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New Approach to Scripture – Part II
By J.D. Myers | January 6, 2009
Let me discuss a bit further on how I plan to approach this commentary.
First, this is a massive undertaking, and so I cannot focus on everything at once. I will try, to the best of my ability, to work through one book of the Bible at a time before moving on to another. Ideally, I would like to begin in Genesis and work all the way through to Revelation, but I think that for variety sake, I will switch back and forth between Old and New Testaments.
Since my preliminary goal is not an exhaustive commentary, but to bring out the narrative redemption story in Scripture, I will need to bring out those facets of the text first which reveal this most. I believe that historical and cultural background studies will prove the most beneficial in this area, and so that will always be my primary focus. If the text is a record of God redeeming elements and people of a particular culture, we must understand the culture itself before we can understand how God redeems the people, events, and places of that culture.
My second line of approach will be in the areas of language studies (Greek and Hebrew) as well as some grammatical and literary analysis. These can be helpful if used sparingly. I may, if necessary, delve into the areas of textual, source, redaction, and form criticism, but in general, these sorts of studies tend to obscure more than illuminate. This is especially true if I desire reader interaction, and want to steer clear of debatable minutiae that many get mired in.
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