Acts: An Overview
The exegesis of Acts includes historical questions like, what happened? But also the theological ones such as, why did Luke select and shape the text in this way? When reading Acts you must think paragraphs, like in the Epistles, but also move beyond that to think whole narratives and sections of the book. Also, like the Epistles, is it a good idea to read Acts in one sitting.

You will notice as you read Acts that at every key juncture, in every key person, the Holy Spirit plays the absolutely leading role. The following observations should help in understanding what Luke was and wasn’t concerned with accomplishing with this Scripture.

1. The key to understanding Acts is Luke’s interest in movement, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, of the Gospel from its Jerusalem-based, Judaism-oriented beginnings to its becoming a worldwide, Gentile-predominant phenomenon. Any statement of purpose that does not include the Gentile mission and the Holy Spirit’s role in that mission will surely have missed the point of this book.

2. The following are things that Luke does not tell us or is not concerned with. First, he has no interest in the biographies of the apostles. Second, he has little or no interest in church organization or polity. Third, there is no word about geographical expansion except one in the one direct line from Jerusalem to Rome.

3. Luke’s interest does not seem to be with standardizing things, bringing everything into uniformity. The diversity that this creates probably means that no specific example is being set forth as the model Christian experience or church life.

4. However, it is thought that Acts intention is to serve as a model. But the model is not so much in the specifics as in the overall picture.

The Hermeneutics of Acts:
It is thought that unless Scripture explicitly tells us we must do something, what is only narrated or described does not necessarily function in a normative way—unless it can be demonstrated on other grounds that the author intended it to function this way. In general, doctrinal statements derived from Scripture fall into three categories. (1) Christian theology, what Christians believe. (2) Christian ethics, how Christians ought to behave. (3) Christian experience and Christian practice, what Christians do. Within all of these categories exist two levels of statements referred to as primary and secondary. The primary level refers to things explicitly stated in Scripture. The secondary level is comprised of statements that are derived only incidentally by implication or by precedent. What is important to note here is that almost everything Christians derive from Scripture by way of precedent is in our third category, Christian experience or practice, and always at the secondary level.

The following principles apply to the hermeneutics of historical narrative:

1.    The Word of God in Acts that may be regarded as normative for Christians is related to what any given narrative was intended to teach.

2.    What is incidental to the primary intent may reflect the authors understanding of things, but it does not have the same didactic value as what the narrative was trying to teach.

3.    Historical precedent, to have normative value, must be related to intent. If it can be shown that a given narrative is to establish precedent, than such precedent should be regarded as normative, speaking to all churches, at all times.

It should be noted, especially in cases where the precedent justifies a present action, that the precedent does not establish a norm for a specific action. The decision as to whether patterns or practices are repeatable should be guided by the following considerations. First, the strongest possible case can be made when only one pattern is found, and when that pattern is repeated in the New Testament itself. Second, when there is ambiguity of patterns or when a pattern occurs but once, it is repeatable for later Christians only if it appears to have divine approbation or is in harmony with what is taught elsewhere in Scripture. Third, what is culturally conditioned is either not repeatable at all, or must be translated into the new differing culture.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Nature of Narratives:
Over 40 percent of the Old Testament is narratives and since the Old Testament constitutes three-quarters of the bible it is no surprise that the single most common type of literature in the entire bible is narrative. Narratives are basically stories. Stories that we refer to as God’s story—a story that is ultimately true, crucially important, and often complex. Their purpose is to show God at work in his creation and among his people. The narratives glorify him, and give us a picture of his providence and protection. They also provide illustrations of many other lessons important to our lives.

Three Levels of Narratives:
Old Testament narratives are told on three levels. The top level is that of the whole universal plan of God worked out through his creation. Key aspects to this level are the initial creation itself; the fall of humanity; the power and ubiquity of sin; the need for redemption; and Christ’s incarnation and sacrifice. The top level is often referred to as the “story of redemption” or the “redemptive history.”

The middle level centers on Israel: the call of Abraham; the establishment of an Abrahamic lineage through the patriarchs; the enslaving of Israel in Egypt; God’s deliverance from bondage and the conquest of the promised land of Canaan; Israel’s frequent sins and increasing disloyalty; God’s patient protection and pleading with them; the ultimate destruction of northern Israel and then of Judah; and the restoration of the holy people after the Exile.

Then there is the bottom level. Here are found all the hundreds of individual narratives that make up the other two levels. Every individual Old Testament narrative is at least part of the greater narrative of Israel’s history in the world, which in turn is part of the ultimate narrative of God’s creation and his redemption of it. This ultimate narrative goes beyond the Old Testament and into the New.

You will not fully do justice to any individual narrative without recognizing its part within the other two. However there is nothing wrong with studying an individual narrative all by itself. But for the fullest sense you must finally see that individual narrative within its larger contexts.

What Narratives Are and Are Not:

1. They are first and foremost stories about what God did to and through people. The Bible is composed of divine narratives, God is the hero of the story.

2. Old Testament narratives are not allegories or stories filled with hidden meanings. But there may be aspects of narratives that are difficult to understand. In other words, narratives do not answer all our questions about a given issue. They are limited in their focus, and give us only one part of the overall picture of what God is doing in history.

3. They do not always teach directly. They emphasize God’s nature and revelation in special ways that legal or doctrinal portions of the Bible never can, by allowing us to live vicariously through events and experiences rather than simply learning about an issue.

4. Each individual narrative or episode within a narrative does not necessarily have a moral all its own. Narratives cannot be interpreted atomistically, as if every statement, every event, every description could, independently of the others, have a special message for the reader. To try and find significance and meaning in each bit of data or each single event in the narrative will not work if not read in light of the larger context and story.

Principles for Interpreting  Narratives:
The following ten principles should help you avoid obvious errors in interpreting whenever you seek to exegete these and other stories.

1.    An Old Testament narrative usually does not directly teach a doctrine.

2.    An Old Testament narrative usually illustrates a doctrine or doctrines taught propositionally elsewhere.

3.    Narratives record what happened—not necessarily what should have happened or what ought to happen every time. Therefore, not every narrative has an individual identifiable moral of the story.

4.    What people do in narratives is not necessarily a good example for us. In fact it is usually the opposite.

5.    Most of the characters in the Old Testament are far from perfect and their actions are too.

6.    We are not always told at the end of a narrative whether what happened was good or bad. We should be able to judge this from what God has taught us elsewhere categorically in the Scriptures.

7.    All narratives are incomplete. Not all the relevant details are always given. What appears is what inspired the author to think important to let us know.

8.    Narratives are not written to answer all of our theological questions. They have particular, specific issues in which they deal with, leaving others to be dealt with elsewhere and in other ways.

9.    Narratives may teach explicitly (by clearly stating something) or implicitly (by clearly implying something without actually saying it).

10.    In the final analysis, God is always the hero of all biblical narratives, and all narratives ultimately find their full purpose and meaning in Jesus.

Some Final Cautions:
Why is it that people often find things in narratives that isn’t really there? First, it is because they are desperate for information that will help them, that will be of personal value that will apply to their own situation. Second, they are impatient; they want their answers now, from this book, from this chapter. Third, they wrongly expect that everything in the Bible directly is instruction for their own individual lives. Here is a list of eight of the most common errors people make when interpreting the bible. These all apply to narratives but are not limited to them.

1.    Allegorizing. Trying to think of meanings beyond the clear intended message.

2.    Decontextualizing. Ignoring the full historical and literary contexts, and often the individual narrative, people concentrate on small units only and thus miss interpretational clues.

3.    Selectivity. Involves picking and choosing specific words and phrases to concentrate on, ignoring the others, and ignoring the overall sweep of the passage being studied.

4.    False Combination. This approach combines elements from here and there in a passage and makes a point out of their combination, even though the elements themselves are not directly connected in the passage itself.

5.    Redefinition. When the plain meaning leaves people cold, they often redefine it to mean something else.

6.    Extracanonical authority. Using external keys to Scripture that claim to unlock the mysteries of truths not otherwise known from Scripture itself.

7.    Moralizing. This assumes that a moral can be drawn from every passage. The fallacy of this approach is that it ignores the fact that the narratives were written to show the progress of God’s history of redemption, not to illustrate principles.

8.    Personalizing. This assumes that every passage applies to you specifically in a way that it may not to others. Do not forget that all parts of the bible are for everyone and ultimately for the Glory of God in displaying Him as the Hero.

No Bible narrative was written specifically about you. You can never assume that God expects you to do exactly the same thing that the Bible characters did, or to have the same things happen to you that happened to them. Narratives are precious to us because they so vividly demonstrate God’s involvement in the world and illustrate his principles and calling. But remember they do not systematically include personal ethics.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Basic Rule:
When applying exegetical study to the practice of hermeneutics it is imperative to remember that a text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers. This is why good exegesis is important to do before attempting to discover what the text means to you and how to apply it to your life.

The Second Rule:
Whenever we share comparable particulars (i.e., similar specific life situations) with the first-century setting, God’s Word to us is the same as his Word to them. This is also what gives modern day Christians a sense of immediacy with the first century. To find what the comparable particularities are and to properly evaluate how to apply scripture you must perform a careful reconstruction of their situation.

The Problem of Extended Application:
When there are comparable situations and comparable particularities, God’s Word to us in such texts must always be limited to its original intent. Furthermore, it should be noted that the extended application is usually seen to be legitimate because it is true, that is, it is clearly spelled out in other passages where that is the intent of the passage. The problem with extended application exists because in some situations it is impossible to know exactly what the original text means and therefore should not be extended.

The Problem of Particulars That Are Not Comparable:
The problem here has to do with two kinds of texts in the Epistles: those that speak to first-century issues that for the most part are without any twenty-first century counterparts, and those texts that speak to problems that could possibly happen also in the twenty-first century but are highly unlikely to do so. Here are two ways of helping with this situation. First, you must do exegesis paying close attention to hear what God’s Word was to the original audience. You should find that a clear principle has been articulated, which will usually transcend the historical particularity to which it was being applied. Second, the “principle” does not now become timeless, to be applied at random or whim to any and every situation. It should truly only be applied to genuinely comparable situations.

Matters of Indifference:
Here are a series of guidelines that might help in identifying matters of indifference.

1. What the Epistles specifically indicates as matters of indifference may be things such as: food, drink, observance of specific days, etc.

2. The matters are not inherently moral, but are cultural¬-even if its stems from religious culture. Matters that tend to differ from culture to culture, therefore, even among genuine believers may usually be considered matters if indifference.

Something very important to remember when dealing with matters of indifference is that a person that does not feel bound by something should not flaunt his or her freedom, just as a person who feels convicted should not condemn someone else.

The Problem of Cultural Relativity:
(1) The Epistles are occasional documents of the first-century, conditioned by the language and culture of the first-century, which spoke to specific situations in the first-century church. (2) Many of the specific situations in the Epistles don’t apply to us as individuals in the twenty-first century. (3) Other texts are also thoroughly conditioned by their first-century settings, but the Word to them may be translated into new, but comparable settings. (4) This leaves other texts conditioned by the first-century that share some comparable particularities, leaving the question of whether or not these texts need to be translated into a new setting or simply left in the first century. The following guidelines will help you distinguish texts that are culturally relative, on the one hand, and those that transcend their original setting, on the other hand, and have a normativeness for all Christians of all times.

1. One should first distinguish between the central core of the message of the Bible and what is dependent upon or peripheral to it.  An example of centrality would be the fallenness of all mankind, redemption from that fallenness as God’s gracious activity through Christ’s death and resurrection, the consummation of that redemptive work by the return of Christ, etc.

2. One should be prepared to distinguish between what the New Testament itself sees as inherently moral and what is not. Those items that are inherently moral are absolute and apply to every culture, for all time.

3. You must make special note of items where the New Testament itself has a uniform and consistent witness and where it reflects differences.

4. It is important to be able to distinguish within the New Testament itself between the principle and specific application. It is possible for a New Testament writer to support a relative application by an absolute principle and in so doing not make the action absolute.

5. It is important, as much as one is able to do this with care, to determine cultural options open to any New Testament writer. The degree to which a New Testament writer agrees with a cultural situation in which there is only one option increases the possibility of the cultural relativity of such a position.

6. One must keep alert to possible cultural differences between the first and twenty-first centuries that are sometimes not immediately obvious.

The Problem of Task Theology:
The difficulty here exists in that the Epistles are occasional in nature. They are focused on delivering theology through practical situations and sometimes do not speak directly to the questions that we have today. Posing a question about the morality of abortion is asking a great deal of the Epistles to perform because this was not an issue in the first-century. This does not mean that Scripture has nothing to ay about abortion for example, but we need to take great care when applying theology from the Epistles to particular situations that were not present when the Epistle was written. Remember that our immediate aim is for greater precision and consistency; our greater aim is calling us all to greater obedience to what we do hear and understand.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Nature of the Epistles:
The Epistles are all of the New Testament except the Four Gospels, Acts, and Revelation. All of the Epistles are referred to as occasional documents, arising out of and intended for a specific occasion. They are also all from the first century. Almost all of the New Testaments letters were occasioned from the reader’s side. Usually the occasion was some kind of behavior that needed correcting, or a doctrinal error that needed setting right, or a misunderstanding that needed further light.

Much of the problems in interpreting the Epistles exist in the fact that they are occasional. We have the answers, but we do not always know what the questions or problems are. It is similar to listening to one end of a telephone conversation. The occasional nature of the Epistles also means that they are not first of all theological treatise. There is theology implied but it is task theology.

The Historical Context:
The first thing to do in reading the Epistles is to try and form an informed reconstruction of the situation the author is speaking to. To do this you can consult a bible dictionary or the introduction of a commentary. The second step, especially for study purposes is to read the letter in one sitting. This will help you grasp the big picture of the letter, examining every word will come later. Some things to jot down as you read might be:

1. What do you notice about the recipients themselves? e.g., whether Jews or Greek, wealthy or slave, problems, attitudes, etc.
2. The author’s attitude
3. Any specific things mentioned as to the specific occasion of the letter
4. The letter’s natural, logical divisions.

The Literary Context:
Here you want to begin to trace the argument as an answer to the occasion that required the letter. Define what the point of the letter is. (1) In a compact way state the content of each paragraph. (2) In another sentence or two try to explain why the author says what they say when they say it. How does this content contribute to the argument?

A good check to make sure that you have performed good exegesis is (1) to make sure that the exegesis is self-contained; that is, you do not have to go outside the text to understand the point. It is good to get additional information to help set the historical context but make sure that the conclusions you arrive at do not step out side the meaning of the letter. (2) Make sure that there is nothing in the text that does not fit into the argument. (3) When you are finished doing exegesis, there is clarity of the occasion that required the letter.

There will be times when it will be impossible to understand exactly the situation that the letter was written for, but in these cases the point of the letter can still be retrieved. Focus on what the letter means and you will have a good understanding of what the point is. Consulting a good commentary after you have done this work can be beneficial on checking your observations as well as providing insight into areas that you might have missed.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “Reading The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The Science of Translation:
There are two choices that a translator has to make; textual and linguistic. The first has to do with the actual wording of the original text. The second has to do with one’s theory of translation. Because translators use a variety of methods for translating a text it has become a fairly exact science but not perfect. There are too many human variables to be exact. In these cases when multiple translations could emerge from a specific passage it is good to look at other interpretations of the Bible, as well as other resource material to try and get a better idea of what the author intended.

The Question of Language:
The following terms will help you become familiar with the theories of translation. It is important to think about how each of these ideas apply to the specific text you are reading and how that might affect the translation.

Original Language: The language that one is translating from; in the case of the bible Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Hebrew being used for most of the Old Testament, Arabic (a sister language to Hebrew) used in half of Daniel and two passages in Ezra. Greek used for all of the New Testament.

Receptor Language: The language that one is translating into.

Historical Distance: This has to do with the differences that exist between the original language and the receptor language, both in matters of words, grammar, and idioms (a peculiar mode of expression, the genius or peculiar cast of a language; colloquial speech; dialect), as well as in matters of culture and history.

Theory of Translation:

This has to do with the degree to which one is willing to go in order to bridge the gap between the two languages. Here are some terms that relate to certain aspects within someone’s theory of translation.

Literal: The attempt to translate by keeping as close as possible to the exact words and phrasing in the original language, yet still make sense in the receptor language. A literal translation will keep the historical distance intact at all points. Examples of Bibles translated with this theory are The King James Version (KJV), The New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the English Standard Version (ESV).

Dynamic Equivalent: The attempt to translate words, idioms, and grammatical constructions of the original language into precise equivalents in the receptor language. Such a translation keeps historical distance on all historical and most factual matters, but “updates” matters of language, grammar and style. Examples of Bibles translated with this theory are The New International Version (NIV), The New American Bible (NAB), and The New English Bible (NEB)

Free: The attempt to translate the ideas from one language to another, with less concern about using the exact words of the original. A free translation, sometimes also called a paraphrase, tries to eliminate as much of the historical distance as possible. Examples of Bibles translated with this theory are The Living Bible (LB), and The Good News Bible (GNB).

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “Reading The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

The aim of good interpretation is simple: to get to the plain meaning of the text. We tend to think that our understanding is the same thing as the Holy Spirit’s or human author’s intent. However, because of our backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, it is easy for our interpretations to become skewed from what God originally intended. The bible, in fact, that most of us read is already an interpretation from the language that it originally was penned in. This is another reason for close examination of Scripture and good exegetical study.

Another reason for the need to interpret exists because the way in which the Bible was created. It is the word of God given to people throughout history. Because God chose to speak to us in this way every book of the Bible has historical particularity. This means that every document is conditioned by the language, time, and culture in which it was originally written, as well as the oral history it had before it was written down.

One of the most important aspects of the Bible is the variety of ways in which God chose to speak to us: narrative history, genealogies, chronicles, laws of all kinds, poetry of all kinds, proverbs, prophetic oracles, riddles, drama, biographical sketches, parables, letters, sermons and apocalypses. To interpret the Bible correctly the reader must be able to not only understand the exegetical aspects of the content but also the genres in which the different books were written.

The First Task: Exegesis
This process is mostly a historical one but is imperative if good hermeneutics can be accomplished. In the end a good understanding of the history, people, culture and intended meaning will be known. If a text is interpreted correctly it is impossible for it to mean anything that the original author did not intend. This is crucial when trying to apply Gods word to our lives, in our belief, worship and understanding of him.

To begin exegetical study you must first learn to read text carefully while asking the right questions. There are two kinds of questions one should ask of every biblical passage, one on context and the other content.

1. Contextual – Historical, Literary

Historical context should include defining what the time and culture of the author and his readers are. That includes the geographical, topographical and political factors that are relevant to the author’s setting; as well as the occasion of the book; psalm, prophetic oracle, or other genre. It is important to have an understanding of why a certain kind of book needed to be written in a certain genre.

Literary context simply means reading something within context. Words only have meaning within entire sentences and usually biblical sentences only have meaning in relation to proceeding sentences. The most important thing to ask is what is the author trying to say, how are they saying it, why are they saying it here and in this way, and what are they saying next. This line of questioning applies to all of the different genres that Bible is written in.

2. Content Related

Content has to do with the meaning of specific words, the grammatical relationship in sentences, and the choice of original text where the manuscripts have variant readings. Basically you are trying to find the specific meaning of a biblical text.

Tools of Exegesis:
1. Bible Dictionary
2. Bible Handbook
3. Good Translation
4. Commentaries

The Second Task: Hermeneutics
This is the process that is used in seeking the contemporary relevance of ancient texts. This appears to be the most important aspect of studying the bible on a personal level but it is impossible to do good hermeneutics without having a very firm grasp on the practice of exegesis. This devotion to exegesis is to try and find the plain meaning of a Bible text. Without finding the true meaning of what the author intended, biblical texts can mean whatever any given reader wishes them to mean. The goal after all, of studying the bible, is to try and find the true meaning of God’s intended word, not our own. Ultimately we want to know what the Bible means for us and how we can use that understanding to serve God, obey him, worship him and adore him.

(This post is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “Reading The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.)

Over the next month I will blog through Fee and Stuart’s book, How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth. My hope is this series gives some foundational understanding in reading our Bibles and prepares us for another blog series in the fall focused on reading the Bible Christotelically.

The following content, and the following blog posts, is a summary and partial abridgement of Fee And Stuart’s book “Reading The Bible For All It’s Worth.” It is based solely on Fee And Stuart’s work and any help that this content gives should be credited to God’s grace through their effort. In other words, give God glory, thank Fee and Stuart and buy the book.

PREFACE:

One of the main objectives in writing this book is the goal of describing and explaining the different genres of the books of the bible. There are large differences in how one might go about reading one of the Epistles compared to the strategy of studying a Psalm. Along with this goal is the desire of the intelligent reading of scripture. The study of exegesis and hermeneutics as well as the application of these theories within everyday study and obedience to God.

Exegesis: Literary commentary; the careful, systematic study of the Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning. To find out what was the original intent of the words of the Bible.

Hermeneutics: the process of applying the original text and it’s intended meaning to become culturally relevant to the reader.