 Okay, let's just continue from where we stopped. So we're looking at the challenges in translation. Okay, sorry, I'm just going to have to stop presenting and restart. Okay, so the last challenge is the literary gap. So the way things were written at those times. So now when we are writing, we have certain rules for if you're writing poetry, you follow a certain rhythm, rhyme, those kinds of rules if you're writing in English or if you're writing in a different language. In the same way in the Bible, when there is style, say, if it's poetry in the Psalms, there are rules for how poetry was written and it may be different from the rules that we would follow in the languages that we are reading in, right? So to understand that there are those kinds of differences as well. So if we read the Psalms, we're not going to see the same kind of rhymes, the words ending in the same way or a meter that is similar to what we are used to. The parables, for example, as well, it's a style that was familiar to the people, the Jews, it was used as a technique for teaching. And so understanding that the stories were not meant to be taken literally, right? So understanding what was the style of writing, what was the genre in which it was written. So genre is, is it a letter? Is it poetry? Is it a story or narrative? Is it a biography? What kind of writing is it? And those rules that they had for writing at that time would be slightly different from what we have today. So again, with ancient biography, they're writing the story of somebody, they're writing the story in the Gospels of Jesus, but they are not, they don't strictly have to follow a chronological order of this happened after this, after this, after this. They're telling the story of Jesus' ministry, but how they present it may be based on what they consider is important. So like we said in Matthew, he groups the teachings together, he groups the parables together, whereas Luke follows a more chronological order of writing, where he's writing from the birth to the death resurrection. And even within Jesus' ministry, writing what happened in a specific order of time, he's following a chronological order. So understanding that there is also that gap in our understanding of how things should be written, what rules are required in writing, all of that. So we see here in 2 Timothy 2.15, Paul writes to Timothy and he gives him the instruction to rightly divide the word. If we can just, someone can read that for us, 2 Timothy 2.15. 2 Timothy 2.15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Thank you. So part of our role as people who are serving God is to do our work with excellence, right? To do our work with staying true to what scripture teaches. And so Paul's instruction to Timothy is correctly handle the word of God so that you won't need to be ashamed when you stand before God, right? And what does it mean to rightly divide the word? So the Greek word there, ortho tomunta, is to cut straight or to dissect correctly, to handle something correctly, to teach truth correctly, to stay on the right path and to follow what is right in the way we are interpreting scripture. So that for us continues to be something that we need to practice. And if someone can read Acts 17 to 10 to 12 for us please. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish snago. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Thank you. So we talked about this earlier, right? So we have the responsibility not only to receive from people who have a deeper understanding of the word, but then we also should be examining scriptures ourselves. So if we see here in this Berean example, they were going back. It was Paul teaching them Paul who knows the Old Testament, who has learned it was studied it and is teaching them. But they are going back to check what he's teaching to make sure that it is right. They're not going just by his qualifications and saying, okay, because he is so well. He has studied so much. He knows so much. We don't have to go back and search for ourselves. They don't do that. They themselves go and study and what is the result we see in verse 12. As a result, many of them believed. So it is through their receiving of what he was saying, examining it for themselves, proving the truth of what he was saying for themselves that they came to faith. So for us to follow that personally and to encourage others to do that, even when we are teaching others, we encourage them to also go back to scripture and examine it for themselves. They don't have to follow exactly what we are saying. We don't want them to accept what we're saying blindly. We want them to study the scriptures for themselves to see what we're saying is true. So how do we interpret scripture? So we observe, that is, we look at what is scripture actually saying? What are the words used? What is the message it is communicating? We interpret, we look at what is the meaning of the text. So we go past what is it saying to what does it mean, right? What is the truth it's trying to communicate about who God is, what God wants us to do, about what God is saying about us, who we are. And then the application, how does it apply to me? So if this is true of who God is, how should I be living my life today? If this is true of what God says is expected of me, how can I live that out? How can I live in obedience to that word? What needs to change in my life? Or what do I need to add on to what I'm already doing to be walking in obedience to this word? So we always want to go from looking at the word to applying it in our lives as well. Not only being hearers of the word, but doers also. Okay. We will look at these two passages as well, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Second Timothy. You can go ahead. Second Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 to 17. All scriptures is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. Thank you. And then second Peter 1, 20 to 21. Second Peter 1, 20. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Thank you. So we see here both the aspect of the divine inspiration as well as the human authors. So both of these things need to be taken into account when we are interpreting scripture. And that this has come through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, right? And so like we read in second Peter 1, 20, it's not open to personal interpretation, meaning I can't take this verse and just ascribe my own meaning to that verse based on what I wanted to say or what makes sense to me. I go back to the Holy Spirit and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of the scriptures to me because he's the one who has inspired the writing of the Bible. At the same time, we do understand that it is written by humans to humans, right? So we also take that human aspect into account when we are interpreting and we look more at how we do that both from the divine perspective and the human perspective. And like we looked at in God's worth of medical seed, the Bible reveals God's character, his plans, his standards. So that's what we want to grasp when we're reading scripture. What does this reveal about God? What does this reveal about God's plans for us? What does this reveal about what God wants the world to look like, what God wants our lives to look like? And that's how we should be applying it after we interpret the scriptures. So yeah, we depend on the illumination of the Holy Spirit and at the same time we use our own reasoning, we use our own judgment, right? So we use our minds to understand the word of God. We're not only saying, okay, God is going to reveal this and it's only going to be a spiritual revelation. I don't need to use my mind to understand the language that is being used. I don't need to use any tools that are available to understand the original languages or to look at the culture or the background that is behind the scriptures. All of those things are useful tools that we should employ with dependence on the Holy Spirit. So that's where when we're interpreting scripture, it's again human and divine, right? We put in the effort and we're depending on the Holy Spirit to enable us to understand through those things to get a better understanding of what the word is teaching. So there is a possibility of misinterpreting scripture like we talked about. We look at these two verses, these two examples from scripture, 2nd Corinthians 4-2 and 2nd Peter 3-16. 2nd Corinthians 4-2, but we have re-announced the hidden things of shame, not walking in raftiness nor handling the word of God decidedfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So here we see Paul distinguishing his ministry from the ministry of certain others who are challenging his work in the Corinthian church. And he is saying we've not used deception. We've not tried to distort God's word when we taught you. We taught you honestly, we taught you the truth of the gospel, we taught you the truth of God's word. This was because the other people who were coming in were doing those things. They were distorting the word, they were deceiving the people. So misinterpretation can happen by people intentionally where they are preaching what sounds good to them, what suits their own desires, their own needs, what pleases the people. They don't want to preach the truth of God's word for their own selfish reasons. It's not something that they have misunderstood and misinterpreted, but they've intentionally wrongly interpreted the word and wrongly taught the word to people for their own benefit. We'll just look at 2nd Peter 316 as well. 2nd Peter 316 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures. So here in 2nd Peter 316, it's not very clear whether these people are doing it intentionally or unintentionally because it says they're ignorant and unstable, but they are misinterpreting not only for all's letters, they're also misinterpreting other parts of scripture. So some people do it intentionally, some people do it without knowing because they lack knowledge. So their lack of knowledge may be something that they have not taken the time to study the Word of God or it may be that they are new believers or they just don't have the training that is required to teach. So for somebody who has just come to faith and is very enthusiastic about their faith and wants to go and tell other people, they may not have a full understanding of the truth of scripture and so they'll teach based on their knowledge. So these are times where a lack of knowledge can lead to misinterpretation or wrong teaching of the Bible. So we need to be first examine our own hearts, our intentions about when we are interpreting this Word, are we going to it with honesty for ourselves and for the people? Are we going to preach this honestly to them even if it is something that is hard for them to hear? Even if we know that it's something they are not going to like, are we going to be true to the Word of God? And then the second thing is, have we studied this scripture sufficiently? Have we put in the time to look at it in the rest of the scriptures, this passage and the truth of passage? Have we looked at it in the rest of scriptures? Have we used resources available to us to interpret the scripture correctly so that when we are teaching, we know that what we are teaching is true. And we always do this with the witness of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit confirming in us the truth of scripture and affirming that what we are teaching is in line with what is God's will, what is actually true that God wants to communicate. So we look at one thing that Martin Luther said. So in the Reformation, there was a big shift from the church being the ultimate authority to scripture being the ultimate authority. Until the Reformation, the leaders of the church were the ones who told people what scripture said. So whatever they interpreted, the people followed. If they misinterpreted scripture, then people followed whatever they were teaching because people didn't have access to the Bible for themselves. But in the Reformation is where people, priests themselves who were studying the word of God said there's so much wrong teaching that's happening in the church. It's not what scripture is saying. And so they started to emphasize the word of God over the authority of the church. And they said the word of God should have the most importance, should have highest importance. And we should be walking in obedience to the word of God, not in obedience to the interpretation that is coming from church leaders. So Martin Luther, of course, was a major, was used by God in the Reformation. And so one thing that he said is the scriptures are to be retained in their simplest meaning to be understood in their grammatical and literal sense unless the context plainly forbids it. So what does that mean? We take the most simple meaning. We don't try to make the scriptures more complicated than it needs to be. We don't try to say, OK, if the scripture is saying, love your neighbor, we don't go into, OK, what is it trying to say about? It also explains who your neighbor is. It scriptures very clear about what love is. We don't try to add meaning to that, right? We take it as simply as the Bible gives it to us. Love your neighbor is to follow the commandments of God, to walk in obedience to the word of God and to care for those around us, the people around us who are hurting. It's a very simple passage, right? But we will take it in its grammatical and literal sense. So if we're looking at the Psalms, we know it's poetry and it's using a lot of pictorial language. So we don't have to take it in its literal sense. But if we're looking at the Gospels or we're looking at the Epistles, those are things that are written in plain language that need to be understood in that way. We don't have to add any outside meaning. We don't have to say, OK, Paul was trying to say something else. He just used these words, but he's trying to say something else. And we don't add our own meaning to the scriptures. We just take it in the literal sense that it was written in. If there are obscure passages, they should be understood in light of clearer passages. So sometimes there are passages that are hard to understand. So we take those hard to understand passages and we look at passages that are easier to understand that talk about the same thing. Or we look at the context within which it's written in that chapter or in that book. And all of that helps us understand the passage which may be difficult to interpret for one reason or another. Then Martin Luther continues to say, scripture is its own interpreter. This is the true method of interpretation which puts scripture alongside of scripture in a right and proper way. So our first method of interpretation will be to look at the rest of scripture, to look at the immediate context of a verse within a chapter, a chapter within the book of the Bible. And we see how do we understand that verse or how do we understand that chapter within its immediate context. And then we understand it within the context of the larger scriptures. Scripture itself helps us understand. We don't have to go to an outside source a lot of the time. What is in scripture will help us understand. Now for to understand the culture and background, we may need to look at outside sources. But our first source should be looking at scripture itself and looking at how it helps us understand the verse. Okay, so we talked about the Bible being a divine book and the Bible being a human book. As a divine book, it is inherent. That means everything that scripture teaches is true because it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Nothing in scripture can be said to be false teaching or wrong teaching. Everything in it is truth. Everything in it is authoritative. That is we live in obedience to that word of God because it establishes the right way of living. It establishes righteousness and justice. And we consider that as the standard by which we live. The whole of scripture is unified. That is there are no contradictions in scripture. There have been lots of people who have questioned passages within the Bible saying one passage contradicts the other passage. But the way we interpret that is to look at the whole of scripture. Understand what is scripture teaching about women in ministry. Paul is saying women shouldn't speak in the church in one place. And another place he's talking about women being leaders in the church. Then we don't say, oh, Paul is contradicting himself. We recognize that he was speaking in a specific context and two specific people saying women shouldn't speak in church. And we look at the rest of scripture's teaching on women in ministry. And that's how we understand what does scripture say about women's role in the church or women in ministry. And like what Martin Luther talks about, obscure passages be understood in light of passages that are clearer and more easily understood. And if there are two different interpretations of a passage that it could be understood in two different ways, take what is most simple, what is most clear or most sensible in the way we interpret. Take that meaning. Don't take some meaning that you're trying to put to the passage from outside. Progressive revelation. So some commands changed over time. So where one thing is said, do certain things in the Old Testament, Jesus has changed those things in the New Testament, rules with regard to food, things like that. So recognizing that that is not a contradiction. That is because of this progressive revelation of who God is his character, what is important to him. All of those things, as we get a greater understanding of it, then things change. Some commands become less important and some things become more important. Or we understand the true meaning of a certain commandment. Like Jesus said, he didn't come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. So we understand the true meaning of the law when we look at Jesus' life in ministry. So that is the progressive revelation through scripture. And then the Bible as a divine book is supernatural. This is everything we talked about in God's worth of medical seed. So expecting God to move powerfully through his word. The Bible as a human book. So we see the use of language, grammar that was familiar to the people who were reading and writing at that time in their specific contexts. There's a historical geographical context. There's the culture that it was written in. There's a literary form. So like we talked about the different genres that are there. It takes on a specific literary form. And there's a use of logic and communication both in the person's writing and in the way we interpret. So we take both of these aspects, right? The divine and the human into consideration. Another reformer, John Calvin, he said it's the first business of an interpreter to let his author say what he does say instead of attributing to him what he think he ought to say. What does this mean? It means when we are studying scripture, we look at what was the person, what was the Holy Spirit, what was the original author trying to say in this passage. We don't think, okay, this is what he should say. So for example, if we are looking at head covering and I'm going to a passage of scripture and I believe that we should not cover our heads, right? So when I'm looking at the passage in scripture, women should not cover their heads. Men should keep their heads uncovered. That's my belief. Then when I'm interpreting the scripture, I shouldn't read everything in line with what I already believe. I need to let the scripture speak to what I believe and to tell me, should I be covering my head? Should I not be covering my head? Based on what the scripture says, then I apply it to my life. So I don't take my own interpretation and then go start reading scripture and try to make scripture say what I wanted to say. I let scripture say what it says and then I change the way I live in accordance to what is being said in the Bible. Okay, so this is a quite detailed look at the different versions of scripture. So we have a lot of English translations so we're specifically looking at why do we have so many English translations. So we have translations that are based on original manuscripts that were in the original language. A manuscript, what is a manuscript? It is a handwritten document that was written. We don't have the original manuscripts, but it was one that was copied. So the original manuscripts would be copied by scribes. And so we have handwritten copies of the letters that were written or the scriptures that were written by the original writers. There were copies made and manuscripts are the copies of those translations that were made by peoples. They're handwritten. Okay, so we have 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. We have 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in other languages. All of these manuscripts contribute to our translations in English. So we go back to these manuscripts, look at what they were saying. We try to find the earliest manuscripts, try to find agreement between the manuscripts when translations of the Bible are being made. Manuscripts were generally written on parchment, which was made from animal skin or papyrus. Papyrus is made from a plant that is woven together. It's dried and woven together and it's made into sheets and then people used to write on those papyrus. So there are 1,276 New Testament papyrus, which is the plural of papyrus. The oldest papyrus fragment is in England. It's called the P52 fragment and dates as early as AD 100 to 150. So within the lifetime of many people who would have witnessed Jesus' ministry, AD 100 to 150. So this is just a picture of that first, the earliest manuscript and it has John 1831 to 33 and 37 to 38 on it. It's a tiny piece of papyrus and it has writing on both sides of it. On one side is John 1831 to 33 on the other side is verses 37 to 38. It's written in Greek and this was found in Egypt. The script was found in Egypt. So the manuscripts that are in existence, we have, like we said, there are thousands of manuscripts available. They've been grouped into two kinds, two families. So one family is where there is a majority of agreement between the manuscripts. So what all is being said in these manuscripts agrees with the other manuscripts. And so they've made one family of manuscripts like that, which is called the Byzantine text type or also the majority text. The other is the Alexandrian text type. Also called Neutral or Egyptian text and this is based on the earliest manuscript. So it's going by date rather than agreement between the texts. It's looking at which was the earliest manuscript and translators will either use the Byzantine family of texts or the Alexandrian family when they're translating. So they'll either go by the majority text or they look at the earliest manuscripts and try to translate based on the earliest manuscripts. So this is some of the methods of translation. Some people will not even have so many distinctions between translations. They look at word for word, thought for thought, and meaning for meaning. So this is a few more word for word and thought for thought being balanced between each other and a paraphrase so that all of these ways of translating scripture will look more into this I think next week just to give us more time to explain each form of translation. And this is a picture you'll have in your textbook of translations that can fall in the word for word translation method versus a paraphrase method. So basically this scale is from a word for word where our passage is translated literally where the word is taken from the Hebrew or Greek and you're trying to find an exact equal word in the English language on the other side. And they also try to keep the word order the same. So if the word comes first in Hebrew that English word also will be used first. Then the next word whatever is there in Hebrew the next word will be the same in English. They'll try to keep it in the same order. We'll go into examples and all of that next week. So from a word for word is where they're strictly following the original language and trying to keep that original language word and order of words and sentence formation the same in English. Whereas a paraphrase would be on the other end of the spectrum being they're just taking the meaning of the text and trying to communicate it to the hearers in a way that is easily understandable to them. So they may change the number of words used they'll completely use different language just to communicate what was the original writing trying to say but to make it in a way that is easily understandable for the readers. So an example of the paraphrase on the far end is the message Bible. Now he still depended on the original Hebrew and Greek when translation was being done. Everyone is going back to the original languages to translate. But their method of translating from the original language to the English varies depending on how much importance they're giving to each word and how they communicate that word whether they communicate the meaning of the word or they communicate the meaning of the message of that word depends on the translators. We'll look more at this next week so we can go into it in more detail. So we'll take a break a little early and come back in about 20 minutes for the next class. Thank you.