MORAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE
everything that was written in the past was written to teach us - Romans 15: 4
This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer. Everyone eats and some is left over - Pope Francis
The interesting thing about this moral or tropological way of interpreting the Bible is that it is often applied to passages that, in their original context, have no obvious moral content at all. For example, Mark's Gospel describes a miracle where Jesus heals Jairus' daughter. He goes to the dying girl's bedside, takes her hand and says:
"Talitha koum!" (which means "Little girl, I say to you, get up!") - Mark 5: 41 |
For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery - Galatians 5: 1
YES
Jesus' are very broad (such as the GOLDEN RULE) and require guidance in how to apply them. Much of the Bible is 'of its time' and doesn't comment favourably on women, slavery or homosexuality. Tropological interpretation reveals more tolerant teachings for the 21st century.
Slave-owners in the 19th century opposed tropological analysis of the Bible because they wanted to justify owning slaves. With hindsight, we can see that the campaigners who interpreted passages as condemning slavery were in the right and were actually more faithful to the spirit of Jesus' teachings. This supports continuing to interpret the Bible in a moral sense.
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NO
The Bible's teachings on gender roles and sexuality are very clear. Scholars who apply tropological interpretation to come up with a different moral code are guilty of eisegesis: projecting their own wishes into the Bible rather than allowing the Bible to teach them about morality.
This sort of tropological analysis assumes that modern readers can teach the Bible about right and wrong rather than learning from the Bible about morality. It assumes that the Bible is not inspired by God and is a document 'of its time'. It also goes against the Literal Principle, which is a plain sense reading of Scripture rather than searching for hidden messages.
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