Quotes About Interpretation

an apocalypse is a vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities)

modern research on conversion has demonstrated that, long after such an experience, a convert tends to confuse what actually happened in light of everything that occurs in its aftermath

One of the interesting features of the book of Revelation is that unlike nearly all the other apocalypses it does not appear to be pseudonymous.

When the verses on women are removed, the passage flows neatly without a break. This too suggests that these verses were inserted into the passage later.

have had a field day here.

If God wanted us to have his words, why didn't he preserve his words?

there is not a single word in all of Revelation about God loving others and no instruction to the followers of Christ to do so, either.

Research on conversion has demonstrated that, long after such an experience, a convert tends to confuse what actually happened in light of everything that occurs in its aftermath. That is to say, years later, the accounts people tell, to both themselves and others, have been slanted by all they have learned, thought, and experienced in the interim.

there are more differences in our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.

I can't give a full analysis here

One of our driving questions throughout this study will always be what these Christians meant by saying "Jesus is God." As we will see, different Christians meant different things by it.

the criterion of contextual credibility. This final criterion insists that we understand Jesus's historical context if we want to understand what he said and did during his life.

My point here is that no Jew before Christianity was on the scene ever interpreted such passages as referring to the messiah.

for the purposes of this chapter, I am principally interested in what Jews of the time thought about God and the divine realm, since it is these thoughts that can make sense of how a man like Jesus could be considered divine.

There are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.

The study of art is the study of the relative value of things.

That, Eddie thought, was an exceedingly clever reply. Roland had said I can't answer . . . but that wasn't the same thing as I don't know. Far from it.

The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God's name would you want to make things words by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?

That's really all art is about, I think, and not just pictures—it's the same with books and stories and sculpture and even castles in the sand. Some things call to us, that's all. It's as if the people who made them were speaking inside our heads.

Explanations are such cheap poetry. My

During the first century after Jesus' death, his followers interpreted his cosmic role—his posthumous descent into the Underworld, his ascent to heaven, and his invisible reign as universal king—in terms that echoed some ancient traditions about Greco-Roman gods and heroes.

In the thought world Mark creates, the apocalyptic Son of Man who is about to appear in glory (13: 24–31) is the same as the Son of Man who came forty years earlier to die on the cross (8: 31, 38; 9: 9–13, 31).

the Gospel writers compiled not necessarily what Jesus exactly said or did, but what the believing community collectively understood to be the tenor of his actions and sayings.

What is good, what is bad? Who makes good, who makes bad? They cling to their opinions with all their might. But everybody's opinion is different. How can you say that your opinion is correct and somebody else's is wrong? This is delusion.