Ridley Hall, Cambridge

Resources: Biblical Studies Bulletin 24

Issue 24: June 2002

Books in Brief

Hodder & Stoughton sent me a paperback copy of the New Testament in Today's New International Version, a revision of the NIV that looks to be a real improvement. It's gender-inclusive without going to the extremes of the NRSV, and the NIV's howler of a translation of 1 Cor 7.1 is finally fixed. In the next issue of BSB I hope to write more on this NIV revision and on the English Standard Version (a new translation seeking to offer a literal rendering in the style of the AV and RSV).

Three more volumes have appeared in the for EVERYONE series by Tom Wright: two volumes on Matthew and one on Galatians and the letters to the Thessalonians (SPCK, 2002). They continue the high standard set by the earlier volumes on Mark and Luke in providing excellent material for personal or group use. Again we find Tom's characteristic brilliance, clarity, and orthodoxy, together with his idiosyncratic emphasis on exile and his insistence that many texts traditionally interpreted as referring to the second coming of Christ look instead to the destruction of the Temple. These books are not commentaries; those looking for verse by verse explanations of difficult passages will be disappointed (especially on Matt 5 and 2 Thess 2), but that is not the intention of the series. They will be of particular benefit to newcomers to the faith and to pastors looking for good illustrations, although given Tom's popularity, the illustrations won't be new for long.

Vol 2 of Exploring the New Testament (Epistles/Revelation) by I H Marshall, Stephen Travis and Ian Paul is out and looks very good (SPCK, 2002) ISBN 0-281-05434-7.

Making Bible Reading Interesting

How do you make the public reading of Scripture more interesting and engaging? Most answers to this, in an adult context, focus on the preparation and training of the person who is reading. But one of my responsibilities in my local church (St Mary's, Poole) is all-age worship, and I am constantly concerned that we pay lip service to the reading of Scripture. It happens, and we always have one passage read by a child. But I have been thinking about ways of allowing people of all ages really to engage with the passage in question, and not simply move on to the next 'item'. Here are the things I have come up withnot rocket science, but a start.

1. Dramatising the reading

The traditional way of doing this has been to break narrative passages down into a narrator and the different characters, and used a number of readers. But this can be extended by paying attention to the literary shape and structure of a passage. At St Mary's we recently thought about consumerism (in an all-age service!) and we read Isaiah 58.9a-14. We broke it into four voices, two reading the 'if' sections, and two reading the 'then' sections, the pairs on opposite sides of the chancel, starting their section in unison and then alternating phrases.

Another variation I have tried is involving the whole congregation, either getting sections to take the part of, for instance, the crowd in a narrative, or reading antiphonally. Another variation (which we have not tried yet) would be to have different 'voices' come from different parts of the building.

Some passages lend themselves to other kinds of dramatisation. Daniel 1 works very well with a 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'-style mime line-up. It is really a question of engaging with the passage and seeing what it lends itself to.

2. Inviting Responses

An interesting way of reading in an all-age context is to invite responses, for example for the congregation to do something when they hear a particular word. Dave Hopwood was a great exponent of this kind of thing some years ago. It is fun, keeps people's attention, and is surprisingly effective at helping people remember the passage they have heard. But it is not as 'serious' as the dramatisation options, and so will not suit some contexts.

3. Making Mistakes

This is another fun idea, one that I got from Captain Alan Price. You read the passage once, straight, and then read it a second time making deliberate mistakes, which can be as funny or locally relevant as you like. There is a reward for whoever spots the mistake. Again, surprisingly effective, though with a light-hearted feel.

4. Engaging the Text

The most basic level of engaging with the reading is simply confronting listeners with the text. In our culture we are not very good at simply listening, and even though we have pew Bibles, I often simply put the text being read on the OHP. Structuring the text in some way, perhaps adding colour, helps the listeners' understanding and gives something additional to focus on.

What ideas do you have? Write to Mike Thompson (mbt2@cam.ac.uk) or to me, and we will share any other ideas. If you would like examples of any of these, email me at editor@grovebooks.co.uk.

Revd Dr Ian Paul, Managing Editor of Grove Books

Humour, etc

The following were pinched from the web:

What do you call a charismatic at an auction?
Broke.

Why did God create man before woman?
He didn't want any advice.

Why did God create man before woman?
Because you're always supposed to have a rough draft before creating your masterpiece.

What do you get if you cross a Jehovah's Witness and a Unitarian?
Someone who goes around knocking on doors for no apparent reason.

A vicar was asked by a politician, 'Name something the government can do to help the church.' The vicar replied, 'Stop making one pound coins.'

A computer professional said to his vicar, 'I'm tired of wasting my time doing little things for God. I want to do something big and important.'

The vicar said, 'Tell me how to use a computer.'

The professional said, 'Well, first you turn it on, then y-'

The vicar interrupted him. 'Don't waste my time talking about turning it on. I only want to know the important stuff.'

Finally, Paul Cudby gives us an updated parabolic saying, found on the web:

No one runs untested code on a network server, for the code may crash and take down the server. Likewise, no one puts old format data files into new databases. The new database will be corrupted, and the data will be lost. No, you put new-format data into new databases.

Hermeneutical Highlights

Dr Richard Briggs, Lecturer in New Testament & Hermeneutics at All Nations Christian College, gives us an overview of important books in biblical interpretation.

Part I: Handbooks to Biblical Interpretation

The evangelical classic in this area remains G D Fee and D Stuart, How to Read the Bible for all Its Worth (Scripture Union, revised 1993). They basically go for author's intent and genre classification as the key to interpretation, and the result is full of practical and preachable examples. Briefer in the same mould is S Motyer, The Bible with Pleasure (Crossway, 1997). Most comprehensive is W W Klein, C L Blomberg & R L Hubbard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Word, 1993). For thoroughness and practical relevance this is probably the first choice for a conservative evangelical approach, though it is good to realise that such an approach is only one among many.

Heavier variations on this theme, but still aimed at the preacher, include GR Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral (IVP, 1991) which includes dense detours of philosophical and literary theory; the two-volume work of J Goldingay: Models for Scripture and Models for Interpretation of Scripture (Paternoster, 1994-95) which seeks to derive its framework from Scripture itself rather than literary or theological categories; and J W Voelz, What Does That Mean? Principles of Biblical Interpretation in the Post-Modern World (Concordia, 2^nd edn, 1997), which is a variable and not-quite-postmodern version of a 'how to do it' book. All of these have valuable interpretative nuggets along what are admittedly somewhat long and winding roads.

For surveys of different hermeneutical approaches, S E Gillingham, One Bible Many Voices (SPCK, 1998) is helpful though easily impressed with literary and theological diversity, but not half as impressed as the broad-minded collection of S L McKenzie & S R Haynes (ed), To Each Its Own Meaning (Westminster John Knox, revised 1999). W R Tate, Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach (Hendrickson, revised 1997) is very good on relating historical, literary and theological concerns; E Dyck (ed), The Act of Bible Reading (Paternoster, 1996) is brief but readable; and six guidebooks to different approaches (linguistic; literary; historical etc) are now conveniently collected together in M Silva (ed), Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation (Apollos, 1997, orig. 1987-94) including works by Silva himself, Longman and Long. Probably the best all-round survey, though better on types of criticism than on how they relate to different texts, is J Barton (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation (Cambridge, 1998).

On OT narrative, J P Fokkelman's Reading Biblical Narrative (WJK 1999) is suggestive, while balanced surveys of approaches to NT interpretation include JBGreen (ed), Hearing the New Testament (Paternoster, 1995), good at showing how different approaches work out in actual interpretation, and S E Porter & D Tombs (eds), Approaches to New Testament Study (Sheffield, 1995), which marks the point at which practical relevance to interpretation begins to shade off into keeping up with the academic whirlwind.

Mention should also be made of two very similar reference works with the same title: Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. The first, edited by R J Coggins & JLHoulden (SCM, 1990) is tremendously useful for rapid reference to approaches, issues and major figures, while the second (ed J H Hayes, 2 vols, Abingdon, 1999) is longer and more up-to-date but otherwise not notably a major improvement.

What would I buy? Probably Barton for an overview, Green for using the NT, and Goldingay to make me work hard at staying fresh when preaching.

Part II: Other Hermeneutical Issues

For our purposes we may define hermeneutics as the activity of reflecting on interpretationthus a kind of second-order activity of great long term value but not necessarily leading directly to interpretative insights.

The biggest area of argument today concerns the nature of the link between theological and critical concerns. R Morgan with J Barton, Biblical Interpretation (Oxford, 1988) is a clear-headed way in to this tangled issue, while the two books of Francis Watson take it up with a rare passion: Text, Church and World (T&T Clark, 1994) and Text and Truth (T&T Clark, 1997). The former is an uneven continuous argument with occasional interpretative gems; the latter a collection of essays but a more polished work overall. R W L Moberly, The Bible, Theology, and Faith (Cambridge, 2000) is a good entry-point from the biblical studies side, paying detailed attention to selected texts. Likewise, S E Fowl attempts to marry together pre-critical insights with NT issues in his Engaging Scripture (Blackwell, 1998), a work which frustratingly combines powerful theological insight with some unlikely philosophical judgments about texts not having meanings. Fowl's edited The Theological Interpretation of Scripture (a Blackwells reader, 1998) gives plenty of scope to follow up this area both theoretically and exegetically. Promising soundings in a long-overdue evangelical engagement with the debate can be found in J B Green & M Turner (eds), Between Two Horizons: Spanning New Testament Studies & Systematic Theology (Eerdmans, 2000), the lead volume for a projected series of 'Two Horizons' commentaries.

K J Vanhoozer sets himself to rehabilitate 'meaning' from a multi-disciplinary point of view in In There a Meaning in this Text? (Apollos, 1998), a book which has uniformly been reviewed as 'great but too long'. Vanhoozer is consciously attempting to work constructively with postmodernism, which can be accessed more simply via A K M Adam, What is Postmodern Biblical Criticism? (Fortress, 1995) or in detail, but from a sympathetic insiders position, in the work of The Bible and Culture Collective, The Postmodern Bible (Yale, 1995). A companion reader has just emerged, for the committed only: D Jobling et al (eds), The Postmodern Bible Reader (Blackwell, 2001). Walter Brueggemann, who will be known to many BSB readers as a stimulating OT scholar, outlines his own arguably postmodern hermeneutical manifesto in The Bible and Postmodern Imagination: Texts Under Negotiation (SCM, 1993).

Philosophy was a natural home for hermeneutical reflection long before biblical scholars got hold of it, and here the key mediating works are undoubtedly those of Anthony Thiselton: The Two Horizons (Paternoster, 1980) and his advanced 'textbook', New Horizons in Hermeneutics (HarperCollins, 1992). These are rewarding if difficult works, keen to defend a plurality of hermeneutical models for a plurality of interpretative situations and agendas. For many it will prove easier to start with the more specific narrative and speech-act insights of R Lundin, C Walhout & A Thiselton in The Promise of Hermeneutics (Paternoster, 1999). The work of the 'Scripture & Hermeneutics Project' (Paternoster, 2000-) should be noted here too, and was outlined briefly in BSB 23.

Finally, a remarkable bringing together of literary theory, good jokes, NT scholarship and the Christian gospel makes M A Powell, Chasing the Eastern Star: Adventures in Biblical Reader-Response Criticism (Westminster John Knox, 2001) a real highlight among recent hermeneutical discussions. For any wondering whether it is really worth investing in this field, start here, with Powell's multifaceted chasing of the Magi story, and see where it leads.

Dr Richard Briggs
Lecturer in New Testament & Hermeneutics, All Nations Christian College, Ware, UK.

Computer Corner

• Sunrise Software (www.sunrise-software.com) have sent us a blurb announcing Logos Bible Software Series X, which is a collection of libraries of Bible study materials for PCs, ranging in price from £125 to £500. They also stock other Bible software, and can be reached by telephone on 01228-554-342.
• An archive of online book reviews by the worthies at London School of Theology can be found at http://www.lst.ac.uk/bookshop/booksreviews.php
• Those looking for the closest Christian bookstore may find help at Phil Groom's site (http://www.christianbookshops.org.uk). Christian booksellers not already included in the list can add their names for free by contacting Phil via that site.