http://www.patheos.com/blogs/benjaminth ... testament/
Says this about scripture use as a helpful aid for students of Mormonism and those within who wish to understand scripture.
There are different kinds of interpretation.
It goes WAY beyond “figurative” and “literal,” which is really problematic as a binary. The most important binary, I think, is something like “contextual interpretation” (i.e. what the author meant to say, in historical, cultural context) and “non-contextual interpretation” (i.e. what the passage might say without context, under the influence of the Spirit, to a later prophet, to me personally etc.) These are both legitimate and can coexist, provided we don’t confuse the latter with the former. Oftentimes, we either hear in Church or propound ourselves a personal non-contextual interpretation as if it were “what Isaiah (or Matthew or Deuteronomy) really meant.”
I think his point is a good one actually. However, now studying the Kabbalah, I can say uncategorically Spackman is continuing to be too simplistic, however, considering his target audience is believing Mormons, it is understandable.
In the Kabbalah, the context is rarely if ever historical, as that is considered to be the most erroneous, and weakest way to read. What the rabbis do, and encourage others to do is simply take whatever suits their fancy and remember that letters are also numbers and it is important to ignore context, and find the actual hidden meaning of what is being said. Break apart ("probe a word" is how the Zohar says it) every word, nay, every letter to find out what it means. If a word from Isaiah 24:6 and another word with an extra letter of the next word in Deuteronomy 12:3 match or work together, then go with it and find out what has been hidden form the world which YOU are now discovering for your own development and thinking. Their disconnections as well as connections are wildly variegated, yet cohere into a framework that is internally involved with assessing the significance of the Tree of Life and it's meanings. It's a wild ride, but millions do so and enjoy it. Nothing like this occurs in Mormonism, yet to simply say context is to miss the point.
Joseph Campbell years ago discussing the Holy Grail saga of King Arthur fame hit the nail on the head when he indicated that when the knights of the Round Table were on their quest, if one found the path and followed it this did not mean the others would follow that one. In fact, when they tried to do so, they actually lost their way! It was their own individual paths they had to find.
The Rabbis of the Kabbalah Jewish Spirituality do the same thing. They don't show you the path, they show you the tools to use to find your own path, and any one else's context is irrelevant to yours. There just might be something to that....