The second sin of biblical interpretation as presented by Kenneth Bailey in Interpreting the Bible is the “Blink-off / Blink-on.” I can’t say I found the name that helpful but here is the basic idea.
The idea is that God inspired authors to write passages that were unintelligible to the authors, or the authors wrote passages that were intelligible to themselves and no one else. These passages “blinks off” to all other readers for years, even millennia, until one day the true meaning “blinks on” to a future reader. Through this we discover that Ezekiel didn’t really know what he was writing about but now we know he was writing about the Russian 6th Fleet. The key to interpretation is to interpret along with the original audience not apart from it.
This is not to say that the original author and audience understood the full ramifications of the passage under discussion. Through later events we sometimes come to see earlier events in a different light. Furthermore, it is entirely possible that over the centuries, aspects of meaning have been lost to us and are rediscovered. However, as we approach each passage we need to begin with the idea that the author knew what he intended to communicate and wrote it with the intention that his contemporary audience would understand it.
