Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Slow exposition: is it worth it?

I just spent the last forty minutes puzzling over the phrase "go into your room and close your door" (εἴσελθε εἰς τὸ ταμεῖόν σου καὶ κλείσας τὴν θύραν σου (Mat 6:6 BGT). I would like to raise a very simple question: was it worth it? Yes, it was worth it for several reasons. First, although the phrase seems clear enough English, there is a lot of different semantic possibilities. For instance, the verb "go" (εἴσελθε) doesn't always just mean to move from one geographic location to another. It can also mean to enter into a state or circumstance. Now, clearly it does not mean that in the circumstance. But now the difference for me is that I am aware of various semantic valences of the term. This means that when I come to future occurrences of this word that does not seem to fit the literal rendering, I have a history with the term itself. I can remember that there is more than a literal rendering of the phrase. Second, I am now more confident of the fact that it means to move from one geographic location to another – specifically to go from not being in your room to in your inner room. This is payoff. That means that when it comes time to preach this text before congregation I can confidently restated the meaning of this verb and snowfall well that it does not mean something else. This confidence will affect the way I project my presence to the audience and in turn the audience will be more receptive to learn from my explanation of the text. The bottom line is that exposition of the Bible is an exposition of the original languages. The purpose of installing from the original languages is not to establish what is known to the larger theological community, rather it is that the preacher can glorify God by proclaiming the text with clarity, confidence, and passion. It may feel like you're slowing down when you do so, but that's a good thing because that means you're less likely to make mistakes and more likely to catch the truth.

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