Biblical Hermeneutics

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PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN What may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:19,20). Psalmist proclaims this concept in a more elaborate way: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat (Psalm 19:1-6). Further we understand God through God's interaction with Individuals, Tribes, Cultures and Nations. So we call God as "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob", The God of Israel Most of the personal interactive attributes of God are derived from the personal experience. Now we are talking about interaction, which means a to and fro relationship. God interacts with all people and each individual as individuals react to God. From it all each experience the God as Father with love, Merciful, Long Suffering and also Wrathful. But we get further experience as a Family, Tribe, Nation and Culture. I have mentioned culture especially because God has to speack to the people in their tongues to be understood. Thus each culture or nation understood God in their own way by the way God interacted with them. This is why History is regarded simply as the way God revealed Himself to each culture or nation. But then the whole world irrespective of cultural differences should have had the same understanding of God. But this is not true simply because of the reaction of 133
PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN the culture groups (or family groups, tribal groups etc) to Gods revelation is conditioned by their own freedom. I have never seen a culture where God has not spoken through Prophets. The spoken word became the Written Word by divine impulse and command. There is sufficient evidence in the books of Moses and the prophets to show that God called them to speak and to write the words He had entrusted to them (Ex. 17:14; Deut. 31:19, 24; Jer. 36:2; Hab. 2:2). Through the Written Word God would speak to later generations, long after its human authors had passed away (Deut. 29:29; Isa. 30:8). This will give us the light to walk even when we do not have direct revelations. This needs discernment to distinguish what is valid today and now from what was valid then in the context it was given. Rabbinic scholar Maimonides, suggested that "prophecy is, in truth and reality, an emanation sent forth by Divine Being through the medium of the Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and then to his imaginative faculty." Maimonides, in his The Guide for the Perplexed, outlines twelve modes of prophecy from lesser to greater degree of clarity: 1. Inspired actions 2. Inspired words 3. Allegorical dream revelations 4. Auditory dream revelations 5. Audiovisual dream revelations/human speaker 6. Audiovisual dream revelations/angelic speaker 7. Audiovisual dream revelations/Divine speaker 8. Allegorical waking vision 9. Auditory waking revelation 10. Audiovisual waking revelation/human speaker 11. Audiovisual waking revelation/angelic speaker 12. Audiovisual waking revelation/Divine speaker (that refers implicitly to Moses) Of the twelfth mode, Maimonides focuses his attention on its "implicit superiority to the penultimate stage in the above series", and therefore above all other prophetic and semiprophetic modes. But others are also revelational modes and they will need personal discernment. Thus in time books written by human authors, law, history, prophecy, psalms, and proverbs were all attributed to God. He was the One who called human beings to be His messengers, revealed Himself to them, instructed them through His Spirit, endowed them with wisdom, guided them in their research, and moved them to speak and write. Though historically God did try to reveal himself in his fullness to several chosen nations either orally or in writing, finally this privilege was given to the Israel as a nation in spite of their evading the responsibilities given to them to be priests to the nations. This wider revelatory history is indicated by Amos where he says, Ethiopians, Phillistines and Syrians were all called by God along side of Israel. 134
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INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL HERMENEUTI
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PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS
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Biblical Hermeneutics

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