Hi, my name is Jim Lockley and I am the pastor of Alamance Lutheran Church. We are a worshiping community who gather together in the Village of Alamance, North Carolina. Welcome to our attempt at Bible study on line.
For almost 10 years now we have had a traditional Bible study meeting twice a week. When I say traditional, the format has usually been roughly the following. In advance of the class learners (that would be you) read two or three chapters of a selected book of the Bible. Then together in class we would read it aloud. Then, the Biblical expert (that would be me) would tell you what it really means. If you know me, you know I have written all of that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.
This past summer I read a book entitled Opening the Book of Faith by Diane Jacobson, Mark Allen Powell, and Stanley Olsen. I have summarized the method Dr. Jacobson suggests as an alternative for this Bible blog. Take a few minutes an plow through the following so you see what we will be up to.
We will try to combine four approaches to the Bible each week. Each approach has its own particular strengths; Devotional, Historical, Literary and Theological. Taken together they offer a unified approach to the Bible that can help us to hear the Word as it is spoken to us.
I Devotional, there are many forms of devotional reading. I am going to suggest to you one of the very oldest. Lectio Divina or Holy Reading. It was first used before the legalization of Christianity in 326. Traditionally there are four steps
Lectio -- reading the text
Meditatio -- meditating or reflecting on the text
Oratio -- responding with prayer
Contemplatio sitting quietly in the presence of God
First, we read the text. After the reading we sit quietly and let the words sink in.
Second, we meditate or reflect upon it. Another word might be to ruminate, which literally means to chew on it, and to try to digest its meaning. In a group, each individual might in turn share a word or phrase from the text which has touched their heart. (think of that beautiful verse Luke 2:19 “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” Part of this reflecting might include asking some questions of the text.
- What does it say to our world, our nation, our community, to me?
- What images does it bring to mind?
- What feelings do I have right now?
- If I took these words seriously, what concerns might they cause to arise?
- What person or situation might I see differently?
- What new possibility is God offering me in this text?
- What scares or confuses me? What challenges me? What delights me?
- Does this text stir up memories for me?
- What is God up to in this text?
Third, we pray about the text. This step is oddly difficult for some people. But if we let prayer grow out of our encounter with the text, we have an opportunity to open the dialogue with the Word.
Fourth, we contemplate what we have read and heard while sitting quietly in the presence of God. This is different from the second, or meditative step, That had a goal. To ruminate or chew on. Contemplation has no goal. It is simply to accept the text with gratitude as part of God’s recurring gift to us. At intervals, the Lord invites us to “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted by the nations” Psalm 46
This may have felt a little awkward but if you make it a daily discipline in grows on you. (and you grow in it).
II Historical This begins with the recognition that the Bible is an ancient text written by people who lived in times and places different from our own. We assume that we cannot understand the text in its plain meaning without having some understanding of those people, places and times. We want to learn what we can about their political situation, their sociology, their historical context. Then we work to understand the text in the light of that.
You already do this. You know that when Paul writes “Once I was stoned.”, he does not mean anything about marijuana. Stoning was a common punishment in first century AD. In some parts of the world it still is. You know that when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, he is using a metaphor to the most common political system of the era, monarchy. Perhaps today he would use a different metaphor. You use historical criticism unconsciously already.
Sometimes this requires extra study. Amos 1:1 "The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake." If we were to understand some of the things this prophet has to say we would do well to find out what is going on Middle Eastern politics of that era, we might also want to learn a little about the socio-economic situation of Israel in the 7th century BC. If we take the time to do that we can better understand Amos and what he has to say. We might then be better able to apply his prophetic voice to issues of peace and justice in 20th century United States.
Now think about the Gospel of Luke. We need to consider not one but two historical situations. What was going on "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas." That is how Luke begins the story of the ministry of Jesus, (3:1). Luke places the story in its historical context. What was happening during the period about which Luke writes, and how does that affect the story? That is important to understanding what Jesus was about. But when Luke sat down and wrote the story it was some 40 years later. Dramatic things had happened historically in the intervening time. For instance, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Roman Army. The Temple of Jerusalem, the center of Jewish faith was smashed. Many of the Jewish people had been driven from their homeland. How do these things effect the story Luke tells? In chapter 3 of Luke there is story of John the Baptist proclaiming the Kingdom in the wilderness. How do these historical contexts play into the story? In Philippians 2:7 Paul says that Christ took on the form of a slave. What do we know about 1st century slavery. Why does he evoke this image, and how does it relate to our modern understanding of Jesus?
History focuses on the who, what, where and why questions. What insights from history will be helpful to know in order to hear, read and understand the “plain meaning” of the text more accurately.
What do we know about the author who wrote the passage?
Do we know to whom or for whom the passage was written?
Why was this text written?
When? What was going on in the world then?
Where? What was going on in the world there?
How is this text similar to, or different from other texts, biblical or otherwise, from the same place, time and setting? This is especially interesting in the gospel accounts where the exact same story might be told by more than one gospel writer, but they tell it differently. In those differences we see what each writer thinks is most important about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
How can you know the answers to such questions? There are many good resources. A good study bible. A bible dictionary. A bible atlas. World History 101. Ask a seminary educated pastor. Trust me when I tell you, I have time to talk about the Bible. If you call me and ask me a Biblical question, I will do my best to answer it. And I bet that is true of any Christian pastor. But know this, I have been wrong in my lifetime. Two maybe three times. Experts can disagree too. And we all bring our own biases to the table.
Keep digging. This kind of research is fun. It is engaging and it can lead to a deeper richer reading of the text
III Literary reading. During the early 19th century two brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm began collecting German folk stories. They noticed certain patterns in them. They began categorizing them and classifying them. A few decades later some biblical scholars applied their techniques and learned some exciting things about the Bible. The Grimms did not invent this anymore than Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity. People have always known some of the things, they just developed the science that study literary form.
There are some helpful steps to this process, the following are general ones for use with any text.
1 Choose a text with care. John 3:16 is not enough. You need to see the setting it is in. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night… asks some questions, later he disappears back into the dark and Jesus completes a soliloquy. 3:1-21 is the unit. There is a beginning and an end. That entire unit is set within a series of units about Jesus and “signs”
2 Identify what type of literature the text is. A parable, a psalm, a poem, prophetic literature, is it part of a letter? The Bible is a collection of 66 books, with many authors written over a period of perhaps a thousand years. They used different devices to relate God's word.
3 Read different versions of the Bible to discover what importance different translators give the story. Why did they choose a different word?
4 Know the general themes and purposes of the book in which the passage is found. Again use good resources.
Lets consider a story or narrative. It might be a parable or a historical account. (the questions might be different if it were a poem or a prophetic call or some other literary form.)
· What is the overall plot of the story?
· Is there a structure that is similar to other stories? Jesus meets a woman at a well? Are there other Biblical stories about a man meeting a woman at a well? How are they the same, how are they different?
· Does the text use familiar images (clothing, water, food) that might be used to tell a sub plot? What do we know about these images and their usages in the Bible?
· Who are the major characters in this story? Do we know them from surrounding stories? Does the narrator of the story tell us about them directly? Or do we learn about them from their behavior within the the story?
· What are the important settings of the text? Inside? Outside? In a forest? In a wilderness? A palace? A tent? On a boat? When is the story? John 13:1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come. The Gospel writer often teaches us something about Jesus by connecting his story to certain festivals of the calendar. There are other questions to be asked, for instance social questions. Who is in the story? Kings Queens? High Priests? Beggars on the street? Prostitutes? How do these characters affect our imagination?
· What themes are in the story? Violence? Romance? Power? Call? Morality? What is being commended to us and what is being warned against?
· What is the narrator’s point of view? How do we know?
· What is the God’s point of view? How do we know?
There is a basic assumption that is made about the Bible, the whole Bible is assumed to be persuasive in character to some degree or another. Is that fair to make that assumption? Some texts are obvious in this way, they are commands, Thou shalt not…, Thou shalt..., Know the Lord, Love the Lord your God…, but others are indirect. The Adam and Eve story in Gen 2 and 3? What does that try to persuade us to do?
Another way of saying this is that when we read the Bible, (or most book) the text tries to do something to us. What is it trying to do?
IV Theological reading -- Go back and look at the text again. - Law and Gospel when we read scripture something happens to us. Are we convicted by what we read? Are we comforted? Asking these questions is more about the effect than the text itself.
In what way is this text law? What demands are made on us? What judgments? How does the text lead us to see our sin?
In what way is this text gospel? How does it proclaim gospel? Do we hear God’s good news of forgiveness of Sin? Of promise to be with us? Of the gift of Jesus? Where is grace in all of this?
Different people will answer these questions differently. In fact the same person may answer it one way on Monday and another on Tuesday depending on the context they are in on those two days. There are no right or wrong answers at this stage - What shows forth Christ as we hear the law and the gospel within the text, we may find the text points us toward, leads us to, even drives us to Christ. Luther wrote that when you read scripture, you should expect “to receive Jesus as a gift, as present that God has given you and is your own”
- Scripture Interprets Scripture
Are there other texts that help us understand this one? Are there important ideas at the heart of the Bible that help us put this passage in perspective? - Plain Meaning of the Text Are we giving scripture a fair opportunity to speak for itself? To maintain its own integrity?
- Public interpretation. The meaning of scripture for individuals is to be sought in the midst of Christian community. Is the interpretation available to everyone? With good reason we are very skeptical when people tell us there is a secret meaning to a text that only they understand.
Okay. That is the methodology we are going to use in this blog.
For the week of November 17th, let's start with the fourth chapter of Luke. For simplicity, we will break it into four parts. Verses 1-13, 14-30, 31-37, 38-44. Follow the four steps above in the devotional part and write your comments back in the blog. Later this week I will fill in what I can for the Historical, Literary and Theological study.
Blessings to you
Pastor Lockley
