The Chinese Underground Church and Hermeneutics

A Chinese Proverb states: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

I was contacted two weeks ago by a friend who runs a missions organization. When he was at a conference in November, he ran into a couple from the underground church in China. They had been brought over to the U.S. by a parachurch group for training and discipleship, only to find out that the group was a cult. So he took them away from the cult and spent two week training them. He videotaped all the lessons with a translator present. The couple and another missionary will be bringing the videos back to the underground church in China and they will be spreading them throughout the country. He asked me to do one day on hermeneutics. So last Thursday morning I drove up and taught all day. I covered basic principles of interpretation, the hermeneutical journey (the steps according to Grasping God’s Word), and genre specific principles (Gosples, letters, parables, and OT law). I think it went very well. I had never taught through a translator before, but the translator did an excellent job. Please pray for the couple as they continue being discipled.

What an honor it was to meet this couple and open God's Word to them. I was very confused about how to approach some of the hermeneutical issues I wanted to address since I didn't know anything about Mandarin. I had a section on "pronouns," but I didn't know if their language used pronouns! I had a section on active and passive verbs, but I didn't know if their language did that! The translator was exceptional and very helpful in these areas ... and many others (they do use pronouns and have active and passive verbs). I was able to use the Chinese Bible I have from Bibleworks and put the verses I was talking about on a screen so they could read them as I taught. Praise God for Bibleworks!!! (I've said that many times!)

My prayer is that the people who watch the video will learn to did into God's Word themselves, that they will search the Scriptures thoroughly, that they will be diligent, yet cautious, that their time in the Word will lead to a renewed mind, and thus, transformation. May they learn and practice digging deep into God's Word for themselves, and not only depend upon others to feed them.

Word Studies

You have probably heard often that a Greek word can have many different meanings. Let’s look at the Greek word yeudologoj. You will be profoundly amazed when you give it a detailed examination, leading to some fascinating insights. In extra-biblical literature there is a use of this word where it apparently refers to a garment worn when someone is in a pool, akin to “swimming trunks” today. However, it has some other extraordinary uses in other contexts that will help us get a fuller picture of the connotations of the word. For example, another text uses the word to refer to the main base of a tree, or what we would call a “tree trunk.” See, when the author was describing the man with “swimming trunks” on, he was comparing him to a tree trunk, which is usually covered with bark. Both the trunk of the tree and the trunk of a man should be covered. A third use will continue to elucidate the meaning of this word. Here, yeudologoj is used to refer to a large, sturdy box or chest for holding or transporting clothes. Now we see that this word also refers to the place where the man retrieved his clothing from. So there are nuances of “origination” within the use of the word. But beyond that, it also refers to the compartment, usually in the rear of chariots, where the “sturdy box or chest” would be stored during traveling. So, this man, who is compared to a tree in that a covering is an appropriate, natural way to be, received this “covering” from somewhere else, it not being inherent to him, and he was journeying or traveling when this covering was placed on him.

So, the meanings of yeudologoj look like this:

1) a garment worn when someone is in a pool; swimming trunks, bathing suit

2) the main base of a tree; tree trunk

3) a large, sturdy box or chest for holding or transporting clothes; luggage, suitcase, trunk

4) a compartment, usually in the rear of chariots, where a chest, suitcase, or trunk would be stored during traveling; car trunk

The semantic overlap of these meanings could be pictured like this:

Word studies can be so rewarding, eh? For an explanation of above, see http://tinyurl.com/pseudologos