Recently I’ve posted a bit on genre and its importance to proper interpretation of texts. For some who read this blog, the discussion is probably at such a basic level as to be unhelpful. For others, the abstract idea is fine, but the way it works itself out is somewhat nebulous. How does interpretation take place? How does one determine the genre of a text? How does that change one’s understanding of the text? We might even go back to my constant argument that the original languages are important. I believe this, but some people ask “why?”

In an effort to further illustrate the importance of some of these concepts, I plan to begin a series on Psalm 15. On the one hand, I hope this helps my readers who haven’t had the benefit of a formal education in Bible to better understand some of the ideas I’m espousing. At the same time, I’m sure that, as I work my way through Psalm 15 from a variety of angles, there will be lots of opportunity for those who have had formal training in Bible to interact. In fact, I’d really enjoy it if we could manage to strike up conversations in the comments at a variety of knowledge levels. Some posts will be more technical by nature (for instance, grammar), but I hope that each of the posts dealing with Psalm 15 are helpful and interesting to all readers.

This, of course, also has the advantage of giving me the opportunity to work through a passage of Hebrew and study grammar, form, genre, literary issues, etc. This will help me learn, as will–I hope–the comments here. So, in the next week or so we’ll begin talking about Psalm 15.