Tag: context
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Reframing
Maybe not everyone gets stuck seeing things just one way, but many of us do. Because of that, hearing from other people, comparing readings, seeing texts and situations “through other eyes,” unlocks new meanings. I might have a hard time imagining your perspective, and you may have a hard time imagining mine, but if we…
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Hooked on the Juice
Stanley, Andy. Irresistible: Unleashing the New that Jesus Brought to the World. ePub edition, Zondervan, 2018. How did this book, of all books, end up in the “Read Me” collection at all, let alone read ahead of all the others? Funny story … I have been practicing not taking the “someone is wrong on the…
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All Interpretation, All the Time
One of the insights of hermeneutics is that human beings are doing interpretation all the time. It’s why we can fit in to the “real world” around us. We “read” things correctly, we know what things mean when they present themselves to us in familiar contexts, and know how to respond to them properly. And…
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Against “Proof-texting” in the Qur’an
Chapter 3 of Qur’an in Conversation begins with Jamal Badawi’s discussion of the factors affecting the interpretation of “one of the most misunderstood verses of the Qur’an”(78) 9:5, “Kill the idolaters [mushrikin] wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, lie in wait for them at every place of ambush.” Badawi uses the verse as…
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Violent Demonstrations in the Book of Acts
The book of Acts contains several accounts of violent or near-violent crowd episodes, which begin in response to the disciples’ preaching. Here’s the list (I think): 7:57 ff – Stephen’s preaching incites a mob, which stones him to death 14:8-20 – first, crowds in Lystra want to sacrifice to Paul & Barnabas; later, they stone…
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Exegetical Exercise Isaiah 1 10-20
One of the Revised Common Lectionary texts for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost is Isaiah 1:1, 10-20. A couple of things jump out from a first or second reading of that text.
Matters of Interpretation 