Ben Byerly has posted a tricky little survey to test your ability to interpret Scripture. This is an excellent test and I encourage you to take it since it will make you think about how we interpret and apply Scripture (very often unevenly).
We are asked to do the following:
“Vote” for each verse: A, B, or C.
“A” means “universal and transcultural,”
“B” means “Christians don’t agree”
“C” means “Cultural and not for Christians today.”
Here are the first five (of 39) verses:
- ‘God. . . said to them [Adam and Eve], ‘Be fruitful and increase in Number’ ” (Gen 1:28).
- ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut 6:5).
- ‘When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce. . . you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow” (Deut 26: 12).
- “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (l Cor 16:20).
- “Women should remain silent in the churches” (l Cor 14:34).
My answer was always D. Check out the comments on his post to see why.
[...] David Ker draws attention to a (sort-of) hermeneutical quiz that offers you the opportunity of answering each question A, B, or C. David rightly answers D, although I’m not quite sure that his “D” and my “D” are exactly the same. [...]
Universally applicable “as is” is one end of the spectrum; totally cultural, “for that time only” is the other end. Scot McKnight (sorry I couldn’t find the link) had the ABC choices. B probably intended to get at your D – somewhere between the two extremes of “keep it all” and “it was for that time only” i.e both cultural and applicable. The big debates in B or D (if you prefer) are “how much is cultural?” and “how much is totally applicable?” or “applicable in what way?”.
The bigger question for me isn’t so much your answer to each specific reference, but WHY. What overarching principles do you use to decide which commands you will follow in total or how much you modify (re-contextualize) them – especially when it comes to many of the New Testament references. The hermeneutic criteria one uses for one passage frequently leads to problems elsewhere.
This is no doubt why Webb has this test at the beginning of his book. You have to ask how and WHY.