I came across this a few years ago.
HERMENEUTICS (=the study of the meaning of
> > scripture)
> >
> > Lets apply the principles to something from everyday
> > life!
> >
> > Suppose you're traveling to work and you see a stop
> > sign. What do you do?
> > That depends on how you exegete (interpret) the stop
> > sign.
> >
> > 1. A postmodernist deconstructs the sign (knocks it
> > over with his car),
> > ending forever the tyranny of the north-south
> > traffic over the east-west
> > traffic.
> >
> > 2. Similarly, a Marxist refuses to stop because he
> > sees the stop sign as an
> > instrument of class conflict. He concludes that the
> > bourgeois use the
> > north-south road and obstruct the progress of the
> > workers in the east-west
> > road.
> >
> > 3. A serious and educated Catholic rolls through the
> > intersection because he
> > believes he cannot understand the stop sign apart
> > from its interpretive
> > community and tradition. Observing that the
> > interpretive community doesn't
> > take it too seriously, he doesn't feel obligated to
> > take it too seriously
> > either.
> >
> > 4. An average Catholic (or Orthodox or Coptic or
> > Anglican or Methodist or
> > whatever) doesn't bother to read the sign but he'll
> > stop if the car in front
> > of him does.
> >
> > 5. A fundamentalist, taking the text very literally,
> > stops at the stop sign
> > and waits for it to tell him to go.
> >
> > 6. A seminary-educated evangelical preacher might
> > look up "STOP" in his
> > lexicons of English and discover that it can mean:
> > 1)something which
> > prevents motion, such as a plug for a drain, or a
> > block of wood that
> > prevents a door from closing; 2) a location where a
> > train or bus lets off
> > passengers. The main point of his sermon the
> > following Sunday on this text
> > is: when you see a stop sign, it is a place where
> > traffic is naturally
> > clogged, so it is a good place to let off passengers
> > from your car.
> >
> > 7. An orthodox Jew does one of two things: a) Take
> > another route to work
> > that doesn't have a stop sign so that he doesn't run
> > the risk of disobeying
> > the Law; b) Stop at the sign, say "Blessed art thou,
> > O Lord our God, king of
> > the universe, who hast given us thy commandment to
> > stop," wait 3 seconds
> > according to his watch, and then proceed.
> > Incidently, the Talmud has the
> > following comments on this passage: R[abbi] Meir
> > says: He who does not stop
> > shall not live long. R. Hillel says: Cursed is he
> > who does not count to
> > three before proceeding. R. Simon ben Yudah says:
> > Why three? Because the
> > Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Law, the
> > Prophets, and the Writings. R.
> > ben Issac says: Because of the three patriarchs. R.
> > Yehuda says: Why bless
> > the Lord at a stop sign? Because it says, "Be still
> > and know that I am
> > God"....
> >
> > 8. A scholar from the Jesus Seminar concludes that
> > the passage "STOP"
> > undoubtably was never uttered by Jesus himself
> > because being the progressive
> > Jew that He was, He would never have wanted to
> > stifle peoples' progress.
> > Therefore, STOP must be a textual insertion
> > belonging entirely to stage III
> > of the gospel tradition, when the church was first
> > confronted by traffic in
> > its parking lot.
> >
> > 9. A NT scholar notices that there is no stop sign
> > on Mark street but there
> > is one on Matthew and Luke streets, and concludes
> > that the ones on Luke and
> > Matthew streets are both copied from a sign on a
> > street no one has ever seen
> > called "Q" Street. There is an excellent 300 page
> > doctoral dissertation on
> > the origin of these stop signs and the differences
> > between stop signs on
> > Matthew and Luke street in the scholar's commentary
> > on the passage. There is
> > an unfortunate omission in the dissertation,
> > however; it doesn't explain the
> > meaning of the text!
> >
> > 10. An OT scholar points out that there are a number
> > of stylistic
> > differences between the first and second half of the
> > passage "STOP." For
> > example, "ST" contains no enclosed areas and 5 line
> > endings, whereas "OP"
> > contains two enclosed areas and only one line
> > termination. He concludes that
> > the author for the second part is different from the
> > author of the first
> > part and probably lived hundreds of years later.
> > Later scholars determine
> > that the second half is itself actually written by
> > two separate authors
> > beause of similar stylistic differences between the
> > "O" and the "P".
> >
> > 11. Another prominent OT scholar notes in his
> > commentary that the stop sign
> > would fit better into the context three streets
> > back. (Unfortunately, he
> > neglected to explain why in his commentary.) Clearly
> > it was moved to its
> > present location by a later redactor. He thus
> > exegetes the intersection as
> > though the sign were not there.
> >
> > 12. Because of the difficulties in interpretation,
> > another OT scholar amends
> > the text, changing the "T" to "H". "SHOP" is much
> > easier to understand in
> > context than "STOP" because of the multiplicity of
> > stores in the area. The
> > textual corruption probably occurred because "SHOP"
> > is so similar to "STOP"
> > on the sign several streets back, that it is a
> > natural mistake for a scribe
> > to make. Thus the sign should be interpreted to
> > announce the existence of a
> > shopping area. If this is true, it could indicate
> > that both meanings are
> > valid, thus making the thrust of the message "STOP
> > (AND) SHOP."
> >
> > 13. A "prophetic" preacher notices that the square
> > root of the sum of the
> > numeric representations of the letters S-T-O-P
> > (sigma-tau-omicron-pi in the
> > Greek alphabet), multiplied by 40 (the number of
> > testing), and divided by
> > four (the number of the world--north, south, east,
> > and west), equals 666.
> > Therefore, he concludes that stop signs are the
> > dreaded "mark of the beast,"
> > a harbinger of divine judgment upon the world, and
> > must be avoided at all
> > costs.
> >
HERMENEUTICS (=the study of the meaning of
> > scripture)
> >
> > Lets apply the principles to something from everyday
> > life!
> >
> > Suppose you're traveling to work and you see a stop
> > sign. What do you do?
> > That depends on how you exegete (interpret) the stop
> > sign.
> >
> > 1. A postmodernist deconstructs the sign (knocks it
> > over with his car),
> > ending forever the tyranny of the north-south
> > traffic over the east-west
> > traffic.
> >
> > 2. Similarly, a Marxist refuses to stop because he
> > sees the stop sign as an
> > instrument of class conflict. He concludes that the
> > bourgeois use the
> > north-south road and obstruct the progress of the
> > workers in the east-west
> > road.
> >
> > 3. A serious and educated Catholic rolls through the
> > intersection because he
> > believes he cannot understand the stop sign apart
> > from its interpretive
> > community and tradition. Observing that the
> > interpretive community doesn't
> > take it too seriously, he doesn't feel obligated to
> > take it too seriously
> > either.
> >
> > 4. An average Catholic (or Orthodox or Coptic or
> > Anglican or Methodist or
> > whatever) doesn't bother to read the sign but he'll
> > stop if the car in front
> > of him does.
> >
> > 5. A fundamentalist, taking the text very literally,
> > stops at the stop sign
> > and waits for it to tell him to go.
> >
> > 6. A seminary-educated evangelical preacher might
> > look up "STOP" in his
> > lexicons of English and discover that it can mean:
> > 1)something which
> > prevents motion, such as a plug for a drain, or a
> > block of wood that
> > prevents a door from closing; 2) a location where a
> > train or bus lets off
> > passengers. The main point of his sermon the
> > following Sunday on this text
> > is: when you see a stop sign, it is a place where
> > traffic is naturally
> > clogged, so it is a good place to let off passengers
> > from your car.
> >
> > 7. An orthodox Jew does one of two things: a) Take
> > another route to work
> > that doesn't have a stop sign so that he doesn't run
> > the risk of disobeying
> > the Law; b) Stop at the sign, say "Blessed art thou,
> > O Lord our God, king of
> > the universe, who hast given us thy commandment to
> > stop," wait 3 seconds
> > according to his watch, and then proceed.
> > Incidently, the Talmud has the
> > following comments on this passage: R[abbi] Meir
> > says: He who does not stop
> > shall not live long. R. Hillel says: Cursed is he
> > who does not count to
> > three before proceeding. R. Simon ben Yudah says:
> > Why three? Because the
> > Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Law, the
> > Prophets, and the Writings. R.
> > ben Issac says: Because of the three patriarchs. R.
> > Yehuda says: Why bless
> > the Lord at a stop sign? Because it says, "Be still
> > and know that I am
> > God"....
> >
> > 8. A scholar from the Jesus Seminar concludes that
> > the passage "STOP"
> > undoubtably was never uttered by Jesus himself
> > because being the progressive
> > Jew that He was, He would never have wanted to
> > stifle peoples' progress.
> > Therefore, STOP must be a textual insertion
> > belonging entirely to stage III
> > of the gospel tradition, when the church was first
> > confronted by traffic in
> > its parking lot.
> >
> > 9. A NT scholar notices that there is no stop sign
> > on Mark street but there
> > is one on Matthew and Luke streets, and concludes
> > that the ones on Luke and
> > Matthew streets are both copied from a sign on a
> > street no one has ever seen
> > called "Q" Street. There is an excellent 300 page
> > doctoral dissertation on
> > the origin of these stop signs and the differences
> > between stop signs on
> > Matthew and Luke street in the scholar's commentary
> > on the passage. There is
> > an unfortunate omission in the dissertation,
> > however; it doesn't explain the
> > meaning of the text!
> >
> > 10. An OT scholar points out that there are a number
> > of stylistic
> > differences between the first and second half of the
> > passage "STOP." For
> > example, "ST" contains no enclosed areas and 5 line
> > endings, whereas "OP"
> > contains two enclosed areas and only one line
> > termination. He concludes that
> > the author for the second part is different from the
> > author of the first
> > part and probably lived hundreds of years later.
> > Later scholars determine
> > that the second half is itself actually written by
> > two separate authors
> > beause of similar stylistic differences between the
> > "O" and the "P".
> >
> > 11. Another prominent OT scholar notes in his
> > commentary that the stop sign
> > would fit better into the context three streets
> > back. (Unfortunately, he
> > neglected to explain why in his commentary.) Clearly
> > it was moved to its
> > present location by a later redactor. He thus
> > exegetes the intersection as
> > though the sign were not there.
> >
> > 12. Because of the difficulties in interpretation,
> > another OT scholar amends
> > the text, changing the "T" to "H". "SHOP" is much
> > easier to understand in
> > context than "STOP" because of the multiplicity of
> > stores in the area. The
> > textual corruption probably occurred because "SHOP"
> > is so similar to "STOP"
> > on the sign several streets back, that it is a
> > natural mistake for a scribe
> > to make. Thus the sign should be interpreted to
> > announce the existence of a
> > shopping area. If this is true, it could indicate
> > that both meanings are
> > valid, thus making the thrust of the message "STOP
> > (AND) SHOP."
> >
> > 13. A "prophetic" preacher notices that the square
> > root of the sum of the
> > numeric representations of the letters S-T-O-P
> > (sigma-tau-omicron-pi in the
> > Greek alphabet), multiplied by 40 (the number of
> > testing), and divided by
> > four (the number of the world--north, south, east,
> > and west), equals 666.
> > Therefore, he concludes that stop signs are the
> > dreaded "mark of the beast,"
> > a harbinger of divine judgment upon the world, and
> > must be avoided at all
> > costs.
> >
