Reader Response vs Authorial Intent
There were a couple of different posts I could have started this series with but I think this is probably the best bet. Let’s get on with the show!
Ways to Interpret
Through pretty much any artistic medium you have essentially 2 ways to interpret the message conveyed. The medium could be anything like music, art, poems or even books. On the one hand you can look at a piece of art and say “What this means to me is this” or “What this means to me is that” and the same can be said of music lyrics “Hey, you know when he says that line? For me I imagine he actually is talking about this”. People get careers in looking at something and giving their spin on the situation and telling people what they think this or that is really about.
On the other hand people can read the lyrics of a song and say “You know this speaks so much more to me when I found out what he was going through when he wrote this” or they can look at art and say “I was reading his biography the other day and he mentions why he used these unnatural shade of colors; he wanted to convey this”. When you and I receive a bill in the mail or see a sign on the road we all seek to find out what message was the person trying to convey rather than inputing what I think it means. We want the intended meaning because if we get it wrong it could have consequences.
Ways to Read
The same processes exist in the field of Hermeneutics. They are called “Reader Response” and “Authorial Intent”. When we read scripture we come to it with one of these 2 methods. We can either look at the scripture and say “Well, what this passage means go me is..” or we can say “Looking at the context, and the way he uses this word elsewhere we can say that Paul meant this when he said..”
When the authors of Scripture (both man and God) penned their words they had an intended meaning behind it. It had a purpose. It is our job today to bridge the gap from their time to now and find out exactly what they were trying to say. It’s when we find out their message it’s then that we can derive a principle to apply it to our life.
We all can sit around in a Bible study asking the question “What does this passage mean to you?” and we we may very well get some wonderful testimonies and wonderful scriptural truths about God but if the meaning we’re giving isn’t found in the text, then despite the harshness of this I say: Who cares? Our authority is found in scripture alone and we very well may be teaching truth but if it ain’t found in the passage we’re in, move on.
Rather when we look at a passage we should ask “What message did the author intend to give in this passage?” When we begin asking this question of the text we begin to learn the messages left to us in scripture and can begin applying them to our lives.
Quick Tips
Before we leave I would like to offer *some* quick tips to help your reading of the Scriptures.
- Use a translation you understand. Don’t use one simply because everyone else is or because of the fact it’s the most popular one out there on the market. I’ve settled on the ESV after going through a couple but don’t take my word; do a little research and find the right one for you. Ultimately, you may stick with the translation you have already. In the end, the last thing you need to do is to go to a dictionary for every other word to help you understand what’s going on. You might as well learn the Greek and Hebrew*
- Stick to one translation. Consistency is key. Don’t jump around all the time, you will find it hard to get familiar with the text. If you stick to one even if it isn’t the best of translations over time you will develop familiarity and grasp the text better.
- Use a well designed Bible. Most Bibles are 2 columned and are paragraphed according to verses. This is one of the biggest hindrances to actually understanding your Bible. No where else do you see books organized in such a format. Get a Bible that is single margin and broken into paragraphs, it will immensely improve your comprehension of the text. If you can’t find a single margin, get a double margin and if you can’t find that then as a last resort get one with paragraph markings but trust me you can get single margin Bibles in pretty much any translation, including the KJV. Though the paragraph markings are fallible, so are the chapter and verse markings but unlike those they will generally improve, rather than hinder understanding. This will be one of the best investments you will ever make.
- Use whatever medium works best for you. Given your circumstances your best time for reading might be on the train or bus to work, reading a book then might be a tad hard. Try reading on your phone, iPad, laptop or even your iPod. I found when I was traveling my phone worked best. Some people are more receptive to sound rather than visual input. Do not be afraid to try something out of the ordinary if you find it works better for you.
- Read at the most suitable time for you. I generally read best in the evening but I can also do the morning if I give myself enough time to wake up. If I try straight awake I will either fall asleep or not absorb anything. There is no point reading when you cannot grasp what your eyes are gazing at. Find the best time for you. Despite popular opinion it isn’t sin to read at another time besides 5am when the Sun is still down.
Until next week,
*I’m not bagging out any translation in particular but some translations like the KJV or the NASB can be hard to read. On the other hand some translations can be too loose and you get little to nothing of real meaning. Such translations like this I would stick away from include The Message and the New Living Translation. This topic deserves a post on its own so when looking for the right translation for you get advice and do some research before making a decision.
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Alen, you’ve obviously satified everbody with your first venture into hermeneutics (either that, or everybody is to busy following the machiniations of the federal government and/or the world cup!)
I agree with your analysis of the two main ways that the Scriptures are approached.
I think perhaps there is a third way the Scriptures are interpreted that is not the ‘reader response’ approach, but it’s not quite the ‘author intent’ method either.
There is an approach that sees the Scriptures as a cultural product – a collection of myths/legends etc that have come into written form. Such a view does not look for the intention of the author because there is no actual author simply a ‘compiler’ – a scribe who wrote down what was oral tradition.
This approach looks for the ‘moral’ of the story, or what it tells us about the beliefs of the culture from which it came. I would suggest that this is the approach taken to the first 6 chapters of Genesis by those theologians who deny a literal six-day creation and Noah’s flood.
Of course this approach, as well as being a flat denial of divine revelation, still leaves the interpreter with a big subjectivity problem!
Anyway thanks for the post, I look forward to the next one.
I would agree this would be a 3rd option. I think it is effectively the belief in authorial intent so long as it doesn’t contradict their beliefs concerning the text :) I.E. so long as it doesn’t effect the naturalistic worldview of the interpreter it’s fine to accept the text as is.
This can be seen with for example “The Jesus Seminar”. Anything Jesus said that didn’t suggest anything outside of the naturalistic worldview was amazingly found to be His actual words! Anything that suggested deity was obviously a scribal addition :)
Good post Alen. I have been in Bible studies where everyone had a turn to say what they thought the passage meant. Worse still, some say that God spoke to them and told them such and such, implying that they had a special revelation in private.
Hebrews 1:1,2 and other passages like this that talk about the doctrine of revelation/inspiration need to be taught in many churches to dispel such errors in basic hermeneutics.