My Approach

There are countless opinions and legitimate ways of approaching Biblical exegesis and hermeneutics.  I certainly don’t claim to have the best way or the most popular way.  But I do feel that my approach to reading, analyzing, and applying Scripture is a good way to do things.  In many ways, my approach to Scripture – i.e. the questions I ask, things I look for, points I emphasize, presuppositions I come with – are a conglomerate of the many voices that have spoken into my life on the topic.  I was raised staunchly Reformed, earned a B.A. Biblical Studies from a small college affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, did a series of internships at churches with the Conservative Baptist Association, spent 3 years at  the non-denominational and evangelical Western Seminary (Portland), and earned my M.Div. back in the Reformed camp from Calvin Theological Seminary.  Each stage and association has had an effect on how I read and study God’s Word.

In the end, I came to conclude that they all have their strengths and weaknesses, and if I was going to live myself, I was better off borrowing what I deemed the best of all approaches and combine it into a single way of doing things.  The following is a list of what I look for and the rough order of how I go about studying a passage:

1. First things first: translate.  Working through the hard work of a good, solid English translation from the original Hebrew or Greek reveals everything from genre to stylistic devices (often lost in the English) to allusions to other texts to culture.
2. Discover the primary point of the entire book.  This comes with the assumption that every book was written for a specific purpose in response to a specific need within a specific context (historical, cultural, and anthropological).  One of the most important things I’m looking for here is the worldview the book is written from; it’s generally good enough to categorize it broadly as either predominantly Hebrew or predominantly Greek (although this could be narrowed down even more). This informs how I understand a particular pericope fitting into the overall narrative.
3. Textual analysis.  Now that I know what the goal/purpose of the book is, I can go back to the passage and begin to pick it apart and draw connections.  Perhaps one of the most important questions I’m constantly asking is, What would be the significance of this to the original audience?  How would they have understood this?  What would the impact have been on their thinking and lives?
4. And finally, bridge the gap to our modern day context.  Generally speaking, I don’t think the gap is as wide as some may say it is.  I’m not a dispensationalist, so I don’t believe that God has shifted his approach and means of interaction with humanity through history.  That means that I do believe that God’s expectations and standards have remained very consistent throughout all time and into our current era.  The Bible’s original recipients would have been shocked and surprised by much of what’s contained within it’s pages, we should be too – if we aren’t, it’s because we’re not fully grasping the significance of what we’re reading.

All in all, my goal is to cut through as much of the theological and social rhetoric as possible.  Sometimes the Bible espouses what is generally considered to be conservative, sometimes it’s liberal.   I’m not so concerned with supporting one position or another; I’m concerned with understanding what the Bible is saying, and then go out and do it.

Soli Deo Gloria