61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Important Book!, September 8, 2004
One of Satan's greatest triumphs is in convincing Christians to abandon the Bible, or at least keeping them from really mining its depths. He tries to convince us that the Bible is outdated, unimportant or less important than many other things. He tries to convince us that it is difficult to understand and that we should rely on others to interpret it for us.
R.C. Sproul wrote Knowing Scripture early in his career to address these concerns and out of a desire to see Christians dedicate themselves to a systematic study of the Bible. Written in 1977, this is one of Sproul's earliest but most important and highly recommended books.
Sproul begins with an introduction to why we should read the Bible. He dispels myths regarding Scripture being too difficult to understand or too boring to hold our attention. From that foundation he shows how the principle of private interpretation was a pillar of the Reformation and thus remains a pillar of Protestantism. He explains what private interpretation is and what it is not. He shows, for example, that it does not preclude us from verifying our interpretations against those of others. He also stresses the need for objectivity as we read the Scripture. In short, he keeps us from viewing private interpretation as being a method of forcing Scripture to say what we want it to say.
He dedicates a chapter to an introduction to hermeneutics. Do not be scared by this technical word as it simply means "a list of rules and guidelines for interpreting Scripture." Some of the concepts he introduces are:
* The analogy of faith. This says that Scripture interprets Scripture, or that one passage supports and explains another. It also means that one part of Scripture never corrects another part, for Scripture needs to correction.
* Literal Interpretation. This says that Scripture needs to be scrutinized as literature, paying attention to grammar, word choice and genre. Just because the Bible is a special book does not mean we can ignore standard literal interpretation.
* Genre Analysis. This says that Scripture must be analyzed for genre and it is crucial that we distinguish between genres such as history and poetry.
* Grammatico-Historical. This is a method of interpreting Scripture that focuses on, among other things, grammatical constructions and historical context. This is the traditional and most accurate method of hermeneutics.
* Authorship and Dating. It is important to understand the dating of a particular book or passage as well as its authorship.
The bulk of the book is contained in a chapter that lays out ten rules for Biblical interpretation. They are:
1. Do not change the rules of interpretation for the Bible. Read the Bible just like any other book
2. Seek to empathize with the Biblical characters
3. Narratives must be interpreted by the didactic
4. The implicit is to be interpreted by the explicit
5. Determine the meaning of words using lexicography, etymology and context
6. Note the presence of parallelisms
7. Note the difference between proverb and law
8. Observe the difference between the spirit and the letter of the law
9. Be careful with parables
10. Be careful with predictive prophecy
Each of these points receives careful attention. Though some of them may sound shocking (such as "read the Bible just like any other book") Sproul provides solid reasons for the necessity of each.
The author then turns his attention to a discussion of culture and the Bible. Just I am confined to a specific cultural setting, so were the authors of the Bible. We need to be able to discern the difference between principle and custom in regards to the Bible. Sproul provides several guidelines for doing this.
The book closes with a discussion of some resources that may help in studying the Bible. These range from commentaries to dictionaries and lexicons. If there is an area of this book that shows its age, it is in this section. There are so many more resources at our disposal now, especially on the Internet, that this section loses some of its usefulness. A discussion of modern translations and some of the newer commentaries would be helpful. Perhaps a second edition of this book is in order. One thing I found amusing is that the author says he does not agree with study Bibles, yet years later was the editor of the New Geneva Study Bible (later renamed the Reformation Study Bible). I presume his view changed!
This book does a wonderful job of introducing hermeneutics for the lay person and I would recommend it for any Christian. It presents advanced concepts in a way that it easy to read and understand. My only complaint is that it advances many rules but does not dedicate any attention to the "how's" of hermeneutics. Some examples where the author led us through some difficult passages would have been most welcome and would have helped ensure we not only understood the rules but also understood how to use them.
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable study tool, February 11, 2001
_Knowing Scripture_ by R. C. Sproul is my favorite Bible study aid. I use it as a steady reference. I recommend this text not only to Christians but to anyone studying the Bible as a text. This book is very useful for a broad spectrum of Bible students from the beginning Christian reader to the seasoned theologian to the nonChristian approaching the Bible as a historical, literary work.
While Sproul holds that the Bible is the inspired word of God, this is not a fundamentalist text. Thoughtful analysis and interpretation are taken on with an eye to culture, author intent, literary style, and other factors. This book is a priceless vault of information and tools. Common pitfalls in Bible study are dealt with and explained. It is a short, easy read in a friendly conversational style but has great depths of information to plumb...look at is as a key that opens the door to a new level of intelligent Bible study. I cannot stress how well written and very useful this book is. When you hand someone a new Bible, toss in a copy of _Knowing Scripture_, too. I recommend this book with the greatest intensity.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Introduction to Biblical Literature and Hermeneutics, December 1, 2005
I actually listened to the audio version of this book on CD. RC Sproul is a very easy to listen to speaker and he has a gift of making difficult concepts seem easy.
Contrary to a few reviews here, Sproul is not advocating an elitist approach to Scripture where only the "pro" dare to wrestle with Scriptural interpretation and understanding. Quite the opposite. Sproul is seeking to put the tools into the hands of his listeners.
Over and over he provides general principles and approaches that should help to keep the reader from falling into common errors that have been present and prevalent within the Church for many years.
The one proviso that I picked up on, and it isn't so much a criticism as it is an observation is that Sproul is a reformed theologian and he is not afraid to select some passages for use as an example as to how it is possible to "get something wrong." Some of his choices are bravely chosen from those that are among the more controversial, such as women's role in the church and some on the charismatic gifts. Sproul gives a brave rendering as to why these should be understood as he understands them from the traditional reformed position. In doing so he fails to give all the information available from other positions that makes their positions equally viable. In fairness, that may be beyond the scope of his purpose, but in that event I still think it behooves the speaker to be a little more generous and less dogmatic where there are non-cardinal issues being addressed. Perhaps it is asking too much.
Nevertheless this is an excellent resource to get in good layman's terms the most important Biblical Study tools to navigate the Scripture and avoid many of the pitfalls experienced when common fallacies in logic and approach to a literary and historical document are violated, even by well-meaning Christians who hold the text's inspiration and relevance in highest regard.
A very worthwhile read or listen.
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