Category Archives: Pauline epistles

The Literary Context of Scripture

This fifth installment in my response to a former student will discuss the second context that good biblical interpretation must take into account.  In addition to the cultural context that produced scripture, a given passage of scripture must be understood in terms of is literary context beginning with its immediate surroundings and extending to the entirety of Scripture. The failure to do so will certainly result in misinterpretation or the absolutization of a given text over against other texts in Scripture and contrary to the tenor of Scripture as a whole. Often this sort of privileging one text over others betrays inconsistency, incoherence, and bias on the part of the interpreter. In other words, observance of the literary context of scripture requires criteria applicable across Scripture that take seriously all Scripture as authoritative without rigidity.

A few examples should demonstrate the importance of this principle. The first installment of this series has already discussed the case of Job’s friends, whose speeches addressed to Job sound orthodox and pious, except that in the context of the whole book of Job, they stand under God’s negative evaluation expressed at the end of the book (Job 42:5). Yes, often we have to read to the end if we want to understand the message of a biblical book.  Memory verses can mislead.

The case of Ezra’s decree that Jewish men in post-exilic Judah must divorce their foreign wives and disown any (entirely innocent!) children that resulted from the union illustrates the need for setting a given text in the context of the whole Bible. Two issues intertwine here: divorce and particularism. Upon returning to Yehud (Judah) with the mandate of the Persian King Artaxerxes to regulate religious affairs there (Ezr 7:25-26), Ezra, whose priestly pedigree traced all the way back to Aaron (7:1-5) discovered that some among the populace had “not separated themselves from the people of the lands with their abomination,” but had intermarried with “Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites” (9:1-2, RSV). The discovery prompted Ezra to offer a lengthy prayer of confession (9:3-15), in which he alluded to Deut 7:1-5. The Deuteronomy text prohibits Israelites from intermarrying with a list of peoples closely aligned with the list in Ezr 9:1-2 suggesting that the motivating factor for Ezra was adherence to Deuteronomy.

Several factors argue against claiming Ezra’s decision as a precedent with respect to divorce, and certainly not to mass divorce. There is reason to question whether Ezra’s efforts to honor Deut 7:1-5 may not have violated Deut 24:1.  To be sure, Deuteronomy permits a man to divorce his wife “if … she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her….” In the rabbinical debate over the precise connotations of “indecency,” the school of Shammai and the school of Hillel held contrasting positions. Shammai argued that “A man may not divorce his wife unless he has found her guilty of sexual misconduct…,” while Hillel maintained that “(He may dismiss her) even if she has merely spoiled his meal….” (Sifre, Piska 269). Nothing in the Ezra case suggests that the wives divorced were guilty of sexual misconduct. Nothing suggests that the husbands involved wanted to divorce their wives for any reason, including their cooking! Of course, Christian readers of Ezra 9-10 will also want to include the New Testament as context. Probably in reference to Deuteronomy 24, Jesus prohibits a man from divorcing his wife “except on grounds of unchastity” (Matt 5:32; 19:9, RSV). Luke’s version omits the exception (16:18).  Paul warns against being “unequally yoked” (2 Cor 6:14-18), but he does not require divorce, which would contradict the teachings of Jesus.

Similarly, the particularism evident in Ezra’s abhorrence of intermarriage with non-Jews presents its own difficulties.  First, by Ezra’s day many of the peoples listed in Deuteronomy 7 and Ezra 9 no longer survived as identifiable people groups. Second, Deuteronomy expresses an interest in protecting religious purity, not ethnic identity. Third, the book of Ezra does not record that God issued a directive to Ezra that he should require 84 men (10:18-43) to turn their backs on their wives and children. Instead, Ezra himself drew an inference from scripture that may not have been entirely apt. Fourth, and most importantly, Ezra relied on a single text instead of the broader testimony of Scripture. Joshua 9 records the incorporation of the Gibeonites into the covenant people.  Tamar and Rahab were Canaanites, Ruth was a Moabite, and Bathsheba was a Hittite, yet all were in the direct lineage of David, and thus of Jesus (Matt 1:3, 5, 6). Further, Ezra failed to take into account the promise stated in Isa 56:3: “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people.’”

Isaiah 56 figures prominently in another example of the need to put scripture in the context of scripture. Deuteronomy 23:1 explicitly prohibits eunuchs from entering “the assembly of the Lord.” Yet, in a later time, Isa 56:4-5 promises, not only foreigners (see above), but also faithful eunuchs the contrary: “For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off.’” Again, Christian interpreters of will want to put these texts in context with the New Testament.  Acts 8:26-40 records the account of Philip’s encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch – thus, both a foreigner and a eunuch – on the Jerusalem-Gaza road, whom ironically Philip found reading from the book of Isaiah. In response to the eunuch’s question, Philip explained “the good news of Jesus” and the eunuch asked immediately to be baptized. So, Philip baptized him (vv 36-38). Careful readers of the Bible do not absolutize single texts. The words of the Bible can become the Word of God when we pay wise attention to their context in “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

Ethical Interpretation of the Bible

Ethical Interpretation of the Bible

A beloved former student whom I taught early in my career at the undergraduate level recently contacted me via social media to ask whether some of the views I express there represent changes in my thinking since that earlier time in my life and career. Specifically, this former student equated my public positions regarding a number of hot button social issues with an abandonment of confidence in the authority of Scripture. I responded that a fulsome treatment of the questions put to me would far exceed the scope of social media communications and promised to publish such a treatment on my blog very soon. Over the next several weeks I will publish here a detailed explanation of the principles or axioms that guide me as I read Scripture.

This first installment of my response will, by way of preamble, assert that simply reading the Bible guided by the slogan, “the Bible says it – that settles it,” as though the Bible requires no interpretation leads one into a number of dangers. It is important, for example, to distinguish between the WORD of God, the word of God, and the words of God. The first is the Logos incarnate, the second is a term the church uses to acknowledge the Bible as a source for our faith; yet, the Bible is neither per se nor in toto the “words” of God. Lengthy speeches by Job’s friends constitute about half of the book. They make arguments that sound very orthodox and pious. Eliphaz the Temanite can represent them here:

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart…For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly. He delivers the innocent man; you will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands” (Job 22:21-22, 29-30 RSV).

These statements sound like some good memory verses, but the end of the book reports that, after speaking with Job, God spoke also to this same Eliphaz: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:5 RSV). In other words, the speeches of Job’s friends do NOT communicate God’s will. Instead, they function in scripture as part of its rich dialogue in the effort of the faithful to seek understanding.

No less than the Apostle Paul made clear on one occasion that one should distinguish between his personal opinion and the will of God.  In response to a question from the Corinthian church concerning the desirability of remaining celibate in light of, what they thought would be, the imminent Parousia, Paul advised them: “Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.I think that in view of the present distress it is well for a person to remain as he is…I want you to be free from anxieties” (1 Cor 7:25-26 RSV, italics added). One wonders how often Paul may have stated a personal opinion without indicating it as such. In much the same way, the Bible’s narratives report what Abraham, Naomi, David, Mary, and Peter said, not God’s words. It is simply dangerous to regard everything in the Scriptures as a statement directly from God.

Indeed, often the challenge is to comprehend how a particular passage can possibly be understood as word of God. The so-called imprecatory psalms clearly belong in this category. What is God’s word for God’s people in statements such as the conclusion of Psalm 139 (vv 8-9), an exilic prayer asking God to take vengeance on the Edomites and the Babylonians.

O daughter of Babylon, you devastator!

Happy shall he be who requites you

with what you have done to us!

Happy shall he be who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rock! (RSV)

The entire Psalter, of course, asks readers to grapple with how to consider it the word of God.  After all, every psalm represents human speech addressed to or about God. The psalter includes not only imprecatory psalms such as Psa 139, but complaints and laments charging God with inaction (cf. Ps 74, esp. v 11; Ps 79) alongside prayers of thanksgiving and hymns of praise. They are not the words of God, but, in the context of the overall witness of Scripture to a God who desires relationship, they constitute the human side of the dialogue.  God’s people need them as models. It is important to distinguish between the WORD of God, the word of God, and the words of God.

A Revealed People

Eph 3:1-20

A sermon preached for Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA, 1/10/2021

The Gift of Struggle

Philippians 1:21-30

A Sermon Preached to the Congregation of Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA
20 September 2020

All Have Sinned

Rom 5:12-19

A Sermon preached at Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA 3/1/2020

Keeping the Commandment – 1 Tim 6:6-19

A sermon preached at Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA

9/30/19

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Romans 13 – Obedience to the Government

“Obedience … in the Lord”

The current public debate concerning events at the nation’s southern border, especially the separation of families and the detainment of small children, exposes the profound degree of Christian disunity regarding issues of church-state relations, ethics, and biblical interpretation. Unfortunately, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ citation of Romans 13 seems Continue reading Romans 13 – Obedience to the Government

Spousal Abuse and Biblical Interpretation

Eph 4:21-33

A couple of weeks ago, the Baptist Blogger posted a video of a sermon preached in 2000 by fundamentalist SBC leader and president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Paige Patterson. In the sermon, Patterson related a story about a woman who sought his counsel concerning how to deal with her abusive husband. He advised her simply to pray, Continue reading Spousal Abuse and Biblical Interpretation

Eve’s Curse

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. Let a woman learn in silence with all Continue reading Eve’s Curse

“There are a variety of ministries, but the same Lord”

1 Cor 12:5 (NAS)

I acknowledged a calling to ministry my junior year in high school.  To that point, my sole aspiration had been to play piano.  Indeed, I continued my piano studies on into my first year in college when the demands of pursuing two degrees, a BM in piano performance and a BA in religion, proved more than I could handle in only seven twenty-four hour days Continue reading “There are a variety of ministries, but the same Lord”