Dungan - Hermeneutics

D. R. Dungan's Hermeneutics: A Text-Book: Chapter II.
its meaning in all of the occurrences, as will be seen by the opposing thought being that of spiritual
purity. [22]
(f) Paul was writing to church members, whom he denominated saints--those who had been set apart
to the service of the Lord. Hence neither of the old interpretations can possibly be true.
(g) He was condemning them for their carnality. In the third chapter he tells them that their divisions
proved that they were carnal and walked as men. In the fifth chapter they are condemned because they
had an incestuous man among them, who was living with his father's wife, and they did not mourn on
that account, but were rather puffed tip. In chapters ten and eleven it appears that they had turned the
Lord's Supper, on the first day of the week, into a kind of Sunday club dinner, and thus spoiled the
occasion of all its sanctity. But they were not only impure in their practices; they were erroneous in
doctrine. Some of them, as it will be seen in the fifteenth chapter, denied the resurrection of the dead.
Their condition is well presented in the following chapter to that in which our text stands:
"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in
Christ. I fed you with milk, and not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it; nay, not even now are
ye able; for ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal and
walk after the manner of men? For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not
men?" (iii. 1-4). [That is, are ye not worldly men, or men of carnal minds?]
The reason that Paul had not given them the higher spiritual instruction was, because they were not in
a condition to receive it; and even then, when writing this letter to them, they were too low and carnal to
receive the rich truth which otherwise they might have received long before. But in their then present
condition, such lessons would have been wasted an them. [23]
I lay it down, then, as being true beyond any possible doubt, that even Christians may be of the earth
earthy, to that extent that they will be incompetent to get the grand and spiritual thoughts of the word of
God. This will account, in part, at least, for the fact that the apostle John saw more in Jesus of Nazareth
than any of the other writers of that most wonderful life. John had become more like the Master than any
one else, and was, therefore, prepared to understand Him better.
There is many a learned criticism that comes not near the truth because of the icy distance of the
writer's heart from the subject on which be treats. On the other hand, the true follower of Christ finds the
truth almost by intuition. The glory of heaven's richest revelation has been withheld from the wise and
the prudent, and has been revealed unto babes. It is first a humble, willing heart, good and honest, that
will be easily instructed in the way of life in Christ Jesus. Those eyes are best adjusted to the divine light,
and therefore the better understand both the truth and Him who taught it.
SEC. 12. A CORRECT TRANSLATION WOULD CONDUCE TOWARDS A RELIABLE EXEGESIS.-This is
especially true with the ordinary reader. Indeed, it is true of ninety-nine out of a hundred of the whole
number of the real students of the Bible, for they are almost wholly dependent on the received translation
as a means of knowing what has been said to us by the Lord. There are many contradictions now found
http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/ddungan/hatb/HATB02.HTM (7 of 13) [30/08/2003 11:32:01 p.m.]