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Biblical Interpretation - by Robert J. Sanders

Biblical Interpretation

By Robert J. Sanders
Special to VirtueOnline
7/21/2006

How does one go about interpreting Scripture? This is one of the most important issues facing the church today. It is critical because God has decisively revealed himself in Scripture, and how we interpret Scripture determines the God we worship. Within the church today various parties interpret Scripture with such opposing results that one could conclude that the parties are no longer worshipping the same God.

For that reason, how Scripture is interpreted is of the utmost importance.

To help in this matter, let me suggest the writings of N.T. Wright, especially his book The Last Word. (San Francisco, HarperCollins, 2005).

Wright begins by saying that every interpretation of Scripture depends upon the worldview of those who interpret it. He further claims that one must adopt a worldview that reflects Scripture itself. To that end he sees Scripture as a five act play: 1) an original good creation; 2) sin and the corruption of creation; 3) Israel; 4) Jesus; 5) the church in the world (p. 125). In terms of the biblical narrative, these five acts correspond to: 1) Genesis 1 2; 2) Genesis 3 11; 3) Genesis 12 to Malachi; 4) the four gospels; 5) Acts to Revelation.

In this schema, Jesus Christ fulfills the hope of Israel and heals the corruption of creation which was narrated in Act 2. The church, Act 5, proclaims and lives Jesus Christ and his restoration so that Act 4 is the foundation of Act 5. Wright then locates all biblical texts within this schema.

From this perspective, Scripture is the message by which God in Jesus Christ speaks to his people and calls them to Christ's mission of restoring the whole of the corrupted creation. Here is Wright:

"The whole of my argument so far leads to the following major conclusion: that the shorthand phrase "the authority of scripture," when unpacked, offers a picture of God's sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now to be implemented through the Spirit led life of the church precisely as the scripture reading community (p. 114)."

"The authority of scripture" thus makes the sense it does within the work of God's Kingdom, at every level from the cosmic and political through to the personal (p. 116).

There is an immediate and obvious conclusion to Wright's perspective: the meaning of biblical texts, especially those pertinent to God in Christ acting to restore creation, is that God is now implementing through the life of the church the plan inaugurated in Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture. Let me be specific, focusing on Mark's gospel and its relevance for the church.

Some of the events narrated in Mark's gospel are the following: 1) an announcement of the gospel of Jesus Christ; 2) John the Baptist; 3) Jesus' baptism by water and the Holy Spirit; 4) his temptation; 5) preaching; 6) calling of disciples; 7) teaching; 8) casting out an evil spirit; 9) healing; 10) massive healings and exorcisms; 11) Jesus forgiving sins; 12) calling of more disciples; 13) associating with outcasts; 14) more teaching, healings, and exorcisms; 15) Jesus sending the disciples to preach and cast out demons .... Jesus celebrating a Passover Meal with his disciples, and Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

What do these texts mean? First, God acted in the person of his Son, heralded by John the Baptist. This is to be proclaimed by the church. Further, Jesus was baptized and those who accept Jesus need to be baptized by water and the Spirit. Jesus was tempted and the devil will tempt Jesus' followers today. Christians are called to be Christ's disciples, to proclaim and do what he did. They are to preach, teach, heal, cast out evil spirits, associate with outcasts, forgive in his name, call others to be his disciples, and celebrate his sacraments.

It was Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, God restoring humanity to himself through the forgiveness of sins, that makes it possible for the church to do today the things narrated in Mark's gospel. That is the meaning of these Marcan texts because these are the sorts of things that happen when "God's sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself," is now "implemented through the Spirit led life of the church precisely as the scripture reading community."

There are many reasons we do not always rightly interpret Scripture today. Among other things, all of us have inherited ways of interpreting Scripture that weaken the biblical text. That is why scholars like Wright are so important to the life of the church.

Having said that, however, the primary reason we do not fully receive the biblical text is our timidity in doing what it says. How many churches, for example, do you know that implement the whole of the saving program narrated in Mark's gospel?

The first step in narrowing down that program is to interpret the text as something other than God acting to redeem a corrupted creation. One can interpret the text existentially, as a social or political agenda, as a handbook for belief and morals, as a justification for church authority, or as an evolving message reinterpreted according to new circumstances. The text may well have relevance in these areas, but the primary meaning is that Scripture, especially as it concerns Jesus, describes what Jesus did in the flesh because those same sorts of things must now be "implemented through the Spirit led life of the church."

Finally, in spite of the fact that I am very thankful for Wright's scholarship, I think there are some weaknesses in his book The Last Word.

I will mention two of them. First, it would have made his presentation more forceful and redemptive if he had concretely specified, as I did in the previous paragraphs on Mark's gospel, what it means for the sovereign God to act in our time.

Secondly, he defines the authority of the Bible as "the authority of the triune God, exercised through Scripture" (p. 23). Rather than the phrase "exercised through Scripture," the phrase "exercised as Scripture" better reflects Scripture as the Word of God.

At the recent Episcopal Convention, the revisionists gutted resolution D069 by replacing its statement that "Scripture is the church's supreme authority" with a statement acknowledging "the authority of the triune God, exercised through Scripture."

The phrase "exercised through Scripture" drives a wedge between God's revelation and Scripture, allowing Scripture to point to general trajectories with evolving particulars rather than being God's Word as written. As God's Word/words written Scripture is the church's supreme authority. I have addressed this very important point at some length in the Scripture section of my web page.

On the whole, however, and this is true of Wright's works in general, N.T. Wright is a scholar we need to be reading. If we want to worship the true God, if we want to see his great Kingdom come on earth, we need to attend to his written Word/words to us. That is Scripture, and to its rightful interpretation, N.T. Wright is a blessing to the church.

---The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D. is VirtueOnline's resident cyber theologian. His website can be found here: www.rsanders.org.

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