God reveals himself in metaphors. So why do we tend to read past them?隐喻 (yǐn yù) –– Metaphors Sadly, I’m rather confident that this step will be ignored by most of my readers. However, metaphors are like a treasure map for biblical interpretation. A wealth of insights lies buried beneath their verbal imagery. Consider Romans 5–8. We orient ourselves by first identifying its key metaphors. “Sin” for example is depicted as a slave master that reigns over us and pays... Read more
Saving God’s Face received its first journal review! In the latest issue of Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, the book is summarized and this critiqued. The reviewer was very generous in his comments. The book is supposed to be a genuine integration of theology and missiology. A lot of books tend to focus more on one or more on the other. I hope it will contribute to the theological conversations. Click here to read the review.... Read more
What should we do when Chinese believers don’t know Greek or Hebrew? In the last post, I explain why we should use the biblical languages when teaching the Bible to Chinese Christians. Someone sent me the question because the most common Chinese translation of the Bible (CUV, 和合本) drops a lot of key words, like conjunctions, that convey the logic of a passage. WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO? Here are a few suggestions. 1. Try to find ways to make... Read more
A reader sent me a question after my previous post about using “context” to interpret a Bible passage. He asked, “I agree with you that conjunctions are the most important words in the Bible, however the 和合本 often leaves out conjunctions. Do you teach your students using English Bibles? Do you have them read Hebrew/Greek? Or do you just tell them every time a conjunction is left out of the Chinese?” I felt like my response could be helpful to... Read more
Studying context is the single most important step in the interpretation process. If so, we have to ask, “What is context?” I’ve been proposing a 5-step process to interpret Scripture that anyone can use, even if they have no other resources except the Bible. In Chinese, I summarize them in this way: 述-印-境-提-释 (shù-yìn-jìng-tí-shì). In English, “Restate-Impressions-Context-Questions-Explain.” I have a bookmark (in color or black-white) that reminds people of the entire process. Mind the Gap Most of the methods I’ve... Read more
What do we do after we’ve restated a text, given our impressions, examined the context, and clarified our question? We explain it. In this series, I’m laying out a method to interpret the Bible when you only have a Bible. I’ve put all this in Chinese on a bookmark (in color or black-white). The process involves five straightforward steps. In Chinese, I summarize the steps this way: 述-印-境-提-释 (shù-yìn-jìng-tí-shì). Look back at previous posts to get an explanation. 5. Explain... Read more
My most recent article on Romans is now published! It is titled, “PAUL WRITES TO THE GREEK FIRST AND ALSO TO THE JEW: THE MISSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF UNDERSTANDING PAUL’S PURPOSE IN ROMANS” Check out the December issue of the Journal of Evangelical Theological Society (JETS 56, no 4). I’m grateful for JETS being willingness to publish it. I provide the link to the article for those who are subscribers. I’m not sure if JETS allows people to access individual articles... Read more
“Face” is simply another way of talking about honor-shame (荣辱, róngrǔ). So, what some words someone might actually say? (In my previous post, I gave an introductory Chinese lesson on the subject of “face.”) Directly using a phrase like “honor-shame” (荣辱, róngrǔ) is of course more abstract than “face” language. This is necessary when you are trying to explain certain “face” as a conceptual level. Remember, just become China is an honor shame culture doesn’t mean that people really “get... Read more
Previously, I introduced a method of interpretation that anyone could use, even when the only thing you have in a Bible.The five steps are summarized in this way: 述-印-境-提-释 (shù-yìn-jìng-tí-shì). I explained the first two steps. First, we restate the passage without interpreting it. Second, we make explicit our impressions. All readers have assumptions that must be checked. What’s next? 3. Context (情境, qíngjìng) *This step is so critical that I’m going to give an entire post to unpack what... Read more
Practically speaking, how do we interpret the Bible when we only have the Bible? This means no commentaries, no seminary education, no footnotes, etc. For Part 1 of the series “When You Only Have a Bible,” click here. Check out Part 2 talked about unhelpful but common approaches to interpretation. I have created a bookmark (in color or black-white) that lays out a process whereby anyone can interpret the Bible in a way that corrects problems I mentioned in the... Read more
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