Interpretation of the Bible

Hermeneutics is the science of interpreting what an author has written. In Christian theology, hermeneutics focuses specifically on constructing and discovering the appropriate rules for interpreting the Bible. These methods and principles, however, are often drawn from outside of scripture in historical, literary or other fields. It inevitably involves exegesis, which is the act of interpreting or explaining the meaning of scripture. The goal in applying the principles of hermeneutics is to "rightly handle the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), striving to accurately discern the meaning of the text.

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Distinct from exegesis

Although one may encounter the terms "hermeneutics" and "exegesis" used interchangeably, there is a distinction to be maintained. Bernard Ramm describes the difference as follows:

"Hermeneutics . . . stands in the same relationship to exegesis that a rule-book stands to a game. . . . The rules are not the game, and the game is meaningless without the rules. Hermeneutics proper is not exegesis, but exegesis is applied hermeneutics."^ [1]^ Perhaps the closest relation between these two terms would be "hermeneutics" and "exegetical method."

Challenges

Applying sound principles of hermeneutics requires answers to a variety of questions:

  • Who was the writer?
  • To whom were they writing?
  • Is the choice of words, wording, or word order significant in this particular passage?
  • What is the cultural, historical context?
  • What was the author's original intended meaning?
  • How did the author's contemporaries understand him?
  • Why did he say it that way?

General rules of hermeneutics

One original interpretation

A fundamental belief in hermeneutics is that there is one original interpretation. When the author of a book recorded history, or wrote their letter(s) or gospel, they had a single intended meaning attached to what they wrote. For example, when a person writes a letter, they are not thinking of how they can write it so that the receiving person either cannot understand it or ends up with many different interpretations. Instead, there is a particular meaning in what was written. The interpretation is restricted by the writers intentions. Thus, when doing hermeneutics, one should always be aware of what the authors intended meaning was. This should guide and direct one's studies, and should also safeguard against interpretations that do not fit the thought or flow of the book one is studying.

Application

It should be noted that although there is a single interpretation to be found in each passage, there can be more than one application. However, these applications should stem from the interpretation and be guided by what Scripture says elsewhere.

Regard for genre

"A passage might be legal, narrative, polemic, poetry, wisdom, gospel, logical discourse, or prophetic literature, each having specific guidelines for proper interpretation."^[2]^

Regard for literary devices

"Various forms of Hebrew poetry, simile, metaphor, and hyperbole need to be recognized if the reader is to understand the passage's meaning." ^[3]^

Regard for literal meaning

A text should be interpreted with the degree of precision intended by the author. It should be interpreted "according to its literal, or normal, sense. The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer expressed. Interpretation according to the literal sense will take account of all figures of speech and literary forms found in the text."^[4]^

Rules specific to the Bible

Divine accommodation

"The Bible is to be interpreted in view of the fact that it is an accommodation of Divine truths to human minds: God the infinite communicating with man the finite... We must be careful, then, not to push accommodating language about God and His nature to literal extremes. God does not have feathers and wings (e.g., Psalms 17:8); nor is He our literal Father in the same sense our earthly father is." Robert Hommel, forananswer.org

See main page: Divine accommodation

Progressive revelation

"The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed." "The Word of God is to be understood from the Old Testament to the New Testament as a flower unfolding its petals to the morning sun."^ [5]^

Harmony

"No part of the Bible may be interpreted so as to contradict another part of the Bible. The Christian presupposes the inerrancy and harmony of Scripture as a necessary result of a perfect Creator God revealing Himself perfectly to Mankind."^ [6]^

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics

The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy produced three major statements: one on biblical inerrancy in 1978, one on biblical hermeneutics in 1982, and one on biblical application in 1986.

In similar fashion to the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy of 1978, the Statement on Hermeneutics presents affirmations and denials as an expression of the results of labor to clarify hermeneutical issues and principles. The council did not claim completeness or systematic treatment of the entire subject, but maintained the resulting Articles represent a consensus of the approximately one hundred evangelical scholars gathered at the conference.

Details may be seen here:

Methods/schools

Allegorical

"Prior to the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, biblical interpretation was often dominated by the allegorical method. Looking back to Augustine, the medieval church believed that every biblical passage contained four levels of meaning. These four levels were the literal, the allegorical, the moral, and the eschatological. For instance, the word Jerusalem literally referred to the city itself; allegorically, it refers to the church of Christ; morally, it indicates the human soul; and eschatologically it points to the heavenly Jerusalem."^[7]^

Grammatico-historical

"[T]his method of interpretation focuses attention not only on literary forms but upon grammatical constructions and historical contexts out of which the Scriptures were written. It is solidly in the 'literal schools' of interpretation, and is the hermeneutical methodology embraced by virtually all evangelical Protestant exegetes and scholars."^[8]^ "The writings of the earliest Church Fathers (Ignatius of Antioch, Ireneaus, and Justin Martyr) indicate that they took Scripture literally, unless the context clearly militated against it."^[9]^

Letterism

"While often ignoring context, historical and cultural setting, and even grammatical structure, letterism takes each word as an isolated truth. A problem with this method is that it fails to take into account the different literary genre, or types, in the Bible. The Hebrew poetry of the Psalms is not to be interpreted in the same way as is the logical discourse of Romans. Letterism tends to lead to legalism because of its inability to distinguish between literary types. All passages tend to become equally binding on current believers."^[10]^

Postmodern

Role of the Holy Spirit

"Some have wrongly argued that knowledge of the culture and languages of biblical times is not necessary, that the Holy Spirit will interpret the text for us. The role of the Holy Spirit is to illumine the believer in order to accept and apply what is found in Scripture. The Bible says that the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14). The Greek word for "accept" means 'to take something willingly and with pleasure.' The key role of the Spirit is not to add information to the text, or to give us special translating abilities, but to soften our hearts in order to receive what is there." Don Clossom, Probe Ministries

"[W]e must not say that the Spirit adds more revelation to the written Word. This denies the sufficiency of Scripture. Further, it renders such an interpretation non-falsifiable because then the Spirit's added revelation is accessible to me only through you. Finally, it comes perilously close to Barth's neoorthodox position that the Bible becomes the Word of God in one's experience."^[11]^

See main page: Illumination of the Holy Spirit

The hermeneutics of Jesus

"Jesus condemned the Scribes and Pharisees for replacing the original intent of the Scriptures with their own traditions. Jesus took a literal approach to interpretation which took into account the literary type of the passage."^ [12]^

See also

References

  1. ↑ Protestant Biblical Interpretation (Baker, 1970), p. 11.
  2. ↑ Don Clossom, Probe Ministries
  3. ↑ Don Clossom, Probe Ministries
  4. ↑ bible-researcher.com
  5. ↑ Robert Hommel, forananswer.org
  6. ↑ Robert Hommel, forananswer.org
  7. ↑ Don Clossom, Probe Ministries
  8. ↑ Robert Hommel, forananswer.org
  9. ↑ Robert Hommel, forananswer.org
  10. ↑ Don Clossom, Probe Ministries
  11. ↑ Daniel B. Wallace, bible.org
  12. ↑ Don Clossom, Probe Ministries

Resources

  • Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, 3rd rev. edition. Zondervan, 2003. ISBN 0310246040.
  • Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible Book by Book. Zondervan, 2002. ISBN 0310211182.
  • Jeannine K. Brown, Scripture as Communication: Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics. Baker Academic, 2007. ISBN 0801027888.
  • Henry A. Virkler, Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation. Baker, 1981; reprint Baker Academic, 2007. ISBN 0801020670.

  • D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed., Baker Academic,

    1. ISBN 0801020867.

  • Grant Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, revised and expanded, IVP Academic,

    1. ISBN 0830828265.
  • William Klein, et al., Introduction To Biblical Interpretation,revised and updated, Thomas Nelson, 2004. ISBN 0785252258.
  • Peter Cotterell, Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation. IVP, 1989. ISBN 0830817514.
  • Walter Kaiser and Moisés Silva, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning, revised and expanded, Zondervan, 2007. ISBN 0310279518.

Dictionaries

  • Kevin Vanhoozer, ed., Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible. Baker Academic, 2005. ISBN 0801026946.
  • Donald McKim, ed., Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters. IVP Academic, 2007. ISBN 083082927X.

External links