4 - Hermeneutics: The Importance of Detail (HER935)

Instructor: Dr. Don Enevoldsen

(3 Credits)

Class Description

Many theological terms sound pretty boring. "Hermeneutics" is one of them. I love theology and I still don't find that word particularly inspiring. I was a believer for many years before I even knew what it meant. And by then I had spent quite a few years doing hermeneutics without knowing I was engaged in a theological enterprise. I thought I was just studying the Bible.

I suspect most of you reading this went through a similar growth in understanding and developed your own unique style for reading, interpreting, and teaching. If you are like me, however, you might not have considered the benefits of expanding the range of techniques and resources available to add depth and life to the process of learning and teaching.

That is the purpose for a hermeneutics class provided by Primus University, to enrich and enhance the style you have already developed. The principles are there, but we usually don't use all of them, and the ones we use are not always utilized to their fullest potential. The best way to illustrate this is to provide an example of what paying attention to details in a narrative can accomplish. The lesson here is to never assume you know the story. Look at every detail carefully.

The story of Lot and his family escaping the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is a case in point. The story is so familiar that virtually everyone can picture it like they are watching a movie. The angels warn Lot to flee. This leads to a scene with Lot, his wife, and his daughters running frantically through the desert, shawls or blankets over their heads to shield them from the devastation of fire descending from the sky onto the city behind them. Lot's wife, though told by the angel not to look back, turns her head and glances at the city. She is instantly turned into a pillar of salt.

Close attention to the details in the story, however, raise some questions. Genesis 19:16 says that Lot was hesitant: he "lingered." So the angel seized him and his wife by the hand and hurried them out of the city, an indication of the Lord's mercy toward Lot. "Escape for your life," the angel admonished them. "Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley."

Lot was still reluctant. He was especially not anxious to run as fast as the angel seemed to want him to run. So he asked if they could be allowed to take refuge in a small city nearby instead of fleeing all the way to the end of the valley. The angel allowed that as well (vv 20–21). But then he added an important detail: "Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there" (v 22).

That one detail, almost universally overlooked, suggests a problem in the traditional understanding of the story. If the angel was not allowed to start the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot and his family were in a safe place, then the picture of them fleeing from a burning city would be chronologically impossible. They could be running, but the city could not yet be on fire, or the city could be on fire, but they would already be in a safe place. And if they were already in a safe place, what happened to Lot's wife?

The answer lies perhaps in the meaning of one of the Hebrew words in verses 17 and 26, specifically the word for "look back," nāḇat. It does mean to look back, at least when it is interpreted literally. But given the implications of the sequence of events that we just took note of, it might be better to look at the figurative meaning, which is to "regard, show regard to, pay attention to." This would imply that Lot's wife either got to the city of safety, looked around and saw that nothing bad was happening, and after giving regard to what she had just left behind, decided to go back, no doubt assuming her husband was either drunk or a fool. Or perhaps she had those thoughts while they were still fleeing and stopped running before she got to safety, turning around to go back, shaking her head in disbelief at her husband and daughters who continued to run. Either way, the contemplation of what she was running away from resulted in her demise.

I leave it for you to draw a lesson from that story, but it certainly looks similar to the grumbling the Hebrews did in the wilderness after their flight from Egypt. They were not happy about the challenges that came with freedom and the Promised Land; all they could think of was what they had left behind, the leeks and garlic. It's not good to yearn for the good old days when God is taking you on a journey toward his purposes.

Whole sermons could be developed from this simple hermeneutical principal of paying attention to the details. But that is what hermeneutics is for.