Posted: September 18th, 2017

BIBLE- Duvall and Hays Peer Reply posts

Reply to both Discussion boards Kristen Davis and Leandra Gallagher

• Look for areas of common ground or diversity between your comments on the prompts and your peers’ finding(s) and engage each other.
• Connect and comment on areas included or not included in your peers’ posts that you would like to share.

Each reply must be at least 100 words composed in 1 paragraph.

Kirsten Davis

It is important to consider the context of a passage along with the literary genre. The literary genre allows us to understand the passage even though it was written so long ago. Genres are important because they set the stage for what type of content we will be reading. It is the same principle when reading anything else. We would not want to read a historical biography thinking it was a self-help book. With a good understanding of the literary genre we will be able to understand what message the author is trying to convey.

In 1 Corinthians 14:34 it says, “let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says”. At first glance it appears that this verse is telling us that women cannot speak up in church. In order to grasp what the verse is actually trying to say we need to have a good understanding of the literary genre and the context of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians was a letter that Paul wrote to the early church. This specific part of the letter was written to address a group of women being disruptive in the church not to tell us today that women cannot speak in church.

Topical preaching is contextually valid when the context of the passage is already understood (Duvall, 2008). The problem with topical preaching is that the literary context is not usually understood. Instead, the passages are tied together and made to mean whatever is wanted rather than what the verses actually mean. Duvall & Hays describe this as going from “the newspaper to the menu to the poem to the love letter”. We cannot pick and choose what we want from the Bible.

Duvall, J., & Hays, J. (2008). Journey into God’s word: Your guide to understanding and applying the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan.

The Holy Bible: NKJV, New King James version. (2011). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Leandra Gallagher

Duvall and Hayes teach us Observation, Interpretation and Application as part of the literary context.  When reading the bible, you must observe in order to understand the way of life to the original people.  The author describes the environment, cultural and the daily life of the original audience.  Try to interpret how the story applies to the original people discussed in the story.  Look for repeated words because this will clue you in to the importance.  Try to apply the lessons learned from the original people to your own life.

Carefully considering the surrounding context of a passage is the most important aspect to the bible.  Context provides the meaning or purpose of the story in order to grasp the lessons.  If you ignore the literary genre, you will most likely misinterpretation and create confusion of the scripture’s true meaning.  Authors lay the groundwork for the story line explaining the rules of the people, the environment that they live in and even the personal relationships.  If you do not considering the surrounding context of the story, you can miss the entire point of the lesson.

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”  1 Timothy 6:10.  By interpreting, a passage apart from its immediate context is only focusing on a single piece of data while losing perspective of the big overall picture.  An inaccurate understanding of this verse is to believe money is a sin and only leads to wants and desires of more money, but if managed properly money is a reward for hard work.

“Topical preaching is a valid approach to preaching when the various passages are understood in context and the overall message doesn’t violate those individual contexts.”  (Duvall & Hays, pg. 68)  Topical preaching can violate the context of the message when preachers twist the meanings of the verses to fit their sermon topic.  In addition, it is easy for preachers to fall into ruts by cycling through the same topical sermons.  The church I grew up in, the preacher did just that.  My father and the other Deacons approached the pastor about that and the preacher was insulted.  Unfortunately, the preacher did not take to heart that his church wanted to grow and learn.  Most of the congregation found that knowledge and wisdom from other surrounding churches.

References:

1. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Journey into God’s Word: Your Guide to Understanding and Applying the Bible, February 18, 2008

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+6%3A10&version=KJV, King James Version (KJV), 1 Timothy 6:10