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Importance of History and Culture Section 2, pages 67 - 69. Think of one expression or phrase that could easily be misinterpreted by someone from another culture or time. For example: “Surfing the web,” “down-time,” “catching some zzzs .” Share your answer with the class.
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Importance of History and Culture Section 2, pages 67 - 69 • Think of one expression or phrase that could easily be misinterpreted by someone from another culture or time. For example: “Surfing the web,” “down-time,” “catching some zzzs.” • Share your answer with the class.
In the same way, the human authors of the Bible used types of writing and other sources of information that reflected their time. They adapted… • …stories from area cultures and • images from their cultures to • make their points about God. • The more we know about how people wrote, thought, and expressed themselves in biblical times, the better we can understand what they meant. This approach to understanding scripture is the historical-critical approach. (see paragraph 2, p. 67)
The historical-critical approach attempts to see how historical facts and interpretation are combined in any part of the Bible. • The Bible however, includes a number of stories about David too. • What might God want us to learn from these stories? • Read 2 Samuel 6:14-16. The Bible does contain much historical writing. For example a king named David ruled Israel around 1000 B.C.
Even when the authors wrote about historical events, they seemed to mix together… facts, interpretation and popular stories. The Bible contains much that is… historically accurate. By reading it, we learn historical information about people who lived three thousand years ago. But the authors wrapped the history and the messages in many different packages. What is meant by packaging? • At times they combined different events to make one coherent story like in the “Sermon on the Mount.” • Read Matthew Chapter 5
Literary criticism means analyzing writing in terms of the literary form in which it is written. Genre – a type of writing such as history, parable, poetry, sermon. Jonah is eaten by a whale! Yikes! Historical or symbolic? • In the story of Jonah chapters 1 – 4, the author tells a story and then Jonah, the main character prays much like a sermon or teaching. • What truth is God conveying through the biblical author of Jonah?
The Bible uses metaphors, a • figure of speech comparing two things that are unlike but have certain similarities. For example…
“God is the rock of my salvation.” • What might this mean to Christians?
“The Lord is My Shepherd”. Read Psalm 23:1 • What is the symbolism of the shepherd and the sheep?
Parables are short symbolic stories that convey a hidden truth or meaning. • These are found mostly in the New Testament but there are examples in the Old Testament as well.
APOCALYPTIC WRITING. • Book of Revelation uses rich imagery to describe a battle between good and evil, with the promise that even though we are in dark times now, in the end good will prevail. • Can you name any movies or books that use imagery like this?