Naturalistic World view, Modern Biblical Interpretation, De-mythologizing the text, higher criticism, Critical Literary Theory, Case study: Sharon Brous," Awakening the Scream", Ikar. Modern Messianic Biblical Interpretation, Case Study: Jonathan Bernis, "The Lost Tribes".

1. Stan Meyer, PhD Sun, April 25, 2021
S620 Messianic Jewish Hermeneutics
Part 5
Contemporary Jewish Interpretation

2. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Historical
Events
Writer
Describes
Audience
Exegete
is
Addressing
Premodern: Meaning is mediated by Authority
Religious
Authority
Meaning
God
Rabbinic authority Oral Tradition Papal Authority

3. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Modern (Reform): Meaning Begins in Text
Meaning
God

4. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Translation
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Audience
Exegete
is
Addressing
Postmodernism: Reader Gives Meaning
Meaning

5. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Historical
Events
Writer
Describes
Modernism (Rationalism): Meaning is in the community & culture behind the text
Meaning
Meaning

6. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Audience
Exegete
is
Addressing
Critical Literary Theory: Expose Oppresser
Understand the Oppressed
Meaning
Evil Powers
Seeking to oppress victims

7. Naturalist Worldview

8. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from
empirical inquiry (observation)

9. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from
empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe
natural law

10. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe natural law
3. Miracles, by definition, are a violation of natural law
https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/43811/hume-on-miracles.htm

11. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable
experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from
the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience
can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable, that all men
must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire
consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless it be, that these
events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and there is required a
violation of these laws, or in other words, a miracle to prevent them?
Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happen in the common course
of nature. (Hume, Sec X, Para. 90)
https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/43811/hume-on-miracles.htm

12. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe natural law
3. Miracles, by definition, are a violation of natural law
4. Therefore, miracles cannot be validated

13. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe natural law
3. Miracles, by definition, are a violation of natural law
4. Therefore, miracles cannot be validated
5. Miracles cannot be a source of knowledge

14. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe natural law
3. Miracles, by definition, are a violation of natural law
4. Therefore, miracles cannot be validated
5. Miracles cannot be a source of knowledge
6. All Religions derive religious knowledge from miracles (Why validate only
Christianity?)

15. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
The many instances of forged miracles, and prophecies, and
supernatural events, which, in all ages, have either been detected by
contrary evidence, or which detect themselves by their absurdity…
This is our natural way of thinking, even with regard to the most
common and most credible events. For instance: There is no kind of
report which rises so easily, and spreads so quickly…as marriages…
The pleasure of telling a piece of news so interesting, of propagating
it…Do not the same passions…incline mankind to believe and report,
with the greatest vehemence and assurance, all religious miracles?
(Hume, Sec X Para 93)

16. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe natural law
3. Miracles, by definition, are a violation of natural law
4. Therefore, miracles cannot be validated
5. Miracles cannot be a source of knowledge
6. All Religions derive religious knowledge from miracles
7. Since miracles cannot be validated, religious knowledge cannot be validated

17. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
It is acknowledged…that the authority, either of the
scripture or of tradition, is founded merely in the
testimony of the apostles, who were eye-witnesses to
those miracles of our Saviour, by which he proved his
divine mission. Our evidence, then, for the truth of the
Christian religion is less than the evidence for the truth
of our senses (Hume, Sec. X. Para 1)
https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/43811/hume-on-miracles.htm

18. Naturalism
Rejection of Miracles
1. All knowledge is derived from empirical inquiry (observation)
2. Empirical inquiry can only observe natural law
3. Miracles, by definition, are a violation of natural law
4. Therefore, miracles cannot be validated
5. Miracles cannot be a source of knowledge
6. All Religions derive religious knowledge from miracles (Why validate only Christianity?)
7. Since miracles cannot be validated, religious knowledge cannot be validated
8. Therefore, Biblical interpretation must disregard miracles and their truth claims

19. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Historical
Events
Writer
Describes
Modernism (Rationalism): Meaning is in the community & culture behind the text
Meaning
Meaning

20. Naturalist Biblical Interpretation

21. 1. Rejection of Miracles
ex. Deutero-Isaiah
I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and
makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their
knowledge foolish…who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of
the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’…who
says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation
shall be laid.’” (Isaiah 44:24–28 ESV)

22. 2. De-Mythologizing the text
Rudolph Bultman (1884 - 1975)

23. The Christian belief that
Christ died, rose again, and
was a God-man originated
in Greek Gnosticism.
Rudolph Bultmann
(Bultmann, 1941, p. 8)
2. De-Mythologizing the text

24. 3. Bifurcation of Knowledge
Religious knowledge v. Empirical knowledge
To the liberal theological, there is a considerable difference
between viewing the Bible primarily through the eyes of faith
and being equally open to a cultural and historical
perspective. Historically, the resurrection of Jesus and the
virgin birth are at best ambiguous…[But] from the perspective
of faith they have quite a different significance.
Miller. Donald. 1981. The Case for Liberal Christianity. Harper & Row. p. 36.

25. 4. Higher Criticism
Determining sources and their communities
Source Criticism - determining the community that
produced the text
Form Criticism - determining the original documents based
on the form of the text

26. 4. Higher Criticism
Determining sources and their communities
1. Documentary Hypothesis

27. 4. Higher Criticism
Documentary Hypothesis
Johann Eichhorn (1780) - Multiple creation accounts
Wilhelm de Wette (1817) - Theorized a Deuteronomist source
Julius Wellhausen (1878) - Documentary hypothesis in his
“History of Israel” Volume 1

28. 4. Higher Criticism
Documentary Hypothesis

29. 4. Higher Criticism
Determining sources and their communities
1. Documentary Hypothesis
2. Synoptic Theory Q

30. 4. Higher Criticism
Synoptic Theory of Q
A Dissertation on the Origin of Our First Three Canonical Gospels
(Marsh, Herbert. 1801)
The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins (Streeter, Burnett, 1924)

31. 4. Higher Criticism
Synoptic Theory of Q

32. 4. Higher Criticism
Determining sources and their communities
1. Documentary Hypothesis
2. Synoptic Theory Q
3. Late dating of John (Christology from Below)

33. 4. Higher Criticism
Determining sources and their communities
“I Am” statements
Descriptions of Jesus’ divine status
Developed understanding of Jesus’ nature
Messianic Secret in Mark

34. Modern Biblical Interpretation
Strengths & Weaknesses

35. Modern Biblical Interpretation
Wellhausen’s Letter of Resignation
I became a theologian because of the scientific treatment of
the Bible interested me; only gradually did I come to
understand that a professor of theology also has the practice
task of preparing students for service in the Protestant
Church. And that I am not adequate to this task. Instead…I
make my hearers uncut for the task.
Oden, Robert. 1987. The Bible Without Theology. University of Illinois Press p 20

36. The DeConversion of Bart Ehrman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5HQzqPjwFw

37. Literary Critical Theory

38. Karl Marx
“The history of all
hitherto existing
society is the history of
class struggles”
(Marx, 1848/1913, p. 5)
1818–1883

39. Frankfurt School
• Hegelian philosophy
• 1920s German Marxism
• German Upheaval
• Frankfurt Ger. (1923-1933)
• Columbian University (1933ff)
(Corradetti, 2016, “Frankfurt School”)

40. Max Horkheimer
• Brought together: Freud, Marx,
literary theory, and philosophy
of education.
• Traditional & Critical Theory
(Horkheimer,1937)
1895—1973

41. Max Horkheimer
Traditional Theory & Critical Theory
Traditional theory:
“is content to describe existing
social institutions more or less as
they are”
Critical theory:
understanding of expose the
system’s false claims to
legitimacy, justice, and truth
(Horkheimer, 1937/1972, p. 188)
1895—1973

42. Critical Theory
Defined
A “critical” theory is a theory of inquiry that seeks to
emancipate from slavery, liberate from oppression, and create
a world which satisfies the needs and self-determination of
human beings. These may be applied to many different
disciplines (ex. Critical literary theory, critical social theory,
critical hermeneutics, critical historical inquiry).
“Critical Theory”. 2005. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/

43. Critical Social Theory
Premises
1. Oppressed v. Oppressor
2. Oppression through hegemonic power
3. First goal is to expose the language of oppression
4. Second goal is to gain knowledge of the oppressed
Shenvi, Neil. 2019. “Critical Theory”. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

44. Critical Social Theory
Areas of Critical Study
1. Feminist critical theory
2. Queer critical theory
3. Eco-criticism
4. Race theory
5. Postcolonial theory
6. Identity theory
Shenvi, Neil. 2019. “Critical Theory”. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

45. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Audience
Exegete
is
Addressing
Critical Literary Theory: Expose Oppresser
Understand the oppressed
Women, homosexuals, slaves, racial minorities, immigrants
Meaning
Evil Powers
Seeking to oppress victims

46. Critical Social Theory
Critical Interpretation
The Bible needs to be liberated from its captivity to one-sided white,
middle-class, male interpretation. It needs liberation from privatized
and spiritualized interpretations that avoid God’s concern for justice,
human wholeness, and ecological responsibility; It needs liberation
from abstract, doctrinal interpretations that remove the biblical
narrative from its concrete social and political context in order to
change it into timeless truths
Russell, Letty. 1974. “Introduction”. Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Westminster Press, p. 12.

47. Critical Social Theory
Feminist Critical Interpretation
In the prefeminist world there was. No conscious awareness
that women’s experience…was relevant to intellectual work. It
was a man’s world. Women were part of the male story. As
women remained invisible this prefeminist consciousness…the
differences were unimportant.
Russell, Letty. 1974. “Feminist Consciousness”. Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. p. 22.

48. Critical interpretation of texts
1. Racial justice - Moses and his Cushite wife (Number 12)
2. Women-minority justice (intersectionality) - Jael the Kenite (Judges 14)
3. Immigrant justice - Oppression of the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21)

49. Critical Reading of Texts

50. Sharon Brous, IKAR in Los Angeles

51. Critical Social Theory
Feminist Critical Interpretation
1. Who is the oppressed and what can we know about her?
2. How is this story told from the oppressor’s perspective?
3. What is not being said about the oppressed?
4. What is the lesson for women today?

52. Modern Messianic Movement

53. Modern Messianic Movement
Metanarrative
1. Yeshua came as the Messiah.
2. Nation of Israel rejected her Messiah
3. Jews were scattered
4. Jews were regathered to their land (1948, 1967)
5. Jews are discovering their Messiah
6. Church is re-discovering Jewish roots
7. Yeshua will return

54. Modern Messianic Movement
Evidences
1. Israel recaptured Jerusalem (1967)
2. Modern Messianic Movement (1973)
3. Church embracing Jewish Roots (1970s to present)
4. Yeshua imminently returning ( ? )

55. Modern Messianic Movement
Evidences
1. Israel recaptured Jerusalem (1967)
2. Modern Messianic Movement (1973)
3. Church embracing Jewish Roots (1970s to present)
4. Yeshua imminently returning ( ? )

56. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t9WFKDJ4WQ