"The revelation that Israel received typically concerned the nature and acts of God, the condition of humanity, and the relationship between God and the people that he had created. This revelation, penetrating and reformational as it was, did not change other aspects of Israel’s worldview... "God left unchanged much of the way Israel learned about the shape of their world. He offered no new information about geography, astronomy, physics, physiology, medicine, or biology. In short, he left Israel operating and thinking in terms of Old World, premodern science. They did not know that there was more than one continent, that people think with their brains, that illness is caused by bacteria, or that a spherical earth rotates and revolves around a spherical sun. "The truth of God’s revelation of himself did not depend on changing those concepts. Furthermore, God worked within Israel’s concepts (shared with her neighbors) of how time and history worked, of the corporate solidarity that was shared by groups in community, of the social structures relating to tribal and monarchic governments, and of how what was sacred should be protected and respected. "Theologically, these may well be understood within the framework of creation, fall, and providence, but our concern here is to track the impact that these correlations might have on the interpretation of various aspects of the biblical text. In addition, God’s communication used the established literary genres of the ancient world and often conformed to the rules that existed within those genres. All of these issues are critical to the proper interpretation of the text and require comparative studies to clarify them." Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Craig G. Bartholomew, et al., eds., Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (London; Grand Rapids, MI: SPCK; Baker Academic, 2005), 41.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 11:04:48 +0000
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