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Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Augustine’s Two Steps for Interpreting Complex Texts
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| Blake Adams |
Exegetical ambiguity occurs when a word or passage from Scripture can support more than one interpretation. Exegetical ambiguity can spur a deeper engagement with the text, but it can also frustrate or even cause despair. But it may relieve us to know the problem is nothing new. It is a constituent element of language as God has given it to us. And when it comes to problems of such a universal nature, the ancients can speak as our contemporaries. Though Augustine was a stranger to many modern exegetical methods, he was nonetheless one of the most formidable exegetes of the early period, and, as will be seen, his pastoral approach has ageless appeal.
Who was Augustine of Hippo?
Augustine was a North African bishop who died in the early fifth century. Excepting the apostle Paul, perhaps no theologian has left a greater mark on Western theology. Augustine was many things—a philosopher, a bishop, an apologist—but what he longed most to be was an exegete. For Augustine, exegesis was not, as we tend to think, merely a scholarly skillset. Exegesis was a way of life. Augustine said that an exegete lived in Scripture the way a deer lived in an expansive forest:
Not in vain have you [God] willed so many pages to be written … , not in vain do harts and hinds seek shelter in those woods, to hide and venture forth, roam and browse, lie down and ruminate. (Conf. XI.2, 3)
Being an exegete was like being a lover: it involved the whole of one’s life and identity. Understanding Scripture was an enterprise worthy of one’s entire existence, education, and energy. Augustine lamented that his ecclesial duties diverted him from enjoying the exegetical life to the fullest. Shortly after his (forced) ordination to the priesthood in 391, he asked his bishop for a temporary leave just to study the Scriptures to fortify himself for his new vocation (Ep. 21). Four years later, he was made bishop, and he complained that time for exegetical work became even more difficult to find (Conf. XI.2, 2; many a modern minister can relate). Despite the demands placed on him, Augustine spent every spare moment “exercising myself in the Holy Scriptures” (Ep. 213, I) and managed to produce an abundance of commentaries, homilies, and treatises that put his prodigious acumen on display. For Augustine, exegesis was neither a scholarly enterprise nor a mere resourcing for next Sunday’s sermon, but the reward of his labors. Augustine was well acquainted with the problem of scriptural ambiguity. The church in Hippo was diverse and intellectually active. Interpretations abounded, and not all of them were put forward by heretics or simpletons. In fact, it was the variety of valid interpretations that most interested Augustine, for these would appear the most difficult to resolve exclusively along the lines of Scripture and reason.1
A Heart Message about the New Covenant
A Heart Message about the New Covenant
BY THE HAND, BY THE HEART
Imagine finding an official letter in your mailbox, with the return address from a legal firm. At first it’s scary. But since it’s marked urgent, you open it immediately at the curb. Soon your fear turns to joy because it turns out you’re not being sued, but rather, you’re being informed that you’ve been left a huge sum of money, properties and a host of other considerations by a relative who recently passed away that you didn’t even know. Fear turns to gratefulness and wonder. A sense of unworthiness begins to rise. Soon you are telling others about what you’ve received because the joy is hard to contain. All you need to do is appear at the legal firm, and sign for your inheritance.
This analogy captures something, though not all, of the New Testament or Covenant. We do not know this rich relative of ours, God, but He knows us, and has provided for us riches beyond belief. This last will and testament of Jesus Christ is an activated inheritance given by God to all who simply accept it. Jesus Christ provided this inheritance through his death on the cross. Now He is risen from the dead, and He is making sure His wishes are carried out!
His inheritance has two parts. What we are saved from, and what we are saved to. We are saved from Divine justice because of our sins. They are washed away in the blood of Jesus. We are saved to an abundant life of fellowship with the Lord, where He continues to forgive our sins everyday, and lead us into a life of adventure, learning, growing, changing, and sharing the joy that we find as each part of our inheritance manifests.
God pictured the Law through Moses in the Old Testament, as one where He took Israel “by the hand”. God led Israel from the outside, by signs and wonders, by His commandments, and decrees, by His prophets, priests and teachers demanding that they “know the Lord”. He knew that their nature was fallen, and that their many fallen needs and desires would constantly pull against His hand, until they would break away into other directions. Thankfully God doesn’t give up on us, because He loves us beyond our dreams, and so wants us to walk in that inheritance.
The New Testament provides something much more than the demands to obey in the Old Testament. It provides a changed heart that wants God and cries out Abba, daddy! Instead of being dragged by the hand where we loathe to go we can be led by our changed desires, and the leading of the Holy Spirit who lives inside. Because God has provided His Spirit to indwell us, we can begin to know Him very intimately. Of course, this is a process, relationships take time, but each new revelation of the one we love is a delight to discover.
If we were an old Hotel in need of renovation, when Christ enters our life, it’s as if He came into our main lobby. After a glorious transformation, the public is in awe of the changes. But those closer to us know that there are many rooms and hallways in our lives, filled with all of the hurts, sins and ruins that still need the transformation of God. (2 Cor. 3:18) This process goes as fast or slow as we can bear. God will never give up on causing us to “will and work” His good pleasure. (Phil 2:13) Also, we’re not the only ones getting an inheritance, He gets one as well. It’s us! We are His reward. And He’s watching over us as an anxious lover waiting to get married.
Yes, in the New Testament it’s all an inside job, and as we stick with it, the joy is certain to manifest. When it does, we cannot help but tell others about the inheritance we are receiving.
“Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (Heb. 8:6)
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:15-19)
Fwd: The “seven deadly sins” of Bible study
Dear Rick,
I want to share part of an article with you written some years ago by a friend of DTS that is still so applicable to the way we study our Bibles today.Some years ago a friend received a prayer letter about a "Miracle Healing Revival." An enclosed Miracle Prayer Request Sheet included the following instructions: "Take the prayer sheet I have sent you and write your name on it, and as you do, lay hands on it. We must have your prayer requests back from you so we can touch them and pray over them for 'if any two agree touching anything, it shall be done.'"By misunderstanding the King James Version, the well-meaning Christian who wrote this letter hit a new low in biblical interpretation. The word "touching"—so crucial to his viewpoint—does not even occur in the Greek text, as the NIV translation makes clear: "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven" (Matt. 18:19).Though perhaps extreme, this example illustrates the unusual ways the Bible is sometimes interpreted and applied. One of my seminary professors, Howard Hendricks, once said, "Many applicational elephants dangle from interpretive threads!" To properly interpret and apply God's Word, we must be aware of what call the "seven deadly sins" of Bible study. Interested in reading more? You can read all of these "seven deadly sins" of Bible study in this article, The Careful Handling of the Word, from author Jack Kuhatschek on the DTS Voice.
Enjoy! I hope it challenges the way you handle the Word of God in your time in the Bible.
| Blessings, Mark M. Yarbrough, PhD  Dallas Theological Seminary 3909 Swiss Avenue Dallas Texas 75204 |
Fwd: Up to 50% off for Back-to-School starts now
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The Sovereignty of God in Romans 9
God’s Sovereign Choice
Perhaps no other passage in Scripture gets right to the core of the question as to whether or not man’s own will, desire, or decision is involved in his salvation, as does the Apostle Paul’s discussion of God’s sovereign choice of a people for Himself in Romans 9. The reader is encouraged to first review and study prayerfully the entire passage of Romans 9:6-24 before proceeding with the explanations that follow, so that a complete consideration can be given to the context of this passage and the individual verses themselves. We should consider very carefully, verse by verse, what Paul is teaching and exactly what he intended to communicate.
Paul began Romans 9 by lamenting that many of the Jews rejected the message that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah, and that salvation and the forgiveness of sins comes through Him alone. Paul said that the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises were all given to the Israelites. He then continued to explain in the following verses that it does not mean that God’s word had failed because so many of the people descended from Israel (or Jacob) were rejecting His salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.
As he continued his teaching in verse 6, Paul explained that not all of the people of Israel by birth will be included in spiritual Israel, but only those who are the “children of the promise”. In this passage Paul used the example of God’s sovereign choice of a particular people in the Old Testament in order to demonstrate God’s sovereign choice in His calling of a particular people to faith in Christ, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.
Here Paul began his discussion of God’s sovereign choice of His people, even from among the descendants of Israel, by saying that just because they were directly descended from Jacob in the natural way did not mean that they would be included with spiritual Israel. This is what Paul meant when he said: “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants” (Romans 9:6b-7a).
Paul then continued the discussion by quoting Genesis 21:12, saying that it would be through Isaac that Abraham’s true offspring, the children of God, would come. Isaac himself was the child of promise born to Abraham and Sarah. God promised Abraham that he would have a son through Sarah, even though Abraham himself was about a hundred years old and Sarah was known to be barren. Nevertheless, in God’s time, Sarah did conceive even in her advanced age, though she was unable to do so as a young woman, and Abraham did have the son of God’s promise, who was Isaac. God gave life in the dead womb of Sarah, fulfilling His promise of a son to Abraham. As Paul also taught, God “gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” (Romans 4:17).
As he continued his teaching in Romans 9:10, Paul carried the discussion of God’s sovereign choice of a people for Himself a generation further by considering the twin sons of Isaac and his wife Rebekah, who were Jacob and Esau. Let us look carefully at the following verses where Paul wrote: “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her,
‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” (Romans 9:11-13).
Paul taught in these verses that God makes His choice or election of His people, just as He had decided to do concerning Jacob and Esau, before they are even born, and before they have done anything at all, either good or bad. The teaching that Paul intended to communicate here becomes very clear in the next verse, because we see that he anticipated objections to what he had just written. Beginning in verse 14 we read: “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” (Romans 9:14-15).
If Paul were teaching that each and every person ever born could be saved if they so desired by deciding for themselves that they would receive Christ and not reject Him, then there would be no reason for him to anticipate any objection at all. After all, if everyone had a chance at salvation, and if their salvation ultimately depended upon their own choice and decision whether to accept Christ or reject Him, then in terms of human ideas of what is fair and what is just, nothing could be fairer and more just than allowing each man to decide for himself.
However, Paul was not teaching that man’s salvation rests ultimately with his own personal decision either to accept Christ or reject Him. On the contrary, what Paul taught in these verses was that the choice of man’s salvation rests with God alone, and that He has mercy and compassion in this respect upon whomever He chooses. Paul understood that in the minds of most men, this concept of God’s salvation will be considered unfair, unjust, and unreasonable, and this is exactly why he anticipated that many would object to what he was teaching.
In verse 14, Paul responded to these anticipated objections and protests by stating emphatically that God is not unjust. All of those whom God leaves in their sins receive justice, in that they pay the just penalty for their sins in an eternity separated from God. Those of us whom God has chosen to bring to faith in Christ, however, receive something far better than justice. We receive God’s mercy, and not the justice due us for our sins, in that the blood of Christ will cleanse us from all of our sins. From Paul’s teaching here we see that some receive mercy from God, while all of the others receive justice, but no one receives injustice from God.
Paul then continued, teaching clearly that a person’s own will or desire or effort has nothing at all to do with their salvation, but their salvation is solely and completely dependent upon God’s decision as to whether He will show mercy to them. This teaching is revealed in verse 16 where Paul wrote: “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16, emphasis added).
As we have noted previously, many who say that man ultimately decides for himself whether or not he will receive Christ will freely admit that no man can come to Christ unless the Father draws him, just as Jesus taught in John 6:44. They will then insist that at some point in each and every individual’s life, the Father does draw or enable them to come to Christ. They will then go on to say that at this point the individual must decide for himself whether he will accept or reject Christ as his Lord and Savior. Those who hold this view are saying that indeed salvation does depend on man’s will, and the decision is his, but the Apostle Paul is saying with clarity and with no ambiguity in Romans 9:16 that salvation does not depend on man’s will, or his effort, but the decision is God’s.
There is clearly a contradiction here between the teaching of those who say that man’s own will is the determining factor in his salvation, and the teaching of the Apostle Paul who said that man’s salvation does not depend upon his own will, or his effort, but it depends upon God, who decides to whom He will show mercy. If we as believers hold the view that each man’s own will and decision to either accept Christ or reject Him is the determining factor in his salvation, then we must ask ourselves how this teaching of Paul’s in Romans 9, and especially in verse 16, can possibly be consistent with our own opinion.
The Holy Bible is the inspired word of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). If there is ever a contradiction between what the Bible teaches and our present understanding of things, then we should be willing to let the Scriptures themselves be the guide for what we embrace as the truth.
Does God Harden Some People Against Himself?
After Paul’s statement in Romans 9:16 that man’s salvation does not depend upon his own will, or his own effort, he continued his teaching of election and God’s sovereign choice of a people. Paul emphasized God’s decision to save those individuals to whom He has decided to show mercy, and he also taught that God chooses not to show mercy to others, even hardening them against His will. Paul wrote: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” (Romans 9:17-18).
Here Paul used the example of Pharaoh, whom God hardened against His will and against the request of Moses to let the people of Israel go from their bondage in Egypt. As Paul quoted from Exodus 9:16, God hardened Pharaoh against Himself in order that He might show His power and that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth by the miracles He wrought through His servant Moses when He brought His people out of Egyptian bondage by His own might and power.
God hardened Pharaoh against Himself and accomplished His own purpose through it. One might ask: Why did God harden Pharaoh; why did He not just show mercy to Pharaoh and make him willing to obey Him? God does not reveal His “reasons” why He chooses to harden some, and He chooses to show mercy to others. However, it is revealed to us that God’s mercy shown to those whom He calls to faith in His Son has nothing whatsoever to do with their own works, and therefore no man can boast that he obtained God’s favor by his own actions (Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 Corinthians 4:7). The fact remains, as Paul taught in Romans 9:18, that God has mercy upon whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens those whom He wants to harden.
Continuing with verse 19 we read: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” (Romans 9:19-21, emphasis added).
In these verses we see that Paul again expected that some would object to what he was teaching and would question how God could find fault and condemn someone whom He has chosen to harden against His will. The hard truth that Paul is teaching here, is that regarding salvation, no one resists God’s will (Romans 9:19).
Those to whom God shows mercy are called to faith in Christ, and none refuse that call. Whereas those to whom God does not show mercy are not called by Him; they are left in their sins. These are not able to come to faith in Christ by their own innate desire or decision (John 1:13, Romans 8:7, Romans 9:16), because no man has the ability to come to Christ unless God the Father draws him (John 6:44). Paul answered these anticipated objections by saying that it is not for man to question his Maker regarding His sovereign decisions about those whom He has created and how He decides to use them, whether “for honorable use” or “for common use” (Romans 9:21).
Paul concluded his teaching in Romans 9 regarding God’s sovereign choice of a people for Himself when he put forward these questions: “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.” (Romans 9:22-24).
We see here in these final verses of Romans 9:6-24, that there are those who are “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction”. In contrast there are those who are “vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called” (emphasis added), and these He called from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles also, Gentiles being categorically all of those who are not Jews. Those who are vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction, are those to whom God did not want to show mercy. These He hardened, as Paul said in verse 18.
Joseph F. Harwood, A Book of Bible Study, n.d.
A Book of Bible Study
Copyright 2014 by Joseph F. Harwood
joseph.f.harwood@gmail.com
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Joseph F. Harwood, A Book of Bible Study, n.d.
"Arm" in the Theological-Lexicon-of-the-Old-Testament-3-Vol.-Set-by-Ernst-Jenni-Claus-Westermann-Mark-E.-Biddle-translator AND "Arm" in Mounce
but
Isaiah 53:10
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
ARM
Old Testament
Noun: זְרוֹעַ (zerôaʿ), GK 2432 (S 2220), 91×. zerôaʿ denotes the arm or forearm. It is used to denote the literal arm of a person (Gen 49:24; Isa 9:20) and sometimes, by extension, the shoulder (of an animal offering in Num 6:19; Deut 18:3). Since the arm can be viewed as the seat of strength, it can be used metaphorically to refer to someone’s strength or power (1 Sam. 2:31), especially God’s power (Ps 44:4; 79:11; 89:11). Or it may refer to someone’s lack of strength (note how 2 Chr. 32:7 refers to human power as an “arm of flesh,” which is weak compared with God’s ability to help Israel). Finally, and most prominently, the OT uses the expression “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” to describe God’s great act of delivering Israel from Egypt by working powerful miracles and bringing judgment on the enemy (Exod 6:6; Deut 4:34; 5:15). See NIDOTTE, 1:1146–47.
William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 34.
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