The lost world of scripture : ancient literary culture and biblical authority

26 Pages·2013·36.475 MB·English

by  John H Walton, D Brent Sandy

John H. Walton
and D. Brent Sandy
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Purchase a copy of
THE LOST WORLD
OF SCRIPTURE
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THE LOST WORLD OF SCRIPTURE
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"Clear, rigorous, innovative,
well-informed and honest wrestling with
a perpetual problem: how the
phenomena of Scripture and the
doctrine of inerrancy interrelate. Its
application of cultural theory ('oral' vs.
'literary' cultures) and speech-act theory
bbeeaarrss mmuucchh ffrruuiitt.. RRiicchh ffoooodd ffoorr tthhoouugghhtt
for students and scholars alike."
—Robert Hubbard, professor of biblical literature,
North Park Theological Seminary
The
Lost
World
of
Scripture
Ancient LiterAry cuLture
And BiBLicAL Authority
John h. Walton
and d. Brent Sandy
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InterVarsity Press
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Email: [email protected]
©2013 by John H. Walton and D. Brent Sandy
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contentS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Part 1
The Old Testament World of
Composition and Communication
Proposition 1:
Ancient Near Eastern societies were hearing dominant
and had nothing comparable to authors and books
as we know them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Proposition 2:
Expansions and revisions were possible as documents
were copied generation after generation and eventually
compiled into literary works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Proposition 3:
Effective communication must accommodate to
the culture and nature of the audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Proposition 4:
The Bible contains no new revelation about the
workings and understanding of the material world . . . . . . . 49
Stepping Back and Summing Up:
How the composition of the Old Testament may be
understood differently in light of what is known of
ancient literary culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
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Part 2
The New Testament World of
Composition and Communication
Proposition 5:
Much of the literature of the Greco-Roman world
retained elements of a hearing-dominant culture . . . . . . . . . 77
Proposition 6:
Oral and written approaches to literature entail
significant differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Proposition 7:
Greek historians, philosophers and Jewish rabbis offer
instructive examples of ancient oral culture . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Proposition 8:
Jesus’ world was predominantly non-literate and oral . . . . . . 111
Proposition 9:
Logos/Word referred to oral communication,
not to written texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Proposition 10:
Jesus proclaimed truth in oral forms and
commissioned his followers to do the same . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Proposition 11:
Variants were common in the oral texts of
Jesus’ words and deeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Proposition 12:
Throughout the New Testament, spoken words
rather than written words were the primary focus . . . . . . . . 152
Proposition 13:
Exact wording was not necessary to preserve and
transmit reliable representations of inspired truth . . . . . . . . 167
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Stepping Back and Summing Up:
How the composition of the New Testament may be
understood differently in light of what is known of
ancient literary culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Part 3
The Biblical World of Literary Genres
Proposition 14:
The authority of Old Testament narrative literature
is more connected to revelation than to history . . . . . . . . . . 199
Proposition 15:
The authority of Old Testament legal literature
is more connected to revelation than to law . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Proposition 16:
The authority of Old Testament prophetic literature
is more connected to revelation than to future-telling . . . . . . 224
Proposition 17:
The genres of the New Testament are more
connected to orality than textuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Part 4
Concluding Affirmations on the Origin and
Authority of Scripture
Proposition 18:
Affirmations about the origin of Scripture
confirm its fundamental oral nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Proposition 19:
Affirmations about the authority of Scripture
assert its divine source and illocution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Proposition 20:
Inerrancy has essential roles and limitations . . . . . . . . . . . 274
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Proposition 21:
Belief in authority not only involves what the
Bible is but also what we do with it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Faithful Conclusions for Virtuous Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Name and Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Scripture Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
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introduction
Megatrends roll across the landscape of modern Western
culture like massive storms . Off in the distance they may not look very in-
teresting or significant, and without a keen observer alerting us to the po-
tential effects storms can sneak up on us before we realize what’s happening .
In the wake of such storms, however, change can be historic .
The current digital revolution appears to be one of those megastorms . It’s
been over five hundred years since Western culture has had a revolution in
print technology . But the changes swirling around us now appear to be as
significant as the Gutenberg Galaxy was then, marking the end of the
Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance .
The digital universe is a brave, new world, and we have not begun to see
the end of it . There are many questions: How is our dependence on this new
technology going to rewire our brains? Will people in the future look back
on print culture and wonder about the lost world of Gutenberg? How will
history judge what seems to us—while in the middle of it—to be a signif-
icant megatrend? Will we find ourselves yet another age removed from the
ancient world of oral communication? Or might the digital revolution take
us back to the future?
understanding the oral and manuscript galaxy of the biblical world—
before the watershed of print culture—is essential for grasping how the
Bible was written . Before there were books and handwritten copies, there
were only oral texts . Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, before anyone wrote it
down, was an oral text . Texts came into existence and were passed along
differently in a world dominated by hearing . Brains were wired differently .
Before moving ahead into the chapters of this book, in this introduction
we are beginning at ground zero . Fundamentally, we believe that the Bible
deserves the highest possible honor as the richest, deepest, most powerful
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12 THE LOST WORLd OF SCRIPTuRE
book ever written—there are simply no contenders . It is a literary master-
piece, a magnum opus, a stellar performance . But there’s more to the story .
The ultimate importance of the Bible lies elsewhere: it is the inspired reve-
lation of Almighty God, a heavenly treasure in a world of impoverished
ideas, a sparkling mountain stream in the driest of deserts . Our point,
however, is not to worship the Bible; we worship the God of the Bible .
The incomparability of the Bible as divine revelation is easily over-
whelmed by its familiarity . Many Christians have multiple copies of the
Bible in multiple versions . Some have access to it by the latest digital de-
vices . Maybe they have attended church for years and have listened to its
words over and over . We wonder if some of it goes in one ear and out the
other . It must be heartbreaking for God when his Word loses its luster upon
us, when its power is diminished by us, when we no longer long to hear the
Spirit speaking to us .
Christians may forget or not take seriously that the Bible is the one and
only, absolutely authoritative book, that it demands our utmost attention .
Living out its truths is the highest of callings . If we fail to show the Bible the
respect it is due, we are to be shamed . And it’s more than theory; it’s the
practice of bringing our thoughts and lives into line with God’s thoughts
and life .
We hold a very high view of Scripture . We confess that the Bible is God’s
self-disclosure . The Old and New Testaments are the literary deposit of
divine truth . The ultimate revelation is Jesus himself . The central message is
creation, fall, redemption and restoration . We affirm inerrancy . We are in
agreement with the definition suggested by david dockery that the “Bible
properly interpreted in light of [the] culture and communication developed
by the time of its composition will be shown to be completely true (and
therefore not false) in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended
by the author, in all matters relating to God and his creation .”1
The portion of dockery’s statement about the “culture and communi-
cation developed by the time of its composition” is specifically where this
book seeks to make its primary contribution .2 How did communication
1David S. Dockery, Christian Scripture: An Evangelical Perspective on Inspiration, Authority and
Interpretation (Nashville: B & H, 1995), p. 64.
2We agree with Allert “that a high view of Scripture demands an understanding and integration
of the Bible’s very formation”; Craig D. Allert, A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible
and the Formation of the New Testament Canon (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), p. 13.
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