Greidanus, Sidney. "The Modern Preacher Ancient Text."

¶ … Greidanus, Sidney. "The Modern Preacher Ancient Text." Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, 1988. Please write separately pages shown. Chapter Review: 1, 6 & According to Sidney Greidanus in his book The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text, although we in modernity often like to say that talk is cheap, words are the way in which God communicates with human beings and preaching is an extension of this fact. The earliest preachers, the apostles, acted as representatives of God on earth and used words to transmit their messages.

"Preaching is the proclamation of Christianity to the non-Christian world." [footnoteRef:1] Preaching, however, is not merely the musings of the preacher 'off the cuff' or personal ruminations but must be securely grounded in Christian texts. It is very important that all forms of Christian preaching are yoked in their intention and scope to the Bible. [1: Sidney Greidanus, The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text.

(Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, 1988), p.6.] However, this does not mean that there is not a great deal of discretion in the hands of the preacher to select an appropriate text for his congregation. "The question of the purpose of the text and sermon is intimately related to the process of selecting a preaching text, for a preaching text, we have seen, ought to be chosen to meet the needs of the congregation."[footnoteRef:2] Both the theme and the purpose of the text must be context-appropriate.

The theme of the text is what the text is actually saying; the purpose of the text is what the text 'does' in terms of conveying the impact of scripture upon the lives of listeners. The purpose of the sermon must be to honor the text and in keeping with the text: also, the sermon must have a coherent purpose and keep on the same thematic track throughout.

One of the most common challenges for preachers is not that they have insufficient ambition: rather they must be focused and targeted in how they approach a sermon and not try to integrate too many disparate themes into single speech. [2: Greidanus, p.128.] Chapters 9, 10-12 It is common amongst many academics to divide scriptures into a series of narrative 'genres' which a preacher must be cognizant of when presenting his sermon to the congregants.

These include sagas, tales, novellas, legends, histories, reports, fables, etiologies, and myths.[footnoteRef:3] However, Greidanus points out that within the actual cultural context of the Hebrews themselves, there was no hard-and-fast divides between history and other formats. While today we tend to think of history as something which has to be factually accurate, this is, in fact, a relatively recent designation.

The scriptures encompass both stories with a didactic intention and works with a historical intention simultaneously.[footnoteRef:4] Thus, while biographical and character-based sermons may be appropriate for discussing the history narratives of the scriptures, for prophetic narratives, focusing on the life of the prophet is less important than the revelation contained within the text. Predictions, fulfillments, and messianic ideas rather than the narrative arc of the prophetic text should be at the forefront.[footnoteRef:5] [3: Greidanus, p.190.] [4: Greidanus, p.197.] [5: Greidanus, p.

217.] The Gospels themselves have a simultaneous purpose of both encapsulating real, lived history (the life of Jesus) and also conveying larger spiritual truths. Merely because they do not conform to 19th century ideas of objective historicity does not mean that their original writers lacked historical veracity: the preacher's responsibility is always to 'read' what is most important morally about the text when classifying the genre (to illustrate a point through history story or direct prophesy) rather than to engage in mere typology.

[footnoteRef:6] Classification of scripture and reading the intentions of scripture can be useful but the preacher must always have his larger purpose in mind. [6: Greidanus, p.267] Chapters 2-5 The Bible can has been viewed through a variety of 'lenses' -- historical, literary, and theological lenses, respectively. Historical-critical approaches seek to understand Biblical histories in terms of their probability of having taken place, using a variety of textual and archeological sources.

However, Greidanus sees historical-critical approaches as fundamentally lacking because the proof of God's goodness is the form of miracles is by definition something that unnatural and deliberately goes against the expected laws of creation.[footnoteRef:7] Greidanus calls for a more expansive historical-critical approach that is holistic in nature and allows for something beyond mere positivism.

[7: Greidanus, p.40.] Greidanus also finds fault in many purely literary interpretations of the Bible, which seek a form analysis of Biblical texts, often tracing the structures of the way various Biblical books were organized to other contemporary texts. These approaches do not seek to establish moral truths but rather see the Bible as a specific literary product of a time. These may include form criticism (understanding the form or approach of the author) and source criticism (determine what sources inspired the original text).

While Greidanus believes that ultimately the Bible itself should be the focus, not other sources, he acknowledges that some types of form criticism may be useful to unpack the meaning of various stories, but ultimately form analysis should not overwhelm the moral purpose of the preacher. [footnoteRef:8] In contrast to literary interpretations, theological interpretations attempt to discern why the author wrote a particular text.[footnoteRef:9] This can act as an important counterbalance to the natural but faulty tendency for a preacher to ask how I interpret this text.

Still, while Greidanus believes there is value in studying all of these approaches, they are incomplete and cannot be used in isolation and above all they must not thwart the ultimate purpose of preaching to give spiritual instruction. [8: Greidanus, p.54] [9: Greidanus, p.106.] Chapter 8 In Chapter 8, Greidanus grapples with the question that is at the heart of his book -- what is the modern relevance of the sermon today, in light of these various interpretive glosses upon the Bible? Greidanus is wary of the.