Re: Cyberhermeneutics

From: David Haeuser (haeuser@mail.cosapidata.com.pe)
Date: Fri Jan 23 1998 - 19:08:27 EST


Dear Juan,

What can be accomplished in a few seconds with a search on a computer could
be accomplished in a few minutes before with a good concordance. There have
been questions to the list from beginners which reflect an unsophisticated
use of search results, just as people in the past misused concordances at
times. More experienced members of the list have called their attention to
the way in which context and the line of thought limit the probable choices
in interpretation. As people gain experience in reading whole books of the
Bible and gaining a feeling for the line of thought of the book, they will
have context from previous study with which to evaluate the relevance of
their search hits. But that comes from years of experience, and if the
computer tools help in obtaining that experience, some stumbling at the
beginning will be well worth it.

David Haeuser
MSELP
Lima, Peru
-----Original Message-----
From: JUAN STAM <jstam@una.ac.cr>
To: b-greek@virginia.edu <b-greek@virginia.edu>
Date: Viernes 23 de Enero de 1998 06:21 PM
Subject: Cyberhermeneutics

>Greetings to all the B-greeker friends with best wishes for a great 98!
>
>Last September's CHRISTIANITY TODAY had a thought-provoking article on
>Cyberspace by Douglas Groothuis of Denver Seminary. He comments on the
>danger than cyberexegesis may lead some to use the Bible •n a manner that
>"divorces Scripture from its literary genre and contextal meaning. I can
>run a program that gives me a host of texts on say *righteosness*, but the
>program cannot present the meaning of each text in its context"
>
>ìs there a real danger that computer use can foment either proof-texting or
>the kind of word-study exegesis that James Barr attacked? How can this be
>avoided?
>
>Juan Stam, Univ de Costa Rica



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