Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship: How the Bible Shapes Our Interpretive Habits and Practices

by David I. Starling

A Fresh Approach to the Art of Biblical Interpretation

This book offers a fresh approach to the art of biblical interpretation, focusing on the ways Scripture itself forms its readers as wise and faithful interpreters. David Starling shows that apprenticing ourselves to the interpretive practices of the biblical writers and engaging closely with texts from all parts of the Bible help us to develop the habits and practices required to be good readers of Scripture. After introducing the principles, Starling works through the canon, providing inductive case studies in interpretive method and drawing out implications for contemporary readers. Offering a fresh contribution to hermeneutical discussions, this book will be an ideal supplement to traditional hermeneutics textbooks for seminarians. It includes a foreword by Peter O'Brien.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Christian

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 20, 2016

About the author

David Starling lectures in New Testament and theology at Morling College, Sydney. He and his wife, Nicole, have four children, and belong to Macquarie Baptist Church. David grew up in a Christian family and worked as a high school English teacher in Western Sydney before studying theology at Moore College and Morling College. He served from 2000 to 2006 as the pastor of Petersham Baptist Church, and has been a lecturer at Morling College since 2005. He is the author of Not my People: Gentiles as Exiles in Pauline Hermeneutics (De Gruyter, 2011), UnCorinthian Leadership (Cascade, 2014), and Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship (Baker, forthcoming), and co-editor of Theology and the Future (T&T Clark, 2014).

Reviews

[Matthew V Armstrong]

I love the premise of this book: we can (and should) learn how to read the Scriptures by looking at how the authors of Scripture did it themselves. As the biblical text unfolded through time, biblical authors were reflecting and commenting on previous portions of the sacred text. By watching them we can learn how to do it ourselves in ways that free us from the pitfalls of both modernist and pre-modernist hermeneutical shortcomings. We can read Scripture in a way that shapes us. I think most Chrisitians do this intuitively to some degree, but doing it intentionally, Starling convinced me, can be even more helpful. The only reason I don’t give the book 5-stars is because the chapters are uneven. Some (most) are outstanding and some (a few) are poor.

[Todd Miles]

This is a thought provoking book that looks at how the biblical writers interpreted Scripture and interacted with it as they composed their own biblical books. There are 15 chapters from the gamut of biblical literary genres.

[Tim]

A collection of standalone chapters that explain how particular books of the Bible model hermeneutics for the reader. From the use of the law in Psalms, to the fulfillment of prophecy in Matthew, to the cultural commentary of Peter and Revelation, the contents of this book amount to an interesting journey of exploring how the Bible interprets itself.

[Daniel]

This is an intriguing book, helpful for making clear the multitude of questions that are actually involved in the process of hermeneutics, and for prodding us to consider how the biblical writers themselves model the kind of hermeneutical moves we are to make.

The Overall Point:
The task of biblical interpretation is far more complex, and fraught with far more difficulties, than is readily known and/or acknowledged by the average evangelical biblical interpreter. Infrequently admitted is even the fact that one must interpret whenever Scripture is read, in contradistinction to “merely discovering and restating an uninterpreted, transparent, and universally obvious meaning" (7). Even less acknowledged is the inherent presence of prejudgments in all interpretation. This task of interpretation extends even to the biblical authors themselves, who in citing earlier Scripture interpret it. While the common phrase “Scripture interprets Scripture” is usually applied to the interpreter who examines clearer texts to help understand more obscure texts, Starling insists that another meaning of the phrase must be kept in mind: “the significance of the intertextual relationships between the biblical books and the interpretive work of the biblical authors themselves” (13). Biblical interpreters today must recognize that they are far from the first ones to seek biblical harmony. Yet, the heritage of interpretive ancestors, from whom it would be wise to learn, do not go back merely to post-biblical believers. Later biblical authors themselves interpreted earlier divine revelation. The focus of Starling’s book is providing several case studies “on the dynamics of inner-biblical hermeneutics and their significance for Scripture’s theological interpretation" (16). That significance is for building interpretive skill and character in order to “to draw the right connections, make the right intuitive leaps, and bring to bear on the task the right dispositions, affections, and virtues” (17). Starling describes the whole process as one of “apprenticeship,” a state in which no one is entirely free from subjectivity (or fallibility) and from which no interpreter ever graduates.

Models of Hermeneutics:
Various images have been utilized to describe the journey toward correct and complete interpretation, including the hermeneutical circle and the hermeneutical spiral. Starling adds another: the hermeneutical snowball, which is a metaphor for what took place within the formation of the biblical canon over the centuries of its creation. Starling explains, “The Bible did not fall from the sky like a single snowflake; it rolled down the hill of salvation history, adding layers as it went. Each new layer of the accumulating collection presupposes what comes before and wraps itself around it; in so doing it offers direction in how to read it and asks, in turn, to be interpreted in light of it" (19). In distinction from Grant Osborne’s The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Starling’s snowball metaphor is not describing the relationship between authors and readers. It is about the reality of added progressive revelation via the biblical authors in multifaceted ways throughout redemptive history. Osborne’s spiral acknowledges such development, but its scope comes all the way down to the present as it focuses on the work of contemporary interpreters seeking to grasp the meaning and significance of Scripture. In many ways, these two images or models are compatible and not in competition with one another since they address distinguishable realities.

There are several strengths of Starling’s approach in this book:
-First, Starling articulates and models well the whole notion that contemporary biblical interpreters should take their cues for hermeneutics from the hermeneutics of the biblical writers.
-Second, Starling helpfully articulates the reality that no interpreter is “born within the pages of the Bible,” but instead he or she comes inescapably with presuppositions and preunderstandings. This does not mean that interpreters are hopelessly lost in subjectivity, however. There are scriptural paths with ultimately one Instructor, Christ, who guides us ever more along the way we should go (24).
-Third, Starling beneficially uses his case studies to demonstrate what can be learned from various sections of Scripture on how to interpret Scripture through its self-presentations and illustrations.
-Fourth, Starling has some degree of consistency with his apprenticeship theme, emphasizing not just interpretive skill, but also ethical virtue in the interpreter. For example, the Psalms are not just for shaping interpreters’ minds, but the practices therein are formative: “when we pray the psalms we are being taught how to sing, how to give thanks, how to lament, how to protest, and how to praise, along with the psalmist and in company with the whole people of God" (25).
-Fifth, Starling offers many exegetical insights to be gained from all over Scripture, given the wide range of case studies. To cite just a few, these include his connecting the actions leading up to the marriage of Boaz and Ruth to God’s חֶ֫סֶד love and care (52-54), his explaining Luke’s hermeneutical bridge connecting Israel’s story and the gospel as proclaimed by both Jesus and the apostles (106-117), his recognition that the point of Jesus’ signs in the Gospel of John are not merely about displays of power but connecting Jesus’ work to “the glorious works of YHWH himself” as seen in the Old Testament (122), and his noting that Paul is clearly conversing with the pagan theologica in 1 Corinthians 15 (141-142).
-Sixth, at various key points, Starling places a clear emphasis on Christ as central to Scripture. One example of this is in his chapter on the Gospel of John when he writes, “The truth claims contained in and implied by Scripture are, of course, multitudinous, but they coalesce around a single, central assertion: ‘that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God’ (John 20:31)” (119). In these ways, and more, Starling’s book provides a lot of benefit to readers.

Starling’s approach in this book could be improved upon:
-First, it is not abundantly clear what are Starling’s precise theological commitments. One indication of this is he refers to “the compiler of the book in its final form” when writing about Deuteronomy and then leaves open the possibility that the original audience of the book may be those living under Babylon or Persian rule (many centuries after the Israelite generation about to enter the Promised Land) (38). He also makes mention of the redaction into final form of the book of Zechariah (88). His endorsement of figural interpretation seems to be lacking some of the needful cautions that other scholars make, and should be distinguished from typology.
-Second, the book feels more like a loosely-related collection of essays than a unified book advancing the same thesis. In some chapters, the implications for hermeneutics seem rather thrown together to form a short conclusion.
-Third, it should not be thought of as a stand-alone resource for understanding all the necessary dimensions of the biblical genres (albeit it does not purport to be).

[Joe Johnson]

In the introduction to Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship, David Starling suggests that scriptural interpretation should be thought of as “requiring not just sweat but skill, and not just skill but character” (p.17). Throughout the book’s pages he emphasizes that readers should consider biblical hermeneutics to be, not merely an austere set of rules for interpreting the Bible, but also a craft that one participates and grows in.

Part of what Starling seeks to address in Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship is the problem of “pervasive interpretive pluralism” present in Protestant and evangelical hermeneutics (pp.7-8). One way of defining the issue can be found in Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible. In this book, Smith essentially asks how it can be that, given the claims made by many evangelicals about the clarity and accessibility of Scripture, there are still significant disagreements amongst sincere, devoted, and intelligent evangelical readers about how to best understand and interpret it (The Bible Made Impossible, p.17).

Starling notes that this is not exactly a new problem. In some ways, it’s an issue that goes back to the dawn of the Reformation itself. The maxim, “Scripture is its own interpreter,” does likely have some pre-Reformation era precedents, but Starling mainly focuses on Luther’s use of the proverb in response to those who criticized his insistence on the clarity of Scripture and the right of all to read and interpret it (p.10). In Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship, Starling unpacks this maxim into three distinct senses.

First, it can be understood in a rather passive sense to mean that interpreters should read obscure passages in light of clearer, more understandable ones (p.10). Of course, this dimension of the phrase has pre-Reformation roots that go back all the way to Patristic voices like Augustine and Irenaeus. Another way in which the maxim can be understood is the active sense of Scripture interpreting the exegete. Citing the words of scholar Gerhard Forde, Starling explains that this sense focuses on the ways in which Scripture functions as an active subject, “interpreting… testing, judging and illuminating” the reader as he or she goes through the process of engaging with it (p.10). However, even these two senses don’t exhaust the maxim’s meaning for Starling:

At the intersection between the passive sense of the maxim… and the active sense… there is a third, reflexive sense—arguably the primary sense of Luther’s phrase—which speaks of the agency of Scripture in interpreting itself… this third, reflexive sense of the maxim appeals to the plural, human authorship of Scripture and speaks of the interpretive work that the biblical authors themselves perform in understanding and appropriating the antecedent texts and traditions that functioned for them as Scripture does for us. (p.11)

It is this third, reflexive dimension that Starling finds to be especially fertile ground for exploring the idea of hermeneutics as a journey of apprenticeship to the canonical authors. In relation to them, he writes, “we are their apprentices in the art of reading Scripture, learning from them how to understand Christ (and all things) in the light of Scripture and Scripture (and all things) in the light of Christ” (p.19). While Starling finds the imagery of apprenticeship helpful for thinking about the process of forming healthy habits and dispositions of theological interpretation, he also wants to acknowledge that this isn’t meant to “reduce the role of the contemporary interpreter to an unthinking, unimaginative mimicry” (p.18).

Starling does acknowledge that there are important differences and discontinuities between the inner-biblical interpretation practiced by the canonical authors and the hermeneutical task of contemporary readers. In his words, biblical hermeneutics is a realm in which “we are always apprentices” (p.206). Broadly speaking, the aims of Starling’s work are actually pretty modest. He isn’t trying to propose an all-encompassing remedy for the distinctive challenges of Protestant hermeneutics. Nevertheless, he does believe that we can learn something about the art of interpretation from the biblical authors themselves:

[A]n increase in our attentiveness to the interpretive practices of the biblical writers and a readiness to educate our interpretive faculties in light of these practices should work as a healthy corrective to the worst excesses of interpretive arbitrariness and foster a healthier and more faithful interpretive conversation. (p.20)

The majority of the book is made up of essays—Starling calls them “case studies in inner-biblical hermeneutics”—looking at topics like the hermeneutics of delight in the Psalter, the hermeneutics of obedience in Matthew, and the hermeneutics of exhortation in Hebrews, among others (pp.vii-viii). In each chapter, he spends most of his time dwelling on an interpretive issue dealt with by a biblical writer, attempting to think through how the “habits of mind and heart” displayed by the biblical authors can help readers better learn “what it means to receive the biblical writings as Holy Scripture and… appropriate their words in our own situation” (pp.20-21). Some of the essays seemed a bit fuzzy, making it difficult to discern how exactly they were supposed to shed light on the interpretive habits Christians should cultivate. However, there were also some very interesting essays, especially his chapters on the interpretive riches in the Psalms, Luke, and Hebrews.

Conclusion

Starling’s book enters into ongoing discussions regarding the nature and ongoing validity of Apostolic hermeneutics carried on by people like Richard Longenecker (Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period), Richard Hays (Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul and Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels), and Peter Enns (Inspiration and Incarnation). While he does spend a little time dealing with these discussions, he unfortunately moves past them rather quickly. Given that this is a book about learning to more wisely interpret Scripture by studying the work of the biblical writers, this seems like a relevant subject that I wish he had wrestled with more deeply. On a more positive note, I was fascinated by Starling’s exploration of the different dimensions of the maxim “Scripture is its own interpreter.” His discussion of the passive, active, and reflexive dimensions of the phrase was for me one of the most intriguing parts of the book as a whole.

Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship might not solve the problem of pervasive interpretive pluralism in the Protestant world, but it does point people towards the value of being more attentive readers of Scripture, and it underscores the fact that interpretation is both unavoidable and (in some ways) more of an art than a science. Starling’s proposal for thinking of hermeneutics as a process of apprenticeship was also quite helpful. It strikes the imagination and lends deeper meaning to the years of bible reading and discussion that go into the long-term rhythms of most local Christian communities. I think many readers will benefit from Starling’s work.

*Disclosure: I received this book free from Baker Academic for review purposes. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

[Spencer R]

See my full review on my blog, Spoiled Milks (5/22/17).

I would assign this book if I taught a hermeneutics class in a Bible college, and at least a few chapters if I taught this in a high school. It’s a good subset of larger Biblical theologies that keeps an eye on what the individual biblical authors are teaching their readers. They each have something specific they want to emphasize (multiple things, really), and it all fits under the heading of God’s Word.

Interpreting Scripture requires sweat, skill, and character. We work and develop the skill of learning how to read and understand it properly, and as God develops our character and shapes us into the image of his Son, we will understand better just who this God is who is working in the world around us. The fear of God which leads to godly wisdom “is a way of living with unanswered questions that still bears true witness, keeps faith with friends, maintains integrity, and hopes in God” (80).

The reading and interpretation of God's word should continually shape us into the image of Christ. The end goal of the Bible is not that we know every correct interpretation (taking up all of our time), but that we love God and serve others because we are transformed by interpreting what the Bible teaches us. We will never get to the end of the Bible, and we will never have all the answers. But we will eventually have to make decisions in life, and what we have learned from the Bible will inform those decisions. Learn to interpret well.

Disclosure: I received this book free from Baker Academic through the Baker Academic Bloggers program. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

[Matt Crawford]

Not until the epilogue does the title come into play. I wasn’t a fan of this book. There were not many principles involved. The application is to keep reading. Return to the Bible. This book wavers between a lesson in the history of hermeneutics (or the methods thereof) and a commentary on selected books. I did not gather much new information, simply a quote or paraphrase of someone else’s work and the words I agree or I don’t agree. He definitely loves commas and semicolons. I’m not sure if he is trying to channel his inner Jonathan Edwards or John Owen but the longer sentence structure did not to benefits his arguments. Read it cause you have to. Where’s the apprenticeship? I saw that in the title and half a page in the epilogue and that’s it.

[Steve Nation]

I'd been keen to have a read of this book for a while now. On Tuesday I picked up a copy, and three days later, I've just finished it. I love it, and will continue to use it for my own devotional reading, as well as a reference in preparing sermons and Bible studies and training sessions.

I hadn't come across the process of interpreting the Bible as being like a apprenticeship. I think it's a good image, especially when the masters are the Spirit of God and the human authors of Scripture. Its a humbling image, and true to reality.

The fourteen chapters (exercises) in being apprenticed to the text of Scripture are gold. They're simultaneously edifying, informative and challenging.

Alongside a book like Grasping God's Word by Duvall and Hays, this is a treasure.

[JT Reagor]

Love the concept. The first few chapters were EXCELLENT, but as it dragged on, it seemed as if the author lost sight of their original intent. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the sometimes unnecessarily convoluted language.

[Chuck]

David Starling uses the metaphor of Apprentice as entrance into discussing letting the Bible teach us how to interpret it. Instead of turning to outside hermeneutical resources, Starling encourages taking a look at how particular authors treat scripture in their writings.

Starling provides 14 case studies from various literary genre to illustrate his concerns. His opening chapter on the Psalter's reflection on the Torah is stimulating and helpful. He also covers law, wisdom, prophecy, history, gospels, letters, and apocalyptic. In doing so, he raises questions about how Biblical authors use various approaches to the text to show how that text still speaks into the life of God's people.

This is a helpful means to gain new insight into reading Scripture. It assumes a lot of basic Bible knowledge as well as more than cursory familiarity with hermeneutics. But it's readable by most anyone familiar with Biblical studies. As you would expect, some chapters are more helpful and insightful than others, but overall a really good read.