Abstract
Jesus’ interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures is skillfully eclectic, employing techniques of rejection, interiorization, prioritization, and synthesis. The eclectic nature of Christ’s interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures specifically precludes any ascription of the contemporary strategies of rigorism or inerrantism to his hermeneutic. Instead, Christ’s hermeneutic is best described as situational, agapic, and open—hence pastoral. It is situational insofar as no hermeneutical rule can predetermine how scripture will be applied to a situation. It is agapic insofar as all texts are interpreted in service of the divine love and repaired human relationship. It is open insofar as it: 1. is characterized by bricolage, hence open to experimentation with a variety of resources, 2. resists any rigidly predetermined interpretative outcome, thereby preserving openness to agapic outcomes, 3. valorizes the micronarrative, and 4. rejects totalization. Ultimately, Jesus’ interpretation of scripture is pastoral, preferring human flourishing through scripture to blind obedience of scripture.
References
Adam, A.K.M. Faithful Interpretation: Reading the Bible in a Postmodern World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006. Search in Google Scholar
Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1998. Search in Google Scholar
Ballard, Paul. “The Scriptures in Church and Pastoral Practice.” Transformation 24:1 (January 2007): 34-42. 10.1177/026537880702400106Search in Google Scholar
Barr, James. “Interpretation, History of.” Oxford Companion to the Bible. Edited by Bruce M. and Michael D. Coogan Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Search in Google Scholar
Beale, Gregory K. “Can the Bible be completely inspired by God and yet still contain errors? A response to some recent ‘Evangelical’ proposals.” Westminster Theological Journal 73:1 (Spring 2011): 1-22. Search in Google Scholar
Boff, Leonardo. Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1978. Search in Google Scholar
Chang, William. “The Love Commandment (John 13.34-35).” Asia Journal of Theology 28:2 (October 2014): 263-282. Search in Google Scholar
Chris, Keith. “The Narratives of the Gospels and the Historical Jesus: Current Debates, Prior Debates and the Goal of Historical Jesus Research.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 38.4 (June 2016): 426-455. 10.1177/0142064X16637777Search in Google Scholar
du Toit, Andrie B. “Canon.” In The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce M. and Michael D. Coogan Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Search in Google Scholar
Ermarth, Elizabeth D. “Postmodernism.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1998. Search in Google Scholar
Fishbane, Michael. “Bible Interpretation.” The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Edited by Martin Goodman. Oxford Handbooks Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199280322.013.0027Search in Google Scholar
Evans, Craig A. “Why did the New Testament writers appeal to the Old Testament?” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 38:1 (September 2015): 36-48. 10.1177/0142064X15595931Search in Google Scholar
Fletcher, Joseph. Situation Ethics: The New Morality. Richmond: Westminster Press, 1966. Search in Google Scholar
Funk, Robert W., Hoover, Roy W., and The Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993. Search in Google Scholar
Gray, James D. “The Inspiration of the Bible‒Definition, Extent and Proof.” In The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, edited by R. A. and A. C. Dixon Torrey. 1909. Search in Google Scholar
Jaffee, Martin S. Torah. Encyclopedia of Religion vol. 13. Edited by Lindsay Jones. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. Search in Google Scholar
Jelen, Ted G. “Biblical Literalism and Inerrancy: Does the Difference Make a Difference?” Sociological Analysis 49:4 (Fall 1989): 421-429. 10.2307/3711227Search in Google Scholar
Jelen, Ted G., Wilcox Clyde, and Smidt Corwin E. “Biblical Literalism and Inerrancy: A Methodological Investigation.” Sociological Analysis 51:3 (August 1990): 307-13. 10.2307/3711181Search in Google Scholar
Lawlor, F.X., J.T. Ford, and J.L. Heft. “Infallibility.” New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 2003, 448-452. Search in Google Scholar
Longenecker, Richard N. Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. Search in Google Scholar
Louis, Jacobs and Benjamin De Vries. Halakhah. Vol. 8, in Encyclopedia Judaica, edited by Michael and Fred Skolnik Berenbaum, 251-258. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Search in Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A report on human knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Search in Google Scholar
Montague, G. T. and E. G. Hardwick. “Son of God.” New Catholic Encyclopedia vol 13, Detroit: Gale, 2003. Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Search in Google Scholar
Phan, Peter C. “Woman and the Last Things: A Feminist Eschatology.” In In the Embrace of God: Feminist Approaches to Theological Anthropology, edited by Ann O’Hara Graff, 206-228. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1995. Search in Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, Louis Isaac, and Warren Harvey. “Torah.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 20. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Search in Google Scholar
Rhodes, Lynn N. Co-Creating: A Feminist Vision of Ministry. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1987. Search in Google Scholar
Scheib, Karen. “Love as a Starting Point for Pastoral Theological Reflection.” Pastoral Psychology 63:5 (December 2014): 705-717. 10.1007/s11089-014-0614-4Search in Google Scholar
Schneiders, Sandra M. “The Bible and Feminism.” In Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective, edited by Catherine Mowry LaCugna. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. Search in Google Scholar
Sim, David C. “Matthew 7.21-23: Further Evidence of its Anti-Pauline Perspective.” New Testament Studies 53:3 (July 2007): 325-345. 10.1017/S0028688507000161Search in Google Scholar
Sydnor, Jon Paul. “Rāmānuja and Schleiermacher on Scripture: An essay in comparative theology.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20:3 (September 2016): 10-37. Search in Google Scholar
“The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy,” 1978. Search in Google Scholar
http://library.dts.edu/Pages/TL/Special/ICBI_1.pdf (accessed March 7, 2016). Search in Google Scholar
©2016 Jon Paul Sydnor
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.