What did the people of the first century and prior know that we don't know? How was their worldview different from our own in a way that helped them, but hurts us (ignorance is not bliss)? What is the process and labor leading back to knowing so we benefit just like they did?
Let's dispel a myth
To begin attacking our common human problem, we must identify a myth circulating among us in modern times (and older times too). What myth, you ask? There is a guiding notion among many Christians that somehow the Holy Spirit magically fills your mind with the interpretation of scripture that you read in English such that you end up with the full truth of the Gospel. Said another way, you need nothing more than your favorite English translation and the only labor you need is asking the Holy Spirit to reveal and then set about reading your bible.
While there is an element of truth in this, there is a lot more bunk and misleading. Sure, it sounds right. It even sounds plausible with the right presentation from a charismatic person with smooth words and slick jargon. Yet, even though this is how many of us learn what it means to be a Christian or even a disciple, does that make it the best way or even the "not harmful" way? We are rarely taught to ask such questions and think in such ways. To not trust those bringing us into the Kingdom is something akin to anathema ("be accursed"), right?
Allow me to give you an example from just 400 years ago that will help you understand how the myth doesn't work like we are taught that it works. We need to see that the myth isn't entirely incorrect, but like many things, the truth behind it has been clouded so badly that people have become derailed in their understanding and application.
Changing definitions over 400 years
The King James Version of the bible was finalized and published in 1611 AD, a mere four hundred years ago. Many of the words used then have completely different definitions today. The change in how we define the very same words actually changes the interpretation of the scripture passages in ways that are both minor and significant if one is not a close and careful reader (many in the 21st century are not—I wasn't and it hurt me and others with me). With that in mind, let's look at some example words and the scriptures containing them.
"Let" - In the 1611 AKJV Bible, the word "let" usually means to hinder or to restrain. In Romans 1:13, Paul states, "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles." Here, "let" means to hinder or prevent. Today, "let" is typically used to allow or permit something to happen.
If we substitute the modern definition of "let" we get the following:
I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was permitted until now,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
As you can see, the modern definition turns the verse into chaotic nonsense. We dare not use our modern worldview (including our word definitions) to do close and careful reads of AKJV 1611 scripture without some knowledge of words four hundred years ago. Let's do one more example.
"Prevent" - In the early 17th century, "prevent" was commonly used to signify "come before" or "precede" in a temporal sense. A vivid illustration is found in Psalm 119:147, which reads, "I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried...". This implies the psalmist woke up before dawn, not that he stopped the dawn from happening. Today, however, "prevent" usually denotes preventing or stopping something from occurring.
Again—to use the modern definition of "prevent", we might reinterpret what the AKJV 1611 is saying as:
I stopped the dawn [from happening] and cry for help; I hope in your words.
Using modern word definitions, this scripture creates some serious and almost laughable mental pictures. One is left wondering how the Psalmist is stopping the dawn from happening. Is such a thing humanly possible? Is there a miracle going on here? However, once we know the 1611 definition of "prevent", then the passage makes much better sense (e.g., "I woke up before the dawn and cry for help; ....").
Now—consider: These are English word definitions from just 400 years ago! Move beyond. Consider 2,000 years ago (NT) or 3,500 years (OT) and that you're dealing with people who are writing in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek within an Ancient Near Eastern culture and worldview as well as a Greco-Roman Hellenistic culture and worldview. Do you really think that you know what they know, how they know it, and their overall understanding and even thinking process—that is—what they think is logical, reasonable, or even good or bad? How can you if you don't know what they knew and why?
And we don't even need thousands of years and cultures long ago to establish this point. We can go to our own society and cull out examples by looking at modern headlines and social issues. For example, a common sentiment expressed by people after a mass shooting is to say, "I just don't understand why he did it! He seemed like a nice guy as far as I could tell." If we have disconnects with people living around us based on factors in our own societies, why do we think that we can properly parse and understand scripture writings from times and cultures in the ancient past based on our personal worldview?
This is the point where we generally trot in the Holy Spirit and make the mythical claim that the Spirit knows and reveals all to us by some kind of magical inward process that we loosely pull out what we think are validating scriptures to prove our point. Here are some example scriptures that get pulled out in an attempt to "prove the magical point":
1 Corinthians 2:10-11 - But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
John 14:26 - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 16:13 - But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he [Spirit] will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he [Spirit] will tell you what is yet to come.
1 Corinthians 2:12 - What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
1 John 2:27 - As for you, the anointing you received from him [Spirit] remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his [Spirit] anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it [Spirit] has taught you, remain in him [Spirit].
1 Corinthians 2:14 - The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Ephesians 1:17 - I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
John 16:14 - He will glorify me, for he [Spirit] will take what is mine and declare it to you.
All of these things are true, of course, but they are not true in the way we think they are true. Allow me to illustrate the point.
What is inspiration?
There is a strong link between how we are taught or naturally think about the inspiration of the scripture and how the magic works of the Spirit revealing truth from the inspired scripture.
When most people try to define what inspiration is and how it works with regard to the scripture, there are some common responses. Let's examine a few. Note that these are not how inspiration of the scripture worked.
Scriptural inspiration is not:
- The same as inerrancy, which is a doctrine that affirms the absence of errors in the original manuscripts of Scripture.
- The same as verbal plenary inspiration, which is a view that holds that every word of Scripture was dictated or controlled by God.
- The same as automatic writing, which is a phenomenon where a person writes without conscious awareness or control.
- A guarantee that the human authors were free from making any mistakes or using any literary devices in their writings.
Many of us as untrained readers will stumble over the list above, and not just about the big words used. So, let's make it easier to read for us common folks:
The concept of Biblical inspiration doesn't imply:
- Inerrancy, or the belief that the original Bible texts were free from any kind of error or mistake. Many people are unaware that scripture went through a redaction, editing, and harmonizing stage where what we call scripture popped out as a work product at the end of the process. This happened during the Second Temple Era.
- The notion that each word in the Bible was directly dictated or influenced by God. Combined with the first point above, we can easily see that God involved a lot of people in creating the words we hold in our hands. I have underlined the phrase "directly dictated" to highlight the wrong-headed idea that somehow scripture is the result of some kind of cosmic dictation.
- Automatic writing, which is when someone writes subconsciously without overt control over their actions. Some people have likened this notion to an open-eyed-trance, where the mind of the writer is set aside, the Spirit takes over, and writes through the human like some kind of occultic channeler.
- The assertion that those who wrote the Bible were infallible and didn't use stylistic features or literary devices in their accounts. Another wrong-headed thought is that the people who wrote, assembled, edited, redacted, and produced what we call scripture were given some kind of providential perfection enabling them to write the scripture. This is simply not true and we all know it.
So, now that we know some of what scriptural inspiration is not, can we get our minds around what scriptural inspiration is in real and understandable terms? Let's give that a shot.
What inspiration actually is:
- Inspiration is akin to God imparting His message to human authors who then transcribed it in their own unique language and style, much like a divine whisper translated by humans.
- Imagine God as a celestial supervisor, ensuring the human authors followed His divine blueprint when inscribing their respective accounts.
- Consider how a critically acclaimed novel goes through various editing stages before reaching its final form. Similarly, God maintained a divine providential control over the final version of the Scriptural text to ensure it aligned with His intent.
- The credibility and authority of scripture stems from it being divinely sanctioned. Because we believe that the Scripture is not only the product of human creativity but also guided and validated by God, it serves as a reliable compass for faith and righteousness in our lives.
The last point above, which is highlighted with important parts underlined, really captures the overall reality of what inspiration is truly as it happened through many people over the course of thousands of years. There is a lot more to say about inspiration, but we will let it rest here for the moment. The more important point to make goes back to the mythical view of the operation of the Spirit of God as we read a modern English translation of the inspired Word of God.
What Spirit exegesis is not!
There is a big word that we need to understand: Exegesis (and its opposite, eisegesis).
We define exegesis as: Critical explanation or interpretation of a text and involving a detailed study of the history, language, and surrounding literature to fully understand the original intent and meaning of the text.
The definition of eisegesis is revealing (in contrast to exegesis).
We define eisegesis as the process of interpreting a text in such a way as to introduce one's own presuppositions, agendas, filters, or biases. It is contrasted with exegesis, which is an objective and balanced interpretation of a text. Instead of drawing out the meaning from the text by exegesis, eisegesis involves reading into the text one's own ideas.
The basic idea is that one way of reading (exegsis) allows the text to say what it says from its own original context and worldview without imposing our worldview on it (eisegesis). Furthermore, it is understood that ignoring original context and worldview and then imposing our context and worldview on the text will greatly distort the message that the text (bible, scripture, Word of God) is trying to communicate to us.
NOTE: For those of you who want to stubbornly continue to believe in the mythical magic of eisegesis (falsely labeled as "Spirit revelation") allow me to point out to you that the Spirit does not take control of you, bypass your own ideas and worldviews, and then force you to see past them to the original context of the scripture. It doesn't happen that way—then, now, or ever.
Just as the scripture is not the product of divine cosmic dictation, neither is it a divine cosmic overriding of your worldview, culture, understanding and education. It doesn't happen that way.
And just as scripture is not the product of some cosmic open-eyed trance or spiritual channeling, neither is the interpretation of scripture by the Spirit of God. You do not sit down to your English bible and have the Spirit come over you, thwarting your will and mental faculties and God-given capability to foist upon you the proper understanding of the text you are reading. It just doesn't happen that way!
These (and other) magical mystery tour means of understanding scripture are sources of error, distortions, and even heresies and false gospels. In the extreme cases, we get cults and cultic leaders who prey on the minds of people untrained with simplistic understanding of scripture. The next thing you know, they are drinking poison in the jungles of South America, murdering their children, and standing on rooftops with suit cases believing that Jesus will return tomorrow night at 9 PM.
Getting it straight
Because all of the above is demonstrably true, we can now return to the premise of this article: The people who wrote and then assembled the scriptures (inspired providentially and sanctioned by God) knew things we don't know. It is our task to do the hard work and learn what they knew so we can properly read, interpret, and apply scripture by the leading and guiding of the Spirit of God to our lives in the 21st century.
And let me add in a sidebar note for just a moment: What if all of the scriptures quoted above about the leading, guiding, helping, teaching, and so on of the Spirit of God to us is precisely this process of learning the original mind and worldview of the writers in order to properly understand the message of God to all people at all times? What if that is the means and mechanism used by the Spirit? Such a thing would mean that the reading of scripture aligns quite nicely with the writing of it and assembly of it, doesn't it?
If we now have it straight(er), let's move on ...
So, what did they original writers and readers of scripture know that we don't know? Plenty. And it all has to do with their worldviews and cultures built around them: Both godly and ungodly. To explain that will require a quick example.
One example encompassing both Jews and Gentiles has to do with gods, Watchers, fallen angels, sons of God, demons, and so on. For the Gentiles, this was encompassed in their paganism and worship of not only gods in the unseen realms, but that of men proclaiming themselves as gods in the flesh. It also included ancient stories of epics, Titans, wars, the underworld, giants, monsters, and a host of ancient hybrid animals and creatures.
The Jews had the same thing, except the beings and creatures were not the good guys; they were the bad guys. These beings and creatures were fallen and rebellious. They were at war with God. It was the uncreated all-powerful and all-knowing Elohim versus the lesser and created elohim who had fallen and brought their rebellion, violence, destruction, and defilement of everything God had created. They went where God had forbidden them to go. They stole knowledge from the heavenlies and taught it to men for the purpose of replacing God and having humans serve and worship them. There was an entire range of knowledge that Jews had, believed, and were raised with as truth and—more importantly—the real backdrop and backstory that filled in the gaps of scripture.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, we are taught that all of these things are mythical, magic, and made up. We are taught that such things and stories are not real. We are taught that such stories are just human beings trying to cope with a world they don't understand as they "evolve" into smarter beings—such as ourselves. We are taught that enlightened people would never consider any of those ancient stories to have any basis in reality or as real history. And—therein—is one of the primary problems and disconnects we modern people have with scripture and getting its story straight and right.
Let's not pretend, shall we?
Getting all of these matters (and more like it) sorted out requires a great deal of time and labor. Some of us have already applied a great deal of time and labor. The man that the Lord used to bring me in from the cold on such matters was Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Another man has been Dr. Matthew Bates. There will be others as well who have done a great deal of work and put in the effort to condense the work products of their labor in revealing ancient worldviews. I will stand on their shoulders as best I can and learn what I can from them.
This is not to say that all such men are perfectly correct. They are not. I have already started to identify inconsistencies between them and between them and scripture. The process reveals my own problems and my own fallacies and error. The entire matter is a process of muddy and unclear water that is getting the dirt filtered out of it over time and much labor and work applied to the process.
However—herein lays a matter of great importance to share with you: My labor is learning from such people and applying my own labor in stripping off my own filters to get to the original thought, worldview, and context of scripture has been rewarded with lifechanging ferocity! The Lord has been gracious to me in the effort, giving me the time and the support I needed and still need. The outcome has been nothing short of miraculously life-changing towards making me more like him and becoming stalwart in my own personal loyalty to him in all things—especially my labor towards my fellow human beings, both the household of faith and that of rescuing those still trapped in the world and sin.
Brief summation
There is a lot that was known and held by those of the OT and NT eras of so long ago. Worldviews and concepts that have been lost over the centuries. We can get it back, but to do so requires a radical shift in our thinking, especially the dispelling of our mental training and filters of culture and poor advice of the people who trained us. We do well to put off such things, and pick them back up one at a time asking, "Is this true? How do I know? Let me investigate!"
One of the most intriguing and honest moments I encountered with Dr. Mike Heiser was when he confessed his own testimony of how his training had been that of filters through which he viewed scripture and the day those filters and scales fell from his eyes and he read his bible again for the very first time. As he said, it wasn't a sales slogan to get you to buy his books. It was the reality of a watershed moment in his life that could be shared by the rest of us. I can personally attest to you that my experience has been the same as a result of what he shared and wrote, by the providence of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord and King!
Won't you come along?