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F
INAL
E
XAM
E
SSAY
Q
UESTIONS
For your Final Exam, you will be required to answer 2 of the following 3 essay questions.
On the exam, the questions will be chosen at random so it is advised to prepare for all 3.
All essay questions must be 400–600 words with a word count included at the end.
1. List the 5 steps of the Interpretive Journey and explain each step in as much
detail as possible. Your essay must contain at least 5 fully-developed
paragraphs.
The interpretive journey is a five step process applied to scriptrue in order to understand
the implications of that text on believers today.
Step 1: Grasping the Text in Their Own Town
This step of the interpretive journey seeks to understand what the text meant to
the original Biblical audience. In this step, it is important to read and re-read the text, and
to analyze and observe all about it that we can. One must make note of the grammar, as
well as any significant words that are used. We also must study the hisorical and literary
contexts so that we can best understand the implcations of the text on the lives of those in
the original Biblical audience.
Step 2: Measuring the Width of the River to Cross
Step two of the journey deals with the differences between the Biblical audience
and us. Today, we are seperated by many, many years, cultural differences, political
differences, societal differences, to name only a few. The differences between us and
them make it difficult, arguably impossible, to simply take the meaning of the text in their
time and move it to our own time. It is important to understand what their lives were like,
versus how ours are in our day and age.
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Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge
This step asks what the theological principle of the text is. What is the meaning or
the lesson within the text? God has put meaning and lessons in His words to us, so for
this step, we discover the intended meaning, as opposed to creating one. Here, we review
the differences between the Biblical audience and them, discover the similarities, and
attempt to identify a broder principle provided by the text.
Step 4: Consult the Biblical Map
In the fourth step, we learn how the theological principle of the text fits in with
the rest of the Bible. Is this principle found elsewhere, and where is it found? Is it
consistent with the rest of scripture?
Step 5: Grasping the Text in Our Town
The last step of the interpretive journey asks how we today should live out the
theological principle. We take all of the information we’ve gathered, from the original
meaning of the text to the Biblical audience, our differences and similarities, and we
grasp all of these things and use them to apply the message of the text to our lives and the
world around us today.
(Word count: 407)
2. What are the differences between inspiration and illumination? Does the
Holy Spirit still “speak” to believers today? How should you respond to
somebody who says that the Holy Spirit “told them” to do something? Your
essay must contain at least 2 fully-developed paragraphs, and you must
support your discussion with Scripture.
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Duvall and Hays define inspiration as “the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of the
human authors of scripture with the results that they wrote what God wanted to
communicate.” Duvall and Hays tell us that theologians use the word “illumination”
to refer to “the ongoing work of the spirit.” So, inspiration was the Holy Spirit
working in the author’s of His Word and is not something that continues today, while
illumination is something that believers still experience today.
Does the Holy Spirit still speak to believers today? The answer is yes, but not in
the ways that many believe He does. For example, the Holy Spirit is often active in
helping us to interpret and understand the intent and meaning of God’s Word. He
works in and through scripture as we read and study to show us the message God
intends. However, He does not and will not create new meaning or divulge new
information; Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and as
Jesus is the Word made flesh, we can infer that the Word does not change and so, the
Holy Spirit does not have anything new to reveal to us.
If someone were to tell me that the Holy Spirit was speaking to them, I would
have a lot of questions to ask. Namely, I would ask what He was saying and if those
things are consistent with scripture. Often times people will hear a little voice in their
head and believe that that is the Holy Spirit communicating with them, while, most
times, it is really just their thoughts, or something within them that seeks to have
scripture mean what they see is best. Typically my response would be to ensure that
what they believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to them is true to God’s Word (if it is
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not, it is certainly not the Holy Spirit), and to make sure that this is not just a person
trying to pass off their own understanding as divine.
3. Discuss the different approaches to translating Old Testament Law. What
observations are made by Duvall & Hays regarding the “covenant context”
of the Law, specifically the Mosaic Covenant? How do these observations
help you to study, apply, and even obey passages contained in the law? Your
essay must contain at least 3 full-developed paragraphs, and be supported
with Scripture when necessary.
Many Christians struggle with the Old Testament, even avoiding it all together,
because of the laws found in it and the difficulty that is is assumed they bring. Those that
do choose to read and study the Old Testament will often chose only to follow and apply
the laws that make sense to them or that they believe are relevant to our time. However,
we know that “all scripture is God breathed,” according to 2 Timothy 3:16. This means
that these laws, even though they seem outdated or difficult, are valuble and necessary to
us.
The traditional approach to the laws of the Old Testament give three distinctions
between the laws; moral, civil, and ceremonial. Moral laws are the laws that speak to
God’s intention for human behavior. Civil laws describe laws that we see in a legal
system. Ceremonial laws are laws that dealt with sacrifices and things dealing with the
office of the priest. Because we are under a new covenant, ceremonial and civil laws do
not apply to believers today. Moral laws, however, are timeless and do still apply.
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There are some observations made by Duvall and Hays about covenant context. The
first is that “The Mosaic covenant is closely associated with Israel’s conquest and
occupation of the land.” This covenant gave the Promised Land to the people of Israel.
The next observation is “The blessings from the Mosaic covenant are conditional.” There
is a consitent warning that accompanies this covenant, that gave notice to the Israelites
that obedience to the covenant would allow for blessing, while disobedience would bring
punishment. The third observation is that “the Mosaic covenant is no longer and
functional covenant.” We are no longer under the Mosaic covenant, but a new covenant.
Fourth, “Old Testament law as part of the Mosaic covenant is no longer applicable to us
as law.” We are under a new covenant, a covenant where Christ has abolished the law.
Lastly, “we must interpret the law through the grid of the New Testament teaching.”
These laws are not the “terms” of our covenant, and are no longer “direct literal law” for
us, either. All of this comes together to show us that, while moral law will stand forever,
as it is timeless, the laws that were contingent upon the Mosaic covenant no longer apply
to us in our day, time, and new covenant.
