06. VI. RIGHTLY HANDLING THE WORD OF GOD

VI. RIGHTLY HANDLING THE WORD OF GOD So far we have been considering the interpretation of Scripture. Now we come to consider the right ’cutting’, or ’dividing’ of it. Right cutting is the way in which the Word is enabled to edify the people of God: ’Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing [or cutting] the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15). The idea of cutting here is metaphorical language possibly derived from the activity of the Levites, who were required to cut the limbs of the animals they sacrificed with great care. It is of this skill that the Messiah speaks: ’The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary’ (Isaiah 50:4).

There are two elements in this: (i) resolution or partition, and (ii) application.

Resolution

Resolution is the unfolding of the passage into its various doctrines, like the untwisting and loosening of a weaver’s web. Apollos was highly skilled in doing this: ’for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ’ (Acts 18:28).

Sometimes the doctrine is explicitly stated in the passage. This is already illustrated in New Testament references to the Old Testament: ’We have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one’ (Romans 3:9-11). Another example is found in Acts 2:24-27. On other occasions a doctrine not specifically stated is correctly drawn from the text because, in one sense or another, it is implied in what is written. There are many illustrations of how this is done in Scripture itself. For example:

John 10:34 : Jesus answered them, ’Is it not written in your law, "I said, you are gods"’?

John 10:35-36 : If He called them gods to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken): 36: Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ’You are blaspheming’, because I said, ’I am the Son of God’?

1 Corinthians 9:9 : For it is written in the law of Moses, ’You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.’ Is it oxen God is concerned about?

1 Corinthians 9:4 : Do we have no right to eat and drink?

Galatians 3:10 : For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ’Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’

Galatians 3:9 : So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Hebrews 8:8 : Because finding fault with them, He says: ’Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house Israel and with the house of Judah’.

Hebrews 8:13 : In that He says, ’A new covenant’, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. In elucidating doctrines we must bear in mind that an example that is ethical, economic, political, ordinary or extraordinary has the force of a general rule within its own sphere. The examples of the fathers are patterns for us, as Paul indicates: ’Now all these things ... were written for our admonition’ (1 Corinthians 10:11). It is a principle in logic that the genus is present in all the species, just as it is a rule in visual perception that the general species of things are perceived before the particular.

Romans 9:7 : Nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ’In Isaac your seed shall be called’. Romans 9:10 : And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac . . .

Romans 9:8 : That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

Romans 4:18 : Abraham, contrary to hope, etc. Romans 4:21 : Being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

Romans 4:23-24 : Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. But also for us. It shall be imputed to us

Romans 4:22 ; And therefore ’it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Note, however, that doctrines ought to be deduced from passages only when it is proper and valid to do so. They must be derived from the genuine meaning of the Scripture. Otherwise we will end up drawing any doctrine from any place in the Bible. An example of such a mistake is the way in which Proverbs 8:22 has been handled. In this passage Wisdom, that is Christ, is speaking about himself. According to the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) the passage reads: ’The Lord has created me.’ From this translation the Arians perversely argued that the Son was created. But the Hebrew text reads: ’The Lord has possessed me’ (the Hebrew verb is qanah). The Father possesses the Son, because he was begotten of the Father from eternity, and because the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father. And so when a son was born to Adam he said he had possessed a man from the Lord’ (Genesis 4:1; again the Hebrew verb is qanah). The error here perhaps arose because of a scribal error (accidental or deliberate) in the Greek text. In the same way, Augustine comments on Psalms 39:10, reading the text: ’I held my peace because thou hast made me: He makes the subtle application that it is a marvel that he - who had been given a mouth to enable him to speak - should hold his tongue. But the word ’me’ is in neither the Hebrew nor the Greek text. Again, in his comments on Psalms 72:14 he discusses the question of money-lending for interest and proves that this is sinful. But there is nothing about this in the text! It reads: ’He will redeem their life from oppression and violence; And precious shall be their blood in His sight.’

It is also legitimate to develop analogies or allegories. These are arguments drawn from things that are like each other. Paul used them often (e.g. 1 Corinthians 9:9). But they are to be employed with the following caveats:

Any point of doctrine drawn from a text by proper interpretation should be believed on its own authority. This is an adequate basis for believing it. ’Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus ... for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ’ (Acts 18:24;Acts 18:28). It follows from this that:

But if such secular authors are quoted, it must be sparingly. In fact the biblical precedents actually omit the names of the authors in such instances.