Author: Daron Lindemann
Last saved by: Barb Bartz
Company: Grace Lutheran Church

Study Guide #7 - Interpretation: Between Text and Listener
Pages 125-150

The Task of the Preacher as Interpreter of Scripture

1.	The Necessity of Interpretation - “In the job description of the minister as preacher, teacher, and leader of a community of believers, interpreting Scripture is integral, not optional.” List the five facts that describe the nature and function of this community (pp. 127-129). Here is a place to scrutinize Craddock’s view of Holy Scripture. As you do so, what do you find?

2.	The Difficulty of Interpretation - “An eighty-year-old woman will find more meaning in a specific incident in the life of a twelve-year-old Galilean boy than in facile attempts to be timeless and universal by speaking in general to everyone about everything” (p. 130). What are some common methods of trying to speak in general to everyone about everything? What makes specific exposition a better alternative than broad application?

3.	The Possibility of Interpretation - “Once the moment of recognition occurs, listeners need little further help in the way of explanations, urgings, applications, and exhortations” (p. 134). What, exactly, is this moment of recognition? What does it require?

In the example based on Mark 10:13-16 (p. 134), how did the preacher effectively guide the listeners to the moment of recognition without just saying, “How like those children are many of us here today”?

Methods Available to the Preacher as Interpreter

Craddock’s basic definition of the word “interpretation” is “negotiating the distance, or more precisely the various kinds of distance, between the text and the listeners to the sermon” (p. 136). How does this compare with your own definition of “interpretation?”

Read the first paragraph of this section on pp. 136 and 137, then answer the following: Interpretation is not _______, but is ________.

Explain each of the following methods of interpretation, identify a benefit and a caution, and give an example of the method from Scripture (pp. 137-150):
1.	The direct and uncritical transfer of the text to the listener.
2.	Allegorical interpretation of the text.
3.	Typological interpretation of the text
4.	Interpretation of the event of a text.
5.	Thematic interpretation of the text
6.	Interpretation by translation of the text