May

28

Blurry lenses and the quest for objectivity (!)

May 28, 2008 |

Posted by ben hind · Filed Under Prolegomena, Theology 

We all have presuppositions we bring to the bible. We all are tainted by our culture, beliefs, emotions, faults, and lack of understanding. It’s a mistake to think we can approach the bible objectively. We can’t… we’re not God! Whenever we read something, we have to interpret it. And that interpretation has to go through the filters we have. It’s like we’re all reading through slightly different lenses, all affecting how we understand a text.

That’s not to say we can’t know anything. There is a lot we can know. There are some things in the bible that you just can’t miss. ‘God exists’. Do you think you could misinterpret something like that? I wouldn’t think so. Not unless you can’t read! But we also have to understand we can be wrong. It’s not a simple case of figuring everything out by yourself, alone, with just your bible in front of you. We need eachother, because we all have different lenses, and no one lense can give us complete objectivity.

Here’s some things that come to mind:

Sins we don’t want to give up. Simply put, I think sin we don’t put away can get in the way of interpreting when it comes to the bible. I’m sure a homosexual-Christian would like to do all sorts of interpretive gymnastics when it comes to certain passages in Leviticus and the letters of Paul. I’m sure interpreting the moral teachings in the Old Testament, Jesus and Paul will be affected by the sins we don’t want to give up. It’s a lense the might blur our vision a little when it comes to the bibles moral teachings. Suggestion: Try and understand the moral teachings on their own terms rather than trying to get round them to suit yourself.

How much understanding we have. We’re all on different levels of understanding when it comes to different topics. I have never read most of the minor Prophets. That’s a serious limit on my understanding when it comes to certain issues that I would profit from reading the minor Prophets (pun intended). This might seriously affect some of my understanding on certain issues, without me even knowing it! Suggestion: Listen to people who have more knowledge than you on certain issues, and try not to jump to conclusions too quickly based on ignorance.

Not living in the bibles culture. Each culture has different values and social issues. Simply put, we don’t live in the same culture as the bible! This has implications on quite a few different things when it comes to interpreting the bible. This is how I think of Pauls issue with head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:3-6. We don’t understand his issue with this from our western culture, because it is bound up in the culture in Pauls day. Suggestion: Read the bible on it’s own cultural terms, try and understand some of the culture of the bible (some study bibles and bible handbooks have helpful notes on this).

Philosophies we believe. Everyone has a philosophy, whether they admit to it or not. It is another lense which we read and interpret the bible through. A good example of this is a post-modern approach to the bible. Instead of trying to understand what was authors intent when they wrote something, a post-modern approach would be just to ask ‘what does it mean to you?’. Suggestion: Get someone elses perspective on an issue, and try not to read you’re own philosophy into the text, let it speak on it’s own terms.

Beliefs we already hold. We all come to read the bible with a lot of our own beliefs already (half-)formed. Whenever we read the word ‘heaven’, we immediately have an image in our head of what that word means. We might be wrong. The bible might be talking about something different from what our western vision of ‘heaven’ is like. Suggestion: Try and understand what the bible means when it uses certain words, phrases and beliefs, rather than assuming.

Traditions we belong to. We have a past history of things we have been taught by those who have gone before us. Tradition is a powerful thing that determines how we interpret certain passages according to that tradition. Or what we believe about certain issues. How you read Romans 9 will depend very much on whether you’re from a Calvinist or Arminianist tradition. Suggestion: Listen to people from other traditions who disagree with you, and think about whether you’re tradition really is right when it comes to interpreting certain passages.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, thought I think it gives you the idea. The waters do seem very muddy after thinking about this and sometimes I doubt whether we can be objective about anything. But I think in the end when we have thought it through the main problem is just bad hermeneutics. Most of these problems can be avoided simply by studying the bible with others rather than on your own, and learning how to interpret the bible properly. Let’s not assume, let’s get back to the source!


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. lisa robinson on May 29, 2008 5:23 am

    As you may have guessed by now, I am always on the soapbox of clearing the lenses so I wholeheartedly concur with these points. And I think the ability to clear them according to the points you mentioned hinge on 2 things 1) time and 2) humility. We have to take the time to wrestle with the text and dig into what is this really saying. Humility will involve accepting what it is concluding even if we don’t like it personally. And that will loop around to the first point of not giving up certain sins.

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