I continue in this series, thinking about how we should read and interpret the Bible. The principles that undergird the interpretation of the Bible are called “hermeneutics”. There are many hermeneutical principles that people use when interpreting the Christian scriptures, but most of these are not clearly stated, examined, or applied consistently. The criterion I am examining in this series of posts is in totidem verbis, which is a Latin phrase for “in just so many words”. This is where a person rests their interpretation of a text on the explicit words and surface level concepts present in the text.
Lest you think this subject is irrelevant, I submit that the in totidem verbis principle is a common assumption at work in much of contemporary exegesis within evangelical churches. Over the years I’ve heard people say things like this:
“I don’t read too much theology. I just read the Bible.”
“Oh, you baptize children at your church? At our church, we just following what the Bible says about baptism.”
“If the word ‘covenant’ isn’t used in Genesis 1-3, it’s not covenantal.”
“If the Bible says it, I believe it.”
When I heard these statements, there seemed to be an assumption that we just open up the Bible, read the words that are there, and that’s it. We might formulate some systematized way of summarizing the things we discover, but in general all you need to do is just read the words and BOOM. There’s the meaning. At least – that’s how some people seem to think.
Like I said in my previous post, this “in just so many words” principle is actually very intuitive and helpful. I am not saying that it’s wrong. I’m saying it’s a principle that must be coordinated carefully with other principles too. Sometimes the full meaning of a text is not on top of the page, but (like a tree with its roots branching out extensively underground) some of the complex beauty of the Bible is ‘underneath’ the text too. I gave an example in my last post of when Mary Magdelene first encountered the resurrected Jesus. In the Gospel of John, she mistook Jesus for ‘the gardener’. That’s a strange little detail to add into the story. But I suggested that – taken in a broader canonical context – Jesus is the gardener. If Adam was given the task of tending to the garden of Eden and helping it to grow and flourish for the glory of God, then Jesus’ resurrection heralds the inbreaking into the world of the new creation order. This is God’s intention – to make things new, and it starts with Jesus coming out of the grave. He appears, and Mary says, “this guy must be the gardener”. And he is. He will bring the productive, fruitful beauty and blessing God intended for the world. Now, if you’re only reading the surface of the text, you’ll miss things like that. You’ll still pick up all of the really big, really good stuff, but there’s so much going on in the text that we need to read more deeply and slowly. That’s my point.
Now for another example of this.
(b) Jesus, the true priest, and the destruction of the unclean house. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus visits Jerusalem a number of times, and particularly the temple. It’s at the temple that Jesus clashes with the religious authorities. It’s there he turns over tables. But Jesus isn’t just visiting as any other Rabbi might. He visits as the Messiah, the one sent from heaven to bring all of God’s promises to life. He visits as the one who is the true prophet, priest, and king. His ministry certainly has a priestly tone to it: he is the mediator between the people and God, he offers himself as a sacrifice on behalf of God’s people, and he makes people ‘clean’.
So, as the true priest of God, his visits to God’s temple (“house”) in Jerusalem are of great significance. So is his proclamation that the temple will be destroyed (Matthew 23-25). But the full significance of what he proclaims comes into sharper relief when we read the Old Testament.
In Leviticus 14:33-45 we find that if an Israelite home had a weird mold appear inside it, a priest was to come and inspect it. If the priest confirms the mold is particularly nasty, he will declare the house ‘unclean’ and shut it up for seven days. The priest is to then return after that time, and if he finds the mold has spread to the walls, it must be scraped off and removed. If, upon a final inspection, the mold reappears, the whole house is to be torn down and completely destroyed.
With this background, we find Jesus – the true priest of God – visiting the “house” of God in Jerusalem. And he’s usually not happy with the state of things. Then, in Matthew chapters 23-25, Jesus offers these pronouncements when in Jerusalem:
Look, your house is left to you desolate. (Matt. 23:38)
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:1-2)
For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. (Matt. 25:29)
As the ultimate priest Jesus has visited the house of God, which has been administered by the religious leadership in Jerusalem. He’s visited a number of times. And each time, he’s found it infected with the same self-righteous uncleanness. Therefore, in a manner uncannily like an Old Testament priest, he declares that since the house still remains unclean in God’s sight, it is to be destroyed.
My point with this is very simple. As the true priest of God Jesus is declaring the self-righteous, Messiah-rejecting religious system and leadership in Jerusalem as unclean. The mold keeps spreading, so the house will not merely be sanitized or renovated. It will be torn down, because Jesus has declared it. That’s what priests do.
This link between Leviticus chapter 14 and the priestly work of Jesus is not immediately obvious if you’re just looking at the bare words of Matthew 23-25. If you’re a careful reader, you don’t need to go to Leviticus to get the clear thrust of what Jesus says and does in Matthew. But there is a richness and depth to it which goes beyond the text “in just so many words”.
Jesus, the true priest of God has visited the “house” numerous times. He’s warned them. He’s given them time to get it cleaned up. But it’s too late now. Upon the final inspection, the priest declares that the house will now be destroyed. That happens in A.D. 70, when the Roman armies utterly lay the temple to waste. There is now a new temple – the Lord Jesus Christ – along with all those who have been redeemed by his priestly work.
spes clara 