Some Thoughts on My Approach to the Bible

Some rambling thoughts on a couple principles that will guide my approach to the Bible on this channel. If you'd like to read the master's thesis I mention in the video, you can find it here:
www.twu.ca/sites/default/file...

[@misterkevinoh]

This is the kind of Bible channel I have been wanting so badly without realizing it.

[@bathwaterSommelier]

You're my favorite creator on TikTok, Dan! I grew up going to Catholic school where I felt that much of our interpretation of the Bible was surrounded by dogma and apologetics. It's refreshing to experience an academic and historical perspective of the text. I'm no longer a practicing Christian, but your social media engagement has reinvigorated my interest in theology!

[@Dr_Armstrong]

It's cool seeing stories like this by inquisitive and academically minded people that put investigation above dogma.

[@williamjacobs5142]

1000% agree

[@nobodybeatingmuigokuhesolo8660]

Walked away from Salvation

[@superegg1909]

@@nobodybeatingmuigokuhesolo8660and walked into intelligence

[@christiantole433]

You can interpret what you Don’t seek or understand. You letting yourself be led astray by nonsense. Study the Bible pray and reflect. The parables Jesus spoke had to be explained to the apostles. Mathew 3:16-24. The word reveals itself other can’t reveal it to you

[@Writer538]

I'm a secular Jew and will be 78 this week. I bring my master's degree in philosophy (from U.C. Davis) to my reading of the Bible. Partly because of my experience in singing and on stage, I appreciate your articulate speech with little ums and uhs. I've always resented the way many Christians used "our" scriptures, the Tanakh, to explain theirs. In the reverse direction. For example, in a clearly univocal way, people use the idea from the Revelation of John to claim that the serpent in Eden was Satan. Turning the serpent into Satan certainly makes the beguiling of the couple more sinister. But, for Jews, there was no single, evil figure with the proper name Satan. And, in my own secular Jewish reading of the story, I see nothing particularly sinister. They did not die as God said they would and one can't claim to read the Bible literally and then claim that "die" means "spiritually die. There was no Fall of Man and they were not expelled for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge but because they might eat from the Tree of Life. One consequence of this stance is that what I think is the basis for Paul's claim that we are all sinners vanishes. If one reads the Old Testament without univocality, then one realizes there are no prophecies in it of Jesus. Not on the page but in the minds of Christian readers, they Christianize the Old Testament. It has always seemed to me that, if one says the or she loves the Bible, they should not read it devotionally but critically and allow it to speak for itself (including letting the Tanakh to speak for itself) not in order to shore up their faith.

[@Chomper750]

Jews did evolve Satan as a being in the 2nd temple period. Additionally the Hebrew Bible repeatedly represents exile as death. Adam and Eve were exiled. The story of Adam and Eve mirrors the mytho-history of Israel. Man in the wilderness, placed in the promised land, rebels and is exiled.

[@GoodieWhiteHat]

Letting it be in disagreement is one of the most profound things I have ever done with my trying to understand the Bible and such freedom ensues. Thank you for the insight.

[@ashleyhorton6233]

I have learned more from you in the last several months than I have in 30+ years living in the Bible Belt. Thank you for sharing.

[@Metroid-rg9pn]

I have 2 Master's degrees, yet I still have to pause your video every few seconds and Google the words you're using. Excited to keep learning the vocab!

[@jgmrichter]

[1:45] Introducing cognitive linguistics and prototype theory [3:12] Our minds naturally group things into categories, not based on necessary and suffficient features, but based on some perception of proximity [5:08] Second Master's Thesis on the conceptualisation of deity in the Hebrew Bible through the methodological lenses of cognitive linguistics [5:42] Definitions are artificial and inadequate for describing conceptual categories [6:22] Texts have no inherent meanings [it's negotiated during the process of communication] [10:48] We can only understand language to the degree that we have experience with it or can draw inferences about meaning based on the experiences we do have [11:45] When we look at the Bible in translation or the original text, we're looking at something that was written thousands of years ago by people who were operating with an entirely different se of understandings, agreements and experiences [12:19] Translations can create an artificial sense of familiarity that can make us think we understand the text better than we actually do [12:56] We're always creating the meaning in our heads, we're never finding the meaning in the text [14:05] "I'm going to talk about different ways they use words, concepts like 'deity', 'personhood', 'spirits', 'souls', the afterlife ..." [14:44] Univocality = presuming the whole Bible represents a single unified consistent voice (it doesn't) [16:05] The (im)possibility of the “God of the Bible” [#maklelan800 on TikTok] [17:55] eg. Disagreement between Paul vs James on justification by faith vs works [19:00] The two creation accounts: on Gen. 1 addressing Gen. 2 [21:43] treating the Bible as a messy complex collection of texts written by authors who frequently disagreed, writing for very different reasons, often in different languages, with different rhetorical goals

[@mcosu1]

The Lord's work!

[@MM-jf1me]

Thank you!

[@34missgreen]

Thank you for this! 📝📝📝

[@brandonvance9688]

It’s fun to see more of your personality come through in this longer video format, like when talking about your experience of being linguistically stranded at KFC haha. Great intro video! Intriguing concepts.

[@LeoTheMageWarrior]

I keep seeing videos of this guy on my feed and I love each video more than the last. I followed him after a video he did with Aron Ra. Excellent analysis and take on the Bible.

[@mushbone]

You've made a very strong argument against Constitutional originalism as favored by the political right.

[@usasoapworks4980]

Absolutely one of the most valuable content creator on the internet. I encourage you to continue spreading truth and/ or it’s lack there of.

[@Sasseverk]

The part about meaning being created in our minds was a good perspective shift for me!

[@ericthibert6951]

Very interesting! I especially liked your explanation of cognitive linguistics. You take to this long-form format well. Looking forward to more!

[@SweetbriarSisters]

I look forward to hearing more. I've been following you on TikTok/insta- I am excited for more in depth insight. Thank you for taking the time to teach us

[@josephnwilson]

I am so excited for this channel! I loved this first full length video and it was a great intro to your approach of the Bible for your upcoming videos.

[@vl6779]

I can’t wait for more videos!!! Thanks so much, im super excited for the next one.

[@rudy041981]

I loved how you broke down language and understanding. I can't wait for your content here to grow. I have followed you on tictoc for a while now. Glad you are expanding.

[@BenChaverin]

Loved these talks, man. The discussions and concepts you've provided have helped me so much. I feel so lucky to finally have access to this information

[@brettandersson3206]

Glad to see you here! I’ve been following you on TikTok for some time now. The long-form videos are certainly going to prove to be a nice compliment to 30 second-3 minute clips.

[@ethio6301]

Great video, I’m really excited for the content to come.

[@jdleman2153]

Great overview and thanks for painting the landscape in the most neutral ways possible. I deeply appreciate your approach and the academics behind your videos. Really looking forward to these longer form vids.

[@JeffA0811]

Love the videos! I've watched several of them, but it was nice to hear this sort of 'set up' or 'intro' to how you approach. This information and perspective is extremely helpful in trying to gain more complete understanding of the bible. Thanks for sharing!

[@OwenAllen]

Wow. I love the explanations. It tickles part of my brain that needs more tickling in todays world. I’ve enjoyed your TikTok videos, and it was your recent TikTok that led me here. I enjoyed learning today about assigning meaning instead of finding it in the words, and while I thought I understood univocality, your description here is so much more long form. (Better). Thanks for taking the effort to share so much.

[@LyfeUntethered]

I can't tell you how helpful you have been to me on TikTok and I'm excited to learn from you here. I've never heard anyone explain the scripture as you do, and it is extremely refreshing. Thank you. - Trevor

[@braydonbarrett3742]

I'm so excited to learn more from you. Keep up the amazing work 🔥

[@mellfraze8112]

Great explanation. I joined tiktok specifically for your videos & I have been excitedly waiting for longer format content.

[@doctorbea]

Wow, this has given me a much better perspective in which to approach the scriptures. Thank you for all your diligence, Dan. Your work catalytic!

[@johnellerbrock730]

Wow. Wonderful. Can’t wait for more. 🤓🤓🤓

[@redstick4722]

Great content, thanks for your work!

[@PoliticalFuturism]

Thank you for this. It is incredibly useful to have an understanding of your methodology.

[@SuperBlahmaster]

Very interesting video, and I'm looking forward to your future videos.

[@YourVeganNeighbor]

I can’t wait to go through your entire video collection! Just what I wanted in learning the Bible.

[@lanabanana4006]

I’m going to broad in this statement to say I think we all appreciate your educational expertise about the Bible, especially with this discussion on where you’re coming from and how it will impact the “lectures” or “messages” you have regarding the education data surrounding the Bible. Sorry for the large sentence, but it has so much encompassing this intro and what we are seeking to find. I certainly appreciate the time and dedication you are exhibiting to help us in our understanding. I was considering going back to school for a biblical degree - however sole-motherhood is leading me in a different direction. But I’m still seeking out academic knowledge surrounding the Bible & your content has been instrumental. 10/10 recommend your TT & YT content!!!

[@FamilyRoyalty]

I love this! I’m so excited for the content you’re going to produce!

[@elenna_alexia]

Excited to see more long form content from you! Your TikTok account was one of the most surprising yet welcome finds I made on that app.

[@allentackett1479]

Great stuff! I'm enjoying the TikTok format, but I'm really excited for more long-form content. Your objectivity is very helpful.

[@BobMueller]

I've been following you for a couple of months on TikTok, and very recently here; I think this is the first YT video I've watched. Thank you so much for sharing the content you've created, both here and on TikTok. I truly wish I'd had something like this even twenty-five years ago when I was a young Christian. The comments you make about univocality are earth-shattering for me. There are so many evangelicals who will argue for univocality with their dying breath, and I always felt there was no way it could be true, that it just didn't make sense. At any rate, thank you, and I look forward to listening and watching more of your stuff.

[@lajuanabassett1298]

Very informative. Looking forward to more videos. Thanks.

[@Dr_Armstrong]

Thank you for this. Very nice clarity on your approach. Taking notes on your style for my channel.

[@jennykklein]

This is great. Thank you so much.

[@Hooray4Kierkegaard]

For years, I had resisted providing definitions in my essays for concepts, because of a vague feeling that it was purposeless. Often I'd settle for "the definition for x centres around..." to avoid having to look at the boundaries of a definition. And I'd read scholarly article after scholarly article that went to such great efforts to divine necessary and sufficient conditions, which got really tiresome! But until you explained prototype theory on tiktok, i had never encountered a framework that explained how definitions never sat right with me; i could never put words to explain my feelings about the issue. So thank you so very much for helping me find a way to explain the issue with conceptual definitions - and for presenting a way of looking at religion and the bible in a way I'd never thought possible.

[@pastorgreg18]

I am thrilled to have found you first through TikTok, and now here on KZbin. I the way you've broken down how you approach the text in this video. I was picking up a lot of this through other videos of yours, but this (and your video about the King James Version) have really helped me see where you are coming from. You are putting deep scholarship in concepts I have wondered about and wrestled with myself. Thank you, and I look forward to watching much more of your content!

[@kathleendoodles698]

I appreciate your point about meaning evolving over time depending on how people project their own understanding and identity on it. I think when we interpret (as in analyzing and visualizing how those events played out rather than dressing up and playing them out) the past, we forget the context of the lives of those people. It’s kind of like when you have a new colleague at work, and everyone talks to them like they already know what the current projects are. Our default is to get frustrated with them because they aren’t behaving how we would like them to, but context is EVERYTHING in this situation.

[@rickcramer9426]

Thanks Dan. Been following on TikTok for some time. Looking forward to more long-form content here. Liked and Subscribed.

[@brunoandsofie]

I'm just one of hundreds of your fans, Dan. However, I still want to say thank you. Your information and explanations are refreshing and super helpful to helping me better understand the Bible for what it actually is (something I've never received in LDS Sunday School, Seminary, or Institute classes). You rock!

[@Ladybuzzard]

I am so glad you made the move to KZbin so you can do a more in depth explanation of some things.

[@calicoskyband]

You are so awesome. Thank you.

[@rhythmythicles]

Thank you for this!

[@jenb7756]

I'm loving learning about some of the textual disagreements. There was NEVER one way to Christian and I can allow some space for myself and others

[@KGchannel01]

I love your work, thanks for bringing it to youtube! (I dont go on tiktok, but a friend shared your content with me often). Now I can binge for myself!

[@pablobulldog]

Thank you for the time and effort you're putting into these videos. As a teenager in the 70's I was asked to leave my church. I would notice the conflicts in scripture, how complex concepts were oversimplified, and how inconvenient teachings were ignored in the life of the church. I was confused by this and asked a LOT of questions. I was told time and again I had to have faith in the overall message the church leaders were expressing. In a sense use that message to force fit what I saw as conflicting and confusing into a common, convenient mold. I couldn't do that. The God I've come to know, have a relationship with, doesn't need me to dumb down. I'm looking forward to challenging and elucidating content. Thanks again.

[@acterene1]

I am so happy to have discovered you!

[@kdr7503]

I made a comment on a tiktok yesterday about needing more content on KZbin. Glad to see this video, I enjoy your insight, thought and honesty...tiktok video editing is a lot simpler to produce and edit.

[@sleepforeveryone]

Awesome introduction! Can't wait to see what insights you will bring us about the Bible. Love watching you on TikTok, too!

[@Dr_Armstrong]

Hahaha I love your user name! And you're right. Sleep really is for everyone!

[@laurafuhriman4755]

This is fascinating! I love the way you look at the Bible. Until recently, I didn’t even realize there were different ways to look at it, other than one big story that’s completely, literally true. 🤦‍♀️ You are opening my mind and are so educational, I really appreciate all your efforts! I’d love to hear you go into similar detail on The Apocrypha, how it came to be, differences from the Bible, why it wasn’t included in the KJV, etc.

[@nikoblack1272]

this approach to the bible is important, fascinating, and exciting

[@karmachameleon326]

I had to quit TT for the sake of my mental health - I was spending far too much time with my new favorite hobby of troll baiting - so I'm happy to see your content here. From my perspective, you're doing a fine job in presentation, style, and content. I'm pretty impressed with your ability to present this information coherently and cohesively in this longer form, so kudos, and thanks for sharing the insights you've gained from your research.

[@kairoshs]

Hey Dan, I love your TikToks and I'm super glad you're doing some KZbin too!

[@LapsedSkeptic]

Re-Binge watching the channel ahead of the class in September…this as the first video I saw of you not on livestream elsewhere was perfect as an introduction…looking forward to spending extensive time with the content. You and Dr. Bowen #DigitalHammurabi are two of my favorites.

[@thedarknessthatcomesbefore4279]

Agree both are very good.

[@comkver]

I'm glad that there's someone who can explain things in a sufficient manner. I remember being in catechism and just asking simple questions: "What did,'Let this cup pass me?'" my instructor could not explain it to me. It's very simple now but I was asking.

[@DHook]

Hi Dan thanks for sharing your approach to these texts. I have been following you on TikTok and am an appreciator of your dogma free, scholarly sharing, and precision scalpel work on misinformation being spread. I wish I had your work to reference during my formative years of indoctrination into the Freewill Baptist church. I am happy to have stumbled on to your feeds as you are answering many questions that I didn’t know how to ask during those years. Thanks, Respect, and support.

[@davidwalsh8707]

Beautiful. The elegance of intelligent solutions to difficult intellectual problems. I think this is an example of what we could call the 'functionlust' of humans. (I forget the book in which I originally found this concept of 'functionlust' a number of years ago. The concept was used to explain why the author believed that animals did, in fact and contrary to the positions of most scientists at the time, experience emotions such as joy, particularly when the animal was doing what it had evolved to do. Like an eagle swooping down on its prey from high above.)

[@mikemerrillcomposer]

I’m particularly interested in Josiah. Was he a righteous reformer or a selfish manipulator of doctrine? Or was he a mix of the two? Also ritual worship in general, from the altars of the patriarchs to Herod’s temple.

[@SciPunk215]

I just found this channel. I'm IN !

[@gealcat]

Very interesting.

[@perplexedon9834]

This is also a great primer on how to have discussions about trans people. The whole "What is a woman" thing is frames as being about assigning a concrete definiton, a single sentence that includes everything that we intuitively consider a women, and excludw eveything that isn't. This is an and impossible effort though, you cant even do this with something like a chair. A chair doesnt need a particular number of legs, it doesnt need to be a certain material, it doesn't need to be possible to sit on it (consider a typical household chair with 4 legs an a back...but made of incredibly fragile glass that would shatter on any contact). Two different chairs can have almost nothing in common, but people still percieve them to be a chair. Thinking about prototypical examples and then elements that more or less conform to the category is a great way to think about what a woman is. It show that we can look at a trans woman and see that in some ways they differ from the prototype, but on interaction they certainly are much more a woman than an olive is a fruit!

[@busoryong]

I've always been grateful for Bart Ehrman's ability to create a narrative that non-scholars can follow, and worried because he won't be around forever. You have eliminated that worry because you create an excellent narrative out of very complex issues. Thank you beyond words for deciding to take your scholarship to us laypeople.

[@latirfy4703]

This is amazing and exactly what I was looking for. I'm looking forward to more videos like this. Edit: Also, love your watch band. And I'll definitely read your thesis. Where can I find the other ones you've written? Thank you if you find the time to respond and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

[@maklelan]

Thanks so much! You can find most of the things I've published here: exeter.academia.edu/DanielMcClellan

[@ShallowCreation911]

@@maklelan What's your thoughts on the Bible having foreknowledge of future events and scientific foreknowledge? I'll prove this which you of course won't respond tho I wished you would so i could have some fun 😊

[@Nai61a]

@@ShallowCreation911 What are YOUR thoughts on the Koran having foreknowledge of future events and scientific foreknowledge? I suspect your thoughts on that would be akin to my thoughts on the Bible. The Bible, like the Koran, is a man-made book of myths, legends and stories with some historical places and people thrown in for verisimilitude. The Bible's authors had no more scientific foresight than we do - probably less since science has developed enormously in the last few hundred years and our guesses might therefore be somewhat better informed.

[@theotheoth]

Heck, I am late to this party! What an introduction! I reckon that opening talk will have separated the wheat from the chaff.

[@graemealexander1394]

I really appreciate getting a better insight to your approach to examining the Bible text. You mentioned looking at the different voices/authors in a text and I would really like a sort of layman's guide to the linguistic hints that help distinguish the voices.

[@stevebeary4988]

So interesting; perfect tool addressing personal bias, and the effects of dogma and pedagogical experiences.

[@willieverusethis]

You are speaking my language, professor.

[@hughlowe4431]

Love it . The problem is how do we deliver this message to evangelicals who think they know so much ? Not to mention the prosperity preachers . I will definitely be following your posts . It’s right up my alley

[@adriandavidjones]

I follow your TikTok I love it. But this was an entirely different experience. I learned more about how to learn Thank you so much.

[@acterene1]

Thanks!

[@AskAChristian]

An example of the encode/ decode problem: every fight with my husband ever.

[@QuinnPrice]

After discovering extensive and irreconcilable Bible contractions, I had to change my relationship with the text. It's not history nor is it from God's mouth, but it is interesting and worth reading. You are miles ahead of me in cognitive science.

[@noelhausler2911]

Peter Enns in The Bible Tells Me So points out how different the stories of David are when comparing Kings with Chronicles .

[@peggyh5766]

Hello love your tiktok content & love this long form even more!

[@MichaelMarko]

This is dope! I love this! I'm not even sure if you're religious or not and I still enjoy your content.

[@ZachariahWiedeman]

TikTok stopped showing me videos from the people I subscribe to and I got bored with all the junk they filled my feed with. Glad to see you on a MUCH better platform where I can catch all your videos.

[@Kalama_Llama_King_Kong]

I rejoice that we've come to this conclusion independently. It's short lived, though, because it is so important and so few understand this.

[@Kalama_Llama_King_Kong]

I'm kalama_Llama_King_Kong on TT. Just did a video about this idea but regarding trans issue.

[@timothylawson1151]

My wife is on the autism spectrum and communication with her involves interruptions with questions for clarification. She can’t allow any ambiguity before moving along in the conversation.

[@pgbollwerk]

Wow. I’ve never heard of cognitive linguistics before. This is super fascinating. Thanks!

[@BradyPostma]

Note to self: prototype theory within cognitive linguistics. This seems like a concept related to the way Darwin's statistical, drift-capable definition of species contrasted with Plato's paradigm where species were based on a fixed, idealized essence of the species that the species approaches. Plato's definition championed conformity to an ideal, whereas Darwin celebrated diverse populations of unique traits that gave more chances to survive a general calamity or change in environment.

[@deanstuart8871]

Terrific

[@stevendooner9737]

There is a lot of fun in thinking of this book as a vast anthology of spiritual writings that come from diverse people with many different purposes, voices, and points of view. The Bible, then, becomes a discourse between various people all groping at ultimate questions with occasionally superb writing. There is also always the possibility that we could apprehend a very strong reading of a nuanced text from Axial Age or the first century CE and simply not like the way they thought about some divine or spiritual thing. One interesting idea that I would like to see you address is the function of creative misreading or mistranslation in the creation of deeply-loved religious traditions. The pop, self-help writer, Rabbi Harold Kushner, once pointed out that Psalm 23 is a fairly ordinary psalm in Hebrew, and it only becomes a beloved spiritual verse of consolation in the manipulated English, Christian version. Salvation of a people: ”I will dwell in ‘Jerusalem’ for a good, long time” becomes individual salvation: “I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.” It’s interesting when people first encode incorrectly and then come to prefer their mistaken decoding to what the original text said.

[@1991jj]

🔥🔥🔥

[@leeruoho6343]

Beautiful, philosophically honest treatment of the Bible. Some may feel a critical approach only diminishes scriptures devotional value, but what you describe seems to suggest that is not necessarily the case. We may learn by thinking in categories with unclear boundaries, and invent meaning through symbolic language, but these are steps in the development of human understanding. One may say, "Man writes in words, but God writes in existence itself, byond all categories and symbols". Perhaps, as you have exemplified, we are ment to apply our minds to the vagueries and contradictions of human history, before we can began to understand the ways of God.

[@joeylo73]

I am a huge fan of Dan's way of approaching explaining the Bible. I am also a huge fan that he is very explanatory and doesn't use a dogmatic approach to explaining the Bible. I am fascinated in the history of the text and of the people who wrote the text. I believe that only through true understanding of the totality of their experiences can we truly understand that this is just a book. Writen by people at a certain time with a certain understanding of the world and while there are some decent ideas in it there are some bat shit crazy ones too. Oh and I love Dan's watchband in this video as well.

[@michaelmistaken2863]

Great welcome video! Also, was that a single 22 minute take?

[@stephencaserta2969]

Any books you can recommend on some of things you spoke about?

[@dominichowles9092]

Great post Dan. Do you think you are getting into Mary Douglas ( Purity and Danger) territory with prototype theory?

[@FuelMeOnce]

Semantic Script theory a la Victor Raskin takes into account the classification semantic feature systems (denotation), emotional classifications (connotation) and prototypical + context & experiential information (scripts).

[@mccsnackin]

I find your videos very compelling. I think you do a great job at explaining everything. Any interest in being a guest on some of the popular atheist / exvangelical youtube channels?

[@Steppin2theAM]

This is so good. Question: With regards to the absence of univocality, does that remove the existence of (OT to NT) prophecy or does that enforce how profound prophecy may be? I hope that makes sense.

[@maklelan]

Hey, thanks for the question, Kenyon! I think the validity of prophecy is a theological claim, so not within the bounds of what I try to address, but no, I don't think rejecting univocality on its own would necessarily preclude prophecy.

[@matthewj6978]

Dan, thanks for sharing your talents. Is there a specific prototype of diety that is behind your approach? I believe you said that was the Hebrew concept of diety? The second approach could be understood as semiotic? Or are these the types of definitions you mean to avoid? Cheers

[@maklelan]

Hi, Matthew! My thesis (linked to in the video description) goes into much greater detail about those questions, but my doctoral dissertation also explores them. My dissertation will be published as an open-access book later this year.

[@jezuswizardspatula5804]

I WAS an 8th day Independent Fundamental Baptist Evangelism Explosion Christian for 40plus years and Escaped the Big Fish about 10years ago. Learned the hard way

[@scienceexplains302]

“When we translate, we artificially create a sense of familiarity” @12:19 I am going to be repeating that. It is a concise way of something I have been saying clumsily.

[@brittmartin1283]

Very good explanation of how each of us can and do misinterpret the Bible for various reasons.