Beyond the Obvious: Discover the Deeper Meaning of Scripture

by James DeYoung, Sarah Hurty, James B. De Young

...Bible students who have felt that earlier methods of interpreting the Bible, while orthodox and secure, result in rather unfruitful 'abstract meaning' will find exciting and challenging ideas in 'Beyond the Obvious'. Stephen A. Hayner, Peachtree Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth, Columbia Theological Seminary Here is a stimulating, thoroughly evangelical, and orthodox challenge to the dominant evangelical paradigm of biblical interpretation known as the single meaning, authorial intent approach.... I believe the book is an impressive and convincing corrective to the one-sided emphasis of some evangelicals on single meaning authorial intent hermeneutics. Alan F. Johnson, Professor of New Testament and Christian Ethics, Wheaton College The authors offer a timely and vigorous challenge to the hermeneutical status quo among evangelicals.... The book will greatly clarify the issues in the current hermeneutical debate. David Fisher, Senior Minister of Colonial Church, Edina, MN This is a noteworthy and valuable effort for recognizing the implications of culture in hermeneutics. By making the Kingdom of God central, a whole Bible view of mission develops from this hermeneutic, deepening and broadening our understanding of God at work in the world. Donald K. Smith, Division of Intercultural Studies, Western Seminary

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

James De Young, Th.D., is the Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Western Seminary, Portland, OR.

Also publishes as James B. DeYoung

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that is helpful in many ways. The argument that we should imitate the apostolic hermeneutic is sound. The proposed understanding of the apostolic hermeneutic is not as sound (at least not to my mind).

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of evangelicals espouse a grammatical-historical hermeneutic to interpret the Bible. That is, the idea that to find the meaning of a Scripture one must examine the context in which a passage was originally written. The problem with this, says Mr. DeYoung, is that that is not how the New Testament writers interpreted the Old Testament. The NT writers, from our perspective, were quite liberal in how they understood OT passages. Why was this? Mr. DeYoung posits that we ought to figure out how NT writers interpreted the OT and then follow suite.

This book, then, is a proposition that NT writers interpreted the OT in light of the central theme of the Bible: the Kingdom of God. Though there is great disagreement over the most central theme of the Bible, Mr. DeYoung offers in brief outline a compelling case for the Kingdom being the main center. From this, he builds a case that we ought to follow the leading of the NT writers and interpret the whole Bible according to the Kingdom theme.

Mr. DeYoung does a good job of building his case, though at some points the book feels disjointed, possibly on account of there being two writers working together. They freely admit that their thesis ought to be tested by the church, and as this book was written 20 years ago I would love to read an updated version with an analysis of their proposed hermeneutic. How has it been received in academic circles? Would they make any changes to their hermeneutic?

The main part of the book is about half the total length, with appendices and end notes taking up the remainder of the pages. Because of this format, it is a fairly quick read and makes it more interesting as they move quickly through their premise and build their case for a Kingdom-centered hermeneutic to discover the deeper meaning of Scripture.