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Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture QUOTES

Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture QUOTES

1 " Pastors and Bible teachers go about their work in communal settings, where they listen to as well as deliver sermons, hear as well as speak, and gain biblical insights from their parishioners as much as they pass them on. "

― Peter J. Leithart , Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture

2 " Dancing is forbidden to Christians. Isn’t it suggestive that the word ballet comes from the Greek ballo, which is also the origin of diabolos, “devil”?8 "

― Peter J. Leithart , Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture

3 " Texts are musical in that they take time, and the time texts take is musical time. The time of music and the time of texts always involve reaching for the next moment. Music is always moving toward the next note, and we are always reading beyond the individual word. Each sentence compels us to move forward; each paragraph carries us along to the denouement. "

― Peter J. Leithart , Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture

4 " Would we be satisfied with a historical explanation that, taking note of Rome’s interest in the Middle East or the coincidence of gunpowder warfare with the transformation of European society, simply said, “that’s just the way it is”? Would we be satisfied with a scientist who presented data without any attempt to demonstrate a pattern in the carpet? We expect more from historical and scientific explanation. But when it comes to literary explanation, many abandon this expectation and are satisfied with a “that’s the way it is” explanation. This is not interpretation, and it is not good reading. "

― Peter J. Leithart , Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture

5 " The Bible is closer to poetry than to a scientific manual, and the biblical writers’ use of words is more like that of poets than of linguists or scientists. "

― Peter J. Leithart , Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture

6 " Context enables us to determine which of several meanings is in play in a particular text. The verb in “I see” means something quite different if uttered by a formerly blind man healed with spittle and dust, by a student who has just received an extended explanation of a difficult mathematical theorem, or by a skeptical wife whose husband offers a lame explanation for the lipstick on his collar. In the first context, see refers to physical sight, while in the latter two it refers to understanding, and in the last it could hardly be said without a heap of sarcasm. "

― Peter J. Leithart , Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture