We might multiply the preceding example many times over, almost denomination by denomination as we identified controlling ideas and corresponding texts, then explored how anomalous texts are reinterpreted and reappropriated accordingly. These pre-modern paradigms, because they largely do not read biblical texts against their original contexts, generate countless different understandings of the Bible's teaching as a whole. They construct their unified meanings with little limitation on how they reinterpret individual texts. And thus individual biblical texts become a unified "Bible."
By contrast, the evangelical paradigm tries to play the game of integrating texts on a more restrictive playing field, namely, that of the original contexts of individual biblical texts. What is important is not so much to fit the words of biblical texts together but suggested principles behind the words. However, I would argue that, like the modernism of which twentieth century evangelicalism was a part, this strategy is not quite reflective enough, even if it is far more reflective than its pre-modern cousin.
Pre-modern interpretation actually creates a very unified meaning from the biblical texts, because the context against which the books are read is singular--it is fairly straightforwardly that of the person or group reading the text. It is as if the pre-modern reader is looking into the text as a mirror for what they already believe. They come to the text with the dictionary of their own mind and unsurprisingly find that the words come to mean exactly what they believe.
In contrast, evangelical interpretation faces a much more daunting task, for it tries to find a unified meaning in the midst of 66 different texts and thus 66 different contexts. It is no surprise that evangelical books on how to study the Bible often read like complex manuals or that Asbury's classic interpretation text is titled Methodical Bible Study. What is ironic is that the end product is still often very diverse--more stable than the pre-modern free for all, but still quite unstable yet.
To illustrate, let's take the issue of faith and works. The pre-modern ground is already well staked out. One of the battle cries of the Reformation was sola fide or "by faith alone." Luther chose a number of controlling texts in Paul's writings, invested those words with a particular meaning, and then proceeded to cope with the naughty verses elsewhere that might seem to conflict. He created a kind of "canon within the canon," where his interpretation of Paul became the most important lens through which to read the other books of the Bible. To this day Protestantism tends to emphasize Paul's writings over the gospels as far as theology is concerned.
The classic "naughty verse" for Luther was of course James 2:24: "a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." This verse was so troublesome to Luther's paradigm that he initially did not even translate James into German, calling it a "right strawy epistle." The same authority he felt to exclude the deuterocanonical books that had been in use by Christians nearly since the beginning of Christendom also initially gave him the boldness to question the authority of James.
On this particular issue, some reflectivity on context actually helps resolve some of the tension between the texts on justification and faith in Paul and this passage in James. To be sure, all the resolution is something we are doing from the outside of the text looking on. The Bible itself, the Bible alone, does not tell us how to fit Paul and James together. James does not say, here's how what I'm saying about justification fits with Paul, and Paul says nothing of this sort either. The glue we use to connect individual teachings in the Bible to one another is not biblical glue--it is theological and rational glue we provide from our interpretive paradigms to create a unified meaning to Scripture, to be able to say "the Bible" says this or that.
The Wesleyan tradition has always had an easier time connecting these texts in Paul and James than some other traditions. In the Lutheran tradition, it is very important that no human effort at all be involved in justification. The very essence of "by grace alone" for the Lutheran is that God forgives with no basis in human action whatsoever. And for the Reformed individual, because God predestines those who will be saved, truly there is no pretext in human action for salvation.
Yet the Wesleyan tradition has always emphasized the importance of what we call holiness after justification. So we have easily suggested that James is giving us the other side to the coin to Paul. True, we get right with God because of his grace, not because of any merit on our part. But if we do not produce fruit, then we will not stay right with God for long.
But what were Paul and James themselves thinking in terms of the original meaning of these texts? Let me now bring us out of the pre-modern discussion, where the focus is on the text without much attention to the underlying context. Indeed, I have been able to discuss faith versus works above with barely one concrete reference to a specific biblical text. My point for the next minute or two is to show 1) just how much uncertainty exists about the original meaning of these texts and 2) just how much thinking and creativity we would really have to exert to create a unified meaning if we follow through with the evangelical path to make the Bible speak to us today. I wish simply to give a glimpse of the kinds of issues we would need to address in a masters or doctoral level discussion of the original meaning of these passages. My point is not to resolve these issues, just to show how complicated the question of meaning quickly becomes.
First, what is the meaning of the following terms in passages like Romans 3, Galatians 2, Ephesians 2, and James 2: justification, salvation, faith, faith of Jesus Christ, works, works of law? What is the timing of salvation and what were the audiences to be saved from. It is the consensus of Pauline scholarship that Paul used salvation language primarily in relation to the future, that we will be saved from God's wrath on the Day of Judgment (e.g., Rom. 5:9). Here is already one distinction between the way most American Christians discuss these texts in contrast to Paul. We use the verb "saved" primarily in the present and past tense; Paul apparently used it most literally in relation to an event that has not yet taken place even for him.
Still again, Ephesians is unusual among Paul's writings in the wording "You have been saved through faith." Paul's writings more typically connect faith with justification rather than salvation, which is then a result of justification that we will experience in the end times (Rom. 10:9). So we begin to see that we must not only integrate Paul with James, but we ourselves must integrate the teaching of Paul's own writings with each other as well. Paul in Romans does not tell us how to connect its teaching to Ephesians, and Ephesians does not tell us how to integrate its wording with Galatians or Romans. These are all tasks we are forced to do. We begin to see the absurdity of claiming that our understanding comes from the Bible alone. Much more is involved.
The plot thickens. When Paul told the Galatians and Romans that they were justified by "faith of Jesus Christ," he used a phrase that can be translated either as "faith in Christ" or as the "faithfulness of Christ." There is no current consensus among original meaning scholars as to which Paul had in mind. American Pauline scholars tend to favor the faithfulness of Christ as what justifies us, with an emphasis on our faith in God and what God has done by raising Jesus from the dead. European scholars--particularly Lutheran ones--have held out longer for the traditional Protestant reading faith in Christ.
There's more. The phrase that Paul uses in Galatians and Romans is not usually just "works" but "works of law." There is no consensus among original meaning scholars as to what exactly this phrase precisely has in mind. A good portion thinks that it refers not to human effort in general but to aspects of the Jewish law that separated Jew and Gentile ethnically, boundary issues like circumcision and food laws. Indeed, many would suggest that we should understand grace in Paul's writings in terms of patron-client relationships in the ancient world, informal relationships between have's and have not's in ancient society. If so, then grace not only could involve action on the client's part, but may have required it for the patron to continue to extend grace.
Scholars would also be divided on whether the language of James 2 is meant deliberately to evoke Paul's writings or arguments. James sure sounds like he is in dialog with some Pauline argument. Paul says Abraham was justified by faith; I say he was justified by works. But works in James are nothing like what they are in Paul. Works for James are concrete good deeds of a largely social nature, helping the poor, widows, the fatherless. Paul never uses the word in this way, with the possible exception of Ephesians. Is James in dialog with Paul or with perverters of Paul?
I'll stop now, but believe me I could go on to worlds unknown. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of doctoral level discussion has taken place over these issues with no clear consensus among those who are supposedly the experts on these topics. So what hope is there for the rest of us? Surely there is another way. My point is the immense controversy and uncertainty surrounding the original meaning of key passages, not to mention the question of how we might integrate them together into a unified teaching so that we can say, "the Bible says this or that." We have seen disagreement among those who are supposed to know the most about the original meaning of every passage. What did the terms faith, works, justification, salvation, faith of Jesus, works of law mean in each individual passage?
And even if we knew the original meaning of each passage, there would be more than one way to integrate them. For example, as Protestants, we have a tendency to treat Paul's texts as the controlling texts. But it would be equally legitimate to make James and Matthew the controlling texts, and consider Paul's texts the less central ones. Someone might suggest that Paul was dealing with a particular juncture in salvation history when it was important to incorporate Gentiles into Christianity without forcing them to be circumcised. We might then treat his writings as more time-bound and the others as more timeless.
Matthew strongly emphasizes the continuity of the Jewish law and the importance of true, concrete righteousness. Its Parable of the Wedding Banquet arguably casts a Gentile Christian into outer darkness for being "dressed" inappropriately. And not all who say "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, even individuals who cast out demons in Jesus' name. Those who did not clothe the naked or feed the hungry are arguably some of those who, even if Christians, will be cast into outer darkness where there is much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. This approach fits well with that of James. I can think of no valid argument a person might make against a group that would view these texts as the controlling texts and Paul's as side discussions dealing with issues particular to his time.
My point in all this discussion is not to argue that we change the way we understand Paul or prioritize the teaching of the New Testament--I personally quite like making my camp in Paul's writings. My point is that we are quite significantly unaware of how we come to think "the Bible says" something or another and that the real reasons for our thoughts involve far more than just the Bible alone. We know intuitively that the Bible is immediately relevant to every individual. We know the bulk of what God is saying to us through its words. But we have argued here that 1) most Christians really don't know how to read the words in context in terms of their original meaning; 2) even those who know how to read the words in terms of the original meaning disagree on what that meaning was and 3) even if we knew the original meaning we would still be able to integrate the individual teachings together in multiple, legitimate ways.
Who will free us from this body of polyvalence? Let me show you a more excellent way...
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