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750 word Response to BI103   I really enjoyed the course with Dr. Keener. I recently finished watching a video series on the Gospel of Mark, and while these two things were quite different, I appreciated Dr. Keener’s view on several of the points he makes.  Dr. Keener begins the course with reading the bible in context and takes aim at this consistent mood within the church to often associate several texts as their pet proof text regarding a certain person, thing, demon or situation. Well, as he brings out of, we find that often times the mood of most the church ends up being wrong and their favorite proof text lacks so much namely context. Context is a very important thing in bible interpretation and Dr. Keener points this out with recognizing the range of contexts and providing examples of them as well, there are ancient context that must be and ought to be accounted for especially when we are searching for meaning in God’s word. Many times, the church is at the mercy of the pulpit in discovering the meaning behind a text, when we begin to pick up the cognitive environment of the biblical writers, I think we can ascertain the meaning behind the text. Something that has been particularly important in my studies, but with Dr. Keener highlighting is the use of genre. Genre is the epistemological tool by use we understand the text, meaning when we can understand the genre; we understand the rules the biblical writer is playing by in each text. Each genre has specific rules and when we know the genre it gives us almost like a decoder ring for that given text. Keener describes Genre as such “Genre is the type of writing that something is, for example, poetry, prophesy, science fiction, bomb threat. Each of these is a different literary genre with different kinds of rules for how you write them. There are sometimes different interpretation principles for these different genres. Context applies to most of them. Background applies to most of them. But we need to read each passage with sensitivity to the particulars of the way it was written. For example, poetry uses a lot of figurative language. Ancient narrative was usually much more literal. So when we’re reading narrative, we need to look for the moral of the story. Ancient writers expected this. Whether they were dramatists, historians, or biographers, they often tell us that. That they want you to look for the moral of the story. They looked for patterns that they believed were already present when they constructed their accounts. Plutarch does this with his parallel lives.” Keener in his conclusion describes succinctly in what he is wanting us to learn, ‘First of all, the principle of context—always seeing what surrounds the passage that you’re studying. Secondly, the principle of whole-book context, that is, seeing how the passage fits into the whole book of which it’s a part, or sometimes the whole genre of which it’s a part if you’re dealing with something like Proverbs or Psalms. Third, look for the background. Try to figure out what situations were being addressed, or what kinds of issues were being addressed. Fourth, look at genres. Take into account the genres and the principles for those. As we’ve seen, many of these early principles apply to all the genres, but there are also specific ways we read particular kinds of genres, whether narrative, prophecy, or any other kind of genre that we covered letters. Ultimately, I want to bring this back to the first point that we mentioned, however, and that is the fear of the Lord. A basic principle of Bible interpretation is, you need to come to the text submitting to hear what God has to say to you, not to make the text say what you want it to say, but to really hear what the text has to say to you.’   We haven’t much else to describe in this course, Dr. Keener does an amazing job and I look foreword to his impressive future in how he is helping to craft future students of the word. We can all learn so much from these scholars it is a wonder why more don’t choose to invest more into their bible study. I am extremely blessed to be able to take in this course and I hope anyone who may read this will consider paying it.   Craig S. Keener, BI103 Principles of Bible Interpretation, Logos Mobile Education (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015).

BI103 Response I had the pleasure of going through BI103 Principles of Bible Interpretation course with Craig Keener. He did an amazing job of showing how quickly and effectively a book of the bible can be broken down, and in doing so it makes it a lot easier to understand the context and be able to do a deep dive and study into it. Watching him take a book like Romans which is a great book of the bible and have studied it before, was amazing. To take the sixteen chapter of Romans and brake them down and get a whole book contexts pointed out multiple things I have over looked or just didn't pay attention to. Just gave each book more understanding and a respect of it even more and taking as much con text out of each chapter as possible. Watching him, do it over and over again with the book of John, Luke 15 and 1 Corinthians just was a joy to see. Just show when we slow things down and take our time and pull as much as we can helps not only understand the word of God, but also the story being told and wrap your head around the background of those involved. As well a better understanding of God himself. One quote did stick out to me the most our of anything and it was “ the law informs me of what's right , but the law couldn't transform me to be right. Just that added reminder we all need. Only God can transform us, the law is a reminder of what is right but only Jesus our lord and savior can save use with the ultimate sacrifice when he died for our sins even though we didn't deserve it. Brings us back to Luke 15 and shows us in the first passage and the parable of the lost sheep. Craig Keener just showing us how great Gods mercy and forgiveness of us that he would leave the 99 to go after the 1. god chooser outsiders and lost sheep on a daily bases, most of us and if not all of us were lost sheep at one point that by the grace of God has rescued us as they rejoice in heaven once we repent our sinful ways and trust in him. As well in the parable of the of the prodigal son, I know I have seen myself in both sons place at least once in my life. We run away from other father when he has provided all we need but then we drift away and see how life is when we aren't with him. I have been actually where the youngest son was and doing anything just eat and make it another day. Thought I was chasing a life of bright light and to only end up in a feeding the pigs and hoping to eat what they were eating just to eat. Only to be broken down to my last hope and come running back into my father waiting arms as he welcomes me back home with grace. There are times were I get caught in myself and can relate to the oldest son. I stay in gods word and do good, being a faithful servant and then then begin to question God once I hit a hard patch or trail in life like God is suppose tot give me a perfect life because I serve him. Not realizing that I should be happy when even I see an unbeliever and or someone who is Luke warm receive blessings from God. Just reminds us in the last two verses “ And he said to him, Son you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this is your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found” . Luke 15: 31 – 32. Just as Craig Keener stated “ We all come to God on the same terms and it is because of God's grace! Parables along with proverbs, humor, hyperbole are used in Jesus' teachings through out the Bible the more we take the time to fully understand them on a deeper and educated level the better we are able not only interpret his word but as well bring other beside and along to help them as well. Hope other get the chance to go through this course or encourages you to do so. God Bless, Guadalupe Sanchez

BI103 – Response I have only read some of Keener’s commentaries but never heard him teach and I am very impressed. Not only is it obvious he knows a lot about the cultural background to the Bible, he also has a genuine heart for the Lord. This was actually my biggest impression from the course. Often we either take it for granted that we fear the Lord or we don’t talk about it because we want to get right into the teaching. Keener puts first things first by beginning talking about the fear of the Lord and also ending by emphasizing the fear of the Lord. By doing this he shows what kind of man he is, and he is a man I from now on truly admire. To balance the love for Christ and a desire for deeper Scriptural knowledge is one of my constant prayers, and I am so glad to have seen a man who succeeds in balancing those two things! The next thing I am impressed by is Keener’s knowledge. So many “difficult” passages doesn’t seem difficult anymore after listening to his teaching about background of the Bible. it was a joy listening to his thoughts about Luke 2, Jesus’ parables of lost things, and the Book of Revelation. Cultural background really gives deeper meaning to the text! Though all of this was very interesting I must confess I’ve heard that before. Personally, other than the two things mentioned above, the one thing I will remember from this course is the value and necessity of whole—book context. This is something I think we need to stress even more today than ever. Often we read Scriptures in a very fragmented way (I know I do), and sometimes problems and questions arise because of this. A passage might seem strange or difficult to interpret. We also end up interpreting it in a personally way (probably still in a biblical way, but unfortunately not so close to how it is meant in it’s original context). By reading the whole book the verse is situated in, hopefully we will not only find answer to our questions, but our problems with the verse will never arise in the first place. It’s just not enough to read the verse before and after, we have to follow the flow of the author by reading the whole book he wrote. This leads to some practical questions: Today we’re not trained to read the Bible for long periods. With today’s technology and fast paced society we sort of expect quick solution and one-liners. We read “today’s verse” or our favorite verses and feel satisfied and don’t read anything more. Or we do the opposite and read as much as possible as quickly as possible. But to read the Bible is not only measured in time, but also in quality. I think we have to come back to a slow and long reading of the Scriptures again. Not only will this address the whole-book context-issue, it will also deepen our understanding of the Bible and ultimately shape our hearts after God’s heart. I can see some practical ways this is possible: First of all I think we have to give Scripture reading it’s proper time in our meetings. In Sunday services or other meetings I think we should give the Scripture reading more time. Instead of reading a few verses and reference or paraphrase the rest, read the whole context. Even if it means you’ll end up with 15 minutes of Scripture reading. Not only will this cause the people to get used to longer Scripture readings, I think it also will affect how people read their Bibles on their own. If we constantly shorten the time we read Scripture publicly (and more often even don’t read from a physical Bible), it should be no surprise that people don’t spend much time reading their Bible on their own. The next thing practical thing I think we can do is to more deliberately set aside time to just read the Bible together. For example: I have a friend who has started a bible reading group. They do nothing else than read the Bible together. When they have read the chapter they might have something to share, but the emphasize is not to discuss but simply to read. (In post-corona times they do this through video-chat, making it even more accessible than ever.) If we both in publicly and smaller settings start to emphasize whole-book reading of the Bible, I think we will eventually read whole-book in private. This will lead to less of reading a verse out of context. Kind regards / Henrik