Origins of ‘diffusion’ theory

In a sense, there is no major difference in the hermeneutical process involved in the prophetic books and the other biblical genres though one must confess there are some special considerations. The following are the steps that are expected to be used:

Historical-Cultural Analysis

Since no book ever was written in a vacuum, the prophetic books were written within specific historical and cultural context. The first step in interpreting the prophetic books then is to uncover the historical and cultural issues surrounding the text to be interpreted. Let me cite an example here from Isaiah 6. Most people have always taken the vision recorded in this chapter as the call of Isaiah and have often used this to justify the belief that the fact that someone is minister does not mean that he is saved. However, the very first verse in this chapter is the key to understanding not only the passage but also the implications of the vision of Isaiah. For the larger part of his reign, Uzziah was very good and he brought Judah very close to the golden age as experienced in the days of King David. His death must have been a big blow to Isaiah and he was at the Temple to mourn the loss of Uzziah. The vision he saw therefore of the LORD seated upon his throne must have been that saying to him that though an earthly king may died, the actual king of Judah, the Lord of Lords cannot die and he reigns forever. With this perspective in mind, the vision would be well placed and the vision would no longer be seen as the first commissioning of Isaiah for the ministry work.

Another good example is that of the book of Jonah. Many people after reading the book usually condemn Jonah for refusing to go to Nineveh and for his attitude to Nineveh throughout the book. However, as at that time, Israel, Jonah‟s home-country was already a vassal to Tiglath- Pileser who had founded the second Assyrian empire and Judah too was also paying tributary to Assyria. Jonah, a patriotic Israelite, would have reckoned that if Nineveh (at that time the capital of Assyria) did not repent, God would have had no choice but to let Nineveh face the music of disobedience, which would have been its destruction. Being a loyal and patriotic Israelite, Jonah would have preferred the destruction of Assyria, hence the most natural thong for him to have done is to have prevented the message of

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Yahweh from getting to Nineveh, hence his decision to run away. This sentiment is later echoed in Jonah‟s dialogue with Yahweh towards the end of the book.

And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil (Jonah 4:2).

This historical background would give the interpreter the strong footing needed to arrive at a correct meaning of the passage.

Contextual Analysis

After having determined the historical-cultural situation for the book of prophecy the next step is the determination of the context. Jaeggli (1997) identified four different strata of context and these are analyzed as follows:

There are various levels of context: the immediate context within a paragraph, the relation of paragraphs within a periscope, the development of pericopes in a section, and the macroscopic contribution of sections in the overall message of a book.

This analysis is very crucial to the understanding of the original message of the prophecies to the original hearers. Let us take the book of Amos as an example. Amos lived and prophesized during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah and Jeroboam II of Samaria. These two reigned concurrently for 36 years (779BC-743BC). The book may have been written about the middle of Jeroboam‟s reign. During this time, because Assyria has defeated Syria, he gave Jeroboam II the chance to extend his frontiers and to build a lucrative trade which led to the creation of a powerful merchant class. This led consequently to the neglect of the peasant class. As a result, the poor was oppressed (2:6f), justice went to the highest bidder (2:6; 8:6) and the poor had to go to the money lender to mortgage his land. The economy also takes its toll on religion. Religion was perverted. Though sacrificial system was maintained, it went on with godlessness and immorality. Knowing these facts will make the interpreter of the book of Amos stand at a vantage point.

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Lexical/Syntactical Analysis

As have seen said earlier, the Bible had been written in the language of humanity and so must be subjected to the principles of the rules of human language. This is also reiterated by Jaeggli (1997):

The Bible is more than mere literature, but it is literature. God did not invent new forms of communication when he gave man his word. The Bible must be interpreted in a straightforward manner according to rules that govern the meaning of any human literature.

Accordingly, the third step in interpreting biblical prophecy is lexical and syntactical analysis. Lexical analysis does not only give us the meaning intended by the author but also help to resolve conflicts. Let us take as an example the use of the term „virgin‟ by Prophet Isaiah to describe the mother of the Messiah. This word has caused a controversy by some who think it does not refer to a virgin. In his analysis of the term, Niessen argued that the Hebrew word almah was used nine times in the Old Testament. The word was used to describe Rebecca who was described in Genesis 24:16 as “the girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.” The analysis of the word shows that the almah was definitely in the Hebrew concept a young woman of a marriageable age whose virginity is not in doubt.

Literary Analysis

In the interpretation of prophecy, there is no way we can overlook the use of literary figures and this is what makes literary analysis an important step in the process of interpretation. This is because all prophetic books contain a substantial amount of poetry and several prophetic books are exclusively poetic. Therefore, there is the need to determine whether the prophet has used his words figuratively or literally. Berkhof (1950) opines that “the words of the prophet should be taken in their usual literal sense, unless the context or the manner in which they are fulfilled clearly indicate that they have a symbolical meaning.

Principilization and Application

After you have taken all the steps described above, the next step is to draw out the general principles and apply the principle to the contemporary day.

Kaiser describes principilization as the ability “to state the author‟s

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propositions, arguments, narrations and illustrations in timeless abiding truths with special focus on the applications of those truths to the current needs of the church.”

3.5 Practical Application – Amos 2:6-8