I am sitting in my grad school class on a break and I am a little frustrated. I enjoy the knowledge that I am getting so much! Yet, I really have a tension within me about the fact that very few people in the world think along these lines. I am fascinated by the amount of time and energy that people put into interpreting the bible and parsing the different nuances of scripture, but where does that all translate in a real-world setting? Is the bible meant to be interpreted on an everyday, lay-person's level? Or is it meant to be torn apart and dissected by intellectual people looking for the deeper truths?
I just have some competing emotions about this. Your thoughts?
(these responses need to be in some form of classical Greek minuscule with at least 8 sources. Thank you.)
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4 comments:
This is your way of asking your assistant to do your homework.
Hmmm...classical Greek....how about if I just eat a gyro sandwich as I respond???
I think Jesus demonstrated it best (go figure) when he kept telling stories with real-world application to the time in which he lived.
Even though I'm not in college classes, I completely understand your dilemma. I run in some circles where folks are constantly tearing at the scriptures (not a completely unworthy pursuit, mind you) but never really engaging the deep questions and finding the truths that make real-world differences to real folks. I think the questions are best engaged in situations, not reading rooms...with real live people.... not with exegisis(sp?). And, I think the strategies that we see Jesus using most frequently demonstrate that to us very clearly.
There's my two cents as I finish my imaginary gyro sandwich! ;)
pam
A few things are floating in my head...well, more than a few things, but most aren't relevant to this discussion. ;)
I don't know Greek. I can't say that's a desire I even have. I want to know scripture and I have to interpret it somehow, but I don't want to spend my life reading it. I want to spend my life knowing it and more importantly...living it. And who says that the average lay person can't find those deeper truths without dissecting it like someone with a Doctorate in Theology? I think the world needs both kinds of people. With that being said, I think God uses both kinds of people as well. Peter and Paul come to mind. One was a scholar and the other was not. One was classically trained and the other was not. God used them both in powerful ways. I'm not exactly sure what you're struggling with here, but I do want to say that both types of people have a lot to learn from each other. There is a balance there between the head and the heart.
If I didn't go to college and learn a lot of the things I learned as a Bible Major I would probably have never realized that "freedom in Christ" is actually what Paul meant when he said it. I look at it this way...as I start back to Grad School...the better I know the text for myself, the better I can share it with those I come in contact with and the more I actually own my views and beliefs on scripture.
Keep being a student of the Word. I hope things are going well.
Your old friend Ryan
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