Under Construction

At "How Jesus Interpreted Scripture" Fr. Richard Rohr says,
"Biblical messages often proceed from historical incidents, but the actual message does not depend upon communicating those events with perfect factual accuracy. Any good writer knows that! Spiritual writers are not primarily journalists. Hebrew rabbis and scholars sometimes used an approach called midrash in which they reflected on a story to communicate all of its underlying message. Scripture can be understood on at least four levels: literal meaning, deep meaning, comparative meaning, and hidden meaning. Midrash allowed and encouraged each listener to grow with a text and not to settle for mere literalism, which of itself bears very little spiritual fruit. Some Christians do the same today with mature, reflective reading of Scripture (lectio divina), but Jesus and ancient Jewish teachers were much more honest and up front about this.

Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver. This was drilled into me during my seminary education.
There is no one right way to interpret sacred texts.

Jesus was not a fundamentalist or literalist.
Jesus consistently ignored or even denied exclusionary, punitive, and triumphalistic texts in his own inspired Hebrew Bible in favor of passages that emphasized inclusion, mercy, and honesty.

When Christians pretend that every line in the Bible is of equal importance and inspiration, they are being very unlike Jesus. "


Bruce M. Metzger (Princeton Theological Seminary). . . remains the dean of New Testament textual criticism.
His books are used in most seminaries to teach how the current versions of the Bible evolved.
They discuss the effects that social and ideological influences had upon the work of scribes.
See Inerrancy and Authority of the Bible
The text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, 4th edition 2005 Professor Bruce M. Metzger (Princeton Theological Seminary). . Brings the discussion of such important matters as the early Greek manuscripts and methods of textual criticism up to date, integrating recent research findings and approaches into the body of the text.

Links:
How Jesus Interpreted Scripture - Center for Action and Contemplation
The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions, 2001, Bruce M. Metzger Interpreting Scripture - Center for Action and Contemplation - Richard Rohr
Inerrancy and Authority of the Bible
Biblical hermeneutics - The study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. - Wikipedia

last updated 15 Jan 2016