We wish to know therefore what these things mean(Acts 17:20 – ESV)
Have you noticed or been a part of the so-called Bible studies where it is just a pooling of ignorance? The group goes around the room, and asks each other, “What does the verse (or passage) mean to you?” Instead of trying to discern authorial intent, in other words, what the original author of the passage intended as the meaning, we turn it around and the modern day reader becomes the arbiter of truth.
The idea is that the text means whatever the reader wants it to. However, if meaning is the reader's prerogative and not the author's – if the meaning of a text is tied to the reader's response and not to the author's intention – then a text has no meaning until a reader gives it one. Because there are many readers, all with potentially different interpretations of the text, then there are many possible meanings of any given text, none of which is subjected to the author's intention. This is relativistic nonsense, but it is happening all over the world today, and especially in individualistic America. What a passage “means to me” is prized as the divine intent.
How did this happen, and how did it become so prevalent in the last thirty years or so?
It comes down to hermeneutics – the rules of interpretation. When we are beginning to develop our study techniques, we tell people to look at a passage and ask three things:
1. What it says
2. What it means
3. What it means to me
And that is where the problem starts, because #3 has been understood to be “what do I think this passage means”, and it is on par with the authorial intent, and indeed, it becomes the final outcome of “bible study”.
We are confusing interpretation with application. Now seeking to understand the passage in its original context should lead us to be able to arrive at an application suitable for our present beliefs and behavior. In order to do this however, we should change #3 to say, “What it means for me”. That way, instead of people thinking
#3 = what I think it means, it would be
#3 = how now shall I live...
Not, what's your interpretation, but what's your application...
What it says
What it means
What it means for me
12 comments:
Notice the upper case and lower case in "Bible studies" and "bible study"...We think we are giving the "Bible" its due, but when we are guilty of what the post is saying, we turn it into a "bible", less than it ought to be...
I was listening to Dr. Easley (Moody)and he was talking about how we try to make God fit "our" perception instead of understanding HIS character and ways. And now this blog is commenting on the difference between "to me" and "for me". At first glance I'm thinking, "Come on Even So, quit being so picky!" But the reality is that when we say "What it says TO me" we are trying to be our own god.....are we not???? "Little" things CAN make a difference, huh?
"What does this mean to you?"
Right tool. Wrong application.
I use that question all the time, and find it to be a useful phrase. But I can't stand it when people use it to vote on interpretation.
When correctly used, it is a diagnostic tool. What does this mean to you? = Let me check to see if you really get it. Interchangeably, I will ask someone who just read a passage from the Bible to now put it into their own words.
It should never assign the meaning to the original passage, but reveal how the teacher/mentor/moderator is to proceed.
If I may, I'd like to say something else. Here is how I learned it:
-Observation.
-Interpretation.
-Application.
If we rush to interpretation, (and too often that is the case) how can we trust that we will arrive at the correct application?!
I wish I would do a better job of staying immersed longer in pure observation (of the Bible) before moving on to interpretation. And I wish I could teach others to do the same.
"It" means what God means, not what I perceive.
When correctly used, it is a diagnostic tool. What does this mean to you? = Let me check to see if you really get it.
Yeah, that's good.
Interchangeably, I will ask someone who just read a passage from the Bible to now put it into their own words.
Could be good if you use the next step in your outline, very bad if you don't, which is how many do it...
It should never assign the meaning to the original passage, but reveal how the teacher/mentor/moderator is to proceed.
That would clear a lot up, and be very benefical indeed, but many teachers are just as clueless
as those they teach. It is not that they aren't capable, it is that they haven't learned properly themselves.
Observation.
Interpretation.
Application.
Yeah, that's how most learn it -with the questions afterwards, IOW
1. Observation - What it says
2. Interpretation - What it means
3. Application - What it means to me
The problem has been that people make #3 into a version of #2, as if application meant having our own interpretation.
As just one example of where this might lead, some would then we go out and apply that interpretation wherever they wanted, instead of understanding that "this is the application for this instance".
They should keep reading the Bible to get a continuing understanding of other verses dealing with the matter...but people get a one verse paradigm for the way they want to live...
Can I confess something? But let's just keep this between us. ;-)
It is not my habit, but I have gone into situations unprepared, and when asked for my thoughts on a matter, I parroted the question back to the class or person making the inquiry. It's a cheap trick; I know. I'm not proud of it, but occasionally, it leads to lively discussions and sometimes I end up moving along by admitting that I don't know the answer and maybe we need to look into it more carefully at another time.
"Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."
Even So - What does this scripture "say" and "mean" and do you "think" it is "applied" as God intended?
I don't know the answer and maybe we need to look into it more carefully at another time
That's a lot better than just going ahead without doing it. It is okay not to know, it is not okay not to know and teach like you do, without at least telling those whom you teach that this "may not be it", and that we will have to look at it a little further.
"Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."
Even So - What does this scripture "say" and "mean" and do you "think" it is "applied" as God intended?
Quickly, then, not all, but a start...
It says that not many are supposed to be teachers. There is a danger because it carries a greater responsibility.
It is a call against amibition and eagerness to "be somebody". It means that He was talking of taming the tongue in this book, and here he describes one way that people don't, that is, they try and teach before they are taught.
Too many of the people were attempting to teach what they did not clearly comprehend. This is all gathered from the surrounding context. The reason for greater judgment is obvious, I won't go into it here.
It is often applied as God intended, but also not. The qualifications for teachers listed in the Bible, including general admonitions, are not heeded. If someone feels like they can teach, and they teach in other parts of their life, i.e., they are a schoolteacher, business leader, etc., they think this means they are supposed to teach others the Bible as well.
(Richard Dawson buzzer)nnnnnntttt!
Craver,
Your statement about staying immersed longer in pure observation was excellent and full of truth. I'm beginning to learn to do more of that in my life. The Word of God is becoming more and more real to me as a result.
By the way there are some out there that still train younger Christians this way. Even So is one of them.
Have you come across the book 'Not like any other book-interpreting the Bible' by Peter Masters? This is well worth reading for those in the ministry. It hi lights some of the dangers in modern forms of training in Bible study and is very beneficial in reminding the reader just how we are to handle God's holy word.
Thanks for that, Susanna, and thanks for coming over.
Yeah, I really like what i have read from Peter Masters before, and I'll have to check that out...
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