I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.
When this story is heard, in certain parts of the world the image of an Elvis style pharaoh, with the rock n’ roll groove pops up. The musical is one way in which the story reaches people. But it’s also probably the way in which it gets interpreted.
How do we interpret what we hear? Joseph is asked to interpret what someone else said he saw. We are always being asked to interpret, what we hear, what we see and the more subtle senses of touch and smell.
When reading scripture questions arise:
- How do we interpret what we hear?
- Whose interpretation are we hearing?
- What are we actually hearing?
This is what hermeneutics deals with. However for the most part hermeneutics seems to remove the words from their sound properties. This is one of the rationales for these posts. Does sound provide a helpful hermeneutic that helps us to listen to the scriptures? Sounds obvious, but does it?