SPECTRUM MULTIVIEW BOOKS Biblical Hermeneutics Five vieWs eDiTeD BY Stanley E. Porter & Beth M. Stovell WiTH conTriBuTions BY Craig L. Blomberg, Richard B. Gaffin Jr., F. Scott Spencer, Robert W. Wall & Merold Westphal Copyrighted Material - www.ivpress.com/permissions Hermen5Views.indb 3 2/16/12 12:56 PM InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected] ©2012 by Stanley E. Porter and Beth M. Stovell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>. Cover design: Cindy Kiple Images: Christ with the Doctors in the Temple by Paolo Caliari Veronese at Prado, Madrid, Spain. Alinari / The Bridgeman Art Library. Interior design: Beth Hagenberg ISBN 978-0-8308-3963-6 Printed in the United States of America ∞ InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting the environment and to the responsible use of natural resources. As a member of Green Press Initiative we use recycled paper whenever possible. To learn more about the Green Press Initiative, visit <www.greenpressinitiative.org>. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data P 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Y 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 3 2 Copyrighted Material - www.ivpress.com/permissions Hermen5Views.indb 4 2/16/12 12:56 PM Contents Preface Introduction: Trajectories in Biblical Hermeneutics Stanley E. Porter and Beth M. Stovell PART ONE: FIVE VIEWS OF BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS 1. THE HISTORICAL-CRITICAL/GRAMMATICAL VIEW Craig L. Blomberg 2. THE LITERARY/POSTMODERN VIEW F. Scott Spencer 3. THE PHILOSOPHICAL/THEOLOGICAL VIEW Merold Westphal 4. THE REDEMPTIVE-HISTORICAL VIEW Richard B. Gaffin Jr. 5. THE CANONICAL VIEW Robert W. Wall PARTTWO: RESPONSES 6. THE HISTORICAL-CRITICAL/GRAMMATICAL RESPONSE Craig L. Blomberg 7. THE LITERARY/POSTMODERN RESPONSE F. Scott Spencer 8. THE PHILOSOPHICAL/ THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE Merold Westphal Copyrighted Material - www.ivpress.com/permissions Hermen5Views.indb 5 2/16/12 12:56 PM 9. THE REDEMPTIVE-HISTORICAL RESPONSE Richard B. Gaffin Jr. 10. THE CANONICAL RESPONSE Robert W. Wall Interpreting Together: Synthesizing Five Views of Biblical Herme- neutics Stanley E. Porter and Beth M. Stovell List of Contributors Author Index Scripture Index Copyrighted Material - www.ivpress.com/permissions Hermen5Views.indb 6 2/16/12 12:56 PM Introduction Trajectories in Biblical Hermeneutics Stanley E. Porter and Beth M. Stovell The issue of interpreting the Bible has a long history and vast complexity,1 even if the term hermeneutics, which is often used in conjunction with biblical interpretation, is of more recent vintage.2 Students and scholars alike struggle to differentiate between the meaning of terms like biblical exe- gesis, interpretation and hermeneutics.3 This very tension in defining the con- cepts of biblical interpretation, hermeneutics and exegesis leads to one of the major questions influencing the debates in this book, which in turn justifies its creation. Anthony Thiselton, one of the leading figures in biblical herme- neutics, especially in evangelical circles, provides a helpful distinction among these important terms. Whereas exegesis and interpretation denote the actual processes of interpret- ing texts, hermeneutics also includes the second-order discipline of asking 1For major histories of Old Testament and New Testament interpretation, see Henning Graf Re- ventlow, History of Biblical Interpretation, 4 vols., trans. Leo G. Perdue and James O. Duke (At- lanta: SBL, 2009–2010); William Baird, History of New Testament Research, 2 vols. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992–), with the third volume for the period after Bultmann still forthcoming. 2Recent treatments of hermeneutics with a focus on the Bible include Anthony C. Thiselton, Hermeneutics: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009); Petr Pokorny, Hermeneutics as a Theory of Understanding, trans. Anna Bryson Gustová (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010); Stanley E. Porter and Jason C. Robinson, Hermeneutics: An Introduction to Interpretive Theory (Grand Rap- ids: Eerdmans, 2011). 3Some scholars use interpretation and hermeneutics interchangeably (see W. Randolph Tate, Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach, 3rd ed. [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2008], p. 1), while others differentiate between exegesis, interpretation and hermeneutics (see Merold Westphal, Whose Community? Which Interpretation? Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009], esp. “Hermeneutics 101,” pp. 17-26). Copyrighted Material - www.ivpress.com/permissions Hermen5Views.indb 9 2/16/12 12:56 PM 10 B!"#!$%# H&'(&)&*+!$,: F!-& V!&., critically what exactly we are doing when we read, understand, or apply texts. Hermeneutics explores the conditions and criteria that operate to try to ensure responsible, valid, fruitful, or appropriate interpretation.4 This book thus focuses on the question of what hermeneutics is spe- cifically as it applies to biblical interpretation. While other books have addressed this issue in the past, this book uses a new format to address the question of biblical hermeneutics. One can broadly classify most books on the topics of biblical hermeneutics or biblical interpretation according to two major types.5 The first type of book presents students with step-by- step instructions on how one should interpret the biblical text; in other words, hermeneutics is an exegetical procedure.6 These books may provide some explanation of the variety of methods available, but their goal is pri- marily the practical application of a specific method as a tool for biblical interpretation. A second type of book provides an introduction to the va- riety of different methods of biblical interpretation. These books may move historically through the various methods, or they may discuss the strategies, goals and outcomes of these methods in synchronic perspective. In either case the authors of these books frequently display (whether inten- tionally or unintentionally) their own preference through their presenta- tions of the various views, or sometimes they present the range of positions 4Thiselton, Hermeneutics, p. 4. 5For a more detailed overview of the issues, see Stanley E. Porter, “What Difference Does Hermeneutics Make? Hermeneutical Theory Applied,” Jian Dao 34/Pastoral Journal 27 (2010): 1-50, esp. 13-21. 6Examples include Otto Kaiser and Werner G. Kümmel, Exegetical Method: A Student Hand- book, trans. E. V. N. Goetschius and M. J. O’Connell (New York: Seabury, 1981); John H. Hayes and Carl R. Holladay, Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner’s Handbook, 3rd ed. (Atlanta: John Knox, 2007); Tate, Biblical Interpretation; Gordon D. Fee, New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors, rev. ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993); Douglas Stuart, Old Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors, 3rd ed.; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001); Werner Stenger, Introduction to New Testament Exegesis, trans. Douglas W. Stott (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993); Scot McKnight, ed., Introducing New Testament In- terpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989; Craig C. Boyles, ed., Interpreting the Old Testament: A Guide for Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001); Mary H. Schertz and Perry B. Yoder, Seeing the Text: Exegesis for Students of Greek and Hebrew (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001); Richard J. Erickson, A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Exegesis: Taking the Fear out of Critical Method (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005); Darrell L. Bock and Buist M. Fan- ning, eds., Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2006); Craig L. Blomberg with Jennifer Foutz Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010). Copyrighted Material - www.ivpress.com/permissions Hermen5Views.indb 10 2/16/12 12:56 PM Introduction 11 in a historical fashion rather than directly engaging the debate.7 Both types of book tend to overlook the larger hermeneutical issues involved in biblical interpretation and often do not do justice to the diverse range of opinions in biblical hermeneutics. In other words, they fail to raise and address questions regarding the nature of interpretation itself: what it in- volves, what its presuppositions and criteria are, what its foundations need to be, and how it affects the practice of interpretation and its results. We are not saying that there are no books on biblical hermeneutics that present hermeneutics as hermeneutics,8 only that it is difficult to capture the di- versity of the discipline from a vantage point that focuses on procedure, history, or even the perspective of a single viewpoint or author. This book represents a new way of presenting several of the major views within biblical hermeneutics. Rather than introducing the individual her- meneutical approaches in survey fashion or providing a step-by-step in- struction