BBI Part Two

What happens after a person reads the biblical text? That is a great question.  There is normally some sort of response: prayerful repentance or prayerful praise.  However, when pursuing the scripture as something to understand the normal response is a series of questions; some appropriate, some not; some good, some not.

Part Two: Ask Questions
When I said above that some questions were not appropriate or not good, the decision is based on whether the question seeks to divert attention from the text itself or to short circuit the painful work of study by jumping to a conclusion based merely on the immediate reaction.  Neither of these count for the work of biblical interpretation.

Biblical interpretation does take work and the second part (remember the parts make a whole and leaving one out results in a half eaten donut hole) is to ask, or if you prefer to voice, the questions that the first part, reading, invokes.  These questions normally begin with what or how, even why or when, and often in the midst of narrative who or when.  The worst question of all to ask at this moment is the meaning question, "what does this passage MEAN?" because that question short circuits the interpretive process. Meaning is derived from context, both context within the Bible and the context of the reader.

I will assume that most of the nine regular followers to this blog are western hemisphere, north american, college educated and drive a car.  This last has nothing to do with the text but allowed me to end the sentence. If one is not western hemisphere, north american, college educated, or able to drive or even own a car then the context for understanding and finding meaning of the text will vary radically.  However, I prefer to deal with the text's context rather than that of the reader so I will stick to that area.

I recommend starting the questions with "What does this text say about God?" and "What does this text say about humanity?" I also try to avoid questions that lead to yes/no responses since little thinking takes place in that case, don't you agree?  Therefore, avoid the starting the question with a verb, especially "am/is/are/was/were"  Ask meaningful questions about the text, or about objects in the reading that you simply don't understand.  One can attend a lecture on quantum physics and come away with much or little based simply on an understanding of the vocabulary used.  If you don't know what a word means as it is used in the Bible, phrase it as a question.

Review:

Part One: Read
Part Two: Ask Questions

It starts to get more difficult soon, so try to master the first two parts quickly!!!