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i'd like to do two things
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in this brief reflection over the next
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20 minutes
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half an hour i want to touch on the
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hermeneutical problem or the
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interpretation problem
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of the bible what often divides people
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of good faith
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is they will hold high the important
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centrality authority of the bible
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but they differ on the interpretation of
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the bible or the hermeneutical
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problem the hermeneutic just comes from
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hermes the greek
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god who delivered the message of zeus to
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the citizens
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of the time and so the hermeneutical
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problem
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is people can agree on the authority of
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the text where the great disagreements
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occur theologically exegetically
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denominationally on
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how we interpret the old the apocrypha
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the new testament
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and the christian tradition throughout
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its 2000 year old history has grappled
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with this second part i want to apply
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that
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to a couple of the early chapters in the
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book of john because in many ways
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saint john put in place a very
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sophisticated hermeneutic that
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anticipated the
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alexandrian tradition of christianity
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that we find in pentinus
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clement and origin at the most mature
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in that sense but first first the
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hermeneutical dilemma because
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if we don't understand layered ways of
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reading
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the text then inevitably
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people collide and how that's to be done
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just one thing to note before i move in
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this direction
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if someone wanted to be a pilot you
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expect that you'll
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take training you'll sit in the cockpit
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you'll understand
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um the laws of physics and flights uh
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and as you go through that course you
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become a pilot if a person wants to be a
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doctor
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then there's certain training if a
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person wants to be a dentist so there's
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certain training that
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is expected wants to be an electrician
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or a certain training a plumber
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we live in a period of time sadly so in
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which people
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think they can just turn to the bible
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and interpret it any way they want with
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no
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training whatsoever and as a result we
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live in the chaos of all sorts of
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bizarre
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sunday school interpretations
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reactionary interpretations
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they're absolutely inadequate in terms
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of understanding how the history of the
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church
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has interpreted the text in a thoughtful
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way
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and so proper training in interpreting
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the bible is
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foundational two texts which are
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probably important in terms of the
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church tradition one and all should know
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so that their approach to the bible is
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not just sunday schoolish
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in that sense or elementary or rather
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infantile or immature
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is augustine's work on christian
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doctrine on the one hand we
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hear the word doctrine but it's not very
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much for augustine it was about
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how one interprets the text and the six
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levels of interpretation
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of the text and then by the 16th century
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august or
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grasmus's work which draws on augustine
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consciously so
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it's uh it's reflections on how you do
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a true theology but what erasmus is
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talking about is
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theology to him is exegesis and in this
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particular
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missive or it's actually a larger text
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that was a part of his 1519 edition of
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the
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new testament which became a book in and
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of itself
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he lays down the means the structure the
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method by which thoughtful mature
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interpretation takes place and so if
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anyone is interested in a
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meaningful sense in terms of biblical
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interpretation
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augustines on christian doctrine erasmus
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reflections on
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an untrue interpretation are really
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standard texts anyone should read before
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they even get to the bible but often
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what happens
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people do end runs on the mature
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thinkers of the faith like augustine
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erasmus needless to say there are many
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others
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and they just come to the text as if
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somehow they're not bringing their own
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conditioning socialization
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denominational background
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rather than being instructed educated
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and formed
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by the mothers and the fathers of the
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church itself
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and so when we think of hermeneutics or
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interpretation there is a history
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in terms of which the church has given
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to us as a gift by which when we
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approach the
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text we interpret it in a thoughtful
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meaningful way
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i might add there are six levels in
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which the church has always interpreted
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the bible one is the literal the
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linguistic
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the historical grammatical and then
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there's the
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the the typological or the allegorical
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or christological
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then there's the tropological or the
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moral or the existential
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then there's the anagogical by which a
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person looks at where this is all going
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in terms of the end of the t
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loss there's the ecclesial and then
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there's the mystical
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element so that six levels of
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interpretation by which most
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texts if understood properly can be
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interpreted and applied
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in a meaningful sense and so the church
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has given us this
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layered approach now what's happened
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sadly so as we've moved from the
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reformation forward as the church wanted
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to be as empirical and factual as
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certain forms of science
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then the literal grammatical historical
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approach came to win
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and dominate and subordinate other forms
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of interpretation so for example
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two interpreters of the book of john
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today the roman catholic raymond brown
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is considered one of the most
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significant catholic interpreters and
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readers of john
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he's going to give a certain read but
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coming from this tradition
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the literal grammatical historical and
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nt right
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coming from an anglican evangelical
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reform tradition
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his work on john even though they differ
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on how it is approached in a literal
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grammatical
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historic way they both share those
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premises of that's the way to approach
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the text
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now the reaction often to that
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particular approach
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is well let's swing over to the mythical
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approach
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the allegorical approach so one of the
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leading journalists
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religious journalists in canada tom
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harper did the pagan christ and he
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turns vociferously against the literal
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grammatic historical
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and he wants to just do the mythical he
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just sees jesus as one great mythical
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savior messianic figure within the
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tradition of egyptian
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history classical greek thing and so
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jesus is
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he just fits into that osiris dionysius
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horus
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tradition and that's the mythical
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overreacting and
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um silencing the literal grammatical
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historical
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a better interpreter of the mythical
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candidate of course would be the great
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canadian literary critic northrop frye
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who never rejected the literal
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grammatical historical but he also saw
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the mythical approach and its perennial
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significance in terms of how we
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interpret
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things i might add someone like jordan
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peterson today is certainly not the same
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level of a north fry
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in terms of that mythical approach but
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he also
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is also not going to buy into the
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literal grammatical historical
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attendances
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and so there is this hermeneutic dilemma
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which has developed over the last 500
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years in which some very much
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posit themselves in the linguistic
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historical
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grammatical tradition there's others
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will swing to the opposite extreme like
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tom harper and as i said the pagan
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christ or
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water into wine there are those like
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north frye
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and jordan peterson who's very popular
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they're much more concerned with the
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mythical it's existential relevance to
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each person's journey
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and so the best way if we turn as i
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mentioned earlier to an augustine
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or an erasmus it's not either or it's
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how each both reveal
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and conceal and each layer will reveal
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things to us on our journey but it will
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conceal elements
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and so the higher up you get you get
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unconcealing
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which is hidden if i can use two
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analogies which often the church will
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use
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is a a nut or something an acorn
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has a hard exterior but inside when you
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break that you get to the kernel within
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and so just the literal grammatical in
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that sense
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is the hard exterior you crack that you
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get into the meaning of the text for
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each of us
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on our all-too-human journey or the rind
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of an orange
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the rind of an orange protects the
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sweetness of the
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orange but as you peel back the literal
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you get into the sweetness and the
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tastiness for the soul
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on our all-too-human journey and so the
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these uh metaphors which have been used
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by the historic
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church in terms of the spiritual
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interpretation and the literal
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interpretation are very
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essential my wife at the present time is
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going through a lot of ephraim
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assyria's works and he makes a very
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clear distinctions between the literal
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its significance its place but the
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spiritual
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uh is about the significance of the text
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for people's self-understanding
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uh in terms of their journey the same
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with same with isaac
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isaac of nineveh and so within the
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within the syrian tradition within the
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western tradition within the eastern
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tradition
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there there is a historic convergence in
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terms of ways
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of which the text can be interpreted
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that does not
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deny the historic but it also speaks to
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people
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in terms of metaphors of transformation
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self-understanding and deification
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itself and so we need not react now i
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would like to move to look at how john
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a fourth book of the gospel applies this
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in many ways john anticipates in his
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layered exegesis what is going to go on
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in the alexandrian tradition of
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christianity
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of which clement and origen were very
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much a part and john was a contemporary
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philo of alexandria the great jewish
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exegete
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who looked at laird ways of reading the
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the hebrew canon or old testament
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and its significance existentially for
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each person
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on their journey so what i'll do is i'll
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start just to touch on
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the initial parts of the initial
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prologue of john then move into
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john 2 in the wedding of cana of galilee
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and then the cleansing of the temple
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so first of all often john 1 is
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interpreted
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in an establishment sentences in the
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beginning was the word the word was with
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god
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now the two words here are used as
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anarchy
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in in greek or it's translated often is
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beginning but arche comes from the greek
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archons
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the archons in the city-states of
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increase were the protectors they were
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the guardians
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that kept the city safe and secure and
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so we can also translate
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in beginning is at the ground of all
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things of the guardians of the
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protectors
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of all things was often as translated
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was the word now logos which is the
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greek term here
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has often been translated as word or
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sermon or discourse or rational
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principle
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logos from the pre-socratic era from
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heracles parmenides
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t.s eliot picks up on this also in his
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fine work of poetry the four quartets
00:11:02
is that logos can mean presence
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the presence of that which is and so
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logos need not be interpreted
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as word rational principle sermon
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reflection
00:11:14
on ideas can be the the presence of that
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which is or the i
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am in the hebrew sense so if we were to
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look at
00:11:21
even those first few lines of what john
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is getting at and look at an
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alternate uh interpretation it could be
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at the ground
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of all things the guardian of all things
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is the presence
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of that which is and so uh this
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this takes us in a little different
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direction in terms of the eminence
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of god being active in guarding and
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protecting
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all things and so how is christ
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really pre-incarnation present in in
00:11:50
that process in humanity
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um you'll also as you move along in this
00:11:56
look at how the darkness and the light
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um engage the greek word here there's
00:12:00
two great words for
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uh overcoming in this case in which the
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the the light sees through or overcomes
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darkness
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the greek word here is is a cognitive
00:12:12
understanding of what
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what darkness can do how it can blind
00:12:15
people to insight to wisdom
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how to live meaningfully but it's a
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little weaker on the will and we all
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know a person would be aware of things
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they have to overcome but is the will
00:12:25
that does the overcoming there's another
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word later that
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john will pick up and uh revelation uses
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even more we get a word nike comes from
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that nikah
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it's the will and the mind coming
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together uh to overcome darkness or
00:12:38
shadows as in plato's cave
00:12:40
in that sense but let me just move on to
00:12:44
john 2 in particular the the
00:12:47
the wedding at cana of galilee and see
00:12:49
what john is doing with this in his lair
00:12:52
decks of jesus
00:12:53
so the wedding at cana starts on the
00:12:55
third third day
00:12:56
well why would john sir third what's the
00:12:58
significance the third well
00:13:00
three is obviously uh within the
00:13:02
christian tradition
00:13:03
both the the myth of death resurrection
00:13:06
and dying and so john is alerting us
00:13:08
right away
00:13:09
to the fact that he's taking us into a
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story
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in which we must die to that which we
00:13:15
are not we must let go to that which we
00:13:17
are not
00:13:18
so we may resurrect into our new being
00:13:21
what is the nature of that new being
00:13:23
while we're into the nature of the
00:13:25
wedding
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at cana of galilee and that's now
00:13:29
the whole notion of wedding and marriage
00:13:32
raises the question in terms of human
00:13:34
identity where do we turn to for meaning
00:13:36
because inevitably people will
00:13:38
people marry as other people or other
00:13:40
things for the purpose of
00:13:42
happiness meaning fulfillment and so
00:13:45
the question of marriage raises the
00:13:47
question metaphorically not just
00:13:49
literally because literally there is the
00:13:50
wedding of tina
00:13:52
but what are we married to for meaning
00:13:54
where do we tuned her for hope what are
00:13:55
the issues that people
00:13:57
become wed to become united to their
00:13:59
desires their longing their purpose
00:14:01
turns to for meaning because marriage is
00:14:03
about
00:14:04
directing desires shaping longings
00:14:08
ordering desires more orders as
00:14:11
as augustine say towards meaning so that
00:14:14
lesser desires are subordinated to
00:14:16
higher
00:14:16
higher desires in that sense so three
00:14:20
death resurrection dying to lower
00:14:22
desires
00:14:23
rising to higher desires through that
00:14:25
which we are united with mystically
00:14:27
and so marriage is of course the great
00:14:29
metaphor wedding that you get
00:14:30
in what john is articulating origen will
00:14:32
pick up this in the song of songs
00:14:35
there's a whole history of mystical
00:14:36
theology that bernard clairvous of
00:14:38
course will celebrate
00:14:40
gregory nisa will celebrate any of these
00:14:42
great theologians
00:14:43
of the nature of our highest longings
00:14:45
toward turning towards the ultimate
00:14:47
rather than being taken captive by
00:14:49
penultimate
00:14:50
or anti-penultimate issues so you get
00:14:52
marriage as a metaphor the third day
00:14:55
what do we die to to resurrect into the
00:14:57
mystical union not only with god but
00:14:59
with one another which is what the
00:15:01
church is all about and of course the
00:15:02
marriage
00:15:03
metaphors very very much as the great
00:15:05
exegetes that the church would use in
00:15:07
song of songs the marriage of the soul
00:15:09
to christ or the church to god and so
00:15:12
picking up the song of songs
00:15:14
cana of galilee we're dealing with not
00:15:17
just a literal interpretation
00:15:19
in that sense of which cane of galilee
00:15:22
is a historic
00:15:22
literal reality but it's also
00:15:26
it's also very much a typological or
00:15:28
crystal which puts then people
00:15:30
into the confrontation of the
00:15:33
tropological or existential
00:15:35
of what do we turn to for meaning
00:15:39
and if we turn in the wrong places what
00:15:40
are the consequences
00:15:42
of that and the anagogical leads us to
00:15:44
the end destination of certain desires
00:15:46
and consequences not only
00:15:48
the human short journey but the larger
00:15:50
questions of the end of the human
00:15:52
journey
00:15:53
journey itself and what's relationship
00:15:55
with the church and
00:15:56
um and the mystical union not only the
00:15:59
individuals but the communion of saints
00:16:02
to all of that so you have the marriage
00:16:03
the marriage metaphor also
00:16:05
and then the water into wine so just as
00:16:08
you have three days
00:16:09
death resurrection um water it's the
00:16:13
first couple of days
00:16:14
wine is the third day of resurrection so
00:16:16
the natural life
00:16:18
uh is converted into the deified or the
00:16:21
wine of life so here
00:16:23
again we're we're moving beyond the
00:16:24
literal uh
00:16:26
into the christological jesus is the
00:16:28
wine so here you have the allegorical
00:16:30
christological
00:16:31
but his people are united with christ
00:16:34
tropologically they become deified
00:16:37
into the wine wine of our our new being
00:16:39
entirely
00:16:40
and that transformation takes place
00:16:43
existentially
00:16:44
step by step through time and finds its
00:16:46
fulfillment
00:16:47
eschatologically at the end of time both
00:16:50
within the church and the human soul
00:16:52
on its journey and so what you have
00:16:55
is if this is and so the word arche my
00:16:58
dad
00:16:58
is used here and so what's often it's
00:17:01
translated just as
00:17:02
john 1 is in the beginning was the word
00:17:05
so this is often translated
00:17:07
as this was the first of jesus's
00:17:09
miracles but again
00:17:10
arche can be translated as this is the
00:17:14
ground of all miracles this is the
00:17:15
beginning this is the guardian of all
00:17:17
the great truths the cane of galilee
00:17:21
reality historically but parabolically
00:17:24
it's also the story of trans which is
00:17:26
going to set in stage in one sense all
00:17:28
the book of john
00:17:29
john itself where he's going to go
00:17:31
through other chapters
00:17:32
the second part of that the second part
00:17:34
of that of course is the cleansing of
00:17:36
the temple
00:17:37
this is jesus's first trip to the paso
00:17:40
we're interested in john it's three
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again he does three trips
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to the passover now the passover can be
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read historically
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literally it was really the journey of
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the jews from oppression
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in egypt so political oppression you had
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power
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powerlessness the jews were the post
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period these are the heroes of wood and
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drawers of water
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and so at a political economic level
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they are liberated from
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from oppression the movement out of
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egypt into the desert where they have to
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let go of things and of course the price
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of freedom is very very difficult
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because it's
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even though a person can be oppressed
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there's a certain predictability
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in egypt and the price of freedom is
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letting go of a certain securities
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predictability
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support even if it's under an empire and
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all of a sudden the sheer emptiness
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the lack of predictability of the desert
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uh politically and as a nation as
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they're leaving
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towards the promised land which of
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course is just an ideal
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in their minds because they're in the
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desert where there's
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they're not quite sure what the journey
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is going to look out you get the
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complainings you get
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moses of course is constantly pleading
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for the people and aaron has to deal
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with all of this
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so the desert is a place where all those
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things we once held near and dear
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in terms of security uh is gone uh
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in that sense but this also can be read
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metaphorically so i mean jesus
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is in that sense the passover so it can
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be read as a
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historic event turned ritual a festival
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and left at that
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but jesus is at the passover and that
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since he is the passover
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so you move from the literal to the
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christological
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and of course the christological takes a
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person once again into the tropological
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or the existential
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so what's the nature of each of us is we
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have to leave the comforts of our egypt
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our security
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our predictability uh in the human
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journey the ego
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the shadow side of the eagle misdirected
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desires
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what does it mean to because we often
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take comforts in egypt all it can give
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us even though
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we may kick against the pricks as it
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were but but
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we only will come to our true freedom
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but there's a price to be paid for
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freedom it's leaving behind the false
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self
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the ego and so many of the great mothers
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and fathers of the church
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read read the exodus from egypt in a
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philosophical
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spiritual sense as the departure of the
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false self
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into our new being and so again
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the the passover itself can be read at
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various levels and just as the cleansing
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of the temple again you have the
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literalists
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who think okay literal passover historic
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event in jewish memory
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ritual that comes from it people gather
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in jerusalem at the temple to celebrate
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it
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jesus is going to move it away from
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merely the literal without negating it
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but it's real meaning in that sense he's
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cracking the nut to get to the kernel
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he's peeling back
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the orange skin to get to the sweet
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juice of of the eternal truth the second
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part of course is the cleansing of the
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temple
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where he comes along and he basically
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says destroy this
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temple and in three days and we're back
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at three very very important
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numerically and understand what john is
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attempting to do anticipating a whole
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complex layered way of reading the text
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and i will rebuild it you know the
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literalists come along and they say well
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it took us decades to build the temple
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how are you going to do it in in three
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days
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and of course they're literalists in
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that sense he's speaking spiritually
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or typologically in that sense
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and arguing that yes the literal can be
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seen as an end in itself
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temple passover or it's a portal
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it's an icon in that sense into the
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spiritual and the spiritual is both
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tropological and typological as well and
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of course they're baffled by him at a
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literal level saying how can you
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possibly
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rebuild a temple in three days he's not
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talking about the literal he's dealing
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with the spiritual
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you get the same thing in a later
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chapter say nicodemus in chapter three
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nicodemus he's a ruler of the jews
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interesting enough
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nico comes from a greek to overcome
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nicodemus is jesus says you've got to be
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born from above sometimes it's
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translated born again but
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the word is actually born from above or
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spiritually work
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and jesus says there there has to be a
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death to just the literal the literal is
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not
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in itself enough for deification for
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transformation
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uh there has to be a spiritual birth
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from above and only as that occurs
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then will you begin to see the true
00:22:12
meaning of the text because the text is
00:22:14
hidden or concealed from literalists
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it's only revealed or unconcealed to
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those who want to journey towards the
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light
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but those who cling to literal is is its
00:22:25
own form of darkness in one sense
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but it's a beginning and so within this
00:22:29
layered or hierarchy of exegesis
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each step of the journey reveals deeper
00:22:36
things to us
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on our journey of transformation and
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deification but if a person gets stuck
00:22:41
at one level
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they miss the deeper or the higher true
00:22:44
so the the higher always includes the
00:22:46
lower
00:22:47
the lower excludes the higher and so in
00:22:49
this hierarchy of
00:22:51
exegesis or hermeneutics one is exterior
00:22:55
one's empirical
00:22:56
the other is increasingly inward and
00:22:58
transformative
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and so the text and john knew what he
00:23:01
was doing he was a part of an ethos of
00:23:04
laird exegesis
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and so to sum up the whole issue of
00:23:08
hermeneutics
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is uh an area that again and again
00:23:12
people have to think more seriously
00:23:14
about and get beyond purely the literal
00:23:16
and the bible itself is the pointer or
00:23:19
the way marker or the pathfinder
00:23:22
in terms of looking at layered exegesis
00:23:25
that the early fathers and mothers of
00:23:27
the church the post-apostolic the early
00:23:29
patristic of east and west the syrian
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tradition itself
00:23:33
will pick up and now sadly so with the
00:23:35
coming to be of elements of the
00:23:37
reformation
00:23:38
those higher levels or deeper levels of
00:23:40
exegesis get
00:23:41
lost the lower excludes the higher but
00:23:44
within the classical tradition
00:23:46
the lower is never rejected and the
00:23:48
higher person goes next to jesus or the
00:23:50
more layered
00:23:52
the various ways of interpreting the
00:23:54
text are offered as gifts to the human
00:23:56
soul
00:23:56
mind and imagination and john is really
00:23:59
the forerunner in that sense of
00:24:01
offering the church the layered
00:24:04
exegetical tradition which the patristic
00:24:06
medieval tradition will pick up on that
00:24:09
got lost in elements of the protestant
00:24:11
reformation but elements of the orthodox
00:24:14
anglican roman catholic and syrian still
00:24:18
maintained but they tended to get
00:24:19
marginalized and then you get this
00:24:21
ongoing debate about
00:24:23
whose interpretation of the literal
00:24:24
grammatical should win out and why
00:24:27
gratefully so there's a return to
00:24:29
layered exegesis going on today are
00:24:31
hermeneutics and hence
00:24:33
a much more sophisticated understanding
00:24:35
of
00:24:36
spiritual directing layered exegesis and
00:24:39
the meaning of that for the individual
00:24:41
the church and public responsibility
