Biblical Interpretation: Literary Cues and Thematic Developments

Dear Colleagues,

While the Bible is an international book that nourishes Christian faith communities over time and multiculturally, the interpretation of biblical literature has been hampered by three things: (1) ecclesiastical use of lectionary texts that partition the books of the Bible into sound bite-like segments for liturgical use, and artificially join passages from each of four presumptive types of documents (the “Old Testament”, “New Testament”, “Gospels”, or “Psalms”) around preconceived themes; (2) polarizing arguments about divisive social issues in Christian communities which demand from pastors and theologians definitive understandings of isolated words, phrases, or sentences in biblical texts, often presupposing that the Bible is a collection of sylogistic statements with exact and definitive meanings that can be mixed and matched to assemble absolute moral declarations; and (3) synthetic developments of “Systematic Theology” that make use of the Bible as a sourcebook for substantiating snippets to confirm doctrines often unrelated to the longer biblical passages from which they are isolated. Literary analysis, with its attention to thematic developments and textual cues, provides a countervaling attention to the restoration of authorial intent in biblical interpretaion. While some books of the Bible are obvious collections of unconnected texts (e.g., Psalms) or clear compilations of originally individuated passages (e.g., Leviticus), most biblical writings display a high degree of internal cohesion related to authorial (e.g., Gospel of John; Paul’s letters; Hebrews) or editorial (e.g., Joshua; Job; Proverbs) intent. The essays in this volume will present literary analyses and thematic developments that illuminate dominant themes of various books, and that also connect a number of the books of the Bible together in extended amplifications of related these literary movements. These explorations will nurture more careful homiltic exegesis, and provide seminal thoughts for further academic theological and literary investigation.

We are pleased to invite you participate in preparing a collection of studies that will focus on literary analysis and interpretation of biblical passages which explore texts more deeply than verse-by-verse fragmented searches for meaning, and also more naturally than theologically based attempts to eisegete presuppositions into words or phrases of sentences taken out of context. The aim of these articles will be to provide interesting and illuminating interpretations of biblical books or segments of biblical books that will serve as foundational models for other attempts at literary analysis. Each article should focus on a single book of the Bible or a portion of a single book of the Bible. Connections will likely be drawn between books with similar themes or literary developments.

Possible articles might include:

• The parallels between the early life of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and the experiences of newly emerging Israel in Exodus 1-24.
• The connection between the “lectures regarding Wisdom and Folly” in Proverbs 1-9 and the acrostic poem honoring Wisdom in Proverbs 31.
• The use of individual persons to represent Israel in the stories of Samson, Naomi, the unnamed prophet of 1 Kings 13, the tale of Naaman and Gehazi in 2 Kings 5, and the prophet Jonah.
• The thematic development of the “miraculous signs” in the Gospel of John as these address problematic moments or issues in the Old Testament.
• The deliberate parallels between the Holy Trinity and the Unholy Trinity in Revelation 12-14, leading to a particular application of the meaning of Christian baptism.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome, and research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Original analyses of particular biblical passages using literary cues for interpretation;
• Reworked chapters from books which focus on the literary analysis of specific biblical books or passages;
• Book reviews summarizing key investigations of literary analysis of biblical passages;
• Studies which show the limitations of classic interpretations of parables or extended texts when literary analyses are not used to gain insights about authorial intent.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editor, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Wayne Brouwer
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• literary analysis
• biblical interpretation
• Bible
• literature
• exegesis
• systematic theology
• biblical theology
• homiletics
• Bible study
• lectionary