False Appropriation

False appropriation is form of decontextualizing. It attempts to read into the biblical narrative suggestions or ideas that:^[1]

• come from contemporary culture
• are foreign to the narrator's purpose
• are contradictory to his point of view

Examples[edit]

• An alleged homosexual relationship between David and Jonatan. The verse 17 "[Jonatan] loved him as he loved himself" and 41 "they kissed each other" (which in that original culture was not on the lips) from the book 1 Samuel 20 is by proponents of LGBT ideology interpreted as "hint" of the homosexual relationship between these two men. But nothing like that is present in the original text and such mistaken assumption stands completely outside the narrator's point of view: Their "love" is covenantal and is linked to God's love (as testified in verses 14 and 42) - he is narrating the story of Israels's greatest king and he presupposes Mosaic law which forbids such behaviour.

References[edit]

1. ↑ Gordon D. Fee, Douglas K. Stuart (2003). How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. zondervan.com, 104. ISBN 978-0-310-24604-6. 

See also[edit]

• Eisegesis
• Gnosticism
• Homosexuality and biblical interpretation
• Stolen concept