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Working through the issues of interpreting God’s Word

Éric Wingender

How to Understand the Bible David Ewert, Waterloo, Ont./Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2000. 240 pp. $22.29.

Critics of evangelicalism often equate its belief in the authority of Scriptures with the sawmill of theological simple-mindedness eager to transform the rich forest of the biblical texts into a neat pile of easily managed doctrinal two-by-fours. This latest offering from the dean of MB scholars, David Ewert, clearly demonstrates the unfairness of this characterization.

The author expertly introduces his readers to a wide range of conceptual tools needed to get at the message of Scriptures and avoid simplistic handling of the texts. This is vintage Ewert with a somewhat terse and simple prose. Yet, the use of few literary effects is more than largely compensated for by the amount of information each page delivers. The writer leaves few stones unturned as he touches upon the crucial aspects of the art of interpreting the Bible: general principles of interpretation, literary genres, symbolism, the importance of cultural settings, and the relationship between the two Testaments – all written in a way as to be understandable by anyone with a basic knowledge of Scriptures.

Besides its clarity and breadth, the book has three major strengths. The first lies in Ewert’s ability to weave into his text a large number of interesting illustrations and quotes that effectively drive home his point. Because many refer to figures from church history, they also increase the reader’s awareness that our generation is but one link in a long chain of interpreters. The second strength of the book resides in the large number of biblical texts that are discussed or alluded to (over 600!), giving the reader ample opportunity to increase his or her familiarity with the Bible. The third is his willingness to tackle delicate issues such as the apparent contradictions in Paul’s teaching on the behaviour of women in the church and the “creativity” with which the New Testament writers sometimes used the Old Testament.

Although it is a book aimed at the general Christian audience, several comments indicate that it has been written with a special concern for believers whose way of reading the text might have been coloured by fundamentalism and/or dispensationalism. This is a very good thing. Yet, one wonders whether the book’s usefulness would not have been increased had it also tried to speak to some of the issues many youth on campuses have to struggle with as they are confronted with the postmodern mindset.

On this battlefield, the argument is not whether T. Rex and the rest of Jurassic Park were washed away 5,000 years ago or whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is to eschatology what poutine is to culinary art. Rather, what Christian students have to wrestle with are such things as the rejection of the notion of objective meaning of a text (the “playdough” approach to interpretation) or the politically correct catechism with its strident rejection of anything patriarchal.

We cannot but thank Herald Press for this fine book and warmly recommend it to those who want to increase their grasp of many of the issues surrounding the interpretation of God’s Word.

Éric Wingender is president of Ecole de Theologie Evangelique de Montreal, an MB school affiliated with the University of Montreal.

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Last modified January 8, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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