Terms

Question 1

Alexandrian Exegesis

Answer 1

Allowed for a literal meaning, but believed it was helpful to go beyond the literal to a deeper allegorical or “spiritual” meaning, which made it possible to hear the Bible as a word to the church now (used by clement or Alexandria, Origen, Augustine, Jerome)

Question 2

Antiochene Exegesis

Answer 2

The Antiochene school rejected allegorical interpretation, preferring the literal meaning instead. They did allow for typological interpretation as long as the literal meaning was retained and there were correspondences between the type and thing it pointed to. Insisted on practical application through exhortation rather than allegory. (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Chrsostom)

Question 3

Apocalypse

Answer 3

A book involving narrative elements “in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and space insofar as it involves another, supernatural world

Question 4

Apodictic Law

Answer 4

‘Though shalt not’

Question 5

Application

Answer 5

Should be specific

Combining of readers world and authors textual world to contextualize

Ask why and how (of historical literal and intertextual contexts)

Look for big picture (community cross new creation)

Question 6

Augustine READING ON CANVAS

Answer 6

Believed people needed to learn Hebrew and Greek

used allegorical interpretation

It’s okay to not understand, and when you do understand don’t be proud, always hold firmly to the spirit of love

One of the most influencial iterpreters of the bible

One of the key characters in the Alexandrian interpretation of the allegorical

Question 7

Author Text Reader

Answer 7

The role of the reader: meaning is free, interpretation as creative as construction (what do you get)
Autonomous Texts: meaning as ‘free floating’ interpretation as appreciation (what does it mean)
Role of the author: meaning as determinate; interpretation as excavation (what does he/she mean)
There are positive and negative aspects too all three options

Question 8

Authors Intention

Answer 8

Our goal is to grast the meaning of the text God intended

The Bible is a record of God’s communication of himself and his will to us

Question 9

Cannon

Answer 9

The books of the bible that are seen as authoritative, the cannon is closed

Some parts were widely accepted early on, others too longer to be seen as authoritative and diving

Question 10

Case/Casuistic Law

Answer 10

Have a cause-and-effect action using words such as when if and supposing that

The second part contains the consequence

Question 11

Chrysostom

Answer 11

The opposite of Augustine, influencial interpreter, church father, valued literal meaning

Question 12

Close reading

Answer 12

• The deliberate, word-by-word and phrase-by phrase consideration of all the parts of a text in order to understand it as a whole

Question 13

Historical Context

Answer 13

Look up historical and geographical references

Question 14

Literary context

Answer 14

Surrounding passages, surrounding chapters, books by the same author, the canon

Question 15

Discourse

Answer 15

How the story is told

Question 16

Discourse and Story Level

Answer 16

The story level is the ‘what’ of the story while the discourse is ‘how’ the story is told

Question 17

Eisegesis

Answer 17

Reading something into the text that isn’t there

Question 18

Engaged self

Answer 18

Interpretation is not only something we do but something we are

Interpretation always involves a dialectical process of distancing ourselves from the text enough to see its freeness and then allowing the text to draw us near and claim us

Question 19

Enlightenment

Answer 19

A metaphor for an intellectual movement that rejected tradition, and set up the individual rational human as the authority

Major shift from medieval period

Wanted to look behind the text much more suspicion and individualistic, human centred

Question 20

Exegesis

Answer 20

The careful historical, literary, and theological analysis and explanation of a text with the goal of achieving credible and coherent understanding of the text on its own terms and in its own context that may speak to us in our different-yet similar context

Question 21

Focal Images (community, cross, new creation)

Answer 21

Proposed by Hays:
Community: the church is a counter cultural community of discipleship, and this community is the primary addressee of Gods imperatives. We should seek to understand what WE should do not I should do

Cross: Jesus’ death on a cross is the paradigm for faithfulness to God in his world. The cross was an act of self-giving love and the community is called to take up their cross and follow

New creation: the Church embodies the power of the resurrection in the midst of a not yet redeemed world, we hang in between the resurrection and second coming and wait in anticipation

Question 22

Formal Equivalence

Answer 22

The attempt to keep as close to the form of the Hebrew/Greek text (words and grammar) as can be understood in English, will keep historical distance intact at all points

Question 23

Dynamic (Functional) Equivalence

Answer 23

The attempt to keep the meaning of the Hebrew or Greek but to put their words and idioms into what would be the normal way of saying the same thing in English, keep historical distance on all historical and factual matters but ‘update’ matters of language, grammar, and style

Question 24

Genre (and biblical genres)

Answer 24

Apocalypse, law, letters, narrative, poetry, and prophecy

Question 25

Heremeneutics

Answer 25

The study of the activity of interpretation About interpretation, learning to read as carefully as possible, and how to talk to others about these things The world behind, within and in front of the text

Question 26

Hermeneutical Circle and Spiral

Answer 26

Hermeneutical Circle: text —> preunderstanding—> ______—>text Hermeneutical Circle: text —> context—> ______—>text Hermeneutical Spiral: spiralling closer and closer to the meaning of the text

Question 27

Hermeneutics of Faith and Suspicion

Answer 27

If reading is an encounter or conversation we must begin with faith, the Bible is inspired so we are called to respond with faith, but it is okay to wonder and be suspicious to recognize bias and analyze what the text means and how it relates to other passages and history There was a shift from faith to suspicion between the medieval and enlightenment periods Post modernism thinking involved suspicion

Question 28

Historical Criticism

Answer 28

The disciplined search for history behind the texts or for the history of the texts themselves

Question 29

Holy Spirit

Answer 29

Scholars have differing opinions on the role of the spirit Its okay to say the Holy Spirit told you something as long as you are open to correction

Question 30

Fusion of Horizons

Answer 30

Our present horizons of understanding are formed by the past and we can grow out horizons by learning more about the past To understand the past we need to separate ourselves Genuine understanding requires us to take account for the text in our own context after understanding the historical context

Question 31

Implied Author

Answer 31

the perspective from which the work appears to have been written which must be reconstructed by readers on the basis of what they find in the narrative

Question 32

Marcion

Answer 32

Claimed that the God of the OT was different from the God if the NT.

Question 33

Martin Luther

Answer 33

Disposition of the reader is important Didn’t like revelation

Question 34

Narrative

Answer 34

Definition: a literary form characterized by sequential Tim and action involving plot, setting, and characters. It is the story form of literature Characteristics: convey theology (do not simply report events), not always concerned with showing us how to live, convey their message indirectly, not every story has a point when considered in its own,

Question 35

Narrative and story time

Answer 35

Narrative is often not trying to inform us of a a charicters traits and how to live, convey their message indirectly Not every story has a point when considered on its own

Question 36

Obstacles to interpretation

Answer 36

The distance of the river (culture, language, time, situation, covenant) Sin Preunderstanding

Question 37

Open and Closed Texts

Answer 37

Open Texts: invite a reader’s response and require more effort to fill in gaps Closed Texts: tend to have a single meaning and invite an author-centred approach

Question 38

Origen

Answer 38

Antiochian exegesis

Question 39

Paradigm

Answer 39

Concrete examples rather than abstract principles, stories or summary accounts of characters who model exemplary conduct 84 reprehensible conduct (Good Samaritan)

Question 40

Parallelism

Answer 40

A two part sentence structure in which the second half is distinct from and yet connected to the first half Synonymous: 2nd line restates the first Antithetical: negative restatement of the second line Synthetic: each line adds something to the picture

Question 41

Paraphrase

Answer 41

The attempt to translate the ideas from one language to another, with less concern about using the exact words of the original. Tried to eliminate as much of the historical distance as possible and still be faithful to the original text

Question 42

Patristic

Answer 42

Has to do with Church Fathers and important Christian writers between the late first century and the beginning of the ninth century (apostolic fathers, Ante-Nicene fathers, post nicene fathers)

Question 43

Postmodernism

Answer 43

Mordenism turned in on itself Suspicion Everything is subjective Exposing ‘agendas’ and power games

Question 44

Premature assimilation

Answer 44

When readers jump into the application of a text without sufficient thought and without respect for the distance between them and now. This results in our controlling or domesticating the text rather than allowing the text to challenge us

Question 45

Preunderstanding

Answer 45

Includes what we bring to the test before we first encounter it as well as initially perceptions and preliminary understandings Unavoidable so we should be aware and put it to use

Question 46

Principle

Answer 46

The general frameworks of moral consideration by which particular decisions about action are to be governed (the golden rule) must find their place within the story of Gods redemption if the world through Jesus

Question 47

Readers Response

Question 48

Rule

Answer 48

Direct commandments or prohibitions of specific behaviours

Question 49

Semantic range

Answer 49

the wide range of definitions a word can have in different contexts

Question 50

The four Senses of Scripture: Allegorical

Answer 50

Everything points to the mystery that is Christ The purpose is not so much to being one to faith as to build up and further instruct the faith already received

Question 51

The Four Senses of Scripture: Anagogical

Answer 51

From the Greek “to lead up” The enjoyment of God, ultimately in heaven The end time or mystical contemplation of God begun now

Question 52

The four senses of scripture: literal

Answer 52

Not concerned precisely with the authors intended meaning as we understand today, but rather the events narrated (hence history)

Question 53

The four senses of scripture: tropological

Answer 53

To turn (conversion The way God’s work shapes our beliefs and values so as eventually to evangelize our behaviour

Question 54

The word behind the text, within the text, and in-front of the text

Answer 54

Behind the Text: that historical reality to which a narrative refers Within the Text: the story world of the text itself; its genre and structure In front of the text: the impact the story has on its readers

Question 55

Thick description

Answer 55

Making sense on their terms we need to understand the culture to construct an image and understand what they are living through and what happens to them Imagination and the role of the reader Never finished: there is always more to learn and discover

Question 56

Thomas Aquinas

Answer 56

An increased respect for the literal sense (authors intention rather than events described in the text) everything necessary for the faith may be found somewhere in the literal sense

Question 57

Typology

Answer 57

The presupposition is that the way God worked in the past is mirrored in the way he perks in the present and future

Question 58

Word study fallacies (6)

Answer 58

English only fallacy: studying English word while failing to recognize the Hebrew/Greek can be translated multiple ways Etymological (root) fallacy: assuming the words basic meaning is found in the root or in what is used to mean in the past Time frame fallacy: giving a later meaning to an earlier word that did not have that meaning Illegitimate totality transfer: assuming every possible meaning of a word is intended in one passage One meaning fallacy: assuming that a word means the same thing in every passage Word-concept fallacy: assuming a concept can be fully explored by the stuffy of a word with which it is associated

Question 59

World formation

Answer 59

A symbolic world created the perceptual categories through which we interpret reality

Question 60

Implied reader

Answer 60

the one who actualizes the potential for meaning in a text, who responds to it in ways consistent with the expectations that we may ascribe to its implied author, functions as the embodiment of the right response to the authors intended communication