Consider how important your own personal background is to your worldview. Your upbringing, social context, experiences, and environment all combine to shape your unique perspective. Just like we all have a background that affects how we communicate, so too does the OT have a historical context that affects how it is interpreted.
Answer the following questions:
- Based on your reading and the lectures in Session 1, what do you see as the most important contextual issues that affect how we read the OT?
- How is the context of the OT different from your own?
- What do you think is a more authentic interpretive method: approaching the text with a preconceived notion (eisegesis) or allowing the text to speak for itself (exegesis)? Why?
- Do we have the right to overturn the original author’s intent?
Support your response by referencing the text, lectures, and specific scriptures.
