What does Isaiah 7:14 mean?

Ask any crowd of OT scholars and before you get any answers to your question, you’ll be told most emphatically that it doesn’t mean Isaiah was prophesying the birth of Jesus. The context of the passage and the historical situation of Isaiah will be invoked, and any hint of a New Testament reference will [...]

Trying this on for size

At the moment I am working on the section of my thesis which tries to explain what a canonical approach to interpretation actually is. This is a harder question than I first thought. Here’s a summary of my thinking so far:
1. The canon is a cohesive, ordered collection of texts.
2. Choosing to read [...]

More than propositions

From Stephen Chapman’s essay ‘Reclaiming Inspiration for the Bible’ in Canon and Biblical Interpretation:
The decisive objection to the idea of propositional revelation is not that the biblical books fail to communicate concepts: it is instead that the biblical literature does more than convey concepts. The Bible also influences and forms its readers in a [...]

‘Without Lyra we would understand neither the New nor the Old Testament’

Shelley King appropriates this quote from Martin Luther which originally referred to the mediaeval interpreter, Nicholas of Lyra, for her essay on exegesis, allegory and The Golden Compass. This playful use of an earlier text is entirely appropriate for a discussion of Pullman’s work which depends so heavily on references and allusions to earlier [...]

Do Bible words have Bible meanings?

I’m writing a paper at the moment on intertextuality.  Actually, it’s an intertextual reading of a part of the Song of Songs with ‘The Passionate Shepherd to His Lover’ by Christopher Marlowe.  The principle underlying intertextual readings is, as Peter Miscoll so nicely summarizes, ‘No text is an island’. When an author puts pen to [...]

James Muilenburg and the rise of rhetorical criticism

At the 1968 meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, the then President, James Muilenburg, gave an address that changed the face of biblical scholarship for the next 40 years. His lecture was entitled ‘Form Criticism and Beyond’ and in it Muilenburg, while recognising the important contributions of form criticism, outlined its serious limitations [...]

Why systematic theologians (may) make poor interpreters of the Bible

John Hobbins has a typically thoughtful, balanced, sane post on the subject, with examples, here.
Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:

Interpretation that is detached from life distorts the texts insofar as they are an expression of life. Systematic theologians risk distorting the sense of the Bible because as they search the Scriptures for raw material [...]

Miss Marple Reads the Bible

I was pleased to discover David Steinmetz’ s article on ‘Detective Fiction and the Art of Biblical Interpretation’ available online. It’s also in ‘The Art of Reading Scripture’, edited by Richard Hays and Ellen Davis. Re-reading it in preparation for tomorrow’s bible study, I was particularly struck by this section:
If Jowett were correct [...]