Before we can even begin to ask the more complex questions about Biblical Exegesis there are some very basic questions that must first be asked and answered. Without knowing why we are asking the questions about Exegesis there is no purpose in even asking more detailed questions about it.
And since our aim here is to understand why the questions about the purpose and methods of Exegesis are important, we need to ask some fundamental questions about the object of our Exegesis, the Bible.
So let's explore a couple of very simple statements.
First, there is God. While it is a basic assumption on the part of people everywhere, Christians, Muslims, Jews and others, that God exists it is also true that we know very little about God. Because God does exist and is “a part” of the reality of the world He deserves, has the right, to be understood, to be known fairly and accurately. And since He has that right we have an obligation to understand Him and to know Him fairly and accurately.
Though some may debate belief in God's existence it is not my purpose here to establish the existence of God either scientifically, philosophically, psychologically, morally, theologically, or in any other fashion. Others have done quite well at treating this subject. In his books, including “He Is There and He Is Not Silent”, Francis Schaeffer aptly establishes a foundation for belief in God.
Simply put, for the purpose of this discussion, as a Christian I assume and believe in an infinite and personal God who is not merely “a part” of reality but the Author of reality. And though it would be impossible for us to know reality and reality's infinite Author exhaustively, it is our responsibility and joy to know ( yada' , Hebrew) reality and reality's Author accurately and personally.
Second, there is the Bible. That is, the Bible exists. It is a part of the reality of the world and as such it deserves, has the right, to be understood, to be known accurately and fairly. And since it has that right we have an obligation to understand it and to know it accurately and fairly.
In order to understand and to know it accurately and fairly we have to examine it with the basic questions, who, what, where, when, why and how. Exegesis includes the process of thoughtfully asking all of these questions. Let's ask some of those questions now.
What is the Bible? Why is the Bible there? What is its purpose?
To the Christian, the most basic form of the answer is quite simple. “It is the Word of God and it tells us about God and how to live.”
Boiling this concept down to its most basic point we find that the Bible is communication. After all, that is what words are. And, to round out the Christian's answer, it is communication from God.
Well then. What is communication?
Because excellent books have already been written on the subject of communication theory, such as David Berlo's “The Process of Communication”, I'll attempt here only to discuss the basics and high points of the subject.
Let's define communication as the transfer of a concept, an idea, an emotion, a mental and/or spiritual condition from one's mind to another's.
That is to say, we have thoughts that traverse the gamut of reality and imagination. These thoughts have basis in personal experience, personal knowledge or notion. They are a result of education, intuition and inspiration. They are affected by environment and health, mental, physical and spiritual. One's attitude or general outlook on life predisposes one to have certain kinds of thoughts whether they be just or unjust.
Were one alone in the universe those thoughts would all forever remain perfectly private broodings and would have no effect upon an other. But one is not alone. There are also other entities in ones surroundings, be they animate or inanimate, with which one interacts. And all interaction is, in a sense, communication. All one does is an imposition of one's mind, one's being, on all that surrounds him. We affect and are affected by all that is around us whether we like it or not, whether we are conscious of it or not.
So, again, communication transfers something from one to another. That which is a part of me (a thought or attitude, for example) also becomes a part of you. How accurately and effectively I communicate is indicated by how accurately that part of me is replicated in you.
Inaccuracy in communication may be caused by both wrong information and incomplete information in either the sender or receiver or both. Distortion in communication may also be introduced by “third-party” sources such as noise or a defective medium. Inaccuracy in communication may also be caused by pre-conceived ideas in the mind of the receiver.
For this reason, the communication circle is really never complete without some kind of communication in response. Response verifies to the sender that the communication was accurately received. Alas, the accuracy of the perceived response also is dependent upon the same factors that mitigated in the initial communication.
Well, how is communication done?
Generally, in order to communicate, one must encode his thoughts and transmit the code. We might choose to use a spoken or written language that is common to both the sender and receiver. Common knowledge of the code or language is of utmost importance. Sending a message in Morse Code, for example, to a person who knows nothing of Morse Code would be, at best, a waste of time. Worse, among other things it may also be a demonstration of an arrogant spirit.
Where common understanding of a code or language is not present or possible then other means may be tried. Small children have long communicated their desires by pointing and making sounds that correspond to their wishes and emotions. And adults who have no common language between them often revert to the same basic point and sound technique.
A person who wishes to communicate some idea that cannot be expressed in words may wish to draw a diagram or paint a picture, a thing said to be worth a thousand words.
And if a picture paints a thousand words it is also true that actions speak even more loudly. What one does often demonstrates more fully what is in his mind and soul than what he says. If you can't explain how a thing should be done then demonstration may do the job.
One's body language may communicate volumes about what is being said verbally. A smile, a wrinkled nose, upturned eyes, crossed arms, shrugged shoulders, tilted head, vocal inflections all say something about the communication being attempted. And if that's not enough, even one's blood pressure, muscle tone, eye dilation and skin conductivity all communicate something about what is being said.
Now, let's make some basic statements about God that I don't think any Christian would argue with.
God is. God exists. Though God is unique, He is now not alone. He has created all that is. In doing so He interacted with nothingness in order to bring to existence all that is. And now He interacts with all that He has created. That is, God interacts with all that is “not God”. This interaction we call communication. God communicates.
The Psalmist says,
“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
Psalm 33:6 KJV
The so-called first creation story says,
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Genesis 1:3
And all through the passage (Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a) the story goes, “And God said, … “And God said, … “And God said, …
God communicated His will, the Bible says, and all that is came in response to His communication.
God still speaks to us. And He speaks in ways that may be understood by those to whom He speaks.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, …”
Hebrews 1: 1,2 NIV
That is, there was and is something in the mind of God that He wishes to communicate.
However, as we discussed above, since there are three major components in the communication process, the transmitter, the medium and the receiver, a failure in any of the three may cause a breakdown in communication. Be the transmitter ever so perfect defects in medium and receiver can and will distort what is being said possibly making it difficult or even impossible to understand.
Later we'll look at the media of communication. For now, though, let's look at the receiving end specifically in the context of communication between God and humanity.
When God speaks all that is not God is affected. As Psalm 33:9 (KJV) says,
“For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”
Or, as in the NIV and NRSV,
“For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”
His word causes a thing to be.
Once, in eternity past, there was nothing. Then at His command all came into being in its order.
In Genesis the creation of the Earth is described as an orderly transition from chaos to beauty and order at the command of God. There is progression from general disorder through general, large-scale orderliness to specifics of intimate detail in orderliness; from the ordering of the foundations of the Earth as inanimate creation through the creation of lower-order animate creatures to, finally, a high-order creature formed in God's image with a specific purpose and with specific properties.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man (Hebrew - 'adam ) in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:26, 27 NIV
“The LORD God formed the man (Hebrew - 'adam ) from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:7 NIV
The Bible describes God as being love and as having and exercising love. Probably the finest descriptions of God's love are found in the Gospel of John and in the First Epistle (or letter) of John. In these Biblical books we see God as being love, as desirous of fellowship, as enjoying fellowship with humanity and as having such tremendous love for humanity that He made an infinite, incomprehensible sacrifice in order to keep them from being destroyed by their own rebellion.
This brings us to one, and perhaps the primary, purpose of the creation of mankind; to love God and to have fellowship with Him, to be in constant communication or communion with Him. God is love. He gives love. He responds to love. And He is desirous of love.
Love, however, is a risky thing. Love is a thing that must be chosen. Love is a gift that must be freely given. To love or not to love is a decision that must be made.
The perfect computer may be programmed to behave perfectly and speak perfectly. It would never crash. Data would never become corrupted. We could make it do all of our chores for us and build all of our homes and cars. It could transport us to distant places efficiently. The perfect computer could be programmed to sense when we're happy or sad and respond with fresh-picked flowers. It could diagnose our illnesses, prescribe the proper remedies and perform complex surgical procedures. It could pat us on the head and say, “Get well soon.” It might even replicate itself. But it could never love.
It could never love because it has no choice. After all, it is programmed to behave perfectly.
One could, conceivably, build a computer that could make what looks like “moral” decisions. It would be programmed to examine its environment, evaluate its findings according to a large database of criterion and make certain logical decisions as to which would be the right thing to do, the most appropriate response. It could even be programmed with some kind of random “Yes-No” generator by which it would make the ultimate decision as to whether or not it would actually do what it knew was the right thing to do. It could have all the appearances of moral decision-making. But it could never love because, in spite of its complexity it is still a machine that responds predictably to external stimulus with the caveat of the random “Yes-No” generator that may make it altogether unreliable for any practical purpose.
Love requires choice … intelligent, informed, free choice.
The result of real love, according to First John, is the joy of fellowship with God and with the rest of creation. Love is what makes us one with the universe. Love aligns us with all of reality. Love opens our hearts and minds to communication with God.
As we have said, however, to love or not to love, that is the question. Whether it is heavenly or hellish to be in the presence of God is our choice.
Those who find fellowship with God to be hellish, those who have chosen to allow their own guilt to drive them to fear and anger, will find God awfully hard to hear. Their guilt causes them to put up walls, insulation between their selves and God. God would be hard-pressed to speak with them because they cannot hear His voice after having continually chosen to not hear.
There are those, however, who, as fully as humanly possible, appreciate the love of God. It may be a small appreciation at first. But it can grow into full fellowship with God. When full fellowship comes to be then the child of God can hear God's voice, feel God's joy and pain, see as God sees, love as God loves, sympathizing with both God and humanity. These people are friends of God and God gives them jobs to do. “Go, convey my love to lost humanity. Rebuke their sins. Heal their families. Show them my justice. Draw them to my mercy. You can hear my voice. Listen to what I say and pass it on to those who have tuned out.” And so they go on God's errands.
These people we call prophets. They speak on God's behalf in the language of the people to whom they are called to speak. They, then, become the media of God's communication to humanity.
Prophets, however, are still human, aren't they? And what's more, they are finite beings who are trying to convey the infinite pathos of an infinite God that they, finite beings, feel finitely to finite humans in a finite language.
SYSTEM ERROR: Division by zero. Cannot compute!
So, now we have a problem. God is trying to communicate with fallen finite beings through a somewhat-restored but still finite medium. Receivers are tuned out or turned off. Channel is defective. What to do?
What He does through the prophet is to simplify. Make it as understandable as humanly possible. Use the language of the people. Speak through the people's own cultural character. Use the people's mythology, their idioms, their metaphors, their own understanding as building blocks to communicate the essential and basic. Speak through their politics, their geographical position, their economics, and their weather patterns. Draw on those things to develop object lessons. Speak in a way that cannot be mistaken by those who hear.
And this is what He does. And the prophets oblige Him, doing His bidding, speaking His word to a people who have chosen not to hear because as Peter tells us, God …
“is longsuffering ( patient ) toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9 KJV
And so God speaks. Peter says,
“And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
2 Peter 1:19 – 21 NIV
God spoke through the prophets and Peter's advice is to pay attention to what they have to say.
And when we listen to what they say we have to keep in mind that the culture, language, politics, geography, economy, etc. in which the prophets lived was long ago and far away.
There is another problem in God's attempt to communicate with humanity. Let's hear about it in Peter's words.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.”
2 Peter 2:1 NIV
There have been since the beginning and there will always be until the end those who think they speak for God but are motivated by the spirits of their own selfish desires, their own pride rather than the humble, selfless love of God.
This is why John says to test the spirits.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.
Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.
We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
1 John 4:1-6 NRSV
John clearly warns us here that the testimony of the selfish, proud spirit of the false prophets must be summarily rejected. And in order to test the spirits, the words of modern prophets and even one's own theological views one must be willing to subject it to the objective test of the established word of God as it has come to us in the Bible.
There is one other standard that must not be overlooked. And that is the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, …”
Hebrews 1: 1,2 NIV
As I said above, if verbal communication doesn't work well try demonstration.
The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were written to tell people about the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ. And by understanding what is said in the gospels we can have further foundation and defense against false prophets.
Now, there is one other problem with the Bible as divine communication that needs to be addressed.
The latest of the books of the New Testament was written around 1,930 years ago. The earliest of the Old Testament literature began to be written around 3,500 years ago.
So what? Well, here's what! In general, here's what's happened in 3500 years.
Israelite deliverance from Egypt
The establishment of Israel as a nation among the Canaanite nations
The establishment of the Israelite Monarchy and the Prophetic Movement
The division of Israel into Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah) kingdoms
The fall of Israel to the Assyrian Empire
The fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonian Empire
The fall of the Babylonian Empire to the Persian Empire
The restoration of Judah and Jerusalem
The fall of the Persian Empire to Greek Alexander the Great
The division of the Greek Empire
The desecration of the Jewish Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes
The rise of the Roman Empire
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ
The rise of the Christian Church
The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
The demise of the Roman Empire
The rise of the “Holy Roman Empire”
The “Dark Ages”
The development of Europe
The discovery and development of America
The fading demise of the “Holy Roman Empire”
The “Age of Enlightenment”
The Industrial Revolution
World Wars I and II
The development of nuclear power and electronic communication and computing
Space Travel
I-Pods
Nanotechnology
The rising of the world's first truly global empire
And this is where we are today -- in a quite different time and place..
If God were to communicate to humanity in today's environment of space travel, nanotechnology, sophisticated religion and globalism would it be the same as in the days of the Israelite and Judean prophets in an environment of nomadic sheep-herders, stone-age farmers, naturistic religion and regionalism? Or different?
Trick question … for the answer is that there would be both sameness and difference. The general message would be the same. The details of how the message is conveyed would be quite different in many ways.
So, the question we must ask is this. How can we use documents that are anywhere from 1,930 to 3,500 years old to develop a reliable theology and to receive the communication that God intended mankind to receive? How can we use this ancient literature as a basis for accurately and fairly “testing the spirits”?
The answer, I believe, is found in exegesis.
-------
Our thanks to our mentor John W.McCall, the written works of Abraham Heschel, Eli Siegel, Francis Schaeffer and others for making this truth clear to us.