On Building On The Shoulders of Others—The Calculator Illustration

(This is excerpted from my Appendix G from Having A Ministry That
Lasts—which gives my overall hermeneutical approach to the
Scriptures.) Click here if you want that Appendix,  Appendix G

    The Bible is unique. It is God’s Word to humans in human
language. One could expect that both spiritual and language
principles are necessary to give guidance in interpreting it. I
have suggested only three Spiritual principles. These are based
on the nature of the Bible and what I understand of the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit’s ministry. Does it then follow that a spiritual
person following these spiritual principles will necessarily arrive
at correct interpretation? No. There are the language principles
that must be applied as well.    But suppose the contrary. Suppose
you have an expert in the use of language principles but one who
is not a believer and does not follow the spiritual principles at all.
Will that person arrive at correct interpretation? Again the general
answer is no. Both spiritual principles and language principles must
jointly be applied to this unique book.    

I often use the calculator illustration with my leadership Bible
classes. In those classes I am stressing what the Bible says about
leadership and what it means for a person to become a Bible
centered leader. Here is how it works. After having introduced them
to the interpretive principles and how important they are, I then tell
them I am going to take about 30 minutes to do an illustration,
which basically teaches one point.  I am taking this amount of time
because of how important the point is.

I start with a question:

   When do you use the calculator and when do you
   do it by hand?

    With no context they don’t have a clue about what I mean. (But
I definitely have  their attention!)

    With no further explanation I then have them take out a blank
sheet of paper and  proceed to teach them how to take a square
root by hand—using Newton’s method. It is a laborious procedure
based on a trial and error method which involves guessing, trying,
and trying again. I take a relatively small number, say  like 29,
and get the square root. Well, the class is generally really confused
as I demonstrate it before their eyes. A few math majors follow it.

    Then I give them a number like 989 and tell them to try to find
the square  root. I let them flounder around a bit then I stop them
and take out my hand calculator (solar cells and all). And I show
them the square root button. I enter the 989 and hit the square
root button and behold—31.44837.

    I then go on to explain that any Bible centered leader should be
able to hand  calculate a given Core Book (and other Core Materials
as well) in the Bible. And further, they should do some from scratch
so that they can understand what is involved and appreciate it
and —this is most important—so they can evaluate the expert
commentators’ interpretations. But they should feel free to use the
calculator whenever they feel like it. That is, they should freely use
what God has given to the body through experts (Building On
The Shoulder of Others). In other words they should use the
outside helps in their studies freely. Some have been told that
they ought always to study the Bible for themselves before going
to commentaries or outside helps. I am suggesting that they need
to do both but to use the method  that is most appropriate for any
given Core Book or portion of it.    

You will usually find very few  interpreters who analyze any given
book in terms of the Bible as a whole (principle 1). And too you
will find few who analyze the theme of a book as a whole in
terms of a subject and major ideas and how the major structure
contributes to the development of it (principles 3 and
4). You will usually find many who will give the basic overall
structure of the  book (outlines—which may help in principle 3).
You will find quite a few who will give lots of information on
historical background and all kinds of cultural insights (principle 2).
You will find some who actually analyze the flow of contextual
thought through a book (principle 5). And you will find many who
actually analyze grammatically or syntactically the smaller units
(principle 6). And you will find good help on the study of words
within given small contexts (principle 7). So my advice
is remember what you are about: becoming a Bible Centered
leader whose leadership is informed by the Bible, who has been
shaped personallyby biblical values, has grasped the intent of
Scriptural books and content so as to apply them to current
situations and who uses the Bible in ministry so as to impact
follower. Don’t get  sidetracked. Original study can be good.
But not all have to do it and certainly not all the time. Use
the calculator (building on the shoulders of others) where it
helps you more effectively move toward your goal of becoming
a Bible centered leader. Do it by hand, where doing it by hand
is going to help you better become a Bible centered leader.
Both are good and necessary and you should be free to go to
either method at any time in the study of any of your core
material.    

Probably the greatest  mishandling of the Word comes because
people analyze smaller units within a book without regard to
why those units are in the book as a whole. They interpret
these smaller units without regard to what they are
contributing to the book as a whole. They perhaps see
something in a given unit that can have meaning in a
contemporary context and want to use it. But each unit in
a book contributes something to the flow of ideas in the
book. They should never be interpreted apart from that flow
and their  intended contribution. If the intended contribution
is different from what the communicator wants to use, they,
then, usually, wrongly mishandle the text or are at least in
danger of mishandling it.

    I have studied each book of the Bible both in terms of
principle 1 Book and Books and for Principles 2, 3 and 4.
Because the ability to synthesize wholes and reduce them
to themes and accompanying structures are skills that take
time to learn I recommend that you try to do a few small
Core Books by hand so you can see the difficulty involved.
Then I suggest that you go ahead and start with my analysis
of theme and structure for a given book. I have included
my studies of each book in the Bible in terms of
principles 1, 3, 4 and some of principle 2 in a book
entitled The Bible and Leadership Values.

      Use the calculator!!! Then

modify and adapt them as you do your own study. I don’t
claim that these are the  final accurate results of applying
these important principles. But they are a good starting
point. And your own study can confirm or change them.
There will always be plenty of doing it by hand for lots
of the principles because you will not be able
to find expert analysis on many of the principles.

     Up to this point I have not said anything about the
special language principles. But like all language there
are special forms in the Bible that are used to
communicate uniquely in order to emphasize. Of these
special language forms only Bible types are unique and
do not appear in other secular language. Hebrew poetry
is rather unique in its forms but poetry in general occurs
in all languages (albeit with different forms, meanings,
etc.). All the rest of the special forms—Idioms, figures,
parables, symbols, and prophecy—all occur in other
language. So you may be familiar with them. Of course,
there will be unique idioms and figures in every
language. Such is the case in the Bible. You will have
to learn them from scratch. I will define these special
forms in this appendix and give some of the study
materials that I have developed as well as resources
you can go to for help. You can study them on your
own as you have need of them in your given Core
Materials.

   Well, there, you have it—My Basic Approach To
Doing Personal Study and

BUILDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF OTHERS.