(Herpe)neutic: The Historical Hermeneutic of Snake-Handling Churches Pt. III
(In this third and final part (read the first part here and the second part here) of a paper on the historical hermeneutic of snake-handling churches, I traverse into the hermeneutical division among fundamenalists in regards to interpreting Mark 16:18 and the sociological reasons as to why snake-handling churches exist.)
Division Amongst Fundamentalist Hermeneutic of Mark 16:18
Because of this difference between snake-handling churches and other 20th century fundamentalist Pentecostal traditions, the snake-handling churches, with their insistence of a literal interpretation of Mark 16:18, are distinct to their tradition. With snake-handling churches spawning from the Church of God and the Church of God of Prophecy, both denominations “endorsed the plain meaning of Mark 16:17-18.” The plain meaning of the text means snake-handling churches hold to the text as imperatives from Jesus. Not only are these words interpreted as imperatives from Jesus, but they are considered one of the four signs that are “unconditional mandates.” It is worth noting that while there is more evidence of Christians drinking poison throughout the church’s history, for snake-handling churches, this imperative is only considered conditional “because of the prefaced word if.” It is because of their belief that Mark 16:17-18 are commands from Jesus himself that snake-handling churches practice the more extreme imperatives of snake handling and drinking poison. W. Paul Williamson and Ralph Hood note that snake-handling churches have a similar hermeneutic to the Catholic Church and mainstream Protestant denominations in regards to taking communion frequently because of “Christ’s imperative to do so.” Historically, Pentecostal churches took literally the imperatives of Mark 16, but ignored the dangerous practices of snake handling and drinking poison. For example, they practiced “healing rooms,” in which prayer was used instead of medicine to treat people with illness. These healing rooms were also based on a literal hermeneutic of Mark 16:18. Yet, because of their consistent literal hermeneutic, snake-handling churches quickly pointed out the hypocrisy of earlier Pentecostals in their interpretation of the imperatives in Mark 16. Thus, snake-handling churches began practicing even more dangerous practices. For their literal hermeneutic, therefore, there is a necessity that the interpretative method remains consistent, even if that means engaging in dangerous practices…