Loyal Heart Ministries

The Hermeneutical Spiral, by Grant Osborne. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1991, Pp. 499. Outline by James L. Smyrl, Ph.D.

 Definition

Hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation. It is a science because it is regulated by rules within an organized system. It is an art because the application of the rules is by skill, not by mechanical interpretation (Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation).

 

“. . . that science which delineates principles or methods for interpreting an individual author’s meaning.” (Osborne). Osborne notes that current trends in Hermeneutics are to ignore the original intent and move straight to present meaning.

 

Major Thesis

Biblical interpretation entails a spiral from text to context, from its original meaning to its contextualization or significance for the church today. It spirals from the original intended meaning to the level of contextualization that is significant for application. The goal of interpretation is not the commentary but the sermon.

 

The Ten Stages of Interpretation (Meaning-Significance)

He notes ten steps of biblical interpretation, the first five are inductive in nature and the second five are deductive in nature.

 

Stage 1: Context

            The historical context is examined in order to determine the situation to which the book was addressed. The logical context is examined in order to determine the thought development within the book. Osborne notes these two examinations allow him to critically assess the commentaries.

 

Stage 2: Chart

            The first step is to skim the paragraphs and summarize as you read. Second, return to the text and look for patterns of thought (clues: repeated words or phrases, transitional conjunctions or adverbs, a rhetorical question, a change in time, location, or setting, a shift in attention, a change in tense, mood, or aspect of a verb, repetition of the same key word, head of a section). The third step is to subdivide the section into major units. Osborne notes that in order to study parts one must diagram.

Stage 3: Grammatical Study

            Grammar denotes the basic laws of language behind the relationship between the terms in the surface structure. Osborne notes the criteria in grammatical studies of the text. External criteria includes rules which relate to the document (relative dates, temporal and geographical distribution, genealogical relationship, quality of the manuscripts). Internal criteria includes rules relating to the construction and inner clarity of the text itself (the more difficult reading is more likely, reading that best fits the author’s style).

 

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Stage 4: Semantical Study

            Some semantic fallacies are:

1. The lexical fallacy: word studies can settle the issue.
2. The root fallacy: the root of the term carries the basic meaning in every subordinate word.
3. Misuse of Etymology: assume the key to the word’s meaning is in its origin and history.
4. Misuse of Subsequent Meaning: later meanings read back into the biblical material.
5. The One-Meaning Fallacy: assume that every appearance of a Hebrew or Greek term should be translated by the same English word.
6. Misuse of Parallels: searching for parallels that are only favorable to the author’s thesis.
7. The Disjunctive Fallacy: data presented in such a way that the reader is mislead by an either/or scenario.
8. The Word Fallacy: failure to consider the use of synonyms.
9. Ignoring the Context: often found when one relies on a word-by-word commentary.

 

Basic semantics keeps in mind that words do not carry meaning by themselves. Meaning is derived from its context. The literary context notes the linguistic environment. Situational context involves reconstructing the historical situation behind the passage.

 

Stage 5: Syntactical Study

            The term syntax has both a narrow and a broad meaning. The narrow meaning refers to the relationship between the words of a sentence and is virtually equivalent to grammar. The broad meaning refers to all the interrelationships within the sentence as a means of determining the meaning of the unit as a whole. The purpose of syntax is to elucidate the thought development and meaning of the whole statement of a passage of Scripture.

 

Performative language describes what actually happens. Emotive language reveals the underlying emotions.

 

Figures of Speech

1. Figures of comparison:  metaphors, similes, etc.
2. Figures of addition: redundant synonyms, phonetically similar words, repetition, hyperbole, etc.
3. Incomplete figures of speech: ellipsis (requires reader to finish the thought), aposiopesis (portion of the sentence is omitted for emphasis).
4. Figures involving contrast and understatement (irony, euphemism, antithesis).
5. Figures centering on association or relation:
6. Figures stressing the personal dimension: personification, apostrophe.

 

 

 

Stage 6: Historical and Cultural Background

            Historical intentionality is when the author assumes certain shared information with the original readers. Literary intentionality is when the author encodes a message in the text. Osborne believes that the primary tool for uncovering this is archaeology. He list several sociological factors:

1. Geography
2. Politics
3. Economics
4. Military and War
5. Cultural Practices
   1. Family customs
   2. Material customs
   3. Everyday customs
   4. Athletics and recreation
   5. Music and art
6. Religious practices

 

Osborne notes that the task of the receptor in the modern cultural framework is to recapture the total framework within which the sacred writer communicated and to transfer that message to our own day.

 

Specific Sources for Background

1. Intertestamental Allusions: quotes from literature.
2. Qumran Parallels: similar in religious perspective with Christian communities.
3. Rabbinic Parallels:
4. Hellenistic Parallels:

 

Stage 7: Biblical Theology

            The branch of theology concerned with tracing themes through the diverse sections of the Bible and then with the unifying themes that draw the Bible together. This is the first step away from exegesis to determining the significance of the text for the church today. Three steps make up this plan:

1. Study theological themes in terms of individual books.
2. Explore the theology of the author.
3. Trace the progress of revelation that unites the testament or Bible as a whole

 

Methodology

1. The Synthetic Method: themes traced through the Bible in relation to various historical periods.
2. The Analytical Method: studies the primary theological emphasis of book.
3. The History of Religions Method: traces development of religious idea in Israel.
4. Diachronic Method: tradition of the church.
5. Christological Method: interprets Bible in light of Christ.
6. Confessional Method: looks at Bible as series of faith statements.
7. Multiplex Method: combines methods while minimizing weaknesses.

 

Stage 8: Historical Theology

            The branch of theology that traces the development of themes as well as how they were contextualized in each era of church history.

            In regards to exegesis it controls the interpretation of the text.

            In regards to biblical theology it shows the development throughout history.

            In regards to systematic theology it becomes a control of dogmatic conclusions.

 

Stage 9: Systematic Theology

            Influences

1. Scripture
2. Tradition: within each protestant group that influences interpretation.
3. Community: exercises control over tradition.
4. Experience
5. Philosophy: Helps theology reformulate biblical truths rationally and coherently in order to address the current situation.

 

Stage 10: Homiletics

            Contextualization: The process which interprets the significance of a religion or cultural norm for a group with a different cultural heritage.

 

            Principles

1. The contextualization must occur at the level of form rather than content.
2. The text itself sets the agenda and continually reforms the questions that the observer asks of it.
3. The receptor goes to the source to determine its meaning. The source then yields not only meaning but significance.
4. The key is to allow the dictates of Scripture to Challenge and then to transform the receptor culture.

 

From Text to Sermon

1. Study the original situation behind the message of the text.
2. Determine the underlying theological principle behind the text.
3. Meditate on the biblical and theological truth studied.
4. Discern parallels between the original situation addressed by the writer and the contemporary experiences of the Christian and the church.