In my Blowing Smoke
article, I highlighted the value of digging deeper into the original Biblical languages.
In that vein, it is interesting to read what F.F. Bruce wrote on the
inside front flap of the dust cover for my Vine’s
dictionary.
“There can be no true biblical theology unless it is based on
sound biblical exegesis, and there can be no sound biblical exegesis unless a
firm textual and grammatical foundation has been laid for it.”
Admittedly,
when I first read that back in the mid 1980’s, I had to whip out the Webster Collegiate English dictionary. (Yet another huge volume to clutter my desk!)
Biblical theology: The
teaching about God as advanced by the Bible, untainted by the philosophies of personal
preferences.
Exegesis: A critical
explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture
To put
the above into easily understood terms, I wrote a note to myself: “We cannot
correctly understand who God is and what he wants of us (according to the
Bible) unless the original-language words are correctly translated and their
context is accurately rendered. Indeed, both are a challenge because even if
the word is correctly translated, it can still be contextually wrong. This can
readily be seen by looking at many of the verbs and adjectives used in both
Hebrew (and Aramaic) and Greek and note that several English words are used. In
fact, this is the whole basis of the Amplified
Bible – that it parenthetically includes various English words to help the
English-speaking reader get a more well-rounded idea of what was being conveyed
by the Bible writers.”
So more
than a cursory reading of the Bible is necessary to build strong faith.
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