GHGB-2016-02-20-02 Authorial intent
On a recent trip, I spoke with the Professor of Old Testament on three different campuses. One reason they all gave, as an excuse to not even look at the evidence that the Old Testament speaks of Christ, was the issue of authorial intent.
Their use of the term 'authorial intent' can be summarized this way: Moses (and the other authors) could only write about things that they knew of, therefore, they DID NOT intend to write about Christ, and when you see Christ there, you are adding him to the text.
This is poor logic even by Greek standards. As seen in Genesis 38, Judah was a slime ball. Tamar was looking out for herself in obtaining a son. Neither one of them had any idea who Jesus was, nor the circumstances of his birth. The author observed the circumstances, and wrote about Judah and Tamar, not knowing anything about Jesus. Yet God was so intimately involved in the lives of all of those people, that when the record was finished, it contained a prophecy of Christ, in great detail. Is this beyond the ability of God? Why would the wise men of Christianity have such a lame excuse to not even consider the possibility that it really exists? Why would they say it is foolish to preach the cross from Genesis 38? Their objection does not come AFTER having considered the evidence, but BEFORE considering the evidence as an excuse not to look at the evidence.
They compound their logical error by saying that IF Moses wrote under the instruction of God, then Moses's intent was also God's Divine authorial intent, and there is no more. But if God intended to hide the mystery of Christ in the literal-historical record, only to be revealed after the cross, then THAT is his Divine authorial intent.
They told me that to be taken seriously, that I had to take them seriously. Seriously? Niblack highlights the arrogance of modern theologians:
- 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”. The professor, vigilant to eliminate any interpretation that went beyond the “original authorial intent,” would give the classic critique to the apostle: “this text used out of its context!” -- David Niblack
We CAN read the Bible the way that Jesus did, but even in his day, they did not want him to teach.
