Excitement builds

2 Timothy 2:15   Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

 I cannot wait for the class to be open on Friday! I never thought I would look forward to school again, much less college. But God is surprising like that.

I have been trying my bestest to read through the dictionary I bought, hopefully I'll have saturated it all before Friday - I'm thinking that will give me a leg up in understanding a course and concept that I'm pretty new to. And it isn't unpleasant or dry, I've already taken notes and chewed on the few of the concepts. Here are some of the things I've found interesting:

Protestant reformers held the belief of sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) - that Scripture as inspired by God, is the only basis of truth. Also that Scripture is understood and defined by itself, Scripture interprets Scripture. This is not a new concept to me, but it made sense in light of some things that I've read in Martin Luther's "Bondage of the Will". He very willingly accepted the criticism and censure from Erasmus, who accused him of holding up Scripture as his only authority. Words of the pope, and decisions of councils, statements of creeds, long-standing traditions, etc., Luther would not accept as reasonable authority - not to the same level of Scripture at least. I hold to the same belief, that Scripture alone is the source of all truth, and the measure of it.

Interesting fact: Canon (the word used for books of the Bible that are inspired by God) is a derivative of the word "reed", like a measuring stick or ruler. Canonical books of the Bible are a "ruler", and standard to measure by.

Etymology is the study of the history of words. But a good rule of thumb for interpreting Scripture is: "Usage and context, not etymology, determine the meaning of a word."

This makes sense, and is pretty self-explanatory. The definition of words change and are influenced by the culture.

And here is a brain-tickler: Which comes first and is more foundational, good exegesis (bringing out the proper meaning of a text), or good theology (beliefs held about God)?

It's kind of like the chicken/egg question. Both are essential for the proper use of the other... it could be a vicious, or a virtuous cycle. Fun to mull it over.

So. That's the haps. I'll keep you posted.