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'Behind' the Text: History and Biblical Interpretation (Scripture and Hermeneutics Series)

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Since much of the Bible is concerned with historical narrative, any approach to biblical interpretation will be affected by the presuppositions we carry into our understanding of history. One of the contributors to this book cited the ancient Dionysius of Halicarnassus, "History is philosophy teaching by examples."

The mistaken belief that the historical-critical methods, that were almost universally accepted in the 19th and 20th centuries, were without presuppositions has led many down the path of inadequate exegesis. So contend the scholarly essays contained in this wonderful fourth volume in the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series. The Protestant theologian and father of "Presuppositional Apologetics," Cornelius Van Til argued convincingly in, for instance, A survey of Christian epistemology (In defense of Biblical Christianity) that there were two kinds of thinking, theistic and anti-theistic. The theistic thinker presupposes God is involved in the story and the anti-theistic thinker presupposes God is not involved. There is no `neutral' thinking that is not affected by that rudimentary theistic or anti-theistic presupposition. The authors of this work, primarily Catholic (likely a surprise to most Van Tilians), would agree. The proponents of historical-critical methods in an attempt to be unbiased have only turned to a different form of bias - they have exchanged theistic for anti-theistic epistemology.

So is the solution to throw out the tools of historical-criticism in their entirety and pursue the postmodernist dilemma that we can know nothing about history with any certainty? These authors think not. Prof. Mary Healy, for instance, speaks of how the view of scripture can be analogous to the view of the incarnation. Just as Jesus is both human and divine, so scripture is both human and divine. The mistake of some in the past, which the proponents of historical-criticism rightly challenged, has been to downplay the human element of scripture in order to follow the subjective extremes of a `spiritual' interpretation. The human contribution and historical context was ignored or maligned to such an extent that it played little or no affect in guiding interpretation or keeping it from the subjective extremes of every interpreter. The historical-critical proponents, however, exchanged that extreme for the other extreme that ignores or denies the divine content of scripture. In denying the divine, they fail to grasp the important context of scripture that gives it substance. In the end, such denial of the divine leads to seeing scripture as entirely irrelevant and a matter of various hypothesis and probabilities of its meaning. Neither method is adequate to understand the scripture text. The true test of interpretative methods is the one that reveals the most satisfactory meaning of the text. Our methods must employ theistic thinking because that is the only approach that makes sense of scripture. The solution to overemphasis on the divine nature of scripture is a balance of the historical-critical methods as tools to alleviate the subjective tendencies by balancing the human with the divine nature.

Experts tend to write primarily for other experts and the nature of short essays is to assume a certain level of knowledge already present with the reader. For that reason, some of the essays may be difficult to follow for the non-expert theologian or historian. But for those who are somewhat familiar with the concepts and philosophical challenges involved in Biblical theology, the rewards are great. On the other hand, the beginner can still get a sense of the depth and breadth of this oft overlooked topic. It may challenge their own presuppositions and draw them closer to the theistic thinking required to truly grasp the truths to be revealed to us in scripture.

This book provides an excellent exploration of the intersection between biblical texts and the realities which are (or are not) behind them.

This book is the fourth volume of the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series. In it the editors make the point that Christianity is a religion that believes in a God who acts in history. Most of the stories in the Bible are set in specific historical contexts and are designed to show God working with individuals and groups in a historical context. Because history is so bound up in the Bible stories it is impossible to read the Bible without addressing the issue of history.

Sometimes the particular historical view that a reader holds affects their interpretation of Bible passages. This is one of the primary areas this book examines - biblical hermeneutics with an eye toward the relationship between faith and history and how that relationship both affected how historical events were reported and how biblical events are interpreted.

This is a scholarly collection of articles that is written in an academic style and highly suitable for Bible colleges and Seminaries more than the average reader. Behind the Text: History and Biblical Interpretation is recommended for the serious Bible student.