:: TEACHING #3 What is the literal voice of the text?
The literal voice of the text is the plain, historical narrative meaning of
the words, nature or experience. It answers the question, “What does it say?”
“What happened?” or what is the author trying to convey as its objective, first
level meaning? Literal is a way of speaking in language that is observable,
scientific or commonly held.
For an encounter to be real this voice is essential to hear. Should the literal
voice be negated from the on-set or at first apprehension we fail to bow before
the holy or the ineffable. We make ourselves the referent instead of God. We
must open from the first apprehension to the “Other” breaking in with meaning
and not our “Own” voice with foggy ignorance. Scripture is God speaking to us.
The literal voice of the text is easier to grasp if one knows the source, the
author, the historical situation, and the context of the passage and the meaning
of the words. In the literal voice of the text we study: |
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Exegesis is the meaning of words in the original language
that it was written |
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Read the text as a whole piece. Read the whole book, the
passages that inform the meaning from other books of Scripture. Compare the same
theme from other passages in the Bible. In the Light of the whole of Scriptures
what is this passage saying? |
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Historical context is helpful to determine what the
author(s) was trying to say and to whom that writer was speaking and the
situation from which the content was rising. Knowledge of the culture, the local
situation, the conversation that prompted the text is helpful for us to sift out
the meaning for us today. |
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Style of the Author(s) and particular literary genre of
choice also determines how the writer uses language and how it is intended to be
read and understood. The story of Genesis account of creation is not intended to
be a scientific exposé. Nor is a psalm meant to predict actual historical
events. |
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The literal voice of the text is universal. Some interpretations
may differ and might proffer other texts, but the literal voice of this text is
particular and stands before the reader as fact to consider seriously. There is
a voice of the “other” coming into the range of the reader’s grasp. It is
important to give the “it” spaciousness for its own integrity and development.
It is not my own mind’s projection or internal program at work. The literal
voice is something out there waiting to be heard. |
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Research into commentaries, various translations of the text,
dictionaries and theological investigations are sources for the reader to
determine the literal voice of the text. |
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