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For those who believe the Scriptures are the inspired word of God with a message relevant for living today, nothing is more crucial than understanding sound principles of interpretation. Disagreement arises when people and groups differ over how one gets at that message and what that message is. In this collection of essays and lectures, Dr. Gordon Fee offers hermeneutical insights that will more effectively allow the New Testament to speak on its own terms to our situation today.This is not a collection of subjective, theoretical essays on the science of interpretation; rather, these essays target issues of practical?—and sometimes critical?—concern to Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and anyone interested in letting the Bible speak to today's situation. Fee brings to the task what he himself advocates: common sense and dedication to Scripture. Readers already familiar with some of these essays, like "Hermeneutics and Common Sense: An Exploratory Essay on the Hermeneutics of the Epistles," will welcome its reappearance. Others will appreciate the challenge of essays such as "The Great Watershed?—Intentionality and Particularity/Eternality: 1 Timothy 2:8?–15 as a Test Case"?—an essay defending the role of women in ministry?—or "Hermeneutics and Historical Precedent?—A Major Issue in Pentecostal Hermeneutics." Anyone wanting to wrestle with key issues in New Testament interpretation will want to read this book."Gordon D. Fee, an established and influential New Testament exegete, provides a superb analysis of a wide range of hermeneutical issues with a wholesome combination of scholarship, insight, good sense, and passion. These cogent essays deal carefully and patiently with those concerns that are so important in genuine faithfulness to the authority of the Bible in the life of the Church today. Thus, they deserve a wide reading not only in the Evangelical and Pentecostal traditions but also in the wider Church as well."?—David M. Scholer, Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Early Church History, North Park College and Theological Seminary
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�OSPE� AN D......-- PIRI ISsues in NewTestament • ....,�s �..... GoRDON D. FEE � , HENDRICKSON �� P II B LIS HER S PEABOD'{, MASSACHUSETJ'S 01961-3473 Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. P. O. Box 3473 Peabody, Massachusetts, 0 1961-3473 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-943575-78-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fee, Gordon D. Gospel and spirit: issues in new testament hermeneutics I Gordon D. Fee cm. p. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-943575-78-8 (pbk.) 1. Bible-Hermeneutics. 2. Hermeneutics-Religious aspects-Christianity. 3. Evangelicalism. 4. Pentecostal ism. I. Title BS476.F39 1991 220.6'0 1-dc20 9 1 -32870 CIP For: Steve Hendrickson, David Townsley, Patrick Alexander, and Phil Frank of Hendrickson Publishers: Former students, friends TABLE OF CONTENTS Author's Preface: On the Reasons for These Essays ix Hermeneutics and Common Sense: An Exploratory Essay on the Hermeneutics of the Epistles 1 1 2 . The Evangelical Dilemma: Hermeneutics and the Nature of Scripture 24 3 Normativeness and Authorial Intent: A Proposal Regarding New Testament Imperatives 37 4 The Great Watershed-Intentionality and Particularity/Etemality: I Timothy 2:8-15 as a Test Case 52 5 Hermeneutics, Exegesis, and the Role of Tradition 66 6 Hermeneutics and Historical Precedent: A Major Problem in Pentecostal Hermeneutics 83 7 Baptism in the Holy Spirit: The Issue of Separability and Subsequence 105 8 Laos and Leadership Under the New Covenant: Some Exegetical and Hermeneutical Obser vations on Ch