A E book Overview: Journey Into God’s Phrase

I have just finished a intriguing study: ‘Journey Into God’s Phrase: your tutorial to comprehending and making use of the Bible’ by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, revealed by Zondervan in 2008. I purchased this by means of an Online based bookshop in preparing for a Theology class that I’m just embarking upon. It can be a trim quantity packed with (for me) new ideas.

I’ve grow to be common with a reasonable chunk of the Bible more than my quarter-century as a Christian, but a lot more as a everyday mate than as a the family members member that God wants us to be: it turns out that I have been skimming, finding and deciding on, having the small hanging fruit, and guilty of the down-sides that stick to familiarity.

Duvall and Hays teach the reader to adhere to an ‘interpretive journey’ when learning the Bible, forensically analyzing God’s Word down to the personal written words and phrases. It truly is quite a problem! The authors suggest a 4 point ‘journey’ into any passage (five in the New Testomony) when decoding any passage of scripture, using into account the type of producing/literature that we are on the lookout at (for example: is it a piece of poetry, a letter, a narrative, a gospel?), as properly as it really is historic and cultural context. 1st, what did the writing necessarily mean to the men and women to/for whom it was prepared? upcoming, recognise that there is a big difference in between individuals folks and periods and our individual and attempt and establish what individuals differences are (the authors simply call this a ‘river’ of distinctions) thirdly, to cross the river use a ‘principlizing bridge’ – utilizing the theological basic principle of the text, the point about God that applies both of those sides of the river and lastly implementing that basic principle to our possess time and circumstance. In Aged Testament examine a fifth phase is inserted soon after crossing the bridge – inquiring how the New Testomony teaching could possibly modify or qualify that of the Aged.

The e book can be made use of as a study guidebook, and is laced with group dialogue questions and prepared physical exercises, encouraging the reader to apply the tactics staying taught. I observed the structure straightforward to observe, analysing the process of ‘careful reading’ from sentence construction (“Work really hard! Dig deep! The feast awaits you!”) to the context of a individual passage within just bordering passages, chapter, guide, Testament and Phrase. The authors communicate about the distinct translations that are offered, and the influence that that choice can have on our being familiar with (they recommend that one takes advantage of extra than one ‘version’ when learning the Phrase, as nicely as suggesting the use of commentaries and handbooks/dictionaries together the ‘interpretive journey’.

The reserve focuses on ‘authorial intent’ relatively than ‘reader response’ as the suitable technique to the Bible – the author (God) establishes what the Phrase implies, not the reader (in which situation we can make it say what we want to hear rather than what God is indicating to us). With this in mind, the authors get us through a series of chapters outlining vital pieces of the Bible via the resource that is their proposed ‘interpretive journey’. We are inspired to seem at the New testomony letters as windows into the ‘struggles and victories of the early church’ as perfectly as currently being personalized, educational messages between friends and between shepherds and their flocks. When reading the gospels, we are advised that we ‘must reflect on how to use their message to our lives’. Jesus is the central determine throughout, as this book covers Functions and Revelation, and finishes with chapters covering the interpretation of the Legislation, Psalms and Prophets of the Aged Testament.

I completely loved, and was truly challenged by the strategy outlined in this small e-book, and look ahead to applying the ideas as I embark on a official program of theological study.