“I asked ChatGPT to interpret the Sermon on the Mount. Here’s what I learned about AI’s exegetical errors”

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Bible, Theology & Philosophy
Artificial Intelligence
Ministry Technology
Hermeneutics

“ChatGPT metaphorizes and individualizes Scripture without a clear method for when and why, without warrant, and often in direct contradiction to the text itself. Second, the bot’s interpretations are ignorant of the interpretive traditions that produce them.” - CToday

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T Howard
Wed, 08/02/23 11:11 am

For fun, I used ChatGPT to apply a passage of Scripture to marriage. It doesn't matter what the Scripture passage was (I chose some that were specifically addressing marriage and others that were not), ChatGPT "metaphorized" the passage to apply it to the marriage relationship. It reminded me of the spiritualizing that I used to hear in a lot of IFB preaching.

But, I will say, ChatGPT's treatment of the passage would pass in a lot of churches.

BTW, my experience with ChatGPT and Scripture interpretation is very similar to the author of the linked article. Several weeks ago I spent several hours with ChatGPT working through Genesis 2 and the issue of marriage and headship. I would get an initial dogmatic response, and when questioned, ChatGPT would provide contradictory answers, and when I pushed for explanation, "sorry, I'm just a language learning model."

It was a fascinating experience. I learned that ChatGPT can translate and parse Koine Greek verbs. It can translate English into Koine Greek. It can translate Latin into Koine Greek and Koine Greek into Latin and Hebrew.