This post is the first in a two-part series in which I will give examples of excellence in hermeneutics from experts local to our fine University. The first example is from my hermeneutical hero here at the college on the topic of the role of women. The second example is from two professors at the local seminary on the topic of homosexuality.
Example 1: Role of women at the College
Another member of the “Biblical and Theological Studies” department here at our University who deserves special praise is our well-known hermeneutics expert (who will remain anonymous for his own protection from the coming purge.)
In case you don’t know, hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation and understanding of texts. In particular, within Christianity, it is the study of how to interpret the Bible. This is my current hero’s area of expertise.
I want to share with my readers an example of his hermeneutical prowess. On the day that the “Equality Riders” were expected to be attending Chapel here at our University last year, he spoke on the topic of marriage, naturally. I’m sure that this topic was chosen in order to edify the homosexuals who were visiting campus that day. (It turned out that the riders left before chapel and went on to Wheaton thus missing this message that was aimed as much at them as anyone.)
His talk on the topic of marriage came right from scripture. I think it is an excellent illustration of proper hermeneutics and I want to share it.
What does Discipleship have to do with Marriage?
Marriage & Discipleship from a Pauline perspective
That was the title of his talk.
His message went as follows: present a scripture passage on a slide, then interpret it. I will reproduce here some examples.
1 Corinthians 11:3-12
3But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. 4Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered disgraces his head. 5But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her head, for it is one and the same thing as having a shaved head. 6 … 7For a man should not have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. 8For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. 9Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for man. 10For this reason a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman. But all things come from God.
In his next slide, he begins to interpret this scripture:
Note Paul’s “double focus” in 1 Cor 11:
–to affirm the male/female
distinctiveness of creation
–to maintain the mutuality of
conduct and interdependence of
man and woman “in the Lord”
Already we see a hint of my hero’s expertise at hermeneutics. He says the Paul’s two foci are that men and women are (1) distinct and (2) interdependent. How can he say this after reading a passage of ten verses the first eight of which talk about the subordination of women to men? This is where a PhD in hermeneutics pays off.
But the true beauty of the scripture quotation is not what is there, but what is left out. You might have noticed that he left out verse 6. Here is what verse 6 says: “For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil.” Before I can really explain the beauty of this omission, you need to hear more of his message. So let’s continue.
His next slide is another quotation from Ephesians 5:18, 21-33. I won’t reproduce the whole thing here.
His slide interpreting this says:
A key implication:
Paul’s more specific instructions
(to wives and husbands, to children and parents, to slaves and owners)
flow out of his general instructions to all Christians
(to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”)
He mentions slaves and children here probably because in paragraphs following his advice to husbands and wives, Paul gives advice to children, slaves, and masters. Notice that while Paul’s assumptions about the institution of marriage are relevant today, his assumptions about the institution of slavery are not.
How can our hermeneutics expert make such a distinction? There seems to be nothing in the text that says that one paragraph is for all cultures and the next is not. The reason he can make this distinction is that he is an expert at hermeneutics. If you had a PhD in hermeneutics, you could figure those things out. Don’t expect to understand these things if you haven’t put in the hours of study in seminary.
He then focused on a particular passage:
22Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, 23because the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body; 24but as the church submits to Christ, so also the wives to the husbands in everything.
On reading this slide, he made the following remarks:
These are the verses that spark that persistent question I mentioned earlier: does the Bible really teach that the husband is the head of the wife?
Folks, this is not a hard question. Verse 23 is pretty clear: “the husband is the head of the wife.” Not much to discuss about that—but neither is that the really important question in this whole discussion.
The more important question is the one that I almost never get asked—the logical followup question that no one bothers to bring up. And that question is, “what does Paul mean by ‘head’ in this context?” …
Obviously the Bible teaches this. The important questions is, “what does it mean?” I’ll come back to this comment later after we understand more about my hero’s hermeneutical techniques.
What does Paul mean by “head”? He answers this question by referring to Mark 10:35-45 and Alex Chediak, naturally.
In the course of explaining the differences between our cultural associations to the word “head” and the meaning the word takes in the Bible, he said, “the Bible transcends culture.”
Now I think we are in a position to learn something about hermeneutics from the master.
First of all, what do we make of my hero’s omission of the verse about wearing a veil? Does the Bible teach that women should either wear a veil or shave her head bald? You might think that I would quote the master here and say, “Folks, this is not a hard question. The Bible is clear. But the important question is ‘what does Paul mean by “veil” and “cut off her hair.”‘” But, no! My hero doesn’t make that mistake and neither will I. Part of the genius of advance hermeneutics is to know when to omit a verse.
The masters know that the verses preceding and following 1 Corinthians 11:6 transcend culture but verse six does not.
Second, when you determine that a verse does transcend culture, you must answer the more important question: what does it mean? This is usually best done by looking at another book of the Bible or at the most current conservative evangelical Bible commentaries.
Don’t miss the second example!
5 Replies
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[...] speaking to us through the apostles about how he wants his church to work if we were to go through all of Paul’s writings. At least he would demur a bit and say that some of it, such as women needing either to go bald or [...]
[...] December 5, 2007 in UncategorizedTags: Bible, Equality Ride, hermeneutics, homosexuality This is the second in a series on hermeneutics. See part 1. [...]
[...] Or perhaps I could put it better: the problem is not so much that they only see the words as it is that they see all the words. This illusory vision is a result of the veil that is taken away when anyone turns to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit removes the veil so that instead of so many words, we see the ellipsis. [...]