Hermeneutics - Lesson 28

Hermeneutics

Dr. Todd Miles

nt310-28

Hermeneutics and Perspicuity

Lesson Transcript

We'll finish up this course by thinking about a few different topics that don't fit directly into the issues related to genre analysis. And the first of those that I want to talk about is perspicuity. And many of you probably don't even know what perspicuity means. It's the theological word that we use to describe how clear the Bible is, which there's some weird irony at work there that we have a word that no one knows what it means to describe how people can actually understand the Bible. So the perspicuity or the clarity of Scripture means this, that the Bible is written in such a way that its teachings are able to be understood by all who will read it, seeking God's help and being willing to follow it. And I get that from Wayne Grudem. He writes this about that definition The existence of many disagreements about the meaning of Scripture throughout history reminds us that the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture does not imply or suggest that all believers will agree on all the teachings of Scripture. Nevertheless, it does tell us something very important that the problem always lies not with Scripture, but with ourselves. So the Bible is written in such a way that it can be understood, but it's better, can only be understood by those who read it. Certainly those who read it, seeking God's help and also who have a heart willing to obey and follow it. So this this definition, it's not concern to say that every passage is easy. What we know is that God has disclosed himself in time to real people. So there are cultural overtones at work. And of course, under the old covenant, God disclosed himself through prophets and priests and kings. There was a tribal structure, there was a covenantal head. And some of that's very strange to us. In the New Covenant there are no mediating priests, prophets or kings. We have only one God and Savior Jesus Christ. Under the New Covenant, we look to the revelation that God is given and we all have access to it. This this book, the Bible, it is a public book. Part of the priesthood of believers is that we can all read and and understand it. And so the Bible is clear enough for for all Christians to understand faith and practice. And and all of us can read and understand huge swaths of the Bible. We can obey huge parts of the Bible. And quite frankly, even though there are some hard parts of the Bible, as I said earlier, the the hardest parts of the Bible for me are the parts I understand quite well. I just don't like it because it wars against my fallen sensibilities. I don't like being told not to be proud. I don't like being told not to be anxious. I don't I don't like being told to to love sacrificially because that war is against the flesh. So to me, those are the hardest parts of the Bible, not the not the difficult ones to interpret. We need to recognize also that God has a complex mind. He is, after all, God and and finitude is always going to have a difficult time understanding the infinite that that creation is not going to be able to wrap our arms all the way around the Creator. It must be said, though, that many articulate the gospel faithfully, even as they're mishandling the text at times. Hermeneutical skill is an aid to better articulate the truth. Thankfully for all of us, God works in spite of us, not because of us. That's no excuse to be sloppy or lazy thinking, Oh, God's just going to make do with what I do. He'll make lemon lemonade out of the manure that that I shovel him. That's that. No, we are not to think that way. That's no doubt why you're even taking this class. You want to be able to interpret the Bible better, and I want to encourage you in that. These skills that you learned in this class will help you be able to better live and articulate the truth. Now, why would I even think that the Bible is perspicuous or clear? Well, because the Bible says that it is. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter six, verses six and seven. This is in the context of the great. Shema Moses is telling the is the second generation of Israelites just before they cross into the promised land. He gives them the law again. And and he says in verse six and seven, well, verse four as the great shema, listen oh Israel or hear oh Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the door posts of your house and on your city gates. I think the Bible implicitly affirms its own clarity here in a number of ways, but the most significant is that the people of Israel were expected to be able to understand the words of Scripture well enough that they could teach them diligently to their own children. The Bible apparently is clear enough that we can take its truths and teach them even to little kids. Psalm verse 19 or Chapter 19, verse seven is is another self attestation of the clarity of the Bible. Psalm Chapter 19, verse seven The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the experienced wise. God's Word is so understandable, so clear that even this kind of person, the inexperienced, is made wise by it. And it doesn't make someone wise by just simply hearing it. And then it works magically in your mind. No, it has to be understood and appropriated and wisdom is garnered that way. Matthew, Chapter 12 Verse three is another kind of self attestation to Scripture. Here Jesus is arguing with the religious leaders, as he often did. There's a bit of a Sabbath controversy because he, he and his disciples were eating some grain on the Sabbath. And and they accused him of breaking the law. And he says to them, Haven't you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? Later on. Look at chapter 19, verse four, chapter 19, verse four, another controversy. And Jesus asked this question is, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds? Jesus says, Haven't you read that he created them in the beginning, made them male and female. Jesus assumes in these two cases that the Bible is understandable because he repeatedly asked, Haven't you read? This is obvious, guys. It's right there in black and white. It's clear. It's clear. Do you not understand? He says We should also recognize that most of the New Testament is written not to learn in teachers, but to churches, to the congregations that have ordinary people in them, including children. Notice that in Ephesians chapter six, when Paul instructs children to obey their parents, he addresses them specifically. He says, children obey your parents. He doesn't say, parents get your kids to obey. He and his understanding is that his letter would be read out loud to them and it could be understood by them. Now there are, of course, moral and spiritual qualities needed for right understanding, and I'll come back to those in the final session on the necessity of the Holy Spirit in interpretation. But for now, though, the New Testament authors frequently state that the ability to understand the Bible rightly they would understand it's more of a moral and spiritual thing than it is an intellectual ability. And I think that's huge, which is why I said that in quoting Grudem that that the Bible is clear. It's able to be understood by those who are willing to listen and obey it. So although the Bible in itself is written, clearly, the biblical authors also affirm that it will not be understood rightly by those who are unwilling to receive its teachings.