| Grasping God’s Word |
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Critical Book Review This reaction paper to the book Grasping God’s Word, Zondervan Publishing House, 2001, attempts to evaluate the qualifications of the author on this topic, point out strengths and weaknesses of the material, and how it helped, or misled me in my study of this topic.
This book is authored by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. J. Scott Duvall is Dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies and Fuller Professor of Biblical Studies at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR, where he teaches Spiritual Formation. J. Daniel Hays is Chair of the Department of Biblical Studies and Theology and Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Ouachita Baptist University, where he teaches Hebrew, upper-level Old Testament studies, and Interpreting the Bible. Authors Backgrounds J. Scott Duvall Dr. Duvall is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, the Institute of Biblical Research, and the Society of Biblical Literature. Dr. Duvall co-authored Biblical Greek Exegesis: A Graded Approach to Learning Intermediate and Advanced Greek as well as this book being reviewed. J. Daniel Hays J. Daniel Hays received a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as a missionary to Ethiopia with Serving in Mission (SIM) from 1982-1987, and he joined the Ouachita Baptist University faculty in 1992. Dr. Hays has contributed articles to Bible Review, Bibliotheca Sacra, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, and the Journal of Translation and Textlinguistics. Point of View
The book Grasping God’s Word suggests a process by which we can “grasp,” or understand what the Biblical author is saying and doing in the text. In this book, the process of interpreting and applying the Bible is compared to taking a journey. The journey starts with a careful reading of the text and ends with an understanding of the text that can change our lives. To challenge us, there are a “river of differences” between the biblical audience and us--culture, language, time, situation, and covenant. The journey is the process of crossing the river on what the author calls the principlizing bridge, to arrive at an understanding of the text. Certain assumptions guide the process. First, the Bible is God’s communication to us where we can discover Him and His will for us. Second, we do not create meaning but rather, we seek to find the meaning that is there. Third, there are theological principles in the text that apply to the biblical audience and to us today. Finally, we can bridge these differences to arrive at an understanding of the text. Evidence to Support Author’s Views A number of authors—teachers and biblical interpreters—influenced the author’s thinking. These are cited carefully throughout the book to identify the source of ideas and principles that the authors gleaned from those sources. Research revealed that this textbook is in use in a number of universities for teaching biblical interpretation. For example, Somerset Christian College uses the text in their Biblical Interpretation course, and Central Baptist Theological Seminary uses it in their Hermeneutics course. Impact This book definitely fills in where other approaches have failed to equip me with these general principles of interpretation. I started with the simple (How to Study the Bible, by Rick Warren)—a great starting point—and moved to the complex (Bernard Ramm’s, Protestant Biblical Interpretation) and did not “get” the principles, application and context that I got from this book. I’m not saying the principles weren’t there in the Ramm text, but I didn’t “get” them easily. After surveying the history of biblical interpretation, Ramm devotes seventy pages to explaining the Protestant system of hermeneutics. The rest of the text discusses the doctrinal, devotional, and practical uses of the Bible, the hermeneutical dimension of the problem of biblical inerrancy and secular science, and finally, the interpretation of types, prophecy, and parables. This was too technical for me after the springboard of How to Study the Bible. I like the way Grasping God's Word is laid out also. The synopsis at beginning of each unit, the introduction, illustrations, review questions and assignments to practice what is learned in each chapter makes the text easy to read and understand. The use of the sidebar to highlight main points was helpful to me as well. The emphasis of this text on the goal of learning the meaning God places on the biblical text, not creating our own meaning, is a very important concept that everyone studying the Bible needs to understand. Too often I hear people interpreting the Bible in terms of what it means to them. This frequently results in an interpretation that was not intended by the author. I think this text clearly explains interpretive Bible study and observing the Bible text. I also think that the section about understanding and selecting a translation is very helpful to the student of Bible interpretation. This book also provides comprehensive and specific information on how to interpret New and Old Testament passages that will help me in studying these books.
This is a book that can teach even laypeople successful methods of interpreting every genre in the Bible. It is an easy read—light and even sometimes humorous. I think this is the perfect book for people who are interested in truly Grasping God's Word. I like the resources provided on the internet too, though not everything mentioned in the book is available online. |
