An excerpt from How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart...
Every so often we meet someone who says with great feeling, "You don't have to interpret the Bible; just read it and do what it says." Usually, such a remark reflects the layperson's protest against the "professional" scholar, pastor, teacher, or Sunday school teacher, who by "interpreting" seems to be taking the Bible away from the common person. It is their way of saying that the Bible is not an obscure book. "After all," it is argued, "anyone with half a brain can read it and understand it. The problem with too many preachers and teachers is that they dig around so much they tend to muddy the waters. What was clear to us when we read it isn't so clear anymore."
There is a lot of truth in this protest. We agree that Christians should learn to read, believe, and obey the Bible. And we especially agree that the Bible need not be an obscure book if read and studied properly. In fact we are convinced that the single most serious problem people have with the Bible is not with a lack of understanding but with the fact that they understand many things too well! For example, with such a text as "Do everything without grumbling or arguing" (Phil 2:14), the problem is not understanding it but obeying it — putting it into practice.
We are also agreed that the preacher or teacher is all too often prone to dig first and look later, and thereby at times to cover up the plain meaning of the text, which often lies on the surface. Let it be said at the outset — and repeated throughout — that the aim of good interpretation is not uniqueness; one is not trying to discover what no one else has ever seen before.
No comments:
Post a Comment