Has the Church Misread the Bible?

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In this, the first volume of Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation, Moises Silva presents a unique and practical perspective on the history of interpretation. 'I do not intend to provide in this volume a full-blown history of biblical hermeneutics . . . (Rather,) my thesis is that this history is characterized by the church's appreciation, sometimes implicit rather than consciously formulated, that we face a series of difficult 'tensions' in our reading of Scripture . . . . The attempt to hold these seeming polarities in tension is the principle that brings unity to the great diversity of problems surrounding the history of biblical interpretation.' Some examples of these areas of tension are, 'To what extent should we understand the biblical language as being literal and to what extent as figurative?' 'The Bible is God's Word, yet what it has come to is through human beings and in human form.' 'The commands of God are absolute, yet the historical context of the writings appear to relativize certain elements.' 'God's message should be clear, yet many passages seem to be ambiguous.' By showing how the church in the past has dealt with these same issues, Silva provide the reader with a clearer insight into the contemporary problems of interpretation.