Archives For Secondary Illuminations

The Most Beautiful Daughters—or Bride—in All the Land

Deborah J. Shore —  May 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

(following comprises the final installation of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

In our last post, we noticed that Job as a type of Christ receives a double portion of all he had before his suffering and passes this on to both his sons and daughters.  The Bible describes Job’s daughters as the most beautiful women of the land. Since the adjective used is rooted in being “bright,” “resplendent” might be a fitting poetic translation. The Bride shines with clarity and glory and all else that exists in God’s Light.

Could it be that our relational trials actually facilitate the conception, beautification, and birth of the most resplendent Bride in the land? Our shock at the pain stills us and creates moments for intimacy and formation. It provokes us to push with the anguish of intercession that Paul likened to labor (Galatians 4:19).
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Job’s Offspring

Deborah J. Shore —  May 12, 2012 — 2 Comments

(The following comprises Part Fifteen of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

The story of Job has encouraged me in the face of losses, traumas, and trials.  For the purposes of this series, the book of Job is a useful stopping point for considering how numbers and names may hold secondary illumination significance.

I imagine most of us are familiar with Job’s story of loss—of belongings, children, health, and all truly supportive relationships. One of the first things to note is that some Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament correspond to Job. (E.g., Job 2:12 and Isaiah 52:14-15 or Job 19:13-15, 19-20; 6:27; 16:10-13 and Isaiah 53:3; Psalm 22:6, 12-18.) Job foreshadows the Man of Suffering, Christ, making it all the more apropos that Job’s story might inform how the Bride of Christ is birthed and beautified. I even find a surprising congruence between Job’s obnoxious friends and the gifts of the magi who attended Jesus as a young child.  Job’s friends may have actually enriched him through the pain that they caused him. But that is a whole different musing. Here we will focus upon the final outcome. Namely, even as God favors the children of the Man of Suffering, God uniquely favors Job’s children—the children whom Job would yet birth from out of his suffering.
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Secondary Illuminations in Psalm 68:15-16

Deborah J. Shore —  April 21, 2012 — 3 Comments

(The following comprises Part Fourteen of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

Last week we briefly considered Psalm 68:11-13.  Psalm 68 is rich in allusions, and those verses hold particular encouragements for women.  Now we’ll look at vv. 15-16 in a manner that builds on the encouragements of vv. 11-13.  You may decide if I am over-reaching in my use of secondary illumination hermeneutics or if the Scriptures are hereby opened up appropriately.  Luke’s blog on the “unconscious” intentions of Bible authors may be helpful in sorting this out (found here).

By way of background, Matthew Henry suggests that Moses’ blessing upon the placement of the ark in Numbers 10:35 is the source of the opening lines of this psalm of rest and victory and that this might indicate that David composed Psalm 68 upon moving the ark into its tent after military rest had come to the nation.[1]  This could be significant as we consider v. 16.
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Secondary Illuminations in Psalm 68:11-13

Deborah J. Shore —  April 14, 2012 — Leave a comment

(The following comprises Part Thirteen of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture. Deborah asked that readers consult the the NASB rather than the ESV for this one; it seems the ESV is favoring the LXX over the MT for this Psalm)

I’ve talked much about negative examples of secondary illuminations without providing substantive ostensibly positive examples.  I can’t let myself off the hook quite that easily.

Psalm 68 is an important psalm containing loud echoes of its past and future.  Most notable of these are (A) the Christological quotation of Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8-12 wherein the battle loot of old is now seen as the gifting of the church with leaders who equip the people to operate in God’s graces and (B) Psalm 68’s close inspirational link (Psalm 68:7-8) to the song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:4-5.  See also Psalm 68:12 and Judges 5:19, 30; Psalm 68:13 and Judges 5:16; Psalm 68:18 and Judges 5:12; Psalm 68:21 and Judges 5:26; Psalm 68:27 and Judges 5:14, 18 and the presence of the chariots so important to Deborah’s story in Psalm 68:17.
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A Final “How” before Some “What’s”

Deborah J. Shore —  March 31, 2012 — 10 Comments

(The following comprises Part Twelve of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

I believe that only when our handling of the Living Word grants it both the space to breathe and an environment in which it can retain its shape, will our stewardship be healthy and maximize its power to multiply in sustenance.  So I have grown unashamed in my support for secondary illuminations even as I try to learn more about how to be responsible with their hermeneutics.

As I hope I’ve made clear by now, when I indulge in secondary illuminations, I am trying to keep a good handle on the historical and geographical facts and to honor those literal and metaphorical interpretations and spiritual applications which are already broadly recognized for the passages I reference.  I would hope that when I present a teaching, those who are leery of my hermeneutical approach would find ample reason to believe that I fully respect the Word and its orthodox intents even if they feel I err on some points in my extrapolations.
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The Dangers of “Enthusiasm”—Example Three

Deborah J. Shore —  March 24, 2012 — 6 Comments

(The following comprises Part Eleven of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

My final negative example comes from a young friend who is developing a corrective prophetic voice.  He was thrilled to happen upon Job 32:7-10:

“I thought, ‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’  But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty that gives him understanding.  It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.  Therefore I say: Listen to me; I too will tell what I know.” (NIV)

In a classic secondary illumination error that is based, as many of them are, upon not heeding the rules of sound primary interpretations, my friend took this as a true sentiment and a personal encouragement.  The problem is that in this passage’s context young Elihu the Buzite is preparing to light into Job, purportedly speaking for God.  He will shortly be seen to be an arrogant young man—zealous, but zealous in part for the wrong ideas and thus redoubling their wrongness. Continue Reading…

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The Dangers of “Enthusiasm”—Example Two

Deborah J. Shore —  March 17, 2012 — 1 Comment

(The following comprises Part Ten in the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations in Scripture.)

This error is a radical misinterpretation of the book of Hosea.

In a secondary illumination mistake that probably builds on some of the same attitudes as the one described in Part Nine, I’ve known several women who have married men whom they knew were immature and even abusive, men who were apt to keep them from what some of these women had formerly perceived to be their own callings.  They married these men precisely because they believed God wanted them to make a self-sacrifice in line with Hosea’s sacrifice in marrying the unrepentant prostitute Gomer.  And, no, they weren’t looking for excuses to marry some guy they had a crush on.  These women were rightly repulsed by their men’s behaviors and even their general persons before marriage, sometimes received family encouragements (even on the wedding day) to call it off, cried in some instances through their honeymoons (and many a night thereafter), and have struggled to varying degrees to live with any peace of mind in sometimes abusive and certainly very painful situations that they still believe God called them to for mysterious reasons beyond their comprehension. Continue Reading…

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The Dangers of “Enthusiasm”—Example One

Deborah J. Shore —  March 10, 2012 — 3 Comments

(The following comprises Part Nine of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

Over the next three blogs, I’ll give you three instances I’ve run across recently where our secondary illuminations of Scripture have gone awry.

Sometimes secondary illuminations gone awry are not even acknowledged to be secondary but are treated as or believed to be the primary, literal read of a passage.  Such is the case when passages like Proverbs 5:8-10 and 31:3-4 which refer to losing one’s strength or riches as a result of adultery and similar lifestyle choices are not acknowledged to refer to the eventual ramifications and vulnerability inherent in prodigal living.  Instead they are thought to refer to abdicating a particular male role and deferring it to women. Continue Reading…

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Regarding Language and Location

Deborah J. Shore —  March 4, 2012 — Leave a comment

(The following comprises Part Eight of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

I do believe that God can be and was so exacting in choosing the original languages (insofar as they are available to us in the earliest critical manuscripts we possess) and locations as to consider names and places a potential conduit for secondary illuminations.  Otherwise, He would be a smaller God than I can envision.

We need to be careful when referencing Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, however, not to assume that all definitions of a word apply to the instance at hand.  Context and tense often determine a much narrower range than the lists offered us.  Additionally, some dictionaries list any old way the word has been interpreted by Bible translators, even if experts might know better today.  Checking multiple English translations, cautiously aware that translation committees are sometime operating under their own biases, may sometimes help as much as the Greek and Hebrew lexicons. Continue Reading…

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The Dangers of “Enthusiasm”

Deborah J. Shore —  February 25, 2012 — Leave a comment

(The following comprises Part seven of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

I do not believe John Locke would be inclined toward the spiritual senses that Aquinas has described (see Part Four) whatsoever, but his discourse on Enthusiasm (Chapter XIX of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding) nonetheless contains some valuable checks that can be applied to our evaluation of Scripture and theology.  The following comments on the study of physical nature versus what we perceive to be divine revelation are worth applying to the literal or primary senses of Scriptures versus the secondary illuminations: Continue Reading…

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The Reformation through Julicher

Deborah J. Shore —  February 11, 2012 — 3 Comments

(The following comprises Part Six of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

With the Reformation, changes in hermeneutical predilections were abreast: “Martin Luther (1483-1546) repudiated the fourfold sense of scripture and viewed the allegorizers as ‘clerical jugglers performing monkey tricks.’”  However, Luther was inconsistent in his personal application of this complaint “in that he tended to allegorize the parables and find in them examples of the doctrine of justification by faith,” propagating that which he had protested (p. 48, Robert H. Stein, The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings).  Like Luther, Calvin (1509-64) would comment, “We ought to have a deeper reverence for Scripture than to reckon ourselves at liberty to disguise its natural meaning,” and would refer to the allegorizing of the early church as “idle fooleries” (48-49, ibid.).

Luther and Calvin’s teachings did not occur in a box.  Apart from Catholicism, there were competing contemporary movements that never received the favor of the state.  However, I am skipping over the earliest Anabaptists here, in part because their theology was never systematically chronicled due, I assume, to the large numbers in which they were slaughtered.  They certainly valued a literal, plain read as still evidenced today in legacy movements where women wear headcoverings and as evidenced in their own day by the egalitarian and pacifist communes for which they were hated as a threat to the stability of their stratified, war-prone societies.  They also had mystical arms.
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Aquinas on Literal Sense and Spiritual Sense

Deborah J. Shore —  February 4, 2012 — Leave a comment

(The following comprises Part Five of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

Since Thomas Aquinas represents the apex of the scholastic Church age, it is interesting to poke around to see how he handled interpretation.  In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas examines the nature of Scripture and whether or not it is open to layers of meaning.  His concern is that “many different senses in one text produce confusion and deception and destroy all force of argument.”  He is encouraged amid this valid objection to reflect that, “Gregory says: Holy Scripture by the manner of its speech transcends every science, because in one and the same sentence, while it describes a fact, it reveals a mystery.”

Aquinas concludes that there is a “spiritual sense, which is based on the literal, and presupposes it,” a sense that can be divided between allegorical, moral, and analogical possibilities.  Moreover, Continue Reading…

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The Infamous Good Samaritan

Deborah J. Shore —  January 28, 2012 — 1 Comment

(The following comprises Part Four of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture.)

“Infamous,” you say?  “I thought he was a role model.”  Well, yes.  But the way some have read his story has disappointed many critics.  The Good Samaritan parable, more than most, has been allegorized by the Church down through the ages in ways which are now widely rejected as irresponsible hermeneutics.

Every detail of the story was given special meanings by the readers; indeed, these special meanings kept accumulating over time.  Here is a list of Augustine’s allegorizations taken from Robert H. Stein’s The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings (p. 46; see more):
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An Early Christian History of Hermeneutics, Part Two

Deborah J. Shore —  January 21, 2012 — 11 Comments

(The following comprises Part Three of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture by Deborah J. Shore)

Last week we started discussing Alexandrian hermeneutics.  Why would Alexandrians follow Philo so far away from the core of the text as modern minds perceive it?

One might imagine Alexandrians sought to emulate the apostle Paul and other writers of Scripture as they reinterpreted and applied various Old Testament texts in ways never imagined by the original hearers.  The writer of Hebrews’ attention to Melchizedek in chapters 5-7 was novel as was Paul’s allegorization of Hagar in Galatians 4.  Another notable passage that resists summary is 1 Corinthians 10:1-4: Continue Reading…

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An Early Christian History of Hermeneutics, Part One

Deborah J. Shore —  January 14, 2012 — 8 Comments

(The following comprises Part Two of the Saturday series on Secondary Illuminations of Scripture by Deborah J. Shore)

In the early centuries of the Church two of the most influential theological centers were Alexandria and Antioch in present-day Egypt and Turkey respectively.  The way that theologians in these two cities approached scriptures was rather polarized.  While key doctrines developed or articulated in their early forms by Alexandrian church fathers such as Clement, Origen, and Athanasius have been integral to the faithful Church of proceeding ages, Antiochene hermeneutics have come to rule the day in conservative evangelical churches.

Alexandria’s allegorical-spiritual method of hermeneutics was already established before Christ died on the cross and the Church and its thinkers emerged.  The Jewish scholar Philo, greatly influenced by classical Greek thought, was at its helm, although he was by no means the first Jewish scholar to develop multi-layered mystical traditions surrounding the Torah.  Those go back centuries.
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Secondary Scriptural Illuminations

Deborah J. Shore —  January 7, 2012 — 23 Comments

Chances are, if you have cable you’ve probably happened upon an eyebrow-raising sermon on Christian T.V.  A charismatic speaker was pulling particularly creative meanings out of a biblical text—meanings that you were pretty sure contradicted the contextual import of the passage, contradicted sound theology, or otherwise sounded too baseless and “out there.”

Now let’s say you’re a preacher or a writer or simply a devotee of scripture enjoying the Word at home, and God has been leading you to apparent “buried truths” in some of the stories of the Bible narrative.  You’ve seen the T.V. though.  You shudder thinking what a minefield it must be to try to steward what I will call “secondary illuminations” of scripture rightly.

You’re not sure if it can or should be done.  Forget looking up the meaning of the name of a battle location when it jumps out at you; forget connections you see weaving between disparate parts of the biblical narrative, and forget apparent symbolism when it is not central to the simplest interpretation of a passage as it would have been heard by the original audience.  This simplest interpretation is what I will call the “primary illumination” of the passage.  Insofar as you can figure it out, it’s the most important and safest interpretation.
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