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This site is experimental in nature; a brain dump in personal studies and writings. You are welcome here. Someday someone might organize it.
Sensus plenior
Divine authorial intent as a hermeneutical principle must be viewed as the goal of interpretation. - Richard Barcellos
Jesus said all the scriptures spoke of him. When we read the scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, it is difficult to see how they do. Don't feel bad. Theologians can't see it either. But the New Testament authors could! Modern theologians admit that they cannot read the Old Testament the way the New Testament authors did.
Sensus plenior is a modern term to describe what Paul called "the mystery hidden from the beginning". It is the message that God intended, which the human authors were not aware of. Some modern theologians have said that if sensus plenior exists, we are not allowed to read it.
Since they don't know how to read it themselves, theologians are afraid of loosing a method of interpretation which might rely on free-for-all allegory. Check out the Rules for yourself and see that only the lazy practitioner would fall into it and easily be corrected; even by children.
This site is just a beginning. The Bible is written in at least seven layers and four voices. I cannot possibly document it all in my lifetime. But I hope to share enough that others can continue the work.
I apologize that the site is a mess. It started as personal study notes. I am attempting to clean it up so that others can find their way around. I started several books. Only one is 'complete' if they ever really get there. I am not really an author, but an evangelist. Without feedback, each book would reach the point of requiring a decision for a direction. Without it it stalled.
I will be attempting to make a portion of this site a bit like a blog.
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That You May Know (TYMK)
This is one attempt at a sequential presentation of material. Follow the link at the bottom of the page to go to the next article.
Another attempt in progress is here.
This site is experimental in nature; a brain dump in personal studies and writings. You are welcome here. Someday someone might organize it. Try this to see recent changes[1]
- You should write a book. I think more people need to hear about this. This has set me free. -- text from a student in my Sunday School class.
- I have seen so much growth in my sisters (including the one quoted above) that I praise God for the teaching. -- Older brother.
I was invited to teach the young adults in a church where the leaders had identified them as being at risk of leaving the church. This particular group had been through multiple church splits as children, had the seemingly ubiquitous generation gap between the parents and children, and a cultural gap since the children were more Americanized than the ethnic church of their parents.
I didn't go there to fix any of that. For nearly 20 years, I had been learning to read the Bible from the New Testament authors, which reveals what some have called the sensus plenior of scripture. It is the "mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God" Eph 3:9
It was time for me to begin sharing what I had learned in a systematic way. I began to teach Hebrew so that the students could understand the connections made between verses separated by ages and volumes. I taught how to determine the meaning of symbols, shadows, prophetic riddles and more.
I thought I had great patience as I covered the material many times in many ways. Then I realized that most had not been learning the Hebrew and probably never would. But before I could get discouraged, I received that note.
She explained that it was not the learning of Hebrew that changed her life, but the doctrine taught; clarified by reading the scriptures the way the New Testament authors did, that made her know it was true, and so she could trust God with her life.
This is the reason for starting again on this web site. This time we will examine the doctrine of the Bible as revealed through the sensus plenior... and let the sheep hear his voice.
That you may know (TYMK)
- 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.
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