Interpretive Journey Paper

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Interpretive Journey Paper Selected passage: Deuteronomy 22:8 BIBL 350 B11 (Fall 2014) Student’s Name: Nathan Green Instructor’s Name: Dr. Hamm Submission Date: 10/10/2014 Introduction Do the cultural and civil laws of the Old Testament still have any bearing on our lives today, or are they merely outdated messages from obscure historical figures to even more obscure readers-too far removed from our own time to be of any use to us other than intellectual and historical curiosity? Is the Word of God still applicable to our lives today? It is, but we must be careful to ensure that it is interpreted correctly before we try to apply it to our individual lives. Doing so requires effort and training in the five steps of the Interpretive Journey. As an example, this paper will explore the interpretive meaning and application of the following verse: “If you build a new house, make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.”[1] Step 1 Grasp the text in their town The first step in the Interpretive Journey is to determine what the meaning of the text was for the original audience. Usually some research is needed in this step, and in this case said research revealed that a roof was usually flat and “was commonly occupied, used for storage, for rest in the evenings, and was even used in idolatrous worship.”[2] The roof then was simply another room of the house, used for many different purposes and used frequently by both the residents of the house and their guests. Since Torah law prescribed for a good Israelite to “love your neighbor as yourself,”[3] this would include the need to protect a guest in one’s home from any undue dangers. Any number of accidents could occur which could potentially lead a person to accidentally fall from a roof, risking injury or
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