Re: To Interpret or Not To Interpret, That is The question

From: dalmatia@eburg.com
Date: Fri Jul 03 1998 - 11:23:53 EDT


Ward Powers wrote: [much snipped]

> Larry Swain wrote:

> >The difficulty for us on the staff comes when the discussion turns from
> >making sense of the Greek-grammar, etymology, semantics, morphology etc and
> >it is the <i>interpretation<i> of the passage that becomes the focus of
> >discussion, opening all manner of wounds. Discussions (and arguments) about
> >what a passage MEANS should be held offlist among interested parties, such
> >as the I Tim 2 discussion which has now crossed that sometimes fine line.
 
> I have been wondering what to say in response to this post since I got it
> some hours ago.
>
> I stand amazed. Aghast, in fact.

Ward ~

Thank-you for your very wonderful post. I share your perspective.

> If we are to be warned off from discussing the meaning of passages of the
> Bible, all that will be left to us is to discuss what kind of dative TWi
> is, in a particular verse. (I exaggerate, I know. But not by much.)

Not by much indeed!
 
> Worse is to follow. Such discussion of the meaning of the Bible is "opening
> all manner of wounds". I am dumbfounded. Flabbergasted.

Me too.

> What kind of
> situation exists to which such a remark can be referring?

I think it's called religious intolerance.

> And where?

Right here in the back yard of my own community, and [judging from
private and list posts,] as well in the world at large.

It is so easy, given a religious perspective, to assume a smugness of
being right, and of others being wrong, and from that perspective to
see those who disagree as evil, or under the control of Satan or other
evil spirits, and from that to attack them in their character and
motive, with words... And words lead to actions.

I have only come to identify myself as a Christian in the last year or
so, and I have been utterly dismayed at the extent of this problem in
my own community. One pastor, whim I like, reccommended himself as
having 'strong opinions', and warned me that another group of Bible
worshippers 'Have their own agenda, you know.'

Another told me here, off list, that a certain tower is a tower of
Satan. And another, in the 'agenda group', told me that 'Christians
don't believe their own Bibles ~ We do...'

Far too many seem to get lost in criticising others for their beliefs
from the perspective of their own beliefs. It is this undercurrent
that the list staff seems to wish to take measures to avoid breaking
out into yelling matches, personal attacks, and flame wars.

When I first began posting to this list, I asked about John 1, [the
usual beginning questions!] and was attacked by snide innuendo for
being a JW. I did receive an apology from that writer, after he came
to understand that I am not a JW. But what if I had been??? My God!
Are we so intolerant??

So Jonathan writes:

"Theology, however, is not a tool we use to interpret passages here.
Syntax,
context, discourse analysis - these are very much in-bounds.
Obviously,
what we read in scripture may have ramifications for our theology, but
our
theology should not determine what we read in scripture."

And this is the aim of this list ~ To simply approach the GNT as a
Greek text ~ And set religious differences aside, and explore the
Greek. This 'line of demarcation of what is allowable' seems
draconian to me as well, yet how else can the seething undercurrents
be kept in check? The problem is thorny, and the fact that the
undercurrents exist is dismaying to me.

> It muddies the waters considerably, and leads us in
> a totally wrong direction... That is because I am very concerned about this
> potential throttling of the freedom of the list to be of maximum usefulness
> to its members.
>
> In some considerable concern,

Flame wars are the demons in the background of fears that Larry and
the staff wish to avoid. I do too. The demons are real. We often
judge badly those with whom we disagree, and treat them as enemies...
It used to be the town drunk that was vilified ~ Now it is the New
Agers, the cults, the Fundamentalists, the JWs, the Christian
Liberals, the Mormons, and on and on ~ A veritable war of all against
all, fought from enclaves of belief.

'Tis a sad truth...

And I grieve...

George

******************************************
Lisa Messmer..................ICQ# 5666415
George Blaisdell dalmatia@eburg.com

Have you seen Dulcie? Look for her Heart!
http://www.eburg.com/~dalmatia/dulcie.html

Last Chance for Animals...Fight Pet Theft!
http://www.lcanimal.org

---
B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to unsubscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to 


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:51 EDT