Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship: How the Bible Shapes Our Interpretive Habits and Practices
Overview
This book offers a fresh approach to the art of biblical interpretation, focusing on the ways Scripture itself forms its readers as wise and faithful interpreters. David Starling shows that apprenticing ourselves to the interpretive practices of the biblical writers and engaging closely with texts from all parts of the Bible help us to develop the habits and practices required to be good readers of Scripture. After introducing the principles, Starling works through the canon, providing inductive case studies in interpretive method and drawing out implications for contemporary readers. Offering a fresh contribution to hermeneutical discussions, this book will be an ideal supplement to traditional hermeneutics textbooks for seminarians.
- Explores the process of learning biblical interpretation
- Provides specific biblical examples of how theological themes relate to hermeneutics
- Examines the interpretive practices of the biblical authors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- “Who Meditates on His Law”: The Psalter and the Hermeneutics of Delight
- “In Your Mouth and in Your Heart”: Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Law
- “This Kindness”: Ruth and the Hermeneutics of Virtue
- “To Fulfill the Word of the LORD”: 1-2 Chronicles and the Hermeneutics of History
- “The Word of the LORD Came”: Zechariah and the Hermeneutics of Prophecy
- “Everything I Have Commanded You”: Matthew and the Hermeneutics of Obedience
- “Fulfilled in Your Hearing”: Luke and the Hermeneutics of the Gospel
- “That You May Believe”: John and the Hermeneutics of Truth
- “Beyond What Is Written”? 1 Corinthians and the Hermeneutics of Theology
- “Taken Figuratively”: Galatians and the Hermeneutics of Allegory
- “Today, If You Hear His Voice”: Hebrews and the Hermeneutics of Exhortation
- “She Who Is in Babylon” 1 Peter and the Hermeneutics of Empire
- “Take It and Eat”: Revelation and the Hermeneutics of Apocalyptic
Top Highlights
“Two realities have been highlighted in the discussion. The first is the reality of interpretation itself: evangelicals have been urged to own up to the fact that they are involved in interpreting Scripture, not merely discovering and restating an uninterpreted, transparent, and universally obvious meaning.” (Page 7)
“But I hope that the range of books examined and the range of issues discussed will be sufficiently broad and representative to at least introduce the possibilities of learning the art of biblical interpretation from the biblical writers themselves and to give us a glimpse into the habits of mind and heart that informed their reading of Scripture and that ought to shape our own.” (Page 21)
“First, and perhaps most obviously, the psalms present the Scriptures as both a vast diversity and a coherent unity.” (Page 28)
“But good interpretation requires not just sweat but skill, and not just skill but character. Interpretation of the Scriptures is like a craft or a trade that must be learned if we are to draw the right connections, make the right intuitive leaps, and bring to bear on the task the right dispositions, affections, and virtues.” (Page 17)
“Scriptura Scripturae interpres—Scripture is the interpreter of Scripture” (Page 1)
Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship is a refreshing and important call to think of biblical interpretation not in terms of mastering the text but of learning the craft of interpretation from the biblical authors themselves. Such apprenticeship is ultimately less methodological mastery than spiritual formation. While other books attend to the history of Scripture’s reception in church history, Starling focuses on the way the biblical authors themselves received earlier texts and composed Scripture by means of inner-biblical interpretation. In an age of pervasive interpretive pluralism, where no single interpretive practice stands out as authoritative, Starling's case for contemporary interpreters to become apprentices to the biblical authors who know how to read the Bible, and themselves, in the light of Christ is a suggestion as timely as it is welcome."
—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Among Protestant interpreters, it is axiomatic that the best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. David Starling develops this proverb in a provocative, fertile direction—urging, first, that we attend to how Scripture itself has already interpreted Scripture and, second, that we learn from the patterns and habits of theological interpretation we find in Scripture. Working with texts from the Old and New Testaments, he insightfully demonstrates how our interpretive practices might be shaped through these exercises in practical wisdom.
—Joel B. Green, dean of the School of Theology, professor of New Testament interpretation, and associate dean for the Center for Advanced Theological Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Practicing Theological Interpretation: Engaging Biblical Texts for Faith and Formation
David Starling’s Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship contributes usefully to the genre ‘how to read the Bible’ by focusing on the Bible’s method of appropriating and applying its own teaching. It brings home in practical ways some of the more theoretical attention given recently to intertextuality and canonical studies. With commendable balance, the author shows how contemporary discussions of themes such as gospel and empire can help Christians read and apply their Bibles more accurately and faithfully.
—Douglas J. Moo, Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies, Wheaton College
Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship serves up a series of hermeneutical vignettes that reflect the array of Scripture. So the book is a rich menu of observations about the different kinds of material we meet in Scripture. It is a study that will lead you to reflect on how to read Scripture both better and well.
—Darrell L. Bock, senior research professor of New Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary
- Title: Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship: How the Bible Shapes Our Interpretive Habits and Practices
- Author: David I. Starling
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Pages: 240
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible › Hermeneutics; Bible › Influence
- ISBNs: 9781493409822, 9780801049392, 1493409824, 0801049393
- Resource ID: LLS:HRMNTCSSHPRCTCS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:36:28Z