From the Study to the Pulpit

An 8-Step Method for Preaching and Teaching the Old Testament

Allan Moseley

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781683592143
• eBook ISBN: 9781683592150
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The purpose of this book is to offer both exegetical and preaching help by means of a workable 8-step method. The author's preaching model starts with the initial step of determining the genre and meaning of the text to doing word studies and discovering the main ideas of the text to applying the sermon in a life-changing and Christ-honoring manner. Some books on preaching from the Old Testament are written by authors who do not actually preach, or preach only occasionally. Pastors and budding preachers need a book written by someone who has knows what it is like to be a pastor and has prepared sermons every week for years.

Chapter 1

WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY?

8-STEP METHOD
STEP 1	Translating the text
STEP 2	Considering text criticism
STEP 3	Interpreting the genre
STEP 4	Exploring the context
STEP 5	Defining important words
STEP 6	Identifying the big idea
STEP 7	Connecting to Jesus
STEP 8	Applying the text to contemporary people

The first of our eight steps of exposition is translation, and the second step is textual criticism. Both those steps are addressed in this chapter, and both answer the question, what does the text say? To some people, asking what the text says may seem unnecessary, even absurd. They think, “It says what it says! What the text says is perfectly clear to anyone who just takes the time to read it!” But it’s not that simple. How often do we read emails, texts, or messages on social media and we ask, “What is he saying?” or “What does that mean?” Those messages are in English and often from someone we know personally.

Old Testament texts were written by authors we do not know personally, and they lived thousands of years ago in cultures that were vastly different from ours. Also, they wrote in Hebrew, and sometimes it’s tricky to find the right English word or phrase to convey the meaning of a word in another language. Furthermore, sometimes the ancient Hebrew texts or the ancient translations differ from one another, so we have to determine which reading is the original. Therefore, answering the question what does the text say is not that easy after all.1 We are more likely to answer it well, though, if we acquire as much knowledge as possible about translation and text criticism, and if we apply that knowledge with discernment and dependence on the guidance of the Holy Spirit who inspired the text. And as soon as we possess the desire to depend on the Holy Spirit, we will be compelled to pray, asking for the Spirit’s help.

Pray

Walter Kaiser concludes his Toward an Exegetical Theology with a chapter titled “The Exegete/Pastor and the Power of God.” After eleven chapters of helpful instruction regarding the nature, history, and method of biblical exegesis, Kaiser emphasizes the need of the exegete/pastor for God’s power. To have God’s power, Kaiser says, we must pray. Preaching and teaching with God’s power requires “abundant and Spirit-led prayer.”2

Some books on Bible study, like Kaiser’s book, reserve the emphasis on the necessity of prayer until the end. Other books emphasize prayer at the beginning. Unfortunately, some do not include the necessity of prayer at all. The present work features a section on prayer in every chapter. This arrangement is intended as a reminder that we who teach and preach God’s Word should ask for God’s help throughout every step of preparation. As Charles Spurgeon expressed it, “We ministers ought never to be many minutes without actually lifting up our hearts in prayer.” Spurgeon called such prayer “a habit of the new nature for which we claim no more credit than a babe does for crying after its mother.”3 That’s how Spurgeon portrayed his prayer in preparation to preach—a baby crying for his mother’s help.

Spurgeon’s preaching ability is legendary. The following is an excerpt from a biography written by George Lorimer that was published only months after Spurgeon’s death. Perhaps with a bit of eulogizing hyperbole, Lorimer wrote that Spurgeon “achieved for himself a throne beyond that of earthly dignities, and won for himself a scepter that has brought more hope to human minds, and joy and peace to human hearts, than any that has been grasped during these later centuries either by kings or cardinals.”4 As if that wasn’t enough, Lorimer went on to compare Spurgeon favorably with writers like Byron and Goethe, philosophers like Plato and Kant, and preachers like Chrysostom and Luther. He then wrote, “Among these names as lustrous as the brightest, and yet shining with a radiance all its own, gleams that of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the greatest of modern Puritan preachers.”5

It’s hard to imagine higher praise for a human being. But how did Spurgeon see himself? On his knees in prayer like a crying baby—helpless, hungry, and in need of God’s help. Maybe Spurgeon was a great Bible preacher because he realized that without God’s help he was not great at all. If someone so gifted and committed was in such need of God’s help, surely we too need God’s help. We, like Spurgeon, are children, and children can say something great only if their parents tell them what to say. Our heavenly Father shows us what to say when we look in his Word, and his Holy Spirit helps us to understand his Word (1 Cor. 2:12–16). We access his help by asking for it in prayer.

Determine the Best Translation

In the children’s book The Phantom TollBooth, a child named Milo, the central character, travels by means of a toll both to a fantasy kingdom ruled by two men, Azaz the Unabridged and his brother the Mathemagician. Azaz believes words are more important than numbers, and the Mathemagician believes numbers are more important than words. They turn to their sisters, Rhyme and Reason, to settle the dispute, and the sisters decide that words and numbers are equally important. Their decision equally infuriates Azaz and the Mathemagician, so the two brothers ban their sisters from the kingdom. Milo arrives in the kingdom after Rhyme and Reason have been banished, so naturally he encounters quite a bit of confusion. The Mathemagician insists that he has attempted reconciliation with Azaz by writing a letter to him, but Azaz did not even answer it. When Milo sees the letter, though, it’s just a conglomeration of numbers. The letter makes perfect sense to the Mathemagician, but Azaz was not able to translate it.6

People communicate differently, and they even think differently. What makes perfect sense to one person is unintelligible to someone else. Obviously that is the case when people communicate in different languages, but understanding can be a problem even when people speak the same language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with some passages in Aramaic. Hence, its message must be translated to be understood, and it should be translated into words and sentences people understand. Our explanations of the translation should also be understandable to the persons to whom we speak, or we will find ourselves in the same situation as Azaz the Unabridged and the Mathemagician. And especially since the Bible is God’s truth to humanity, we had better make sure we get it right. People who preach and teach the Bible are motivated to do their work faithfully and effectively. They want to grow in their knowledge of the Bible and their ability to communicate its message. This chapter is an effort to contribute to that growth. It is written to help people who will spend time learning Hebrew and doing their own translation, and to help people who will do all their exposition in English.

Why Study the Old Testament in Hebrew?

Anyone who has studied a language other than their native language knows that something is lost in translation. The old Italian proverb is traduttore traditore, meaning “translator, traitor.” The proverb expresses a truism: all translators are traitors in some way because they inevitably betray certain qualities of texts in the process of translation. Subtle nuances, emphases, or even basic meanings are often missed by those who are not fluent in a language. Translation difficulties increase exponentially when a language was part of a culture that existed thousands of years ago. Such is the case with biblical Hebrew. On the other hand, the more proficient we are in a language, the more we understand all the nuances of what is said and written in that language. In this section, I want to make a case for learning and using Hebrew in Old Testament exposition. For the sake of readers for whom study of Hebrew is not possible, I will try to make the case as quickly and painlessly as possible, and maybe even occasionally interesting.

First, reading texts in their original language helps us to understand them more clearly. When I was in college I completed two years of Greek study and one year of Hebrew study, and in seminary I continued to study the languages. While I was in seminary, a pastor friend who had not studied the languages told me that he saw no need to do so. He commented sarcastically, “The only reason I can think of to learn Greek is to impress people when I preach.” I was astonished. I said nothing because I did not want to show any disrespect, but my thought was, “The only reason I can think of to learn Greek and Hebrew is to understand the Bible!” Decades have passed since that conversation, and my thought at that moment has proven to be more accurate than I could have known then. I have been able to learn and teach so many truths from the Bible more accurately because of my study of the languages, and the more I have studied them the more helpful they have been.

Bible teachers often tell their students that reading the Bible in English is like watching a black-and-white television program. Reading the Bible in the original languages is like watching a color television in high definition. For example, Ruth 4 describes Boaz’s redemption of Ruth in preparation to marry her. He went to the gate of the city to find the nearest relative who had the first right of redemption. In the providence of God, that very man walked by the gate. Boaz said to him, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here” (v. 1). Actually, Boaz did not use the Hebrew word for friend. Boaz used two Hebrew words that referred to something that was to remain unnamed. David used the same two words when he went to the town of Nob. Ahimelech the priest expressed surprise that David was in Nob alone. David replied that he was going to meet his men at “such and such a place” (1 Sam. 21:1–2). David was keeping the location of his men a secret, so he used two Hebrew words that meant something like “such and such,” or “whatever.” Boaz used the same two Hebrew words to refer to the guy who had the right of redemption, so he was saying, “Hey, So and So, come over here and sit down.” In fact, the man’s name is not found at all in the book of Ruth, so we don’t know his name. Since he failed to step up and redeem poor Ruth and her mother-in-law, it’s likely that either the writer decided not to use his name to save his family embarrassment, or the writer did not include his name because he didn’t deserve for his name to be recorded. Thus, the writer opted to refer to him as “So and So,” or “What’s His Face.” However, the major modern English translations have “friend” (ESV, NASB, NIV, NRSV). HCSB even has “Boaz called him by name,” though the CSB has the translation note, “Or said, ‘Come here Mr. So-and-so.’ ” The KJV has “Ho, such a one!” Only when we identify the Hebrew word and note the way it is used elsewhere can we begin to understand Boaz’s greeting. It’s black and white versus high definition.

Examples like Ruth 4:1 may give the impression that every verse in the Old Testament will read differently when we read the text in Hebrew. That is not the case. Most of the time translators can render the meaning of Hebrew words into English with such a high degree of precision that the meaning is clear whether reading in Hebrew or English. Still, reading the text in its original language makes a difference. Moisés Silva expresses this understanding well:

The value of studying the biblical languages does not reside in its potential for displaying exegetical razzle-dazzle. In fact, striking interpretations that lean too heavily, sometimes exclusively, on subtle grammatical distinctions are seldom worth considering. On the other hand, genuine familiarity with Greek (and Hebrew!) develops sensitivity and maturity in the interpreter and allows his or her decisions to be built on a much broader base of information. More often than not, the fruit of language learning is intangible; it remains in the background, providing the right perspective for responsible exegesis.7

In other words, facility in Hebrew can improve our interpretation of a passage. But even when ability to read Hebrew “remains in the background,” it increases our knowledge base and sharpens our perspective for all our interpretive decisions.

Second, major English translations are produced by committees, and committees tend to preserve traditional renderings, even when those renderings may not be the most accurate translations. Proverbs 22:6 is a case in point. It reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it” (NASB). However, the Hebrew text does not read “the way he should go.” Notably missing is the word “should.” A more literal translation is, “Train a child according to his way.” What is “his way”? That’s open to interpretation. Every child is different, so maybe the point is to teach each child according to the way he or she learns best—his own way. The content of the teaching, given the context in Proverbs and in the Old Testament, would be how to fear God and live wisely. On the other hand, maybe “his way” should be interpreted in contrast to God’s way of wisdom. Taken that way, the point of the verse would be that if parents train children according to their natural inclinations (i.e., their own way), then they will stay on that path into adulthood because that is the only way of living they have been taught. So in Proverbs 22:6 we are faced with two possible interpretations, neither of which are available to us until we read the verse in Hebrew. But if that’s the way the verse reads in Hebrew, why don’t the English translations reflect that? We cannot be certain, but the traditional translation dates back centuries and many Christians have claimed it as a promise for their families. It’s likely that more recent translation committees decided not to deprive Bible readers of that promise, thus preserving a traditional rendering even though it is not the most faithful translation. However, teachers and preachers of the Old Testament want to teach and preach it faithfully, and the way to accomplish that is to read it in its original language.

Third, language changes. The English of the Middle Ages was quite different from the English of the twenty-first century. Just read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as it was originally written, if you can.

One evening I was teaching from the book of Proverbs in a church. After the Bible study, a lady who was a new Christian and new to the Bible approached me and asked, “Why does God say scuba diving is a sin?” She was utterly sincere, and I tried to assure her that to my knowledge God has not said that scuba diving is a sin. Then she pointed out Proverbs 20:10, which reads in the King James Version, “Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.” Then I attempted to explain to her that the King James Version was translated in 1611, and “divers” was an older English word that today would be spelled “diverse” and it means “different.” So Proverbs 20:10 says that God does not approve of using different weights in buying and selling goods to deceive customers, and it says nothing about scuba diving. Her confusion was caused by the fact that the English language has changed.

Today, language is changing even more quick...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What Does the Text Say?
• Chapter 2: What Is the Text’s Genre? (Part 1)
• Chapter 3: What Is the Text’s Genre? (Part 2)
• Chapter 4: What Is the Text’s Context?
• Chapter 5: What Is the Meaning of Key Words?
• Chapter 6: What Is the Big Idea?
• Chapter 7: What Is the Connection to Jesus?
• Chapter 8: How Do We Apply the Old Testament to Contemporary People?