The radio speaker that Sunday morning was a successful minister in one of the major Protestant denominations. His text was Acts 5. His topic was “power.” He spoke eloquently of the many ways in which most of us misuse our authority. Parents abuse their children by their negativism. Government leaders show insensitivity to the pains of those in need. We destroy by our criticism when we should build up with our praise.
As he approached the last part of his radio message, the preacher finally came to his text. In the narrative of Acts he found a dramatic example of the misuse of power. Ananias and Sapphira, weak Christians who had just given in to their temptations, were in need of reassurance and upbuilding. The apostle Peter, in an ugly display of arrogance, abused his authority and denounced their conduct with awful threats. Terror consumed each of them in turn, and they died on the spot under Peter’s unbearable invective.[1]
Hopefully all of us shook our heads in unbelief as the misuse of Acts 5 above was read. We can grant that all of us misuse our authority (if we have it), but we cannot grant that the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 was put there by Luke (and God!) for preachers to expound upon the ugly reality of heavy-handedness.
But how can we be sure that the preacher got the meaning of the text wrong? The correct answer is that we can be sure he got the text wrong because the text in its context clearly does not indicate that its purpose is to highlight the abuse of authority. In other words, interpreting the text in its context will not bring us to the conclusion of the radio preacher.
Our answer to the question above brings us into the vast world of hermeneutics. Our answer assumed that Bible texts possess meaning. It assumed that the meaning of Bible texts can be known by readers far-removed from the world of the Bible. It assumed that the English language can convey what was originally written in Greek and so on and so forth. This misuse of Acts 5 highlights the importance of hermeneutics. Many other examples could be given to drive home the point – the study of and principles for the interpretation of the Bible are of vast importance.
[1] Moises Silva, “Has the Church Misread the Bible?” in Moises Silva, editor, Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 17.
Dr. Richard Barcellos is associate professor of New Testament Studies. He received a B.S. from California State University, Fresno, an M.Div. from The Master’s Seminary, and a Th.M. and Ph.D. from Whitefield Theological Seminary. Dr. Barcellos is pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, CA. He is author of Trinity & Creation, The Covenant of Works, and Getting the Garden Right. He has contributed articles to various journals and is a member of ETS.
Courses taught for CBTS: New Testament Introduction, Biblical Hermeneutics, Biblical Theology I, Biblical Theology II.
