Our Work

Nature of the Problem

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Unfortunately, we live in an era plagued by totalizing ideologies; that is, at a point in history where men and women are more willing to defend any “intellectual” stance – one that they have generally not constructed themselves but adopted, and therefore do not fully understand – than to strive to understand, with all its complexity and contradiction, the world they inhabit.

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The religious sphere is no exception to this fate. Faced with various interpretations of the nature and activity of God, the average churchgoer tends to fiercely and belligerently uphold one conception – “their” ideology – against the others and is rarely willing to adjust their convictions in light of the arguments presented by the opposition. This is particularly serious when we consider that such an attitude also prevails among students of theology and biblical studies. The philosophical or theological systems of the past, and even exegetical methodologies – all mere tools aiding intellectual analysis – tend to be adopted by students not as tools but as ideologies to share, discredit, or impose.

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One of the consequences of this state of affairs is that the biblical text ends up being distorted, mutilated, stretched, or altered to fit the prevailing mentality of a community, seminary, church, or reader. While it is true that a written text inherently possesses various possible meanings, it is no less true that the number of these meanings is finite and that some are – due to context, idiomatic usage, biblical usage, etc. – more probable than others. Moreover, it is also clear that there are impossible meanings for any given text, as various authors have formally shown.

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In light of this situation, the International Center L.F.C. Tischendorf for Training in Biblical Sciences considers it essential to contribute to improving the exegetical capacity of those interested in studying the Bible text. The task is significant, and the effort required from both professors and students is considerable.

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Nature of the Course

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The course אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים ‘Eleh jaDevarim These are the Words… aims to familiarize students with the rigorous study and exegesis of the Bible by reviewing the various possible meanings of each of the 23,172 verses of the Old Testament (according to the Hebrew canon) and the 7,956 verses of the New Testament. Its nature is non-denominational, meaning it does not intend to privilege any particular theological interpretation of the scriptures. Instead, it seeks to show as accurately as possible the various textual traditions of each verse in the original languages, as well as the most plausible meanings for the readings attested in the manuscripts. Therefore, this course does not attempt to propose new eclectic textual reconstructions or perform exegesis based on the fragmentation of texts, assuming they are originally unrelated pericopes. For over thirty years, historical-critical paradigms like those of Wellhausen have been in crisis due to the weakness of their fundamental premises, and it is not appropriate to continue using them seriously. While one of the central goals is to accustom students to handling the most robust and updated theoretical and methodological developments in biblical sciences, this endeavor is approached from a perspective of active Christian faith. The professors share the conviction that the biblical scriptures constitute the repository of divine revelation for humanity and believe that academic knowledge is essential but insufficient for achieving a full, spiritual understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Although the topics and approach may seem extremely complex, the course is designed so that anyone with minimal biblical culture (a member of any religious congregation) can follow the exposition and discussions with clear intellectual benefit.

 

Areas Covered for Each Verse or Passage

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1. The various versions of the verse in the original language and relevant ancient versions (Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Coptic, Armenian, etc.)

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Currently, there are around 18,000 Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament worldwide; although most are of medieval origin (only about 10,000 were discovered in the Cairo Geniza) and are extraordinarily similar in terms of the biblical text (this does not apply to their masorahs), about 2.5% date from the pre-Christian era and present significant textual variations concerning the rabbinic text. The ancient versions (LXX, Peshitta, Vulgate, etc.) also contain numerous significant variants.

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Regarding the New Testament, Michael Welte, a researcher at the Institute for New Testament Text Research at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster, reported in a recent count (June 2018) the existence of 139 papyri, 323 majuscules, 2936 minuscules, and 2476 lectionaries, for a total of 5,874 Greek manuscripts, fragmentary or complete, of the New Testament. Although the textual agreement between them is generally high, no two manuscripts are identical, and there are estimated – no one has been able to determine them all – to be about 300,000 textual variants among them and some versions of the Textus Receptus.

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For the purposes of the course, ALL available textual criticism tools will be used: facsimile editions -printed or electronic- of the manuscripts when available (the Aleppo Codex, the Cairo Codex of the Prophets, the Codex Sinaiticus, etc.), as well as the published volumes of the various ongoing critical editions: the Biblia Qumranica, the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, the Hebrew University Bible, the Miqra’ot Gedolot ha-Keter, the Oxford Hebrew Bible, the International Greek New Testament Project, and the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Major. In this sense, the information provided by the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, the Greek New Testament, and the Novum Testamentum Graece will be considered the minimum. In all cases, the relevant stemmatic evaluations will be made. Special attention will also be given to the masorah texts, as they often state that the scribes made alterations to the ancient Old Testament text, indicating the number and type of each.

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2. The different lexical-semantic meanings of the relevant words in the verse in the context of their historical evolution and biblical usage:

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The more than 770,000 words in any Spanish edition of the Bible have undergone a clear process of modification in their meanings over time. Many changes are quite evident to any reader who decides to take a 19th-century Spanish Bible and compare it with a contemporary edition.

Similarly, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words have undergone a slow evolutionary process that often does not allow certainty about the meaning of a specific term. Many of the serious theological interpretation problems faced by various Christian denominations today stem from their limited or non-existent knowledge of this topic.

For example, how many believers are aware that the Hebrew term haNahash, translated as “the serpent” in Genesis chapter 3, comes from the Semitic root “brilliant” and could legitimately be translated as “the shining one,” as Saint Paul seems to understand it in the second letter to the Corinthians? Or how many Bible readers know that the term περιβόλαίου in 1 Corinthians 11:15, usually translated as “veil,” was used by Greek authors like Euripides to mean “testicle,” which forces a reconsideration of the meaning of the entire passage?

In this topic, the comparative study of the sense that various ancient versions give to the words they chose to translate the original biblical text will be particularly enlightening in a significant number of passages.

 

3. The literary structure and cultural context of the passage in question:

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The Bible, understood as a historical phenomenon as well as a literary work, occurred and was created in the Eastern world, by Eastern authors immersed in the cultural context of the Middle East. Therefore, almost all its texts feature various ethnonyms typical of that region of the world. Identifying, developing, and translating into the Western context phrases and narratives like the “Good Father” (Luke 11:11-13) or “Buy without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1) is a necessary and indispensable characteristic of any good biblical exegesis.

The same applies to the more than two hundred types of literary figures present throughout the biblical text, some with dozens of minor variants. Ancient grammarians were concerned with defining and classifying the various types of figures, which makes it possible to identify them in the diverse biblical texts. Clearly distinguishing when and why a simile, anadiplosis, or polysyndeton is used is as fundamental to good exegesis as the literal reading of the text itself.

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Therefore, the course will emphasize identifying and understanding the different Hebraisms, Aramaisms, Orientalisms, and figures of speech present in the passage under consideration. Efforts will also be made to point out those Greek, Latin, or Byzantine ethnonyms that have been introduced into the manuscript tradition over the centuries.

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4. The theological/doctrinal evolution that words, verses, and passages have undergone from antiquity to the High Middle Ages:

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That the same passage or word has meant different things to different communities of believers over the years should not surprise us much, as this would be natural in any other cultural area. This difference can be observed not only when comparing, for example, Christian hermeneutics with Jewish hermeneutics but also within each of these religions, where multiple divergent interpretations can be found originating from local traditions, different theological developments, or political conflicts within the churches.

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Identifying and evaluating – based on the text itself – the ways in which a passage of Scripture has been interpreted and practiced is one of the most important exegetical exercises a Bible scholar can perform. It is then that the deep motives, often logical and in many cases surprisingly “adequate and necessary,” of the “other,” the heretic, become most apparent to us.

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Specifically, studying these variations allows us to detect with great precision the form and reasons why, at a specific moment in history, a community decided to privilege one reading over other possible ones, and in many cases, we discover that this was done by violating the most natural, fullest meaning of the text.

It is the ancient masoretic, Talmudic, rabbinic, Karaite, patristic, and heretical comments that enable us to understand how certain interpretations prevailed over others. The haNahash of Genesis, once vocalized by the medieval Masoretes, will have lost its “brilliant” side to become, forever, the slithering, talkative serpent of Eden.

During the course, an effort will be made to review as exhaustively as possible all ancient and medieval comments on each passage in question.

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5. The theological/doctrinal development and historical/scientific knowledge accumulated from the Reformation movement to the present day:

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If the production of studies and comments on biblical passages was copious in antiquity, the amount of information accumulated since the 16th century to the present day is exorbitant. Let us take, for example, a single century and a single biblical book: the Gospel of John during the past century.

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Between 1920 and 1965, an average of 70 books and research articles were published on the Johannine Gospel each year, while from 1966 to 1985, the figure rose to 332 annual works, and by the end of the 20th century, 732 works per year had been reached. This means that during the second half of the 20th century alone, at least 15,000 books and research articles on biblical and theological commentary on that gospel were published.

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Multiply that number by the total number of biblical books, and without counting modern and contemporary works on patristics, the history of theological thought, classical and oriental philology, biblical codicology, paleography, oriental cultures, biblical archaeology, new technologies, etc., we reach an annual figure so astronomical that no biblical text scholar can satisfactorily review it over several years. Hence the importance of starting a course like this.

 

Course Dynamics

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The course will consist of one session per week. Each session will start at 9:00 p.m. Mexico City time and will have a variable duration, ending at 12:00 a.m. sharp. In the first session, scheduled for April 17, an initial discussion will be held with students taking the course for the first time. The schedule for this meeting is proposed to be from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. on April 17, but this time can be adjusted based on the students' needs.

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The sessions will focus on the detailed exposition, by the professor on duty, of the various scholarly data related to the passage in question. Citing and demonstrating the relevant sources and arguments will be the norm. Intense participation is expected from students, in the form of an inquisitive attitude, contributing relevant information, and providing critical exegetical, theological, or biblical science comments. The content and depth of each student's participation will be at their discretion.

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During the first session on April 17, the topics to be covered during this online course will be voted on, and the schedule for their discussion will be determined based on the interest of the attendees. In all cases, a single student's request will be sufficient for a topic, passage, or verse to be included in the voting and detailed consideration of its feasibility, duration, and requirements.

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In each session, an attempt will be made to exhaust the scheduled topic. Relevant materials will be projected during the sessions in the form of PowerPoint presentations, movies, videos, or microfilms. Video recording of the sessions is included in the cost of the sessions. Students are allowed to use it for personal use or their cultural or religious group.

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Enrollment Requirements

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Enrollment is open to anyone over 16 years of age, regardless of creed, gender, or academic background. The monthly cost (4 or 5 sessions) is 1,850 Mexican pesos, equivalent to 100 US dollars. This amount may vary depending on the exchange rate at the time of payment. To participate in the online version, students must pay in advance, depositing the corresponding amount in the way that suits them best (weekly, monthly, biweekly) as follows:

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a) If they are outside the Republic of Mexico, the transfer should be made through Western Union, which charges the lowest commission, using the following details:

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Beneficiary name: Raúl Martín Cruz Mireles

Location: Mexico City (Coyoacán Borough), Mexico.

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Once the deposit is made, the student must send a screenshot of the receipt or a message clearly indicating the following details via Facebook messaging system or email:

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MTCN number.

Name of the person sending the deposit.

Location from where it is sent.

Amount deposited.

 

b) If they are within the Republic of Mexico, a deposit should be made to the BBVA card number 4152 3136 5071 9649 at any bank or Oxxo store. The card is in the name of Josefina Mireles. Once the deposit is made, the student must send a screenshot of the receipt or a message indicating that the corresponding payment has been made via Facebook messaging system or email.

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Upon receiving the payment confirmation message, the materials for the next session will be sent to each student in a zip file, typically containing several of the following items: the session's PowerPoint presentation, one or more books in PDF format, relevant audio or video files, and a variable number of original research articles published in major specialized journals (Aramaic Studies, Biblical Interpretation, Journal of Biblical Literature, Tyndale Bulletin, etc.). The usual market cost of the included materials ranges between 2,000 and 8,000 Mexican pesos. The student is free to share them with colleagues or friends, simply indicating that they should NOT share them publicly or profit from them.

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Original sources will always be prioritized, with care to prefer texts in English or Spanish, but all relevant texts and materials will be included, regardless of language. Absence does not obligate payment for the session; however, during this pandemic, three consecutive absences will result in the student's removal if there are interested parties on the waiting list. Exceptional cases will be reviewed with the lead professor.

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Course End

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The course will consist of one session per week for as long as necessary due to COVID-19 isolation, likely for a couple of years. Subsequently, the suitability of keeping it active, either as a replacement for or independently of the in-person course, or incorporated into it, will be assessed.

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Academic Recognition

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A student may request a certificate of attendance at any time. This document will detail the course name, the assigned professors, the attendance period (month and year), and, if possible, the topics covered. The cost of the certificates is 2,800 pesos, and their issuance is considered final. If the student remains enrolled in the course, they can request subsequent certificates.

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Those who need attendance certificates (for work, scholarships, etc.) can request them at no cost.