{"id":9784,"date":"2025-11-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9784"},"modified":"2025-05-24T17:08:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T17:08:39","slug":"looking-at-dennis-venema-and-scot-mcknights-book-2017-adam-and-the-genome-part-13-of-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9784","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight\u2019s Book (2017) &#8220;Adam and the Genome&#8221; (Part 13 of 22)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>0129 Scot McKnight offers several principles for reading the Biblical text in context.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here, \u201ccontext\u201d means \u201cthe social and historical conditions in which the text was written\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0130 So what is going on when one reads a text?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0131 There are two actualities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One is the text<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;itself, which emerges from (and situates) the potential of an author<sub>1<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;The author is subject to social and historical conditions, as well as other possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other is an interpretation of the text<sub>2<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;An interpretation<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;emerges from (and situates) the possibilities inherent in a reader<sub>1<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;The reader is also subject to social and historical conditions, as well as other possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0132 To me, an interpretation<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;virtually emerges from (and situates) a text<sub>2<\/sub>, resulting in a two-level interscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9785\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13-2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0133 Look at that empty perspective level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does it imply?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0134 Consider&nbsp;<em>the virtual nested form in the realm of possibility<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Something on the perspective level<sub>1c<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;virtually brings&nbsp;<em>the reader<sub>1b<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;into relation with&nbsp;<em>the potential of an author<sub>1a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In doing so,&nbsp;<em>this perspective-level something<sub>2c<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;transcends&nbsp;<em>the social and historical conditions<sub>1b<\/sub>&nbsp;of the reader<sub>2b<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>the social and historical conditions<sub>1b<\/sub>&nbsp;of the author<sub>2a<\/sub><\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;The reader knows&nbsp;<em>what happens after the author wrote<sub>1c<\/sub><\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;So, the author<sub>2a<\/sub>&nbsp;reveals&nbsp;<em>something<sub>2c<\/sub>&nbsp;that transcends his or her social and historical conditions<sub>1a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0135 Does that sound like \u201crevelation\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, does that sound like \u201cwisdom\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0136 Consider&nbsp;<em>the virtual nested form in the realm of normal context<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A normal context on the perspective level<sub>3c<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;virtually brings&nbsp;<em>reading<sub>3b<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;into relation with&nbsp;<em>the potentials inherent in writing<sub>3a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0137 For Dr. McKnight, this normal context<sub>3c<\/sub>&nbsp;is Christian faith, rather than Big Government (il)Liberalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I turn the column for normal context<sub>3<\/sub>&nbsp;into a virtual nested form, I obtain a statement, saying, &#8220;<em>The Christian faith<sub>3c<\/sub><\/em>virtually brings&nbsp;<em>the reading believer<sub>3b<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;into relation with&nbsp;<em>the possibilities inherent in Biblical story-telling<sub>3a<\/sub><\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0138&nbsp;<em>The stories of Genesis<\/em>&nbsp;come into being&nbsp;<em>deep in history<\/em>, maybe prior to&nbsp;<em>the Sumerian Dynastic Period<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Sumerian civilization is the world\u2019s first.&nbsp;&nbsp;Scholars know this from archaeology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0129 Scot McKnight offers several principles for reading the Biblical text in context.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here, \u201ccontext\u201d means \u201cthe social and historical conditions in which the text was written\u201d. 0130 So what is going on when one reads a text? 0131 There are two actualities. One is the text2&nbsp;itself, which emerges from (and situates) the potential of an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[581],"class_list":["post-9784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-historical-adam"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Looking at Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight\u2019s Book (2017) &quot;Adam and the Genome&quot; (Part 13 of 22) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9784\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight\u2019s Book (2017) &quot;Adam and the Genome&quot; (Part 13 of 22) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0129 Scot McKnight offers several principles for reading the Biblical text in context.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here, \u201ccontext\u201d means \u201cthe social and historical conditions in which the text was written\u201d. 0130 So what is going on when one reads a text? 0131 There are two actualities. 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