Claim Your Baggage
Βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς ἔσται ὁ συλαγωγῶν διὰ τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ κενῆς ἀπάτης, κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου, καὶ οὐ κατὰ Χριστόν· ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς.
— ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΛΟΣΣΑΕΙΣ 2:8-9 [i]
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
— Colossians 2:8-9 [ii]
Christian Baggage
In the introductory notes of this class, it was mentioned that we are all Christians, yes, but, because we do not belong to a rigidly orthodox sect, our uniformity regarding beliefs and doctrines probably ends there. We all have different backgrounds, grew up in different environments, and have walked along different paths, both literal and spiritual, to get to where we are today. Our theologies and doctrines could potentially be as individual as our personalities. In short, we all have our own Christian baggage.
These unavoidable differences present many problems, all of which prevent our coming together in what the Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 4:3, called the “unity of the spirit” (or “unity of the faith”, as he terms it ten verses later). If a group of Christians cannot agree on the how’s and why’s of Christian living, we will all default to doing that which seems right in our own eyes, rather than which is right in the eyes of God.
We filter language—spoken and written—through the prism of our life experience; meaning our comprehension of language is effected by our individual mental baggage. With regards to the text of the NT, our disparate opinions, viewpoints and doctrines, developed over years of different teachings, are all potential barriers to our receiving the text as it is written. The mental pictures formed by the words on the page, the meanings and definitions we ascribe to them, are limited by what we have been programmed to think they mean. For instance, the word “church” has a fixed number of conscious definitions in our minds, as well as a fixed set of unconscious meanings; and what these are is not necessarily congruent with those of the NT’s Author.
Just think about it for a moment. After years of Christian teaching, none of us can honestly say that we haven’t got a mind full of preconceptions about Scripture before we read it. Nearly every verse has been taken in and molded to fit in our Christian baggage. And there is no surer way to stop learning, than to be convinced you already know what the text means.
Well, as with the English NT, more so with the GNT. As we all realise by now, the GNT is an entirely different document to the English translation. As native English speakers, there are enough linguistic obstacles to understanding the GNT, without also contending with the obstacles that is our doctrinal, Christian baggage. For this reason, we must identify and, when required, discard this baggage before accessing the GNT, in order to take in the Greek text as objectively as possible.
So, with that, we have our eighth General Principle for studying the Bible with the GNT: Claim Your Baggage.
Three Piles of Baggage
Now, by way of illustrating the need for us to identify our baggage, let’s take a fresh, objective look at the following three common phrases, each of which is bound to conjure up multiple preconceptions in the Christian mind.
- Generation;
- The Great Commission;
- and John 3:16.
Generation: Our first example is a single word: “generation”. Ask anyone what a generation is and they will more than likely say something like “20 years”. When we modern Christians think of a generation, we think of a time-fixed demographic between a given set of parents and their grandchildren—like the Baby Boomers or Generation X. So, when, say, the Apostle Peter orders the crowd at Pentecost to be saved from “this untoward generation”, we think he is talking about the living demographic of that day—the adult Jews of Israel. In short, our baggage concerning the term “generation” is time-centric.
However, none of the five Greek words translated “generation” has anything to do with time, per se. In fact, the English word has nothing to do with time, either; it is a presumed meaning. It literally means “the ones generated”, or “the begotten ones”. (You can see our word “gene” in there). As a matter of fact, one of those five Greek words was also translated “natural” in the KJV (James 1:23); another was also translated “fruit”—in Matthew 26:29, where Jesus talks of the “fruit of the vine”; the very same word used in the phrase “generation of vipers”!
All the Greek words in the NT that have been translated “generation” are derived from the word γένος, meaning “a family” or “a tribe” or, if you will, “a race”. In Acts, Peter was telling the crowd to be saved from the very Jewish race; the entire physical, genetic Jewish family, not just those that were alive at that moment. The whole lineage had been corrupted by sin[1] and the promised salvation of the New Covenant was to the spiritual-Jew, not the natural-Jew.
The Great Commission: In final chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we read what Christians have traditionally called “the Great Commission”. This passage is said to be Christ’s commandment to his disciples—and by extension all believers—to travel into all the countries of the world and preach the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20):
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen”.
The baggage most Christians carry regarding the Great Commission can be clearly seen when it is shown that the disciples fulfilled the commandment to “teach all nations” (look again; there is no order to travel to all nations)[2] in the second chapter of Acts.
In Exodus 23:14-17, God had ordered every Jewish male to observe three feasts in Jerusalem—the Passover (feast of unleavened bread), Feast of Tabernacles (feast of ingathering), and Pentecost (feast of firstfruits). In Acts 2:5 we see that the believing Diaspora had indeed come to Jerusalem:
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
All the people that were converted by the miracle of Pentecost, who heard the “wonderful works of God” and were given belief in Christ, came from every nation. After the feast they went home and preached the word to “every nation under heaven”, thus fulfilling the “Great Commission”. This is why Paul could say, in Colossians 1:23:
[A]nd be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;
The “was preached” is κηρυχθέντος, the Aorist Passive Participle a form of the verb κηρύσσω (to preach). The participle here is adjectival and is modifying the word “hope”. The Aorist Passive tense means the state described—being preached—is completed. Therefore, the word κηρυχθέντος means “the-preached-one”. And Colossians was written in 62AD.
John 3:16: Our final example, John 3:16, is arguably the most famous verse in Christendom. Here it is in English:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
It is a fact that the largest majority of English-speaking people, when they hear or read this verse, cannot help but hear “so loved the world” as “loved the world so much”. For reasons having to do with modern English usage and years of misapplied emphasis on the unbiblical notion that Jesus loves everyone, it has become a bedrock concept in Christianity. Unfortunately, it is not supported by the original text, so this reading is simply baggage. Here is the verse in Greek:
οὕτω γὰρ ἡγάπησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται, ἀλλ᾿ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
The word translated “so” is the Greek word οὕτω; which is an adverb meaning “in this manner” or “thusly”. It can be translated “so”, but only by one of the many meanings of “so”. It is not used as an emphatic adverb—like it is in the phrase “That is so obvious!”—but as an indicator of a following or preceding condition.
So, taking the actual meaning of οὕτω, and considering the context of what Jesus was telling Nicodemus before and after He said it, we see that the verse does not say God loved the world intensely, but, rather, that God showed His love by setting up the means of Salvation through believing in Christ and being born again. In other words, He doesn’t love the whole world, but only those who are in it that are born again and believe in Christ.
Exegesis and Eisegesis
There are two methods of getting the meaning out of texts. They are “Exegesis” and “Eisegesis”. I’ve mentioned these in passing before in this class, but in today’s lesson, I’d like to define them for you.
The word exegesis is a transliteration of the Greek word ἐξήγησις which comes from ἐξηγεῖσθαι, meaning "to lead out"—a compound of ἐκ, meaning “out”, and ἀγω, meaning “to lead”. Exegesis describes the legitimate act of interpreting a text by taking the meaning out of the text.
Eisegesis is the opposite of this. The word eisegesis is made up of the Greek εἰς, meaning “into”, and the ending from exegesis. Eisegesis describes the supposed illegitimate act of misinterpreting the text through the introduction of one’s own ideas, biases and preconceptions—one’s own baggage, if you will—into the text.
Now, I’m sure you noticed the word “supposed” in that last sentence. It was added because I am about to suggest that there are cases where eisegesis can be used legitimately to interpret Scripture. Not only that, but we Christians do it all the time, and have done so since the 1st Century.
We’ve certainly done it in this class—in fact it’s one of the main points of Lesson 3! Don’t we eisegete the entire OT by “reading” Jesus Christ into the text?[3] Isn’t that every Christian's baggage, too?
Of course, to Christians, this isn’t Biblical Eisegesis, since, to us, the meanings we’re introducing are from another part of the same “book” written by the same “author”, but we do have to acknowledge that it is technically textual eisegesis.
Now, obviously, there’s a right way and a wrong way to eisegete. The wrong way is to introduce a meaning that isn’t in either Testament; the right way is when we take a meaning of a word or verse from the NT and introduce it into the OT in order to expand or amplify the meaning of a corresponding word or verse there.
Let’s take a look at an example of this, which we touched on briefly in Chapter 3. Take another look at Matthew 12:18.
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles”.
ἰδοὺ ὁ παῖς μου, ὃν ἡρέτισα· ὁ ἀγαπητός μου εἰς ὃν εὐδόκησεν ἡ ψυχή μου· θήσω τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν, καὶ κρίσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀπαγγελεῖ·
The Greek ἀγαπητός is the adjectival form of the verb ἀγαπάω. Matthew is citing Isaiah 42:1 where it says of Messiah:
Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
הן עבדי אתמך־בו בחירי רצתה נפשׁי נתתי רוחי עליו משׁפט לגוים יוציא׃
The Hebrew word translated elect in this verse is the noun בּחיר [bachiyr], meaning chosen, choice one, chosen one, or elect[4]. It corresponds to the GNT word ἐκλεκτός, which has the same meaning, but notice that Matthew has recast “bachiyr” to mean “beloved”.
Now, we have shown in previous lessons that NT interpretations of the OT take precedence. We can therefore eisegete the meaning of bachiyr given by Matthew onto the OT meaning of bachiyr, but—and here’s an important condition— only in the context in which the word is used in both Testaments.
What that means is that the expanded or amplified Matthean meaning of bachiyr can only be legitimately applied when speaking of God’s choosing, not anytime anyone chooses something or elects something.
Being careful to maintain the context means that this amplified meaning can work in reverse: we can expand the meaning of ἀγαπητός to mean choosing when it refers to God’s beloved. Hence, when we read in all three Gospel’s[5] of God calling Jesus “my beloved—ἀγαπητός—son”, we can read “my elect” or “my chosen” son, the Messiah. And when we read about the Lord of the Vineyard in Luke 20:13 sending his “beloved—ἀγαπητός—son” to the husbandmen, we can, like the chief priests and scribes, can see clearly that the parable is talking about the Messiah being sent to them.
CONCLUSION
So, considering all of the above, we see that we must be careful to recognise our Christian baggage for two reasons: One, in order to remove it if it is an obstacle to our fully understanding the Scriptures; and two, to determine whether it might be legitimately used to eisegete the OT—both good reasons to always Claim Your Baggage!
[1] The word translated “untoward” is σκολιός, meaning “warped” or “curved”. It comes from the Greek word for “leg”, σκέλος.
[2] Did you ever wonder why most of the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem after Pentecost instead of heading off to every corner of the globe? Surely, if the Great Commission was what modern Christians say it was, then the Apostles disobeyed Christ? Well, they didn’t; our reading of the Great Commission is wrong.
[3] Jews have been accusing Christians of doing this since the 1st Century.
[4] As defined by Brown-Driver-Briggs (Strong’s number H977)
[5] Matthew 17:5; Mark 1:11, 9:7; Luke 3:22, 9:35
[i] All Greek citations from THE NEW TESTAMENT IN GREEK ACCORDING TO THE TEXT FOLLOWED IN THE AUTHORISED VERSION TOGETHER WITH THE VARIATIONS ADOPTED IN THE REVISED VERSION, edited by F.H.A. Scrivener; CAMBRIDGE: At the University Press 1949.
[ii] Whilst all English Bible verses are taken from the King James Version, modern punctuation and quotation markings will often be used where appropriate without reference (I.e. Capitalization after question marks; double inverted commas on opening quotes, then single inverted commas for internal quotations.).
