Bob Jones: Introduction To Sacred Scripture

Maddie Galvan

Introduction to Sacred Scripture

Kendall

8 March 2016

Paper 1 - Interpretation of Scripture

Throughout history, the Bible has been used as means of a justification for many issues. In the case of Bob Jones University, the Bible was used as a way to justify discrimination within the school’s admission selection process. By stating that they were only following their religious beliefs through these discriminatory practices, Bob Jones displayed a misinterpretation of Scripture that proves to be problematic. From this case, one can see that many people interpret the Bible fundamentally, and do not take into account the various other factors should influence the way the Bible is examined in this present day and age. There is a clear

These problems include Biblical concepts such as, verbal inerrancy of Scripture, the divinity of Christ, virgin birth, vicarious expiation, and the bodily resurrection (Kendall 1/26). Essentially, Bob Jones took the Bible and its teachings as literal, using a worship approach rather than an analytic approach. True Biblical analysis would require knowledge of the various methods in which to interpret Scripture, such as the historical, source, redaction and literary forms of criticism (Kendall 1/26). Historical criticism provides the context in which the Scripture was written and typically attempts to explain the supernatural events taking place. Meanwhile, source criticism is used to determine from which cultures or civilization folktales, poetry or common stories may have been borrowed from, as this was typical of the Biblical times. Redaction criticism is also important in the way in which it explains the role and intention of the author, and even gives insight into how the text was edited or compiled. Lastly, literary criticism helps us to understand and examine Scripture as we now have it, taking into account any possible changes or hidden

Instead, the Bible is focusing on the idea of sin and punishment, as it is a main theme throughout Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch (Kendall 2/9). God punished Adam and Eve for their sin through banishment, He punished humanity for their sin through the flood, and He punished Ham for his sin against his father. The lesson of Genesis itself is that all humanity has rebelled against their Creator, and that the consequence of such rebellion is a universal punishment, hence the line of Ham. In a time when there was little known about genealogy, evolution and development, it is understandable why the author of Genesis described the basis of humanity to be of Noah’s sons. However, as we know now, this is not factually true, and is only a fundamental idea meant to teach a broad lesson as brought about by the worship