Thread by @JoelBaden

The Bible, like every text, can’t communicate without a reader. And every reader reads from their own context. So you can’t say “the Bible means X” - you can only say “I read the Bible as meaning X.” And preferably understand why - the context of your reading.

As all texts need to be interpreted to be read, so too every reading is therefore interpretation. Modern readers interpret for their own world and context. So too Luther. So too Jesus. So too the very first readers of the text in antiquity. None of these is the “right” reading.

“How the original Israelite audience would have understood it” isn’t the “correct” interpretation of the text. It’s just the oldest. Privileging it over the 2000 years of interpretation that followed is a very particular modern intellectual stance that should be interrogated.

“How Jesus understood it” isn’t correct either - nor is “how the ancient rabbis/Rashi understood it.” Those interpreters may be guides for many today, but they’re also reading from their own contexts. To follow their leads is also an intellectual stance to be interrogated.

“The Bible says” should really be followed only by a direct quotation of the biblical text, preferably in the original language, since all translation is also interpretation. “The Bible means” is a dead giveaway for someone who claims authority to determine universal truth.

Though critical, this stance is meant to be affirming: yes - for you, my Christian friend, maybe the sacrifice of Isaac is about Jesus. That’s a totally okay interpretation of the text! It is not, however, what the text means in any other context but your own. But go for it!

Critical reading of the Bible isn’t meant to replace the hegemony of confessional interpretation with the hegemony of “original intent.” It’s mean to allow us to see the situatedness of every reading, to recognize how context shapes every interpretation.

There is the text, which stands alone, effectively meaningless without its readers. And then there are the readers and their interpretations, none of which stand alone, but all emerge from their specific times and places. From the first reader to right now, it’s all reception.