How to read the Bible like an apostle
The fact is plain: the Apostle Peter would get an “F” if he preached his Acts 2 sermon in Moody’s class, “Communication of Biblical Truth”. Niblack
READ: Read David Niblack's article [1] It's a bit heavy, so don't get bogged down. The main point is that the scholars admit they don't know how to read the Bible.
Summary
Single Human Intent School
The human intent view is the easiest in its theory, and argues that the Old Testament meaning in a text is always limited to the meaning of the original human author.
Evangelical Sensus Plenior School
This meaning that is contained apart from the original author’s knowledge is in the very words of the text and should not be confused with typological significance that may be prefigured in an event the OT writer was describing.
Canonical School He rejects the idea of sensus plenior and argues that since meaning is ultimately established within the canonical context and not the original author’s mind it is possible to “read the New Testament back into the Old Testament.”
The Jewish Hermeneutical School Block’s defines the Jewish hermeneutical school the “attempts to present the New Testament use of the Old as a reflection of the progress of revelation in Jesus Christ and as especially making use of methods of first-century Jewish interpretation and exegesis.
Conclusion: Biblical scholars committed to an orthodox historical-grammatical hermeneutic shudder at the idea of “multiple meanings” in a text. This is understandable. It is better to be a hard literalist than a fanciful allegorist. Nevertheless, the citations of the OT in the NT demand a solution that transcends the narrowness of the OT human authors’ intention. While most of the proposed solutions all take an important aspect that should rightly influence the exegesis of the NT citations, only the sensus plenior offers a comprehensive and viable solution the most difficult citations.
The problem
Niblack does an excellent job of summarizing the main views of modern theologians concerning sensus plenior. The problem is that even the best of them can only describe what they think happened. They cannot prescribe how we might interpret the sensus plenior of scripture; applying some rules to read it in all of the OT. If you dig deeper you will see that the scope of the debates and dialogs that occurred in Evangelical circles, included only a few NT verses which were problematic.
These verses are identified in various ways as referencing the OT. Because they cannot read sensus plenior themselves, they cannot even see that everything in the gospels is there because it fulfills prophetic riddle of the OT. The account of Jesus as a child in the temple is not a mere novelty concerning his early life. It fulfills the prophecy contained in the sensus plenior of Ge 14.
Discussion
If modern theologians confess that they cannot reproduce the exegesis of the NT authors... or more plainly... If they cannot read the OT the way the Jesus and the apostles did, what assurance do we have that they can read it properly at all?
Do you think that the many divisions within Christianity indicate that the Gentile church (Catholic, Reformation, Restoration, Evangelical, etc.) cannot agree on a reproducible and verifiable method to judge that a teaching is Biblical?
If indeed they would fail the apostles for misappropriating scripture, why should Christians trust their judgement in anything?
Considering the verse below, does God expect us to blindly believe, or to trust him after we know?
- Isa 43:10 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
Do the same scholars ever present a proof of God?
If sensus plenior could be read in a way that was verifiable and repeatable, such that Christ was prophesied in great detail in a hidden layer in ways that no man then could know, and no man now could invent or impose, would that be proof of God?
More articles concerning sensus plenior
- 1. http://www.bible-researcher.com/swanson.html
- 2. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiFv7mV3KHZAhVH9mMKHfguDMgQFgguMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tyndalehouse.com%2FTynBul%2FLibrary%2FTynBull_1970_21_01_Longnecker_NTExegesis.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3sTCmEwbMOgiEOzh5Qph6r
- 3. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiFv7mV3KHZAhVH9mMKHfguDMgQFgg3MAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indieskriflig.org.za%2Findex.php%2Fskriflig%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F529%2F422&usg=AOvVaw1cNGLOZXKtehkBH1Lwr5LQ
- 4. https://books.google.com/books?id=JuBQCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=reproduce+the+exegesis+of+the+NT+authors&source=bl&ots=k_2jqruooN&sig=CbiCfRNsDXm1VtlmhS-ydvQqWtg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFv7mV3KHZAhVH9mMKHfguDMgQ6AEIPzAD#v=onepage&q=reproduce%20the%20exegesis%20of%20the%20NT%20authors&f=false
