TRANSCRIPT – Dr. Chad Thornhill
There's a sense in which we can affirm that all theology is exegesis all theology is exegesis and
what do we mean by that when we talk about Christian theology Christian theology is rooted
necessarily in Scripture we might say that Scripture Norm's our theology it gives us the the
pattern or the parameters by which we can speak well and speak truly and speak rightly of God
and when it comes to theological thinking one of the challenges that we have is that we're not
simply projecting our preexisting believes on to scripture when we talk about Exegesis we're
drawing out to Exodus to draw out the meaning of scripture so that scripture forms our
theological thinking another way to think about this is when we're doing Exegesis worse we're
seeking to understand scripture and that's different than over standing scripture to give you sort
of a visual imagery of this when we understand scripture we stand under it we submit to the truth
and the authority of the Word of God versus over standing when we project our own ideas onto
the text of Scripture and the question that arises in doing the task of theology which is a lifelong
task by the way we never quite arrive we're always striving to know better our God is how do we
avoid over standing verses understanding how do we read scripture in such a way that we're not
simply projecting our existing beliefs onto it but that we're submitting to the truth we find inside
of it. And I think. One of the most beneficial things for us to think about are the contexts of
scripture OK And notice that I made that plural the contexts of Scripture that scripture actually is
Can textual as it comes to us in different cultural situations different historical time periods there
are different social dynamics that we find there are different parts of the story that we might find
ourselves in as we read scripture and to think about some of those contexts I think can enrich but
also gives us parameters it helps to constrain our exit Jesus so that were arriving at truth and not
simply reading our own beliefs on to what we find so what are some of the contexts of Scripture
that are important for us to consider there's obviously the historical context the who what when
and where when was this written what was going on in the world around the text so for Isaiah
that means something different then for Deuteronomy and then for Joshua and then for the
Gospel of Matthew then for Romans these all find themselves find themselves in slightly
different historical context there were different things going on around the world of the author
when these books were written we also have a cultural context that we find associated with every
book of scripture and we ask about the cultural context we're considering what were the customs
and values of the world around the authors of Scripture and in the Greco-Roman world which is
largely the cultural context of the New Testament there are some slightly different values and
customs than we find in the Old Testament in the Ancient Near Eastern world and the Old
Testament of course occurs over quite an extensive period of time and so as we're considering the
cultural context we're looking at what customs were unique to that time period and this isn't.
Porton because this can eliminate the different issues that the authors of Scripture are addressing
For instance when we come to the question of head coverings in First Corinthians when Paul is
addressing that issue there is a cultural context too to why Paul is bringing that up or food
sacrificed to idols which he also addresses in that letter there's a cultural context which when we
better understand those customs and values around Paul at the time that he's writing we can
better understand why and what Paul is addressing There's also the social context we have
different layers of social interaction that we find in the biblical books of returning to Paul again
for example in almost every letter he writes he's addressing this this tension that existed between
Jews and Gentiles in the ancient world and as we read literature around the New Testament we
find that often they didn't get along very well so there's the social dynamic that already existed as
Gentiles are being brought into the family of God in Christ that now there's there's a family
dynamic that exists in the church that Paul has to deal with has to address how do these two
groups that have been at odds with each other actually get along now as the people of God. Then
we have the literary context what kind of literature are we looking at is this a poem is this a story
is this a parable is this a song is this a creed and different kinds of literature demands that we
read it in different ways we have also what we might call the canonical context of Scripture how
does each book fit together with the other books and sometimes the authors themselves draw
conversations together between different books of scripture the Gospel of Matthew and the
Gospel of Luke. For example frequently call on Isaiah and Genesis and Deuteronomy and they're
referencing those materials those books from the Old Testament and we have to examine what's
the relationship dynamic going on between these and then finally we would think about the
narrative context of Scripture that Scripture has a big story that it's telling that it actually all fits
together somehow from Genesis to Revelation that there's an overarching story that begins with
creation that proceeds through the fall and then God calls Abraham and has a plan a purpose for
his relationship with Israel in all of that informs for us what we see Jesus doing in the New
Testament and what we see the early church being focused on in terms of the mission that God
has called them to so we have lots of different contexts social cultural historical literary
canonical and narrative that help to constrain the work of theology that when we understand the
world and the customs around the Biblical text we can actually better understand the message of
the text itself and all of that is essential for the task of theology because in theology we're
seeking to love God with our minds as well as with our hearts and to love others and we find in
scripture patterns of how we do that but to best understand what that looks like we need to
understand the message in its original context the intent of the author and by understanding their
situation we can better understand scripture stand under it allow scripture to inform how we live
and how we minister.
