Significance of Names in the Bible

In biblical times, a name often had a significance far deeper than that of a mere personal label.

1. A name was given by a person in a position of authority, Ge 2:18 ff.

2. The giving of a name signified the appointment of the person to a specific function or relationship, Ge 35:17-18.

3. The giving of a name sometimes expressed a hope, Ge 29:32-35, or prophecy, Ho 1:4.

4. Often, names were given as a result of some circumstance at birth, Ge 10:25 19:22 25:30. In some case, this circumstance was itself prophetic, and described the character of the person to be, Ge 25:26.

5. When a person gives his name to another, this signifies their joining to each other in the closest unity, Isa 4:1 De 28:9-10.

6. In the NT, to ‘baptise into the name’ signifies identification, new ownership, union, loyalty, and fellowship.

7. The Scripture, the name frequently stands for the person himself, and the idea of total personal extinction is expressed by ‘cutting off’, ‘destroying’, ‘taking away’, or ‘blotting out’, the name. To ’forget’ the name is to forget the person, Jer 23:27.

8. God’s name often stands for his manifested attributes. Thus, his name is holy, because he is holy. To declare God’s name is to tell of his character and deeds, Ps 22:22; cf Mt 6:9.

9. God’s name is often suggestive of his active presence, 1Ki 18:24.

10. To go or speak in someone’s name is to go or speak with his authority – as if he were personally present and active.

Satire in the Bible

We tend to think of satire as a rather modern thing.  The 21st century, however, does not have a monopoly on stupidity, and therefore does not have a monopoly on the use of satire as a means to expose that stupidity.

Satire has three main elements: a target, a vehicle, and an implied against which the target is criticised.  Satire s often accompanied by a comical or mocking tone.

The flaws of biblical characters are often exposed satirically.  Satire also occur frequently in the Wisdom literature, where human follies such as greed, laziness are regular targets.

Satire occurs particularly often in the writings of the prophets, as a means of pronouncing God’s judgment on evil.  The Book of Amos is full of satire.

The Gospels contain much satire.  Religious hypocrites such as the Pharisees, are portrayed with satrical scorn.  The speeches of Jesus are frequently satirical (Matthew 23, for example), as are the parables.

The ‘great masterpiece’ of biblical satire is the book of Jonah. This writer attacks the kind of Jewish nationalism that refused to accept the universality of God’s grace.  The protagonist of the story upholds the very qualities the writer is holding to up satirical ridicule.  There is orinical humour in the ignomious behaviour of the wayward prophet.

Based on The Origin of the Bible (ed P.W. Comfort)

How (not) to interpret the Book of Revelation

I’ve suggested before that some of High Ross’ attempts to harmonise science and Scripture are unconvincing.

In my view, he threatens to brings the Bible into disrepute by imposing interpretative schemes that are untenable.  He writes:

My interpretative approach is to identify a passage in Revelation…as symbolic only it its implied symbol is used and defined elsewhere in the Bible or if certain words within the context clearly indicate that the author intended something other than a literal meaning.

Why The Universe Is The Way It Is, 196

We all know that the interpretation of book of Revelation is fraught with problems.  But Ross, it seems to me, has taken a wrong turn as soon as he gets down the driveway, and so he ends up in completely the wrong place.  Here, for example, is his attempt to subject the description of the New Jerusalem in Rev 21 to a ’scientific’ explanation:-

The walls of the New Jerusalem are said to be 216 feet (66 metres) thick.  The city’s length, width, and height measure 1,380 miles (2,220 kilometres) each.  The city has corners, implying that it is an enormous structure in the shape of a cube or perhaps a pyramid.  Thus, some kind of spacial dimensionality (or its equivalent) must exist in the new creation.  But gravity, mass, or both, at least as we know them, will not exist.  (Gravity turns all massive bodies larger than about 300 miles or 500 kilometres in diameter into spherical shapes).

Why The Universe Is The Way It Is, 197

On Spiritualising

To ’spiritualise’ is to assign a unwarranted spiritual meaning to a biblical text.

Graeme Goldsworthy gives, as one example, the following anecdote, in which a Christian teacher was attempting to expound 1 Samuel 17:40-51 (the story of David and Goliath):-

The fellow dressed up as Goliath had progressively revealed a list of childhood sins by peeling card-board strips off his breastplate one by one, as the speaker explained the kind of ‘Goliaths’ we all have to meet.  Then a strapping young David appeared on cue, and produced his arsenal – a sling labelled ‘faith’ and five stones listed as ‘obedience’, ’service’, ‘Bible-reading’, ‘prayer’, and ‘fellowship.  (G. Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, 10)

Five Rules of Biblical Hermeneutics

According to E.J. Carnell, in The Case for Orthodox Theology, pp 53-65, the following five rules govern Biblical hermeutics.

How our view of the gospel affects our reading of Scripture

Chris Tilling puts it well, I think: our understanding of what Scripture means is very much influenced by our understanding of what the gospel is.

‘Maximal Conservatism’

It occurs to me that theological liberalism reached the height of its influence in the period leading up to 1977.  In fact, Alister McGrath makes a comment to this effect in his biography of J.I. Packer, To Know and Serve God, p212.  In that year two books were published by SCM Press which seemed finally to demonstrate that liberalism was, in the end, an impoverished, negative, destructive influence that was incapable of serving the purpose of Christ in this or any other generation.  (This is not, of course, to tar all liberals with the same brush: happily, many and are were inconsistent liberals and hold on to elements of orthodox biblical faith despite themselves.)

The Post-Evangelical – 8

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 8 of the The Post-Evangelical, by Dave Tomlinson, asks a ’straightforward’ question: what is a post-evangelical view of the Bible?

First, Tomlinson feels that there is a need to ‘exorcise’ the ghost of inerrancy.  He finds it incredible that anyone thinks it even plausible to believe in such a thing.

Satire

I was interested to read the following account of how, and how much, satire is present in the biblical writings:-

Interpretation of Old Testament Narratives

Over 40% of the OT is in the form of narrative.  In common with all narratives, OT narrative has characters and plots.  The most important character is God himself.  The plot may be read at three different levels.

Figures of Speech

It’s illuminating to note that the same kinds of figures of speech that occur in everyday speech and general literature are also to be found in Scripture.  Examples:-

Christ the Theme of Scripture

“Keep still Jesus Christ in your eye, in the perusal of the Scriptures, as the end, scope and substance thereof: what are the whole Scriptures, but as it were the spiritual swaddling clothes of the holy child Jesus?”  So wrote Isaac Andrews many years ago.  He goes on to outline various ways in which Christ is the key-note of all Scripture:-