Lastly, the original audience understood the author by operating under the basic laws of logic and communication. Skip to main content. Both camps claim a grammatical historical hermeneutic; they simply disagree on what should be taken as figurative within a shared hermeneutic. Jared Cline rated it really liked interpretatoon Nov 02, Yount Limited preview — As doy is persistent to do throughout the book, Zuck reminds the reader of the importance of the grammatical-historical method in approaching the dizzying world of biblical prophetic literature.
Zuck rightly acknowledges the healthy balance between interpretation and application, cautioning against leaning too far towards one and away from the other. He breaks down grammatical interpretation into four areas of focus: Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. In every way, this book is a practical tool for the serious student who wants to study the Bible and apply its truths. If the reader is not careful, however, he may find types where there are not intended to be types at the risk of reading into Scripture a meaning that is not there.
He discusses the challenges of Bible interpretation, considers the problems of Bible interpretation, explores the history of Bible interpretation, and defines key terms—all in a practical, down-to-earth way. Tim Jayne, who has taught the Bible for many years, actually gave this book when he was telling me that it was most effective for students to his mind. Although he finds dispensationalism in every shadow, I highly recommend this title for the real help it gives.
These obstacles must be addressed if proper interpretation, leading to proper application, is to occur. If application is the goal and correct application comes through correct interpretation, a look at the history of interpretive methods is helpful. He follows the trajectory of interpretive methods from the early church when the literal method dominated and then waned as the allegorical method became favored in Roman Catholicism, and waxed again with the Reformation and Post-Reformation.
With the Enlightenment came the eventual application of scientific method to all areas of life and doubt about the supernatural works of the God in the Bible, giving way towards rationalistic and subjective methods. From this, Zuck concludes that a balance between the two extremes is needed.
Being a human book, one cannot ignore the elements of human authorship found in the Bible, including rules of grammar, figures of speech, form, logic, human authorial intent, and the like. Zuck makes the case that the spheres of activity present in any culture influenced what the author wrote and are therefore important for the reader to be aware of. He presents these influences in 11 categories: political, religious, economic, legal, agricultural, architectural, clothing, domestic, geographical, military, and social p.
He then investigates whether the applicability of certain teachings in the Bible are limited by ancient cultural influences or are still relevant to later readers they are, in limited fashion. Understanding the cultural influence can help the interpreter discern how best to approach the Scriptures for instruction.
Human authorship necessarily indicates the use of human language, which, though consistently used in written form for communication in all epochs of history, differs significantly across different people groups and times. There is a gap, then, in written communication that must be carefully taken into account by the interpreter if he hopes to arrive at a valid application.
He also takes care to amplify the importance of context, and outlines how context should be considered in expanding scope, from the immediate placement of the passage to its relevance in the whole body of Scripture. Throughout this chapter, Zuck gives his readers procedures, examples, and exercises for applying grammatical interpretive principles in their own studies.
If the Bible student is to derive the correct meaning and application, he must be aware of the genres used by biblical authors, the structure in which a body of text is arranged, and the various figures of speech employed to add color to the text p. He then provides an overview of structural analysis in interpretation, honing in on the various types of patterns found throughout Scripture and the importance they bring to a full understanding of the text.
He provides hermeneutical bases for both amillenialism and premillenialism but seems to leave postmillennialism out. He closes out the chapter with several guidelines to aid in proper interpretation of prophecy such as 1 use grammatical, historical, literary interpretation, 2 take prophetic words in their normal sense, 3 consider the literary factor, 4 make the messiah central, 5 recognize foreshortening, 6 find the obvious interpretation, 7 compare parallel passages, and 8 look for prophecies that are fulfilled and prophecies that basi not.
Zuck argues that Old Testament quotations served a number of purposes. An Old Testament quotation in the New Testament could have pointed to an Old Testament fulfillment, agreed with an Old Testament principle, explained a point, supported a point, illustrated a truth, applied the Old Testament to the present, summarized a concept, as well as several others. Zuck believes that there is an element that the Old Testament authors did not understand all they wrote.
More truth was realized as progressive revelation took place. Zuck also believes that some passages were not recognized as prophetic until their fulfillment took place. He adds that the element of typology suggests that God had more in view than the human authors were aware of. Zuck presents four views on double and single meaning. The last chapter seeks to properly apply the information attained by following the guidelines of everything that has gone before.
The book seemed to be littered with a kind of sharpness toward those of a different theological persuasion, specifically covenant theology. While it is impossible to hold Zuck up with contempt for holding to his theological convictions, he maybe could have calmed them down. Three specific instances come to mind related to this. First, his rather lengthy list of premillennial quotations from the early church Fathers seemed ambitious. While these early church fathers may have held to premillennial convictions, many of the quotations selected were ambiguous and could have fit several millennial positions.
Recognizing this could make the reader perceive Zuck as dishonestly representing information to promote his dispensational premillenialism.
Second, in the same chapter he offers the hermeneutical bases of amillenialism and premillenialism but fails to represent the postmillennial position. Both camps claim a grammatical historical hermeneutic; they simply disagree on what should be taken as figurative within a shared hermeneutic.
The full process from initial observation to application and all that is in between is clearly laid out and is somewhat inspirational. Zuck has shown the importance of proper interpretation and has provided an excellent introduction to prepare the student for deeper study in the realm of hermeneutics.
Overall, Zuck has done an excellent job covering all of his bases and has made this volume a useful tool for an exegete at any level. Click here to sign up. Help Center Find new research papers in:.
Not indexed. Not illustrated. The Officers of the Board of Commissioners for the ensuing year are: Rev. Newton L. Reed, President. Tract B. Griswold, Auburn, N. Frank E. Van Wie, Clerk. More, Assistant Clerk.
The Board Of Trustees is constituted as follows: 1. Class whose term of office will expire in Hon. Charles C. Dwight, LL. Charles A.
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