps even linked by a key word (like “wisdom” in Proverbs 8, an old favourite of JWs and cultists) you may have run up against the fallacy of “Collapsing Contexts”

 
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Red Sky at Morning

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The grave interpretational errors of the “Health and Wealth” Word-Faith teachers is exposed here. I fell for this one for some time when I was younger (another story) - I’m not a cessationist but I (now) reject the “name it and claim it” formula on clearer interpretational grounds:-

 
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Red Sky at Morning

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“Allegorisation is spiritualisation of a text. If it isn’t warranted in the text, you shouldn’t try to use it, otherwise you get nothing but false doctrines”.
~ Walter Martin

Understanding when something is (and is not) allegory:-

 
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Red Sky at Morning

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I once studied Shakespeare and was on “Othello” - the question of interpretation and meaning came up and one of the students ventured a Freudian interpretation based on Feminist/Marxist framework. Without being graphic, the “I” in Iago (the bad guy) was Shakespeare representing the oppressive patriarchy and the “O” of Othello made him the feminine representative in the piece. Interesting conjecture perhaps. But -

Shakespeare knew nothing of Freud!

In the same way, interpreting the Bible from non-Bibical world-views happens a lot in debates here. The same logical problems follow as interpretations applied to the text from alternative spiritualities have nothing at all to do with the Biblical writers intentions!

 

Red Sky at Morning

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Selective citing of scriptures...

This should be an obvious one but how many times do some people drag around a narrow selection of Bible verses relentlessly trying to prove a point (against the main message of scripture?)

Many of the letters were read out loud and in full so that none of the context was missed - how different discussions would be if we did that ourselves?

 

Red Sky at Morning

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Insufficient, inadequate evidence and the “twisting” of scripture...

Anyone who has talked about blood transfusions with JWs will know all about this. Verses on OT dietary laws somehow climb aboard time machines to allow kids to bleed out in hospital while their deluded parents clutch their Watchtower magazines. Twist at your own peril!

 
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