{"id":37663,"date":"2020-12-07T01:12:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T06:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=37663"},"modified":"2020-10-21T10:18:25","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T14:18:25","slug":"there-is-meaning-in-those-biblical-texts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/12\/07\/there-is-meaning-in-those-biblical-texts\/","title":{"rendered":"There is Meaning in Those Biblical Texts"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2020\/09\/Reading-and-Understanidng-the-Bible.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37517\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2020\/09\/Reading-and-Understanidng-the-Bible.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"324\" height=\"400\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder, though Lord knows, we are all active readers who bring our ideas and assumptions to the reading of the Bible.\u00a0 Here is another \u2018spot on\u2019 quote from Peter Gommes\u2019 <em>The Good Book\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>p.26:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA text may have a life of its own, but that life depends upon the author who gave it life, investing it with an intention, a purpose,\u00a0 and a meaning. The text therefore already participates in something other than itself; it participates in and at least initially gives expression to the intent of the author. To tease out the relationship of the text and its author is a responsible task\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder, though Lord knows, we are all active readers who bring our ideas and assumptions to the reading of the Bible.\u00a0 Here is another \u2018spot on\u2019 quote from Peter Gommes\u2019 The Good Book\u00a0\u00a0p.26: \u201cA text may have a life of its own, but that life depends [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>There is Meaning in Those Biblical Texts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder, though Lord knows, we are all active readers who bring our ideas and assumptions to the reading of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There is Meaning in Those Biblical Texts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder, though Lord knows, we are all active readers who bring our ideas and assumptions to the reading of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/12\/07\/there-is-meaning-in-those-biblical-texts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-07T06:12:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-21T14:18:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2020\/09\/Reading-and-Understanidng-the-Bible.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/12\/07\/there-is-meaning-in-those-biblical-texts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2020\/12\/07\/there-is-meaning-in-those-biblical-texts\/\",\"name\":\"There is Meaning in Those Biblical Texts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-07T06:12:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-21T14:18:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; 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