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Hermeneutical Priority

Hermeneutics

The Art and Science of Interpretation

Introduction

Purpose: to answer the question…

…What Does Scripture Say About…

… a specific Non-Practiceable Truth? (Metaphysical Truth)

… a specific Practiceable Obligation to All Christians? (Christian Ethics)

Purpose

I. Identify the Relevant Textual Material

A. Create a List of Key Words and Phrases

B. Collect the Texts Which Contain the Key Words and Phrase

C. Read All Texts to Understand Context

D. Remove the Non-Relevant Texts

II. Prioritize Textual Material

  1. By Place in Time, in a Progressive Revelation Scheme
    1. Old Testament v New Testament
    2. Date of Writing
  2. By Genre (which exposes author’s intent)

Levels of Priority Genres

    1. Didactic Sections Within Letters Written to All Christians
    2. Didactic Sections Within History Spoken to All Christians
    3. New Testament Historical Documents
    4. Old Testament Hortatorical Passages
    5. Old Testament Historical Passages
  2. By Direct Relation to Content
    1. Sections Dealing Directly with the Subject (See Note Below)
      1. Didactic Sections Within Letters Written to All Christians
      2. Didactic Sections Within History Spoken to All Christians
      3. Didactic Sections Within Letters to Specific Churches
      4. Didactic Sections Within History Spoken to Specific Christians
    2. Sections Dealing Indirectly with the Subject
      1. Didactic Sections Within Letters Written to All Christians
      2. Didactic Sections Within History Spoken to All Christians
      3. Didactic Sections Within Letters to Specific Churches
      4. Didactic Sections Within History Spoken to Specific Christians

      (Note: A distinction must be made between the approach here for practiceable and non-practiceable truths. When dealing with practiceable truths one must ALWAYS consider the scope of the obligation. One must always ask to whom, for when, and at what location is the obligation authoritative. Non-practiceable truths (metaphysical truths) are most often objectively true but must be considered in its time and place.

  3. Create a List of Prioritized Texts

III. Determine the Meaning of the Texts

  1. Read the Top Tier Texts in a Parallel Bible
  2. Determine if There are Significant Differences of Readings
  3. If There are Differences, Examine and Determine the Relevant Words
  4. Discover the Preferred Word Meaning

Principles of Lexical Semantics

        1. Words have semantic range, but context allows for only one meaning, unless the author is consciously attempting to be vague. Author intent on word/phrase use is determined by the various contexts:

Contexts (listed synthetically):

        1. Time and Place (Historical context)
        2. Literary Genre (Genre context)
        3. Purpose of the Specific Writing (Thesis context)
        4. Theme of the section of the writing (Section context)
        5. Topic of the paragraph (Paragraph context)
        6. Meaning of the sentence (Sentence context)
        • The denotative definition is preferred over connotative. Denotation is default. There must be a reason to move from denotation to connotative use.
        • Unless the genre suggests otherwise, the literal meaning is preferred over the figurative. Departure from literal meaning must be required or strongly suggested by the context to be adopted.
        • The author has symbols in his head and will use these when choosing the words to write. The best way to determine what symbol the author used in the head and therefore intended to communicate is to see how that same author uses the same word in other writings. Determining word usage should employ the following priority of usage by the same author:
        1. Previous occurrences in the same writing
        2. Previous occurrences in a different writing to the same audience
        3. Future occurrences in the same writing
        4. Occurrences in previous writings
        5. Occurrences in later writings
        • The author intended to communicate to someone. The best way to determine word/phrase meaning is to try to determine how the readers would expect to see a word/phrase used. This is discovered by seeing how other writers used the same word/phrase, using the following priority:
            1. Previous occurrences by other writers in the same genre
            2. Later occurrences by other writers in the same genre
            3. Previous occurrences by other writers in a different genre
            4. Later occurrences by other writers in the different genre