Gospel and Spirit: Issues in New Testament Hermeneutics

by Gordon D. Fee

For those who believe the Scriptures are the inspired word of God with a message relevant for living today, nothing is more crucial than understanding sound principles of interpretation. Disagreement arises when people and groups differ over how one gets at that message and what that message is. In this collection of essays and lectures, Dr. Gordon Fee offers hermeneutical insights that will more effectively allow the New Testament to speak on its own terms to our situation today.

This is not a collection of subjective, theoretical essays on the science of interpretation; rather, these essays target issues of practical--and sometimes critical--concern to Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and anyone interested in letting the Bible speak to today's situation. Fee brings to the task what he himself common sense and dedication to Scripture. Readers already familiar with some of these essays, like "Hermeneutics and Common An Exploratory Essay on the Hermeneutics of the Epistles," will welcome its reappearance. Others will appreciate the challenge of essays such as "The Great Watershed--Intentionality and Particularity/ 1 Timothy 2:8-15 as a Test Case"--an essay defending the role of women in ministry--or "Hermeneutics and Historical Precedent--A Major Issue in Pentecostal Hermeneutics." Anyone wanting to wrestle with key issues in New Testament interpretation will want to read this book.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Biblical Studies, Reference, New Testament

158 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Gordon Fee was Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Regent College, where he taught for sixteen years. His teaching experience also included serving schools in Washington, California, Kentucky, as well as Wheaton College in Illinois (five years) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts (twelve years).

Gordon Fee was a noted New Testament scholar, having published several books and articles in his field of specialization, New Testament textual criticism. He also published a textbook on New Testament interpretation, co-authored two books for lay people on biblical interpretation, as well as scholarly-popular commentaries on 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus and on Galatians, and major commentaries on 1 Corinthians and Philippians. He is also the author of a major work on the Holy Spirit and the Person of Christ in the letters of Paul.

Gordon Fee served as the general editor of the New International Commentary series, as well as on the NIV revision committee that produced the TNIV. Besides his ability as a biblical scholar, he was a noted teacher and conference speaker. He has given the Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar lectures on fifteen college campuses as well as the annual NT lectures at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, North Park Seminary, the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, the Canadian Theological Seminary, Duke Divinity School, Golden Gate Baptist, Anderson School of Theology, Asbury Seminary, and Chrichton College. An ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, Gordon Fee was well known for his manifest concern for the renewal of the church.

Gordon Fee was married and had four married children.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fee, Gordon. Gospel and Spirit: Issues in New Testament Hermeneutics. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991.

The real battle over inerrancy doesn’t concern whether the autographa are (were?) inerrant. The conservative has no access to them and the liberal can’t produce any arguments on why they would be errant. The real problem, however, is hermeneutics. Lacking any fear, Gordon Fee jumps into the fray.

Hermeneutics and Inerrancy

Since Scripture is a divine-human product, it creates tensions in the life of the church. We have eternal truths applied to human particularities. The temptation to get around this tension results in a “divine rule book” hermeneutics. Many conservatives (since liberals scorn Scripture, we don’t even need to address them) level all the imperatives in Scripture with the result that they can’t live by their own advice. As Fee wryly notes, “One whole wing of evangelicalism, for example, argues vehemently for the eternal validity of 1 Cor. 14:34-35 on the silence of women, while rejecting every other imperative in the chapter, including the final one, not to forbid speaking in tongues” (Fee 45).

Even worse, but proving Fee’s case, Paul doesn’t always give the same imperative to the same situation. The guidelines for widows in 1 Cor. 7 is different from 1 Timothy 5. So how do we do ethics? First, we realize that God’s gift precedes his obligation (good Augustinianism here). We do not start with “law” but with God himself, who gives himself to us (good Wyclifite insight here). As Fee notes, “All things are measured by the character of the Father; as his children we are privileged by the power of the Spirit to bear his likeness in the world” (46). To do otherwise is to make the medieval mistake: turning the gospel into a “New Law.”

While some of Fee’s comments decisively rebut the cessationist, he is on weaker ground when it comes to women in leadership. He makes several important points, but none of them is logically overwhelming. Still, they are worth considering. Should women be quiet in church (1 Tim. 2:8-15)? The question we should all ask is which part of 1 Timothy is particular and which eternal? For example, no patriarchalist literally holds to 5:3-16 (which, interestingly enough, is opposite of Paul’s advice in 1 Cor. 7). What grounds do we have for thinking that is particular to that situation and not eternal?

I don’t know. Fee raises good points that few patriarchalist have thought about (or even are aware exist), but the structure of his argument resembles a tu quo que fallacy. I’ll leave it at that.

His two most important chapters deal with distinctives in the Assembly of God and the larger pentecostal church. Can we draw doctrine from narrative and is the baptism of the Holy Spirit subsequent to regeneration? The answer to both questions is “sort of.” While cessationists, Baptist and Reformed, oppose basing doctrine (or practice) on narrative in theory, they do so in practice. Where is the didactic teaching that says we baptize infants (or believers after a credible profession)? It’s not there. They base the teaching (correctly, I believe) on the household baptisms in Acts.

Fee suggests that a better question is how can we draw doctrine from narrative. Which experience of the primitive church is normative for us? The Jerusalem Church shared everything, yet we have no evidence the Antioch Church did, and we know for a fact the Corinthian (and probably Roman) churches did not.

Even more problematic, while the epistles have didactic elements, they are occasional letters not systematic theologies. Even if we draw doctrine from them, and we should, we have no warrant to treat them as Pauline Summas.

This book is a fantastic intermediate level text on hermeneutics. It presents a number of tough case-studies that will make everyone uncomfortable.

[Caleb Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordon Fee is one the great New Testament scholars of our time, and in my opinion, he may be the preeminent Pentecostal theologian. This book is a collection of his essays addressing various matters in New Testament hermeneutics.

As is the case with all great thinkers, I find that even with regard to issues that I disagree with Dr. Fee, his commentary is still insightful, and instructive. Fee uses controversial, and difficult texts in these essays as his case studies to explore a multitude of issues relating to exegesis, and personal application of God’s word. Among these are texts relating to women in ministry, and the distinctive doctrines of Pentecostal theology.

I am skeptical of some of the conclusions that he draws concerning some of these topics, however his methodology in approaching the biblical data is clear, reasonable, and in many cases persuasive. I was particularly impressed with his attention to the role of pneumatology with respect to the praxis of the early church, as well as the intent of the New Testament authors. His treatment of the supposed “distinctiveness”, and “subsequence” of Spirit baptism in Pentecostal theology alone makes the book worth reading.

Even if one disagrees with the destination of some of his arguments, as I did, I still have no doubt that there is much to be learned from this volume towards becoming a better interpreter of God’s word.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hermeneutics as the interpretation of meaning gets tossed around in many intellectual circles, but probably not near as much as the term is volleyed back and forth in Biblical Studies. In fact, for those who hold the Bible as having any type of divine authority whatsoever (the spectrum from right-wing fundamentalist through evangelical, Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant to left-wing liberal/modernist is wide with varying ideas of divine influence, even though there is much overlap between the positions I just listed), interpretation is a crucial issue.

As a New Testament scholar and a Pentecostal theologian, Gordon D. Fee offers a unique perspective at neither one extreme of the spectrum or another. In Gospel and Spirit: Issues in New Testament Hermeneutics, Fee challenges all sides to realize both the potential for miscommunication in human language and the richness of diversity in communicating God’s message to humankind. Each chapter had been delivered as a lecture, previously published, and now, has evolved into the finished products in this collection.

Of course, if one is going to write about the “problem” of hermeneutics, one must explain what one means with regard to the term and why it is necessary. Fee notes that interpretation is necessary in any communication because the use of symbols (words) requires interpretation (p. 25). For our purposes, he defines the task of hermeneutics as: “…thinking about and reflecting on Scripture in such a way that one brings it to bear on all aspects of life.” (p. 24) Again, he states, “We are concerned about the meaning and application of biblical truth that should be the same and obligatory for all people at all times and all circumstances…the universal applicability of the biblical text, not the individual encounter with it.” (p. 38)

Now, this does not mean that Fee disregards the particular contextual circumstances of a text or the authorial intent—far from it! Indeed, one of the first assertions he makes in this collection is: “A maxim of hermeneutics for the Epistles is: The correct meaning of a passage must be something the author intended and the readers could have understood.” (p. 7) That’s a more concise methodological statement of what I tell my congregants and students when I say that we have to take seriously what God was trying to say to the biblical message’s original audience or it makes no sense for God to reveal that message at that point in history. As a result, we will see that Fee continually insists that the question of inerrancy and trustworthiness of the Scripture has to take place in consideration of that original situation NOT whatever we can try to make the text say to us today in disregard of the context (p. 20).

An early point in the book with which I resonated was his contention that: “An evangelical sympathizes with, but finally rejects, the fundamentalist’s anxiety over the need for absolute authority, which tends thereby to replace the authority of the word with the authority of the interpreter.” (p. 31) I particularly liked his encapsulation in this discussion of a fundamentalist as being so focused on the word itself that it merely pays lip service to the human authors while the liberals avoid allowing the word to set rules such that the word is seen as merely human and not really divine (also p. 31). Rather, Fee affirms both the human and divine nature of the book by stating, “God did not choose to give us a series of timeless, non-culture-bound propositions to be believed and imperatives to be obeyed. Rather, he chose to speak his eternal word this in historically particular circumstances, and in every kind of literary genre.” (p. 33) In another chapter, Fee writes: “Since God chose to communicate himself to us through human speech in historically particular circumstances, we are locked into a hermeneutical process that demands by its very nature that we listen carefully first of all to what is intended; for there alone lies our hope of hearing what God himself wants us to hear.” (p. 43)

At other points, Fee warns against watering down the diversity of Scripture with our ideas of rational understanding so that everything fits together neatly. He cites an illustration of a patchwork quilt and contends that unity does not mean the same as uniformity (p. 35). He particularly warns about finding unifying principles to communicate with one culture which are at odds with the rest of Scripture (he illustrates with the 20th century’s Robert Schuller and his softening of sin to a matter of “self-esteem” – p. 71). And although he hits rightly on the need to build one’s doctrinal stance on authorial intent (both of the human author and the Holy Spirit—pp.90, 97, 103, 108) The value of authorial intent is that it both serves as a corrective as to what texts may not mean and to demonstrate how conflicting data can stand side-by-side and remain clear (p. 43)

And I find it particularly important when Fee observes: “By and large, evangelicals need to take more seriously the word of 2 Peter 1:20: ‘no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.’ (NRSV)” (p. 80) Much of the last portion of the book deals with issues of hermeneutics within Fee’s own Pentecostal tradition, but his cautionary discussion of the danger of mandating every believer to have the same “second baptism” of the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues is underscored by his solid summary of the essentials of New Testament conversion (p. 117). There, Fee puts an emphasis on the centrality of the power of the Holy Spirit for the early church and an expectation of the Holy Spirit acting within that early church rather than on matters of timing and manner.

I also feel that Fee is on particularly firm ground when he observes that the New Testament doesn’t provide a manual for church order and organization. Why? His thesis is, “…the primary reason for this stems from their understanding of what it means to be the people of God under a new covenant, as that in turn is related to their common experience of the eschatological spirit.” (pp. 121, 136) He certainly makes a convincing argument that the modern church structure is something of a disconnect from the New Testament understanding of church leadership, but he doesn’t end it there. “I am convinced that a more biblical model can be effected within almost any present structure. But it will take a genuine renewal of the Holy Spirit, so that the ‘clergy’ cease being threatened by shared gifts and ministries, and the people cease ‘paying the preacher to do it.’” (p. 142)

Personally, I very much think every seminary student should be exposed to the first few chapters and a lot of us in professional ministry should carefully consider the final one. Although this book isn’t designed to speak specifically to me, it is solid in its scholarship and argumentation, and I rate it highly.

[Nelson Banuchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent study on how to interpret texts of the New Testament theologically and practically in the life of the Church and individuals. He discusses basic issues and problems in hermeneutics in relation to common sense, the nature of Scripture, authorial intent, NT imperatives, the role of tradition, and issues specific too Pentecostalism.

Although he engages in different tests throughout his discussions, in the last two chapters he enters into a wider discussion of two specific controversial texts peculiar to Pentecostalism in many respects and offers his exegetical understanding of them, that is, on the baptism the Holy Spirit and church leadership.

Fee seems to wrap up a lot of information in only 143 pages, bringing not only a basic knowledge of hermeneutics, but excitement into its practice. He opens up new areas of thought, at least, for me and helps me to see Scriptural texts in a new light as I read the NT.

[Steve Irby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished "Gospel and Spirit," by Gordon Fee.

Fee once again shows his wonderful skill as an exegtical scholar. This thin book was well worth the read. Especially great was his chapters 6 and 7 dealing with a Pentecostal perspective of hermeneutics, and separability and subsequence. Since I am more theologically focused than hermeneutically, I didnt note-take during this book, but I highly recommend it especially for Pentecostals who want to read one of their own (AoG) kindly take issue with some things while fully affirming the rich heritage of the movement of, and promise of, the Spirit for all people. That isnt to say that Pentecostals are theologically lacking. Not at all. This is to say that the book spoke on a hermeneurical level which is my weakness. What is lacking is my ability to talk hermeneutically, not Pentecostals ability to speak theologically. To paraphrase my favorite line in the book, "the Spirit filled Christian" is a redundant phrase.

[David Blankenship · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all think we know how to interpret the Bible. This little book does a good job in puncturing many of our prejudices concerning exactly the 'right' way to do hermeneutics. While Fee may not always be correct in some his solutions, the manner in which he raises questions for all Bible-believing and Spirit-filled Christians to ponder is helpful.

[Jess Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un receuil d'articles écrit par Gordon Fee. Tous très très intéressants et stimulants.

[Радостин Марчев · Rating 4 out of 5]

"How to read the bible for all its worth" на автора беше мой учебник в курса по херменевтика и години по-късно аз все още смятам книгата за една от най-добрите в областта. "Gospel and Spirit" на д-р Фий е своеобразно допълнение като в същото време е доста по-полемично насочена. Тя визира някои от най-спорните съвременни въпроси в евангелското богословие от чисто херменевтическа гледна точка - какво се крие зад спора относно непогрешимостта на библията, каква в същността на писанието, могат ли жените да бъдат водачи в църква, "втората" петдесета опитност, влиянието на традицията върху тълкуването... Във всеки от случаите авторът заема твърда и в същото време добре обоснована позиция, подкрепена с много конкретни примери, които често слагат пръст в раната. Неговото разграничение на конкретен прецедент характерен за даден случай и култура и универсалното му приложение е много полезен именно понеже е поставено на една херменевтическа везна, която дава някои насоки какво представлява това и как реално може да бъде направено. Не по-малко полезно е напомнянето му, че новият завет не е "осъвременен закон," който заменя старозаветния закон и който ние като читатели трябва първо да дефинираме прецизно по отношение на всяка една "заповед" и след това безкомпромисно да наложим на всички - настройка, макар и не съзнателно, често срещана сред евангелските християни.
Като цяло балансирана, честна и доста полезна книга, която определено си струва да се прочете.

[Aeromama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining: 4/10
Transformational: 8/10

Equally convicting and encouraging.