Monday, December 23, 2013

This is a problem

The problem with this approach [reading modern scientific understandings back into the text] is that it assumes the text is offering modern scientific information to the ancient audience, even though this principle cannot be applied consistently. This approach is selective in where it attempts to extrapolate modern science from the text, and where it does so it is often at the expense of the meaning the ancient audience would have understood. Overall it assumes something about the nature of Scripture’s revelation that cannot be hermeneutically defended or consistently executed. It misunderstands the nature of the Bible in that it assumes the Bible is vesting its authority in scientific statements.—The Lost World of Scripture, page 52

<idle musing>
"This approach is selective in where it attempts to extrapolate modern science from the text, and where it does so it is often at the expense of the meaning the ancient audience would have understood." That's a problem...we don't assume the "windows of heaven" when it rains—but it's almost heretical to suggest that a day in Genesis 1 might not be a 24 hour day. Of course, I have yet to meet anyone who wants the "day of the LORD" to be only 24 hours long...
</idle musing>

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