Amelia Bedelia Exegesis
Too many Christians interpret the bible like Amelia Bedelia. The Amelia Bedelia stories, which my kids love, feature the maid by that name who interprets every command or statement in a wooden, literalistic fashion.
She is told to dust the furniture so she powders the couches with fine powder.
She is told to give the chickens scraps so she gives them cloth patches.
She is told to stake the beans so she cuts up some steak and ties it to the plants.
I remember talking to some friends who argued that prophets in the NT era are not held to the same standard as OT prophets. I had challenged them, tongue in cheek, that we should stone prophets whose predicitions didn't come true. They pointed out the example of Agabus in Acts 21:11 who prophesies to Paul concerning his planned visit to Jerusalem: "And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.' "
They argued that this wasn't how Paul came into the Romans' hands. The Jews don't hand him over. The tribune comes and binds Paul. So Agabus was wrong and yet wasn't (as far as we know) held to the deuteronomic standard.
This is hardly convincing exegesis to me. If one is Amelia Bedelia I suppose it might be. But basically Agabus says that the Romans are going to get Paul via the Jews and that's what happens. They may not deliver him of their own free will, desiring to do him in themselves, but they certainly are forced to deliver him.
How does Agabus's prophecy function in the narrative? Surely not as a lesson about the leniency of NT prophetic requirements but more themematically. Everywhere Paul goes he hears of his upcoming trial and like Christ he keeps moving towards that trial. God is glorified through the suffering of his servants as they seek to expand his kingdom.
T. Chris @ 8:41 PM
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