Quotes About Interpretation

No man with any sense assumes that a woman's words mean to her exactly what they mean to him.

Must I again remind you, Archie, of the reaction you would have got if you had asked Velasquez to explain why Aesop's hand was resting inside his robe instead of hanging by his side? Must I again demonstrate that while it is permissible to request the scientist to lead you back over his footprints, a similar request of the artist is nonsense, since he, like the lark or the eagle, has made none? Do you need to be told again that I am an artist?

Patting a shoulder can be anything from an apology to a promise, and only the patter can say which.

Must I again demonstrate that while it is permissible to request the scientist to lead you back over his footprints, a similar request of the artist is nonsense, since he, like the lark or the eagle, has made none?

There is no evidence that Jesus himself openly advocated violent actions. But he was certainly no pacifist. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but the sword" (Matthew 10:34 | Luke 12:51).

Each song has its own way that it likes to be done, but it can be more than one way. If you tap into it, you can feel it.

Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

These were facts, not myths, although what freight they carried I could not say. I was deaf in Simon's language, and blind in his culture. In the end, all I really

La ambigüedad, lejos de ser una carga, representa la clave de un lenguaje óptimo flexible. Y esta propiedad es seguramente universal.

Creio que o importante dos escritores são seus livros. Melhor lê-los do que conhecê-los, muitas vezes, porque quando se descobrem coisas como essa, nota-se um desencontro entre a pessoa e a obra.

A verdade está inscrita na estrutura do mundo, apenas temos de saber lê-la.

noto que en la pared a mis espaldas una mariposa negra y sucia está dándome una mala noticia que no entiendo.

On Earth, when anthropologists can't find instant meaning in any cultural artifact, they say "This obviously had deep religious significance.")

We were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.

God did not give Joseph any special information about how to get from being the son of a nomad in Palestine to being Pharaoh's right hand man in Egypt. What He did give Joseph were eleven jealous brothers, the attention of a very loose and vengeful woman, the ability to do the service of interpreting dreams and managing other people's affairs and the grace to do that faithfully wherever he was.

The Bible] says a lot of things in there! Proof-texting is a very, very dangerous thing. I think if we were given the scriptures it was not so that we could prove that we are right about everything. If we were given the scriptures it was to humble us into realizing that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing.

In edem es nv. (Cicero Fam.

How on earth did it come about that all the things denounced in the Gospels are violently defended by the Christian sects?

You find what you look for, my boy." "What is that supposed to mean?" "Exactly what it sounds like.

Almost nothing is known about Homer, which explains why so much has been written about him.

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.

I would propose the following minimal guideline: extrabiblical sources stand in a hermeneutical relation to the New Testament; they are not independent, counterbalancing sources of authority. In other words, the Bible's perspective is privileged, not ours. However tricky it may be in practice to apply this guideline, it is in fact a meaningful rule of thumb that discriminates significantly between different approaches to New Testament ethics.

Beware of the interpreter who always quotes only the Haustafeln (e.g., Col. 3:22: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything") and never wrestles with Galatians 5:1 ("For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery")—or vice versa.

final dimension of the interpretive task: right reading of the New Testament occurs only where the Word is embodied. We learn what the text means only if we submit ourselves to its power in such a way that we are changed by it.