A) FIND THE MEANING OF THE TEXT

Maturity comes through knowing the Word.

500 years ago people didn’t have their own Bibles.

It was only in Latin.

Martin Luther put it in the hands of the people -

Gutenberg’s printing press was invented.

Codex Vaticanus 325-350 A.D.

Codex Sinaiticus 350 A.D.

Codex Alexandrinus 400 A.D.

Codex Ephraemi 400's A.D.

Codex Bezae 450 A.D.

Codex Washingtonensis 450 A.D.

Codex Claromontanus 450 A.D.

Language changes over time.

One language can yield many translations.

A formal translation of John 3:16 :

"Thus for he-loved the God the world that the son the only-born he-gave that every the believing into him not he-might-perish but he-might-have life eternal."

Formal equivalence - New American Standard Bible

preserving much of the original language structure and vocabulary equivalence.

Dynamic equivalence – New International Version

Sometimes readers have difficulty understanding a culturally, linguistically, or historically unique statement with no close English parallel.

NWT, Joseph Smith’s Inspired, The Message

Pray

Select a text

Meditate on the text

List questions about the text

Find the context,

Find parallel passages,

Do character studies of the text,

Do topical studies of the text,

Do word studies of the text,

Concordance (English and original language)

Study Bibles

Bible Versions

Interlinear

Bible dictionary (English and original language)

Systematic theology

Manners and Customs

Commentary

History

Books on the subject

A) FIND THE MEANING OF THE TEXT

Exegesis - Finding the original meaning of the verse

Exposition - Application of the Bible to modern times.

We can not do exposition without first doing Exegesis.

i) Consider literary form (Genre) use examples

Poetry - song

Polemic

Narrative - History

Prophetic

Didactic

Apocalyptic

Should we interpret literally or figuratively ?

The reader should take the text at face value UNLESS there are clear indications that the writer is using a literary device

-----------Handout --------------

The phrase "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off" (1 Kings 20:11)

Is a PROVERB in form. It appears in a STORY which is part of a NARRATIVE book.

Other rules of interpretation can be seen in…

The number one rule is Context.

"Context is King".

A text can be in context and misinterpreted.

-----------Handout --------------

* Simile: Comparing two dissimilar things ("My love is like a red

red rose").

* Metaphor: Implied comparison by applying elements or terms normally used of one object to another ("the curtain of night"; "all the world's a stage").

* Pun: A play on words, used for humor, style or argument.

* Rhyme: Similar sounds at the end of sentences or phrases.

* Parable: From the Greek "to throw alongside" -- a superficially unrelated story told to draw out principles to apply to another story.

* Satire: Similar to a parable, but focused upon exaggerated faults or character traits to expose hypocrisy or injustice.

* Hyperbole: Overstatement or exaggeration.

* Personification: Giving an inanimate object the qualities of a

person or animal.

* Symbol: An object or person that stands for more than its literal meaning.

* Allusion: Reference to people, objects or events outside the story.

* Apostrophe: Addressing an inanimate object as if it were alive.

* Euphemism: An indirect or less expressive phrase in place of an offensive or controversial one.

* Metonymy: Using a word or phrase connoting one thing in place of another )i.e., saying "White House" when we really mean "President").

* Idiom or colloquialism: A word or phrase, the meaning of which cannot be derived directly from its constituent parts or normal syntactical meaning ("straight from the horse's mouth" in English; or "How I long after all you in the bowels of Jesus Christ" in Greek; translated "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus" [Phil. 1:8] ).

* Allegory: Technically, an entire literary unit with a hidden or underlying meaning behind the literal meaning. Can also refer to words or phrases so used.

* Descriptive language: Phrases which describe superficial appearances as verbal shorthand for more complex concepts (such as saying "sunset" instead of "occlusion of the sun by the horizon as the observer's position on Earth rotates past the terminator line").

* Irony: A phrase in which the literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning, used for sarcasm.

* Rhetorical question: A question that is left unanswered (sometimes because the answer is implied) or answered by the author.

amount of material

--------------------------------------------------------

I) How to study the Bible

Pray

Select a text

Meditate on the text

List questions about the text

Find the context,

Find parallel passages,

Do character studies of the text,

Do topical studies of the text,

Do word studies of the text,

Make an outline of the text

Use study tools : Concordance (English and original language), Study Bibles, Bible Versions, Interlinear, Bible dictionary (English and original language), Systematic theology, Manners and Customs, Commentary, Books, what is the application today ? look on goshen for more

ii) How to interpret the Bible (Hermeneutics)

Exegisis

Exposition

Literary forms

Errors to avoid in interpreting the Bible

Translations

Formal

functional

How the Bible came to us

EXERSIZE IN HOW TO INTERPRET, OUTLINE, ETC... (what errors are there in this interpretation ?)

--------------------------------------------------------

idiom

1.EXAMINE WORDS AND HISTORICAL SETTINGS

3.STUDY THE LITERARY FORMS (typical forms)

1.HISTORICAL NARRATIVES

2.LAWS

3.POEMS - HEBREW POETRY HAS A RECURRENCE OF THOUGHT

4.SONGS

5.PROPHETIC SERMONS

6.GOSPELS

7.PARABLES

8.LETTERS

9.APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS

* Saturday -- Take time to read through the passage then ask as many questions as you possibly can.

* Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday -- Now go back and try to answer the questions and explore the passage from the context in the Bible.

This includes:

* Immediate context - Briefly look into the surrounding passages. What is the setting of the section?

* Parallel passages - Are there any other places in the Bible where this story takes place? If so, do they add any information?

* Concordance - Using a concordance, you might try doing a study on key words in the text. Examine where, why and how these words are used.

* Character studies - Do the characters in the story appear anywhere else? What more can you learn about these people and their history?

* Subject studies - Are there any topics or subjects illustrated or talked about in the passage? Find similar passages using your memory or a topical Bible.

* Translations - Compare the passage in different translations of the Bible (KJV, NIV, RSV, etc.). This may help in getting closer to the true meaning of the word.

* Greek/Hebrew study- Take a key word in the text, and find its Greek root and look that up in a Greek dictionary. Much of the meaning of many words is lost in the translation.

* Wednesday -- Now that you have explored the information that you have gathered from the Bible itself, look into historical and other references such as:

* Bible dictionary - This contains historical information about people, places, and things. Look up some of the key words you have examined in your study so far.

* Commentaries -.

* Books - Maybe a book has been written on a subject you found interesting in your study

What application does it have to us today?

There's no such thing as an "allegorical interpretation" or a "literal interpretation." When people hear the term "Bible literalist" or "literal interpretation," they tend to think Christians who believe the Bible is authoritative would express the concept like this: "The Bible means exactly what it says, no matter what ridiculous things it says. If it says the Earth has

In its simplest form, interpretation works like this: The reader should take the text at face value UNLESS there are clear indications that the writer is using a literary device (more on that in a moment). When the reader detects a literary device, he or she should look for the underlying meaning.

Literary devices are manifold. You probably recognize many of these; some are a bit more esoteric:

* Simile: Comparing two dissimilar things ("My love is like a red red rose").

* Metaphor: Implied comparison by applying elements or terms normally used of one object to another ("the curtain of night"; "all the world's a stage").

* Pun: A play on words, used for humor, style or argument.

* Rhyme: Similar sounds at the end of sentences or phrases.

* Parable: From the Greek "to throw alongside" -- a superficially unrelated story told to draw out principles to apply to another story.

* Satire: Similar to a parable, but focused upon exaggerated faults or character traits to expose hypocrisy or injustice.

* Hyperbole: Overstatement or exaggeration.

* Personification: Giving an inanimate object the qualities of a person or animal.

* Symbol: An object or person that stands for more than its literal meaning.

* Allusion: Reference to people, objects or events outside the story.

* Onomatopeia: A sound suggesting a sensual impression (in English, words like "sizzle," "bang," or "splash").

* Apostrophe: Addressing an inanimate object as if it were alive.

* Euphemism: An indirect or less expressive phrase in place of an offensive or controversial one.

* Metonymy: Using a word or phrase connoting one thing in place of another )i.e., saying "White House" when we really mean "President").

* Idiom or colloquialism: A word or phrase, the meaning of which cannot be derived directly from its constituent parts or normal syntactical meaning ("straight from the horse's mouth" in English; or "How I long after all you in the bowels of Jesus Christ" in Greek; translated "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus" [Phil. 1:8] ).

* Allegory: Technically, an entire literary unit with a hidden or underlying meaning behind the literal meaning. Can also refer to words or phrases so used.

* Descriptive language: Phrases which describe superficial appearances as verbal shorthand for more complex concepts (such as saying "sunset" instead of "occlusion of the sun by the horizon as the observer's position on Earth rotates past the terminator line").

* Irony: A phrase in which the literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning, used for sarcasm.

* Rhetorical question: A question that is left unanswered (sometimes because the answer is implied) or answered by the author.

TRANSLATIONS ----------

As I said earlier, one idiom that would not survive a formally equivalent translation appears in Philippians 1:8. The NIV renders it, "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." In Greek, however, this phrase actually says, "How I long after all you in the bowels of Jesus Christ." A Hellenistic Greek thought of the bowels as the seat of emotion and affection, the same way we think of the heart today. But if you tell someone, "I love you with all my bowels," you're not going to get the message across today!

Greek is even trickier. Here's as close to a 100-percent formal translation of John 3:16 as you can get and still be intelligible:

"Thus for he-loved the God the world that the son the only-born he-gave that every the believing into him not he-might-perish but he-might-have life eternal."

Types:

Narrative

Poetry

Discourse

Genres:

Prophecy

Psalm

Wisdom

Epistle

Apocalyptic

Gospel

Story

The phrase "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off" (1 Kings 20:11) is a PROVERB in form. It appears in a STORY; the story is part of a NARRATIVE book. Knowing that helps us to remember that although this is part of a story, it can't necessarily be dealt with formally (as opposed to functionally), since it's an idiom.

Bible Narratives Narrative is the largest type of literature in the Bible. Although some will question the historicity of biblical narratives that contains miracles, we must know that biblical narratives are historical events; it means that they actually took place in time and space. We must interpret and see the meaning of the narratives as a part of the theme of the book. This is how we can read a particular narrative in its context, by treating smaller narrative as part of a bigger narrative. The story of David and Goliath is part of the story of King David, and King David is part of the story of the nation of Israel, and the nation of Israel is part of the main story of the Bible, which is God's salvation plan for all men. We must focus on the main message of the narrative and not be distracted with matters mentioned in the narrative. When we read stories where angels are mentioned we must not get carried away with trying to understand about angels. Angels are mentioned in the narrative, but the message of the narrative is not about explaining angels to us. We must not conclude that because it happened in the biblical narrative it should or must happen to us also. Be careful with assuming that a narrative has a message, specially for our situation. Like saying that the story of the Israelites

ERRORS IN INTERPRETATION --------------------

3 John 1-4 The elder,

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy to have some

Verse 2 has always been the more prominent verse in that it has often been interpreted as a promise from God that Christians should be rich and healthy. It became a key verse for a doctrine that guarantees health and wealth for Christians. But is it true? Does Gaius interpreted it as such? Does the elder intend it to be a promise from God of wealth and health? Going back to guidelines for proper interpretation, the guarantee of health and wealth is not the intended meaning of the original author, nor would Gaius take it as such. "Health and success" are themes that are commonly included in personal letters during that time. Verse 2 only confirms that theme and is a standard part in the beginning of the letter. To put so much weight on verse 2 is to neglect the proper way of reading the letter. None of the original reader would do this, and neither should we. If we claim that such an interpretation is only revealed to us in this generation, we are saying that the Bible changes its meaning in time. That cannot be accepted. Remember, the Bible still means what it meant originally, this is the only way the Bible will become meaningful and protective its message. Verse 2 was intended to be a "wish" or "prayer" of the author to Gaius and it still the same today. I can accept if you will pray for others to be rich and healthy because of this verse, but not if you will tell me that this verse is God's guarantee that Christians should be materially rich and physically healthy. Your comments are always welcome. Please send your comments to Comments & Questions

TRANSLATIONS ------------------

Different Bible Versions A. Primary Source Do you ever wonder why we have different versions of the same Bible? More technical differences between versions are caused by the translators using different families or groups of Greek manuscripts as their primary source. For instance, differences can be seen in comparisons with the New International Version (NIV) and the King James Version (KJV) of the passage 1 John 5:7-8 and their treatment of the ending of the Gospel of Mark. Variation can be anywhere from extra words in a verse, to the actual meaning of the verse being changed. With the help of proper interpretation, the fundamental doctrines of Christianity will not be negatively impacted.

B. Language

Language is another factor. Here the scholar translates from Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic to English. Naturally, if you have 10 persons who would translate the Bible from English to Spanish today, none of the 10 translations would be the same word for word. The same goes for the ancient Greek language to modern English which has hundreds of scholars involved.

C. Methodology

Another major reason for the differences is that the translators used varying methods or theories of Bible translation. Two major methods are formal and dynamic equivalence.

Formal translation is also called literal or word-for-word translation. As the name suggests, it tries to keep the same words and word order used by the original manuscripts.

Dynamic equivalence translation is also called functional or thought for thought translation. This method is more concerned with expressing

Hermeneutics

The process of interpreting the Bible. This is what we are learning in this website. It includes all the rules, principles, theory, and methods of interpreting the Bible. It covers the process from trying to understand the original meaning of the verses to what it means to us today. EXEGESIS

This is the process of interpretation where you are trying to find the original meaning of the verse. It is finding out what was the message that was heard by

Example: 1 Corinthians 11:4-5,16 "Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head- it is just as though her head were shaved...If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice- nor do the churches of God." (NIV) This is considered a difficult passage in the Bible to interpret. A good interpreter should start by gathering reliable background information before attempting any interpretation of the passage.

3) Then #3, let the Word speak for itself

let's compare scripture with other scripture

PRAY

(1) The literal, straightforward meaning.

(2) Allusions to deeper truths hinted at by certain features of the text.

(3) Interpretations drawn from searching other parts of scripture, sacred traditions, or daily life, with allegorical value as ethical precedents. And though "context is king

(4) "Mysteries"--not things that can't be understood, but deeper meanings, like Jeremiah's 30 pieces of silver, or David's suffering in Psalm 22.

The names of these four forms of interpretation for an acrostic of the Hebrew word for "Paradise"!

The last major principle I will highlight is: "To the Torah and to the testimony! If they do not speak in agreement with this word, they have no light..." (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 8:20) If an interpretation of the New Testament does not agree with the earlier Hebrew Scriptures (sometimes called the Old Testament), then it is mistaken or the emphasis is at least misplaced. The New Covenant fulfills the former one, and improves on it in some ways, but it never contradicts it. The

TRANSLATION-----------------------------------

Some translations, such as the New American Standard, favor "formal equivalence,"

preserving much of the original language structure and vocabulary equivalence.

Sometimes readers have difficulty understanding a culturally, linguistically, or historically

unique statement with no close English parallel. Other translations, such as the New

International Version, combine formal equivalence with "dynamic equivalence" for

culturally or historically obscure texts. Paul talks of the "sinful flesh" in a cultural and

religious context that associates "flesh" with sacrifices, but in our culture is more readily

understood as "sin nature" (Romans 7:18 NIV).

HOW WE GOT THE BIBLE-----------------------

As the books of the Bible were composed, they were recognized by God's people (first

the Jews regarding the Old Testament, then the Christians, who also recognized the

New Testament books) as God's Word. The books were tested according to the

following principles:[3]

1.The book must be written by a person of God (e.g., a prophet, an apostle, a trusted

associate of an apostle, etc.).

2.The writer and writings must be confirmed by facts and the acts of God (e.g.,

Moses said a prophet whose prophecy did not come true was a false prophet --

Deuteronomy 18:18-21, etc.).

3.The book must come with the power of God. Application produces godly

transformation in believers' lives (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:17, etc.).

4.The book must be accepted by the people of God initially (see Peter call Paul's

words "scripture" in 2 Peter 3:15-16) and over time (before the second half of the

second century all of the main churches in the Roman empire accepted at least the

four gospels, the Acts of the apostles, and Paul's writings as scripture[4]).

At the beginning of the fourth century the Christian churches generally agreed on which

books composed the Bible and which books were excluded. This was the earliest time

such a question had general significance. Emperor Diocletian Galerius decreed that

Christians were to be persecuted and their scriptures burned. It was a matter of life and

death to determine which books one would risk martyrdom for. By the end of the fourth

century the Bible as we know it was formally recognized by all Christian churches.[5] It is

important to note that the church recognized the scriptures, it did not determine or make

up scriptures.

For many centuries the texts of the Old and New Testament books were copied by hand

on papyrus, parchment, or vellum in scrolls or in codexes (books). Professional copyists,

or scribes, were meticulous, skilled workers. Convinced they were copying God's Word,

they could not alter it in any way. The remarkable preservation of the original

HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE

OLIN T. BINKLEY

1.EXAMINE WORDS AND HISTORICAL SETTINGS

1.SEEK DILIGENTLY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT EACH BIBLICAL WRITER

MEANT BY THE WORDS AND PHRASES HE USED.

2.INTERPRET THE WORDS OF A BIBLICAL TEXT IN THEIR CONTEXT.

3.LEARN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE ABOUT THE HISTORICAL SITUATION

IN WHICH EACH BOOK OF THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN

2.INTERPRET THEOLOGICALLY

1.LEARN THE CONTINUITY BETWEEN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE

NEW TESTAMENT

2.LEARN THE GOD'S DEFINITION OF GOD'S PEOPLE AND HIS

RELATIONSHIP TO THEM

3.LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COVENANT AND A PROMISE

1.IDENTIFY THE PROMISES

2.IDENTIFY THE COVENANTS

3.STUDY THE LITERARY FORMS (typical forms)

1.HISTORICAL NARRATIVES

2.LAWS

1.LAW OF MOSES

2.HUMAN LAWS

3.NATURAL LAWS

4.SPIRITUAL LAWS

3.POEMS - HEBREW POETRY HAS A RECURRENCE OF THOUGHT

(PARALLELISM) WITH SUCCESSIVE HALF LINE WHICH LINK A SENSE

OF SOUND AND FORM. THIS MAKES FOR DIFFICULT TRANSLATION TO

ENGLISH.

4.SONGS

1.HEBREW SONGS ARE NOT EASILY IDENTIFIABLE.

2.THERE ARE A FEW POSSIBLE NEW TESTAMENT HYMNS IN THE

LETTERS.

5.PROPHETIC SERMONS

6.GOSPELS

7.PARABLES

1.TYPICAL PARABLE PRESENTS A SINGLE POINT OF COMPARISON

1.IDENTIFY ONE POINT OF COMPARISON

2.DERIVE FROM IT THE INSIGHT SET FORTH BY THE PARABLE

2.TOTAL CONTEXT IS VITAL

3.DETAILS MUST NOT BE PRESSED.

8.LETTERS

9.APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS - THE GREEK WORD (REV 1:1) MEANS AN

UNCOVERING OR DISCLOSURE. THUS IT IS NOT A HIDDEN

MEANING!

1.MUST IDENTIFY CAREFULLY LITERAL VERSUS FIGURATIVE

LANGUAGE

1.USES SYMBOLISM TO CONCEAL OR EXPRESS IDEAS. THIS

MAKES INTERPRETATION DIFFICULT AT TIMES

2.CONTEXT AND HISTORY IS CRITICAL

2.CRITICAL TO IDENTIFY PURPOSE

3.FIND IN SELECTED PLACES IN THE BIBLE

4.LEARN THE FUNDAMENTAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE

1.REVELATION OF GOD THROUGHOUT HISTORY TO GOD'S TRUE

ISRAEL (ROM 2:28-29)

2.JESUS AS LORD AND MESSIAH IS THE FOCUS OF WHOLE BIBLE.

(ACTS 17:30-31, 20:21)

5.Translations: "Now which one is right? The answer must be all of them

are helpful. What does this do, then, to our doctrine of inspiration? The

answer is that God did not promise to inspire those who translate or copy

the Bible. ... We believe it was the original message of God that was inspired.

We should get as close to the original meaning of the best texts of the Hebrew

and Greek as possible." (page 33)

Source: Binkley, Orlin T., How to Study the Bible, Nashv

Bibleinfonet

l make you free. John 8:32

How To Study The Bible #2

A Desire To Learn

By Jody L. Apple

What's the secret to understanding the Bible? What's the key to knowing

its true meaning? I'll give you a clue - it's not the latest book, or some new

theological or interpretive scheme. What's the secret? The answer is -

there is no secret!

The Importance of Desire

Why don't you know the latest philosophy of science insights into

induction, theories of proof and heuristics? You don't care, right? Exactly!

Because there is no interest, there is no desire. And without desire, you

really don't learn anything very well.

Have you ever heard someone tell you to do something at work, but

because you had no interest in what was being said, or perhaps because

you had an interest in something else, you didn't pick up on all of the

instructions being given to you?

Have you ever explained to your son or daughter how to complete some

task only to realize after you finished talking that they had not understood

at all what you were saying? Perhaps it's because they were not interested

in what you had to say. Perhaps it's because they wanted to do something

else. Without desire, understanding can be difficult.

Desire To Know God's Word

Understanding the Bible is no different. One of the factors involved in

learning what the Bible teaches is really quite basic. It's the same principle

that we found was necessary to learn anything. In order to understand the

Bible you have to want to know. You must desire to learn the truth of

God's word. The role desire plays is crucial. While it does not guarantee

that you will know everything that you might want to know, or that any

specific claim is true simply because you want it to be true, desire is still

imperative if you really seek to understand the word of God.

In John 7:17 Jesus said: "If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know

concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My

own authority." Jesus taught that if anyone wants to do God's will he can

know whether or not His teaching was authoritative. Note that desire

precedes knowing. This is the key to knowing the truth of God's will. We

must want to know it.

The same principle is alluded to in Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who

hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." What is the

level of your desire for righteousness? Do you hunger and thirst for it? Are

you just as concerned for knowing and doing God's word as you are for

seeking to fill your stomach? Without this kind of desire to do God's will,

we severely cripple our efforts to know God's will.

Ezra, the priest and scribe who figured so prominently in the restoration of

Israel, had this desire. Ezra 7:10 describes this attitude: "For Ezra had

prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach

statutes and ordinances in Israel." Is your heart prepared to seek God's

law? Do you have the desire to want to know it more than anything else?

That's what it will take to learn God's word.

James 1:5 tells us that God gives wisdom: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let

him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will

be given to him." True as this is, James does not present all that is

necessary in the pursuit of wisdom. God does not give wisdom only

because we ask for it. We must be willing to work for it.

The writer of Proverbs teaches this in chapter 2, verses 1-9:

"My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you,

so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to

understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice

for understanding, If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for

hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find

the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come

knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice,

and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand

righteousness and justice, equity and every good path."

Notice the number of words used in this passage that indicate desire. We

must "receive" God's words. We must "treasure" his commands. We must

"incline" our ears to wisdom. We must "apply" our hearts. We must "cry

out for discernment." We must "lift up" our voices for understanding. We

must "seek her as silver." We must "search for her as for hidden treasures."

Only then will we know and understand God's will.

Perhaps no greater example of this desire can be found than that of Paul.

Note his thoughts in Philippians 3:8-11:

"But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge

of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,

and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not

having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is

through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I

may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of

His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain

to the resurrection from the dead."

Paul was willing to give up everything to have "the excellence of the

knowledge of Christ Jesus." Paul wanted to "know Him and the power of

His resurrection." Do you have that kind of desire to know God's will?

Without it, you will never know all God wants you to know. With it, you

can know the all truth that God wants you to know to be saved (cf.

Proverbs 23:23; John 8:32; 1 Peter 1:22).

H. A. "Buster" Dobbs, email: [email protected]

P. O. Box 690192

Houston, Texas 77269-0192

(281) 469-3540

(c) Copyright notice: You may use the articles from this website for non-commercial purposes to

include USENET groups, list-servers, and Bible classes provided you give the Uniform Resource

Locator (URL) for the information and do not alter the content.

Knowing Scripture

Learn How to Study the Bible With This Practical Series

When people read the Bible with open hearts and minds, they change. And they change their world.

In the 12 messages of Knowing Scripture, R.C. gives practical tools to stimulate your involvement in

God's life- and world-transforming Word.

R.C. explains how to interpret the Bible literally without being insensitive to its literary forms. He

makes clear how to interpret obscure passages. And he shows how to interpret Scripture in its

historical context.

All Scripture is profitable for making you the person God wants you to be. Knowing Scripture can

help you understand God's inspired Word.

Twelve 30-Minute Messages

Why Study the Bible?

Private Interpretation

The Science of Interpretation

Literal Interpretation

Literary Forms, Parts 1 and 2

Reading the Bible Existentially

The Historical Narrative

The Explicit and the Implicit

Parallelisms

Scripture and Culture

Principle vs. Custom

Video Series ... $45

Item VTH10.11-22

Audio Series ... $24

Item TH10.11-22

HERMENEUTICS

Spiritual Disciplines: Daily Study Ideas

Spiritual Disciplines has given you the chance to learn how to study the Bible more in-depth by exposing you to some tools of study. Yet just like anything else, if you don't practice these things, they do you no good. One of the commitments to Spiritual Disciplines was to spend 30 minutes daily in study and prayer. This is very important because this is the key to building a strong relationship with our Savior. It also is a good time to practice some of the tools of study and prayer that we've learned. So, now that you've committed to this daily time, what do you do with this half hour every day? That's the purpose of this sheet of paper. This is just one possible way to study throughout the week, and if you've been having trouble knowing what to do, maybe try this. . . .

You have a half hour on your hands so you could divide that into 20 minutes of study and 10 minutes of prayer. (Again, these are just suggestions. If what you are doing is working, great. Do that.) Say you get your passage Friday night. . . .

* Saturday -- Take time to read through the passage then ask as many questions as you possibly can.

* Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday -- Now go back and try to answer the questions and explore the passage from the context in the Bible.

This includes:

* Immediate context - Briefly look into the surrounding passages. What is the setting of the section?

* Parallel passages - Are there any other places in the Bible where this story takes place? If so, do they add any information?

* Concordance - Using a concordance, you might try doing a study on key words in the text. Examine where, why and how these words are used.

* Character studies - Do the characters in the story appear anywhere else? What more can you learn about these people and their history?

* Subject studies - Are there any topics or subjects illustrated or talked about in the passage? Find similar passages using your memory or a topical Bible.

* Translations - Compare the passage in different translations of the Bible (KJV, NIV, RSV, etc.). This may help in getting closer to the true meaning of the word.

* Greek/Hebrew study- Take a key word in the text, and find its Greek root and look that up in a Greek dictionary. Much of the meaning of many words is lost in the translation.

These are only a few of the methods that can be used to study the scriptures deeper. This is hardly an exhaustive list, and yet it is possible to spend many weeks using only one method listed here and still not exhaust what there is to learn.

* Wednesday -- Now that you have explored the information that you have gathered from the Bible itself, look into historical and other references such as:

* Bible dictionary - This contains historical information about people, places, and things. Look up some of the key words you have examined in your study so far.

* Commentaries - After thoroughly exploring the Bible itself, you will find that much of what you have learned so far is echoed in the commentaries. However they do add again historical information that will prove helpful. For the most part it is like checking the answer key to see if you're on the right track.

* Books - Maybe a book has been written on a subject you found interesting in your study. They often prove an interesting source of information.

OUTLINE THE TEXT ----------------

Again, this is not an exhaustive list. However the sources listed will hopefully answer many remaining questions about the text, and give you a different perspective.

* Thursday -- This day is a very important day. This is the time where you take the masses of information that you have collected and put it all together. What can you learn from this text? What application does it have to us today?

* Friday -- This is your last and probably most important day of study. As you make applications, see if Ellen G. White has written anything on the passage. If you decide to read her, read her actively, meaning as you go, make a distinction between information that you can gather from the Bible and what she adds, if anything. Evaluate what she adds, and explore why she adds what she does. Finally make the personal application to the story. Where do you see yourself in this passage? What is God saying to you personally? Be sure to ask for the Holy Spirit as you go through this all-important step. If this is too much to do in one day, try spreading it between Tuesday and Wednesday, saving the personal application until last.

These are just a few ideas. See what works best for you. However you choose to study, the most important thing is that you spend time with Jesus every day.

Copyright (c) 1996, Ray Van Dolson, Last Updated - 4/21/97 2:25:34 PM

Evangelical Hermeneutics

Table of Contents

Michael Bauman and David Hall, eds

Preface/Michael Bauman and David Hall 1

Part I: The Principles of Hermeneutics

1 The Ethics of Meaning: The Case for a Conservative Hermeneutic/

Michael Bauman 3

2 Legal Hermeneutics and the Interpretation of Scripture/

John W. Montgomery 15

3 The Globalization of Biblical Hermeneutics/

Craig L. Blomberg 31

Part II: The History of Hermeneutics

4 The Foundation of Reformation Hermeneutics: A Fresh Look at Erasmus/

David S. Dockery 53

5 Hermeneutical Methods in the Westminster Standards/

John A. Delivuk 77

6 Hermeneutics: With Hubris or with History/

David W. Hall 97

Part III: The Applicationof Hermeneutics

7 Galatians 3:28: A Test Case for Sound Hermeneutics/

Virgil Warren 123

8 The Parables of the Kingdom: A Paradigm for Consistent Dispensational Hermeneutics/

Ronald N. Glass 147

9 The Hermeneutics of Annihilationism: The Theological Method of Edward Fudge/

Robert A. Peterson 191

10 Hans-Georg Gadamer and Evangelical Hermeneutics/

Bruce B. Miller II 213

11The Deconstructing of the American Mind: An Analysis of the Hermeneutical Implications of Postmodernism/

Luiz Gustavo da Silva Goncalves 233

List of Contributors 263

What Are The "Tools" Of Interpetation?

Dateline: 03/14/98

This post stemmed from earlier discussions about interpretation, which were reproduced here -- such as the question of Illegitimate Totality Transfer, arguments about Literary Devices and so-called Literal Interpretation. And we have the post that started it all: The question of Rabbits and cud-chewing.

Here a reader asks me exactly how interpretation is done. Good question -- we've all heard the old accusation about "It's all how you interpret it," as if anyone can derive any meaning they want from the Bible (and often, that all such meanings, therefore, are equally legitimate, even if they disagree wth each other). It's not that simple, though -- the Bible is not held captive by the interpreter's whim.

Thus, despite the implication that anarchy reigns (isn't that an oxymoron?), it's just not true. There are actually some rules and tools the pros use to ensure the original author's meaning is understood. Read on!

LD: The Bible literalist picks and chooses where he/she interprets the Bible. How are these choices made? We don't have this quarrel (or at least shouldn't, IMO) with those who hold that the Bible should be interpreted allegorically. Of course, we may still have other quarrels with them ...

There's no such thing as an "allegorical interpretation" or a "literal interpretation." When people hear the term "Bible literalist" or "literal interpretation," they tend to think Christians who believe the Bible is authoritative would express the concept like this: "The Bible means exactly what it says, no matter what ridiculous things it says. If it says the Earth has pillars, then by golly NASA has been lying to us for all these years." That's not an interpretive model at all; that's "frozen" or "wooden" literalism and it's actually an interpretive error. Frozen literalism works OK in geometry, but not literature.

There's only one kind of interpretation: The correct one. Either the reader understands what the writer was trying to get across, or the reader misses it.

In its simplest form, interpretation works like this: The reader should take the text at face value UNLESS there are clear indications that the writer is using a literary device (more on that in a moment). When the reader detects a literary device, he or she should look for the underlying meaning.

Literary devices are manifold. You probably recognize many of these; some are a bit more esoteric:

* Kenning: A hyphenated word pair, such as world-candle or ocean-walker (used in very old Anglo-Saxon literature, such as Beowulf).

* Simile: Comparing two dissimilar things ("My love is like a red red rose").

* Metaphor: Implied comparison by applying elements or terms normally used of one object to another ("the curtain of night"; "all the world's a stage").

* Pun: A play on words, used for humor, style or argument.

* Anastrophe: Unusual word order in sentences (Shakespeare was fond of this one).

* Stichomythia: Alternating single lines between actors in dialogue.

* Compounding: Combines two words to form a new one (sort of like a kenning without a hyphen).

* Anaphora: Repeating the beginnings of consecutive sentences.

* Rhyme: Similar sounds at the end of sentences or phrases.

* Synecdoche: The part representing the whole (as in 10 "hands" at a ranch taking care of 500 "head" of cattle).

* Variation: The use of equivalents to repeat and emphasize a thought (used often in Hebrew literature).

* Litotes: Understatement for effect or irony.

* Alliteration: Repeat of like sounds, especially at the beginnings of words (Actually, analysis affirms alliteration affinity).

* Foreshadowing: Internal clues of impending events.

* Parable: From the Greek "to throw alongside" -- a superficially unrelated story told to draw out principles to apply to another story.

* Satire: Similar to a parable, but focused upon exaggerated faults or character traits to expose hypocrisy or injustice.

* Hyperbole: Overstatement or exaggeration.

* Personification: Giving an inanimate object the qualities of a person or animal.

* Symbol: An object or person that stands for more than its literal meaning.

* Allusion: Reference to people, objects or events outside the story.

* Onomatopeia: A sound suggesting a sensual impression (in English, words like "sizzle," "bang," or "splash").

* Apostrophe: Addressing an inanimate object as if it were alive.

* Euphemism: An indirect or less expressive phrase in place of an offensive or controversial one.

* Metonymy: Using a word or phrase connoting one thing in place of another )i.e., saying "White House" when we really mean "President").

* Idiom or colloquialism: A word or phrase, the meaning of which cannot be derived directly from its constituent parts or normal syntactical meaning ("straight from the horse's mouth" in English; or "How I long after all you in the bowels of Jesus Christ" in Greek; translated "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus" [Phil. 1:8] ).

* Allegory: Technically, an entire literary unit with a hidden or underlying meaning behind the literal meaning. Can also refer to words or phrases so used.

* Descriptive language: Phrases which describe superficial appearances as verbal shorthand for more complex concepts (such as saying "sunset" instead of "occlusion of the sun by the horizon as the observer's position on Earth rotates past the terminator line").

* Irony: A phrase in which the literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning, used for sarcasm.

* Rhetorical question: A question that is left unanswered (sometimes because the answer is implied) or answered by the author.

There are many others; this is all I could remember off the top of my head. Also, these can all apply to English; some more technical ones apply only to certain languages or to Biblical studies (such as thought rhyming, synthetic, synonymous and antithetic parallelism, or inclusios, among others).

Linguists and theologians say that literary devices set up a "co-locutional clash" in the reader between the literal meaning and the intended meaning.

For instance, if I wrote "My wife has a heart of gold" (thus using a metaphor), I set up a co-locutional clash between "attributes of an organic heart" and "attributes of a precious metal." The reader understands that I mean my wife's character is rare, precious to me, and pure -- attributes of gold that set it apart.

Most of these things happen almost subliminally; you don't need a degree in literature to understand what the writer's trying to communicate, unless you want to be able to analyze it and use the technical name.

Hermeneutics has other interpretive rules, such as harmonic principles, contextual concerns, typology, and many other factors.

I'm just touching on a few high points of hermeneutics. The point I'm trying to make is this: Yes, any given individual can take his Bible and come up with any bizarre interpretation he wants. But literary meaning -- in the Bible or any other work -- is not subject to such whims. It's a scientific discipline with extensive rules by which its adherents work (it's the reason you can get a doctorate in stuff like this).

LD: And just what would you mean if you said that your wife "literally" had a heart of gold? Would your hermeneutics tell you that she "metaphorically" had a heart of gold? Why use the word literal when you mean the opposite?

That's just the point, LD. I wouldn't say my wife literally has a heart of gold, because she doesn't. I wouldn't use the word in the sentence itself, or to describe it, or to describe the methods needed to understand it. Am I getting through here? The word "literal" does not belong in a sentence describing interpretation.

LD: Your post suggests that "interpreting the Bible literally" means that we need to employ a great number of rules in order to extract tha actual meaning...

Once again, there is no such thing as a "literal interpretation." It's a street-level term that fosters misunderstanding of how Bible interpretation is actually done.

LD: ...and that the meaning is sometimes at odds with the actual words used.

Yes -- in irony it often is. That's a simple fact in English or Hebrew and it doesn't say anything about interpretation at all. Don't pretend irony isn't part of everyday language. Your friend trips and you say, "Hey, nice going!" Does your friend stand up and say, "Wait a minute -- you just literally said that falling down is a good thing!"? Of course not. He knows what you meant.

This isn't rocket science. It's not at all difficult to tell whether or not you're dealing with a literary device. What can sometimes be tricky is figuring out the truth or principle BEHIND the literary device. But even describing it is harder than actually doing it. Most people just read, without torturing themselves over this stuff, and do fine. The number of verses and passages that cause the most interpretive headaches is pretty small.

LD: This is precisely what the English word "literal" does NOT mean. Perhaps you mean that the Bible should be interpreted hermeneutically. From the description you have given, this is very nearly the opposite of literally. Sorry, but 130 lines of explanation doesn't reverse the meaning of this particular English word.

I'm not trying to change the definition of the word at all; I'm saying the word is inappropriate and useless in a discussion about interpretation. But you're getting closer. I could say "I interpret hermeneutically," but even then I'm throwing in unnecessary modifiers.

This is very simple: Interpreting the Bible means attempting to understand the truth or principles the author intended to communicate. Period. You don't interpret "literally," "allegorically," "hermeneutically," or "figuratively." You just interpret. Either you get the author's meaning or you don't. There are lots of tools and lots of different kinds of literature, but only one toolbox. I'm graduating with my bachelor's in Bible and Theology in a few months and in all four years of my education I have never heard the phrase "literal interpretation."

The only way theologians use the word "literal" is to distinguish "literal," or word-for-word, translation of an original-language idiom from a "paraphrase," or interpretive translation. Even then, most consider "literal" and "paraphrase" to be imprecise and misleading, and instead call it "formal equivalence" or "functional equivalence" (in fact, I've never heard a prof use the phrase "literal translation" either; just "formal equivalence").

As I said earlier, one idiom that would not survive a formally equivalent translation appears in Philippians 1:8. The NIV renders it, "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." In Greek, however, this phrase actually says, "How I long after all you in the bowels of Jesus Christ." A Hellenistic Greek thought of the bowels as the seat of emotion and affection, the same way we think of the heart today. But if you tell someone, "I love you with all my bowels," you're not going to get the message across today!

And that's just one example of why a fully formally equivalent translation is next to impossible. Hebrew and Greek are so different from English that such a translation could only be understood by someone who already knew Greek and Hebrew anyway! The tension in translation, therefore, is between formal equivalence -- which is very accurate but extremely difficult to read -- and functional (sometimes called dynamic) equivalence, which is easier to read but may be less accurate.

At that it's never an either-or decision. The relationship between formal and functional equivalence is analog, not digital. There is a whole continuum between the two.

Thus we have, say, the NIV (more functional than formal -- easy to read but paraphrases a lot), the NASB (more formal than functional -- very accurate, especially with Greek verb tenses, but "stiffer" and harder to read; the syntax looks stilted). The RSV was very formal, which is why it was never popular; hard to read. The original Living Bible, which was a paraphrase, was too functional to suit a lot of scholars, but kids loved it -- hence the whole trend of "Modern English" translations was born.

Here are a few verses of Jonah, translated more formally than functionally:

"And YHWH hurled a great wind to the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea and the ship considered breaking apart. And the sailors feared and they cried out each to his god and they hurled the utensils which were in the ship to the sea to lighten from upon them."

The phrases here look odd already, but even at this level they've been smoothed out for English readers; the syntax is also rearranged into English order. Also, Hebrew has no punctuation, capital letters or vowels, so even this translation, if it were fully formal, would look more like this:

"nd yhwh hrld grt wnd t th s nd thr ws grt strm n th s nd th shp cnsdrd brkng prt nd th slrs frd nd thy crd t ch t hs gd nd thy hrld th tnsls whch wr n th shp t th s t lghtn frm pn thm"

On top of all that, Hebrew reads right to left and bottom to top, so if we're really going to get persnickety our formal translation should actually look something like this:

"mht np nthgl t s ht t phs ht n rw hchw slsnt ht dlrh yht nd dg sh t hc t drc yht dn drf srls ht dn trp gnkrb drdsnc phs ht dn s ht n mrts trg sw rht dn s ht t dnw trg dlrh hwhy dn"

(But that's ridiculous. We can at least keep English syntax and word order without fear of losing the meaning.) Try this even more formal equivalent of the same verses, even with caps and punctuation as well as English syntax:

"But YHWH hurled a wind great into the sea and there was a storm great in the sea and the ship thought to be broken. And afraid were the sailors and cried each man to his god, and they hurled the utensils which in the ship into the sea to lighten from upon them."

Greek is even trickier. Here's as close to a 100-percent formal translation of John 3:16 as you can get and still be intelligible:

"Thus for he-loved the God the world that the son the only-born he-gave that every the believing into him not he-might-perish but he-might-have life eternal."

Keep in mind that John's Greek is very simple, almost at grade-school level. Try this with something Paul wrote and it would look like alphabet soup.

But those are translation concerns, as I said. When it comes to interpretation, the key is not what kind of interpretation you use: There's only one. Either the interpreter gets the intended meaning of the text across, or he or she doesn't.

While there is no such thing as "literal" or "allegorical" interpretation, there are different categories of literature, which is what confuses people when Bible translation is discussed. My training had three main types of biblical literature, seven genres, and several dozen forms (this is starting to get awfully long, so for now I'll just list them without definitions and examples):

Types:

Narrative

Poetry

Discourse

Genres:

Prophecy

Psalm

Wisdom

Epistle

Apocalyptic

Gospel

Story

Forms:

Acrostic

Allegory

Birth Announcement

Aphorism

Apophthegm

Aretalogy (or Miracle)

Archetype

Autobiography

Blessing

Chiasm(us)

Chronicle

Closing

Command

Commission

Confession

Covenant

Curse (or Malediction)

Dialogue

Diatribe

Doxology

Dream

Encomium

Epilogue

Exhortation (or Paraenesis)

Exposition

Farewell

address

Formula

Genealogy

Greetings

History

Household Codes (or Haustafeln)

Hymn

Imprecation

Inclusio

Instruction

Irony

Kerygma

Lament

Law

Lawsuit

List (or Catalogue)

Motif

Opening

Oracle

Parable

Petition

Praise

Prayer

Prologue

Proverb

Quotation

Refrain

Report

Rhetorical Question

Riddle

Royal Edict

Satire

Story

Thanksgiving

Travel Log

Treaty (also called a Suzerain-Vassal Covenant or Treaty)

Vision

Woe

Word Chain

Now we can try some real interpretation:

The phrase "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off" (1 Kings 20:11) is a PROVERB in form. It appears in a STORY; the story is part of a NARRATIVE book. Knowing that helps us to remember that although this is part of a story, it can't necessarily be dealt with formally (as opposed to functionally), since it's an idiom.

It happens that the idiom comes across in its context fairly well, though, so most translators choose not to interpret it for the reader. Its English idiomatic equivalent might be "It ain't over till it's over" or "Put up or shut up."

To sum up: The word "literal" doesn't apply to interpretive methods. It doesn't matter how we define "literal" because the word itself is inappropriate.

This website is to help those who want to learn about Bible Interpretation. We will cover the basic rules and guidelines of interpretation. I am not expecting you to become an expert in the Bible, but I do anticipate that it will encourage you to study more and change the way you read your Bible. These rules and guidelines will also help your personal Bible study to become more productive and will give you a standard to analyze the truthfulness of teachings that you hear from others.

The internet is full of sites that express different opinions about the Bible's message. Not only are they different, but some are accusing others of heresy or false teachings. Don't you feel confused about who is telling the truth?

The main purpose of this site is to teach Christians, so I am taking for granted that you are a Spirit-led Christian who believes that the Bible is the Word of God and that you want to interpret the Bible with more accuracy.

I have divided the lesson into three chapters and each chapter have various sections. Each section will have a short and simplified lesson or information concerning the Bible and biblical interpretation. I will advice the new learner to start with the first chapter.

Chapter 1: The Bible and Basics of Interpretation

(Explains important facts about the Bible and basic information about interpretation)

Chapter 2: Different Types of Bible Literature.

(Bible genre such as letters, narrative, psalms, etc.)

Chapter 3: Example of Bible Interpretation.

(Applying interpretive processes to biblical passages)

For your Biblical Questions and Comments about this site click here -->

These is the complete list of all the books that I have used in compiling the lessons in this website.

* Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth- 2nd Edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan Publishing House, 1993

* Robert H. Stein, A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Baker Books, 1994

* Kay Arthur, How to Study Your Bible. Eugene, Oregon. Harvest House Publisher, 1994

* Robert H. Stein, Interpreting Puzzling Texts in the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Baker Books, 1990,1996

* R.C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture. Downers Grove, Illinois. Inter-Varsity Press, 1977

* Henry A. Virkler, Ph.D., A Christian's Guide to Critical Thinking. Nashville, TN. Oliver-Nelson Books, 1993

* D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, Second Edition. Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Books, 1996

* D. A. Carson, The King James Version Debate. Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Books, 1979

* Gerhard Maier, Biblical Hermeneutics. Wheaton, Illinois. Crossway Books, 1994

* Richard N. Soulen, Handbook of Biblical Criticism, Second Edition. Atlanta, Georgia. John Knox Press, 1976

* Scripture quotation marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright (c) 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Ill.60189. All rights reserved.

* Scripture quotation marked (NIV) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (c) 1973, 1978 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

* Scripture quotation marked (NASB) are taken from the Holy Bible, The New American Standard Bible.-La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, (c)1977.

* Scripture quotation marked (KJV) are taken from the Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version,

About Us

Towards the end of the year 1999, I decided to learn how to create a webpage as a personal hobby, but as time went on, I found it difficult to have time with my other "hobby," studying the Bible. The only solution was to combine the two: website and Bible interpretation. I also asked my wife who have Bible School and computer background to give me a hand. So this is the result.

I have decided Bible Interpretation because I have seen a lot of Christians change for the better in regard to understanding God's Word through lessons that I've taught in our local church. Out of millions of people that uses the Web everyday if one will ever find this website an encouragement to study more of the Bible it is more than worth all the effort. God bless you.

Bible Narratives Narrative is the largest type of literature in the Bible. Although some will question the historicity of biblical narratives that contains miracles, we must know that biblical narratives are historical events; it means that they actually took place in time and space. We must interpret and see the meaning of the narratives as a part of the theme of the book. This is how we can read a particular narrative in its context, by treating smaller narrative as part of a bigger narrative. The story of David and Goliath is part of the story of King David, and King David is part of the story of the nation of Israel, and the nation of Israel is part of the main story of the Bible, which is God's salvation plan for all men. We must focus on the main message of the narrative and not be distracted with matters mentioned in the narrative. When we read stories where angels are mentioned we must not get carried away with trying to understand about angels. Angels are mentioned in the narrative, but the message of the narrative is not about explaining angels to us. We must not conclude that because it happened in the biblical narrative it should or must happen to us also. Be careful with assuming that a narrative has a message, specially for our situation. Like saying that the story of the Israelites crossing the red sea confirms to you that you do not really need to learn how to swim. We cannot assume that there is always a "moral" to learn in every single narrative. Remember, a narrative can be a part of a bigger narrative where the main theme should be taken. Your comment is always welcome. Please send your comment to Comments & Questions

http://members.tripod.com/je_john316/chapter1_frame.htm

3 John 1-4 The elder,

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (NIV)

The Elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. 4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (KJV) Here is a very simple example on how to do a proper exegesis with an epistle. First, if you haven't done so, please study the guide on understanding Epistles. You will notice that our passage is the opening part of a personal letter. Here the author starts with a salutation to introduce himself as the Elder and the recipient as Gaius. But for some reason he skipped the greeting part of the letter (see 2 John 3). The author in verse 2, follows the standard form by expressing a prayer for Gaius before the main body of the letter. In verses 3-4, the author informed Gaius of what he heard about him and how he feels about it. That's it. Verses 1-4 are pretty clear if you will read it carefully. The author considers Gaius a convert since the author considers him one of his children. Remember, to find the theme and purpose of the letter, you should read the whole letter. Verse 2 has always been the more prominent verse in that it has often been interpreted as a promise from God that Christians should be rich and healthy. It became a key verse for a doctrine that guarantees health and wealth for Christians. But is it true? Does Gaius interpreted it as such? Does the elder intend it to be a promise from God of wealth and health? Going back to guidelines for proper interpretation, the guarantee of health and wealth is not the intended meaning of the original author, nor would Gaius take it as such. "Health and success" are themes that are commonly included in personal letters during that time. Verse 2 only confirms that theme and is a standard part in the beginning of the letter. To put so much weight on verse 2 is to neglect the proper way of reading the letter. None of the original reader would do this, and neither should we. If we claim that such an interpretation is only revealed to us in this generation, we are saying that the Bible changes its meaning in time. That cannot be accepted. Remember, the Bible still means what it meant originally, this is the only way the Bible will become meaningful and protective its message. Verse 2 was intended to be a "wish" or "prayer" of the author to Gaius and it still the same today. I can accept if you will pray for others to be rich and healthy because of this verse, but not if you will tell me that this verse is God's guarantee that Christians should be materially rich and physically healthy. Your comments are always welcome. Please send your comments to Comments & Questions

Different Bible Versions A. Primary Source Do you ever wonder why we have different versions of the same Bible? More technical differences between versions are caused by the translators using different families or groups of Greek manuscripts as their primary source. For instance, differences can be seen in comparisons with the New International Version (NIV) and the King James Version (KJV) of the passage 1 John 5:7-8 and their treatment of the ending of the Gospel of Mark. Variation can be anywhere from extra words in a verse, to the actual meaning of the verse being changed. With the help of proper interpretation, the fundamental doctrines of Christianity will not be negatively impacted.

B. Language

Language is another factor. Here the scholar translates from Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic to English. Naturally, if you have 10 persons who would translate the Bible from English to Spanish today, none of the 10 translations would be the same word for word. The same goes for the ancient Greek language to modern English which has hundreds of scholars involved.

C. Methodology

Another major reason for the differences is that the translators used varying methods or theories of Bible translation. Two major methods are formal and dynamic equivalence.

Formal translation is also called literal or word-for-word translation. As the name suggests, it tries to keep the same words and word order used by the original manuscripts.

Dynamic equivalence translation is also called functional or thought for thought translation. This method is more concerned with expressing the meaning of the original text to the modern reader rather than the the exact word that was used in the original.

Example: Genesis 31:35a

NASB (formal translation); And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me."

NIV (dynamic equivalence); Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I'm having my period."

Notice how the NIV changed the wording from the original but tried to show what it should mean to us today. There is no exact line between these two methods of translation, rather we measure the degree of how much a particular version uses the methods.

Paraphrase, such as the Living Bible(c) is another method of translation, but I can consider this more closer to a commentary than a translation.

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Which Version is best for me? First, let me clear the air by saying that no particular version that we use today can claim more inspiration than the other versions. Some denominations that are not considered mainstream Christianity have produced biased versions. You should try to avoid these. Otherwise, all of the well known versions have their own usefulness, strong points and weak points. I advice that you first learn the different theories of translation. (see Different Versions)

Which version is best to use depends on how you are going to use it: For memorization, public reading, devotional reading, or in-depth studying.

For memorization, it would depend on your personal taste. Many Christians favor the King James Version (KJV), but other would prefer another version that uses modern expression. It all depends on you, the important thing is that it helps you to memorize the verse.

For public reading, you should use a version that is easily understood for those who are not familiar with the Bible. I would suggest The New Living Translation (NLT) or maybe even The Living Bible (LB).

Devotional reading would depend on what you want to accomplish. Is it a short reading of a passage or something more of a Bible study? For everyday readings, I would suggest the New International Version (NIV) or New Living Translation (NLT) as a Bible that you could carry around.

For in depth Bible study, it would be helpful to have more than one Bible so that you can have different theories of translations. A combination such as NIV and KJV would be a good example.

Your comments are always welcome. Please send your comments to Comments & Questions

Why Do We Need Rules For Bible Interpretation This lesson is a continuation of the objection of learning proper Bible interpretation.

First, I want it to be clear that I believe any Christian who doesn't know the rules of Bible Interpretation will still benefit on reading the Bible. Many Bible verses are so simple and clear that our bigger problem today is not interpreting the difficult verses but obeying those parts of the Bible that we clearly understand.

Careful reading and common sense would have been enough for us to get the message of 1John 4:11 "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (NIV) But for many of us, we will have various interpretations to understand the exact meaning of 1 John 3:9 "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God." (NIV) It is at this point that we will need to learn various rules and guidelines on Bible interpretation.

We should also understand that what separates the Bible from the rest of literature is the fact that it is God's Word. God is the ultimate author of the Bible. But He has chosen to reveal his message to us in human ways, by written words of a certain language in a certain culture. Because of this, we need to use rules of interpreting ancient literature on the Bible so we can understand its original message. (see Nature of the Bible)

Without common rules or principles of interpretation, it is difficult to evaluate various interpretation, even those that are between two respected Christians who have opposing interpretations of a passages in the Bible (e.g. Calvinism and Armenianism). We cannot depend on feelings since that would be subjective. We cannot say that both is right since the Bible has only the meaning that the original author intended it to mean. We cannot say that the Bible can mean something to you and then can mean something different to me. This would be saying that the Bible doesn't really mean anything at all. What we need is a standard to evaluate everybody's interpretation of the Bible.

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Terms of Bible Interpretation

Hermeneutics

The process of interpreting the Bible. This is what we are learning in this website. It includes all the rules, principles, theory, and methods of interpreting the Bible. It covers the process from trying to understand the original meaning of the verses to what it means to us today. EXEGESIS

This is the process of interpretation where you are trying to find the original meaning of the verse. It is finding out what was the message that was heard by the original recipient of the Bible. Example: Paul told Timothy "stop drinking only water, and use a little wine...(1 Tim. 4:23 NIV). Exegesis would attempt to find out what it really meant to Timothy (not to us today). The original message was given to Timothy under a specific circumstance. The background may involve issues that are evident to both Paul and Timothy but are not mentioned in the Bible. EXposition

Application of the Bible passages to modern times. This is the process that most of us do will do with the verses of the Bible. It is trying to find the application or relevance of the Bible message for us today. It is the process that follows exegesis. So here is the relationship of the terms with each other: To understand the Bible properly we practice hermeneutics by first applying exegesis because we want to find out the original meaning of the Bible. Secondly, we do an exposition of the text because we want to apply the message to our lives today.

Notice that exegesis is very important because that is how we learn and understand the original meaning of the Bible. If you misunderstand the original meaning, I doubt that you will have the proper application of the Bible in your life today.

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Goal of Proper Interpretation People assume that the Bible is a mysterious book and you need some extra ordinary abilities to be able to understand it. They assume that it has a lot of hidden meaning or secret codes that can only be revealed and understood by those who are chosen. Well its true that it takes more than just a casual reading to understand the meaning of Bible passages but not because of some mysterious or secret code but because of its nature. (see Nature of the Bible)

We must always remember that the Bible was written for common people. Many of the New Testaments epistles were written for a young Christian church, so they are simple instructions and teaching to be understood by every Christians on that day.

The goal of proper interpretation is not to find new revelations unrevealed to anyone before, but rather to understand its plain and simple message. Using proper guidelines of interpretation we should be able to distinguished between the right, the possible, and the erroneous interpretation.

The correct or right meaning of many Bible verses can be understood by using proper guidelines of interpretation. Does this mean proper interpretation would eliminate disagreement of interpretation among Christians? Of course not. Some difficult verses, by its very, nature could have more than one possible interpretation.

Possible meaning is the result of using the guidelines of interpretation on difficult verses and still coming out with more than one possible meaning. Does this mean that the Bible can mean anything? Or can anybody interpret the Bible on his own opinion? Absolute not. Guidelines for interpretation puts a limitation on meanings that can be derive from a passage, and only one of those possible interpretation is correct, although none of us is absolute sure which one it is.

Erroneous interpretations are those interpretation that were given to the Bible verses in violation of the guidelines of proper interpretation.

Although there are difficult verses where it is impossible to have a consensus of interpretation among Christians, the basic doctrines of Christianity are all based on clear teachings from the Bible. All possible interpretation of a passage should not contradict the basic doctrine of Christianity. It should remind us also that we should be slow in calling other teachings that differs from our own denomination heretical. We should analyze all interpretation on the basis of the basic guidelines of interpretation and the basic doctrine of Christianity.

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The Source of Meaning There are three components in Bible interpretation that we can use to determine the meaning of certain passages. They are the text, the reader (you), and the author (e.g. Paul). Since interpretation is finding the meaning of the verse, it is important to know which one we going to use to find the meaning of Bible passages.

Some say that the text should be used to find the meaning. But once you separate the text from the person who authored it, the text would no longer have the message that the author originally wish to convey. The result would be the same in making the reader (you) determine the meaning of the text. The passage can produce a meaning that is totally different from the one intended by the author.

Example: John 20:23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (NIV) If we will use either the text or ourselves (the reader) to determine the meaning of this verse, we end up with Christians having the authority just like God to literally forgive and not to forgive other people sins. But is that what Jesus meant by these statement?

Therefore we should see the meaning of the Bible passage as being controlled by the original author. The text means what it meant when it was first written. It is our job to find out the meaning that was understood by the original hearers from the author. We should note that today we can have various applications of the meaning of Bible verses, but the original meaning of the verse as intended by the author never changes. Our application should not contradict the original meaning of the verse. Again, it is back to the process of proper exegesis first before exposition. (see Definition)

Example: Ephesians 5:18 "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" (KJV) Today, we can say "be not drunk with beer or whiskey" or "be not overdose with drugs" as a proper application since we can argue that the effect in our body of both substances are close enough to wine in Paul's day. But to suggest that we can also say "don't drink to much coffee" or "don't eat to much fattening food" as an application of the verse is going out of the meaning intended by the author. Remember, application should be in harmony with the original meaning of the verse.

Adapted from Robert H. Stein, A Basic Guide To Interpreting the Bible, chapter 1 (see Bibliography)

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Exegesis Although, this term had been defined in an earlier page, I feel that I need to reiterate what has already been said.

Again, exegesis is very important since this is the process that will help us find out the original meaning of the verse. The original meaning is very important because that is the true and only meaning of the verse. Although from that one meaning, we can have a lot of applications for different situation in our daily lives. Applications or "lessons" that we can derive from the verse must not conflict the original meaning intended by the original author for the original hearer(s).

1Corinthians as with every passage, Paul message to the Corinthian church in a particular context. If our present interpretation of a passage in 1 Corinthians produced a meaning that made sense today in our church but doesn't make sense if its being told to the Corinthians church, then the interpretation is incorrect.

To do an exegesis requires expertise in a lot of areas, but because of the availability of expert tools such as commentaries, dictionaries, handbooks, etc. Everybody who has access and knows how to use such tools can exegete. But the truth is, even with just minimal access to these tools, anyone can do good exegesis of the Bible.

Your most important tools in understanding the message of the Bible is reading. You must read and reread the passage that you are studying. You must pay attention to all the details and ask questions as you go along. You must read with an open mind to learn. This means that you should not assume that an interpretation you have heard before is the correct interpretation. By reading alone, you should be able to know the context and identify the theme or main point of the passage.

With good reading habits and proper use of available tools we can all do good exegesis.

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Understand the Context A word on its own doesn't really mean anything. A word can only have a sensible meaning in a sentence. Further, the sentences before and after will clear up the meaning of a particular sentence. This is the reason we are encouraged to study a passage (several verses) not a single verse if we intend to get the real message the original author intended. This is also known as reading in context.

Generally speaking, when the author wrote the book he had a particular theme or message in mind. As the reader, it is important to follow the authors flow of thought. You first must see the main theme of the book, then the theme found within each chapters. Lastly, you must decipher the theme of each passage. The smaller section's theme must compliment the bigger section's theme. To understand the context you must first read the whole book that you are studying and find the units of thought that make up the book. This is not really hard to do since most of the Bible has titles for each passage and an outline at the beginning of the book. But it is a good habit to make a simple outline of your own after you have read the book.

Example: The Book of Hebrews was written to a group of people that were being pressured to either keep going with their Christianity or to go back to Judaism. In order to address the issue, the author started by establishing the completeness of Jesus Christ and His ministry and how he is much better than the angels, Moses and Aaron the high priest. You can also trace warnings about falling away. As you can see, if you began to gain this kind of information after reading the book of Hebrews, it would be so much easier to get in the author's flow of thought as you focus in on studying the book in smaller sections.

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The Historical Background Another way of reading in context is to understand the historical background of the passage or the book that you are studying. Knowing the background of the book should be done before you start reading. You should try to acquire reliable information about the author and the original recipient of the book, the date and the reason why it was written, and the cultural or life setting when it was written. With this information the modern reader will have an easier task to hear the same message that was originally heard by the recipient.

Remember, exegesis seeks to know the original message intended by the author. A modern reader must somehow transfer himself to the time when the author wrote the letter to be able to hear that original message. Not knowing the Historical background will cause us to read things in the passage according to our modern cultural background or custom. This, of course, is totally different from the author's own cultural background and thus causes many erroneous interpretations and applications.

If you have a Study Bible, reading the introduction page of every book that you study is a good start to find historical background. Bible tools such as a Bible Handbook or a good commentary is where you would find a lot of information in this matter.

Example: 1 Corinthians 11:4-5,16 "Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head- it is just as though her head were shaved...If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice- nor do the churches of God." (NIV) This is considered a difficult passage in the Bible to interpret. A good interpreter should start by gathering reliable background information before attempting any interpretation of the passage. Your comments are always welcome. Please send your comments to Comments & Questions

CAN WE ALL INTERPRET THE BIBLE ALIKE?

Amazing Grace Lesson #1012

Taught by Steve Flatt

06/16/91

One of the most powerful weapons in Satan's arsenal to thwart the good news of Jesus and the spread of his kingdom surely is divisiveness. When unbelievers look upon a divided church of our Lord Jesus Christ, they stop and they mock, "Why should we believe what those people are trying to tell us? After all, they can't get along among themselves. They argue about this and they disagree about that. They meet in different buildings right across the street from each other, and they go on about their business like the two don't even exist." So the skeptics continue, "Christianity must be an impotent religion. They can't even unify their believers, much less offer answers that the rest of the world needs." If your ears have been open, you have heard those kind of excuses--and they are excuses--for not examining what Scripture holds about Christianity and about Jesus. But they still sting those of us who are believers because, you see, there is a grain of truth there.

Universally, those of us who look to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we have been divided. We do disagree. We sometimes fuss and we often fight about religious matters and about spiritual doings. If you trace that division far enough back toward its roots, you go back to the rather simple fact that frankly, we just can't agree about the Bible. Now isn't that ironic? The Bible may be the most valuable thing that we tangibly hold in our possession. The Bible is our link to the path; it gives us the revelation of God more completely than anything else about us. In the Bible we know about God's creative forces, we know how God chose a people, and from that people God brought Jesus to this earth. The Bible is our spiritual guidebook, it's our road map to heaven. It is our in-hand revelation of the mind of God. How wonderful the Bible is!

Yet, at the same time if the truth be told, the Bible is the focal point of our division. We can't seem to even agree about what this book is. Then we have a hard time agreeing about what it says. Why is that? Is there anything we can do about it? Can't we all see the Bible alike, can't we all interpret Scripture the same? Well, I'm going to give you what I call my practical answer, and the answer is, "don't hold your breath?" I hate to sound so pessimistic, but frankly, we've endured centuries and centuries of trying to look at the Bible alike and we've not done that. Even before that Scripture that became canon and that we now call the Bible was all consolidated, men were disagreeing about how to interpret it. I want you to be assured that Satan will still continue with his strongest effort to thwart consensus about what the Bible says. It will be his number one priority.

Added to the difficulty is the fact that every person comes to the Bible with some kind of preset notion. Let's be honest about it--no one comes to the Bible with a blank slate. Every one of us who picks up the Word of God comes with certain biases, we come with certain prejudices, we come with certain teachings that we have received in the past (from whatever source--good or bad). You see, all that is out there. I saw a cartoon, a little one-framed cartoon, that kind of was the extreme on this. A husband was sitting over his Bible and his wife was standing behind him and apparently, she was trying to interrupt him. His comment at the bottom of the cartoon was, "Don't interrupt me now, honey, I'm trying to find a verse to back-up my preconceived notion." If we are honest, there is a lot of that in the religious world.

Now having said that, I want to say this on a positive vein. I do believe that much of the Christian world can be drawn closer together. I believe we can be much closer than what we are now in terms in what we see the Bible saying, and in what we practice and how we worship, and what we consider to be vital and essential to this thing called fellowship. We don't have time in the space of a thirty minute program to flesh out every ingredient that will be necessary for that kind of consensus, but I want us to take just a few moments to look at some of the basic ingredients to help us interpret the Bible alike.

At the top of that list I'd say this, "If we are ever going to agree about what the Bible says, we are going to have to first agree what the Bible is." That is step #1. The Bible tells us what it is; it makes some claims and the clearest one is the one you heard a moment ago in our scripture reading from 11 Timothy 3:16. Listen to it again, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." Now folks, in the world of Christianity, this is the first and the primary fork in the road. Is the Bible the Word of God, or as it says in the NIV, "the very breath of God", or is it not? Is the Bible absolutely God's will revealed to man--without error, absolutely infallible--or is it just some loose-knit history of an ancient people filled with all kinds of folklore?

Those who respond by saying the Bible is the inspired inerrant Word of God have taken a major step toward having a congruent view about Scripture, because we have got a reason to have a congruent view. If I believe that this is the mind of God, then I'm going to search it with every fiber of -my being and I'm going to know what it says because it is the most important thing I'll lay my hands on in this lifetime. But if on the other hand, if I don't believe that is what the Bible is, that it is just some loose-knit collection of writings, then frankly, why would I care what everybody else thought about it?

Step #I, you have to come to terms with what the Bible claims to be. It is the Word, it is the breath of God. But all right, having said that, that still leaves the challenge among Bible believers about interpretation. In that same letter to Timothy (II Timothy 2:15) here's what Paul wrote: "Do your best," he said "to present yourself to God as one approved. A workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." I like that last phrase, to correctly handles the word of truth." Now there's the itch ... how do I correctly handle the Word?

All right, let's think about four or five things that are very basic:

1) If I am going to correctly handle the Word, I am going to correctly understand what I call 'the flow of Scripture'. People, the Bible is not a random collection of sayings from God. There is a scheme to it; there is a flow to it. Someone once rightly noted that the Bible really has three major chapters, but they are not of equal length. Chapter 1 is the chapter about God's creative power, including the creation of man. You can read about that in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 2 in the Bible is the story of the fall of man. You can read about that in Genesis 3. Then the third, the last and the largest chapter in the Bible begins at the end of Chapter 3 of Genesis and goes through the rest of the Bible. It is the story of God reaching down and redeeming mankind. People, that is the flow of Scripture.

In that last section, that largest segment, there is a progressive revelation of how God does reach down and redeem mankind. It starts with God choosing a people. He called them Israel-they were the descendants of Abraham. He led Israel through judges, kings, prophets, through captivities, and then finally as Roman 5 says, "In the fullness of time through that people in accordance with prophecy, Jesus came." Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and as prophecy said he would, he delivered man from his sin. We read about that, by the way, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then beginning with the book of Acts and going through the rest of the New Testament, we find that everybody who comes to Jesus for the saving power of his blood, and is baptized in his name, is added to the Lord's church.

It is important to understand that flow of Scripture to know what God is saying in the Bible. You've got to understand the flow. Don't misunderstand--God is consistent all the way through about his nature and about his character and about his love, but his specific instructions in the Bible are going to vary, depending on where you are in the flow.

For example, way back in the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus, God used to make people offer animal sacrifices to Him--bullocks, lambs and goats, but He doesn't do that now. By the time you get to Hebrews 9, you find that with the sacrifice of Jesus, it was absolutely final, it was all-sufficient, it was the ultimate sacrifice. We don't offer sacrifices anymore, not like that. You know that the Jews in days gone by had dietary restrictions, particularly with certain kinds of meat. But in Acts 10, Peter received a vision three times, coming down in a sheet, all these unclean animals and the voice of God commanding, "Arise and kill and eat." What's going on there? Is God crazy? inconsistent? No, No, No. God was just unfolding revelation in his chosen flow.

If you and I are going to interpret the Bible alike, and there are many, many religious groups who can't even get Point 1 down here--they don't see the flow of Scripture.

2) If we are going to interpret the Bible alike, we are going to have to understand something about context. Once a scripture or scriptures are identified with respect to their place in the flow of the Bible, it is crucial to understand its immediate context. Before asking the question of, "what does this passage mean to me?", I need to ask the question, "what was this writer saying when he first wrote it?". People, that is a crucial element of Biblical interpretation; otherwise, Scripture will mean anything we want it to mean.

Let me give you an absurd example: Ecclesiastes 10: 19 says, "A feast and wine makes merry, but money answers all things." How would you like for that to be your life's philosophy? Pull that verse out of context and you would live an Epicurean lifestyle that is absolutely contrary to the ways of God. Somebody says, "Steve, how can that verse be in the Bible?" If you understood anything about Ecclesiastes, and if you knew who wrote it, and if you knew what was happening in his life when he wrote it, and if you particularly knew the context of Ecclesiastes chapter 10, it would make sense to you. You see, you do have to understand context.

Let me give you a more up to date example that I hear abused just about every week. Somebody will turn to Philippians 4:13 where Paul says, "I can do everything through Him who strengthens me." Boy, the positive mental attitude specialists have a field day on that one. How many times have you heard these television preachers get up there and say, "God wants you to be rich! God wants you to be successful! God wants you to have everything you ever wanted! How do we know? Paul said 'I can do everything through him who strengthens me'." People, you ought to read that in context because in the four verses that surround that Paul is talking about being content, even when he is in the most adverse of circumstances. The passage is saying exactly the opposite of what is usually preached about.

Point #2 in understanding and interpreting the Bible is I have to understand context. And then,

3) Then #3, let the Word speak for itself. Earlier I noted that no one studies the Bible totally exempt from imposing on a passage his own ideas, or ideas he has learned from someone else. But let me encourage you, do your best to be a "blank sheet". Once you know where that passage is in the flow of the Bible, and once you know its immediate context, let the Word speak. That is when it is profitable, as II Timothy 3:16 says, "for instruction and for rebuking and for correcting and training." Not when I have my preconceived notions to massage it into what I want it to be; it is profitable when I let it speak.

By the way, there is a sub-point here I need to bring out. Let the Word govern your experience and don't let your experience govern the Word. If I had a quarter for every time somebody has had some experience, then they have taken the Bible to justify or to validate their experience, I'd be a rich man. If we are going to look at the Word as the inspired Word of God, let it mold our experiences, don't let our experiences mold the Word.

Let me give you another absurd example of this: I read just this week about a man who thought about marrying a woman. He went to the preacher and said, "Preacher, how do I know she's the one?" Do you know what advice this preacher gave him? He (the preacher) said, "If it were me, I'd walk around her seven times like Israelites did around the city of Jericho, then if the walls of her heart tumble, you know she's the one." Do you know he did it? This is a true story. He walked around her seven times and he said, "Honey, how do you feel?" She said, "Well, I feel a little strange inside." To tell you the truth, I'd probably felt strange if somebody had walked around me seven times. He proposed, they got married, and they were divorced less than a year later; then they wondered why God had given them a false signal. Is that not the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen? God didn't give them a signal at all! They were taking something out of the Old Testament, out of context, trying to let their experience dictate what the Word said. People, don't do that! That is not how God designed his Word to be interpreted.

Now let's move on to the 4th point:

4) If I am going to interpret the Bible like you will interpret it, and if we will all do it the right way, let's compare scripture with other scripture. You know, when you study scripture, sooner or later you are going to run into a real difficult passage. You know what most of us do when we study when we hit that difficult passage? We run and grab a commentary and we look up what that's supposed to mean. Commentaries have a worthy purpose, but I want to tell you today they have limitations, and here's why:

Number one, commentaries are uninspired documents written by men for men.

Number two, you go get a commentary that shows me an exegesis of any passage in scripture, any passage in scripture, and I can go find you a commentary that will offer a totally different view. So, if you get right down to it, commentaries have contributed to this issue of controversy about interpretation.

Do you know the best place to find commentary on a passage of scripture is? The best place is other passages of scripture. If you don't already own what is called a cross-reference Bible (most Bibles today are), what that means is by a verse there is a little letter, a little number, and a footnote someone on your page that will let you know other places in the Bible that deal with that exact same thing. If you don't own one of those, get one of those. I would also advise to you some topical Bibles and some Concordances that can let you know where words appear in the Bible. These are not commentaries, they don't offer any insights or any man's opinion, they just help you correlate Scripture. People, the Bible is its best interpreter. If you have problems with a verse, find another verse that talks about the same thing and it will make it clearer to you. Compare scripture with scripture.

Then fifth (and this is all we'll have time for):

5) Pray. When you study the Bible, pray. Keep two things in mind: 1) the devil will try to keep any one of us from correctly determining what God would have us know. The devil doesn't want us to know what is in God's Word. So when you read the Bible, you pray that God protect you from the evil one as you try to search for his will. 2) Remember that prayer and Bible study go hand-in-hand. You see, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). And that same Holy Spirit is our intercessor in prayer (Romans 8:26). So you see, the Holy Spirit wants us to merge Bible study with prayer, and it's amazing how clear the Bible can become when you diligently study and pray.

Folks, the thing I'm worried about most is not how we interpret the Bible; the thing I'm worried about most is whether or not we read the Bible. Just this morning in the newspaper, I saw a Gallup poll; some of you in the live audience may have seen it. It said that 82% of America believes that the Bible is the literal, inspired Word of God, but only 21% study it. I believe if we would just study it, we would come closer to interpreting it alike. If we would just be honest, and study. Let's try to use these principles and see if we can't see what God wants us to know.

Bible Question:

Where does the Bible say, "Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?"

Bible Basics - Versions / Translations

All pages and information copyright 1996 Net Ministries, Inc.

Early Christians following the example of Jesus and the apostles, accepted the Old Testament writings as inspired and authoritative scripture. The used the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Latin translations of this became available late in the second century. Other works such as the 'Wisdom of Solomon', and 'Ecclesiasticus' were also used at times. Later, Christian congregations began to appreciate the writings of Paul, and the other apostles. The first complete 'gospels' or life of Jesus didn't appear until around 60 A.D., but collections of sermons and writings were partly available some time before this. After the 'canonization' of the Bible as we know it (see the Old Testament and New Testament sections for more information) were formed, the Bible had taken shape. There are no original manuscripts of any of the books of the Bible in existance today. Many of the handwritten texts in Greek however are available from these early times. The earliest complete manuscript of the New Testament, is the Codex Sinaiticus which dates from about the fourth century. Less complete manuscripts date as far back as the late second century or about 130 A.D.. There are more copies of scripture and manuscripts available from the earliest times for the Bible than any other ancient writings. From the many numerous manuscripts available, scholars try to achieve the most complete and accurate wording of the books of the Bible into modern languages. The earliest translations of the New Testament were the Syriac, Latin, and Coptic versions. These translations were not as good as some more modern translations since the translators did not appear to have a good command of the original languages, such as Greek.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Bible was known almost exclusively in Latin known as the Vulgate. The Jews were the first to print the Old Testament in Hebrew (the original language) in 1488. About 1514, the Greek text of the New Testament was printed, although it was not widely released. The first widely released Greek New Testament was printed by Froben with the text work completed by Erasmus about 1516. This became known as Erasmus' New Testament and underwent many improvements and editions. Meanwhile, the Latin version known as the Vulgate continued and was confirmed by the Council on Trent in 1546, although it continued to have revisions and improvements to accuracy.

With the invention of printing, the circulation of the Bible expanded rapidly. With the Reformation, the wish to have the Bible available in people's own language became stronger. One such early work was the 'Luther Bible' written in German. The 'Reformers' did not accept the Apocrypha as scripture and did not include it in their versions of the Bible. The first French Bible appeared about 1523 and at first only contained the New Testament, but was followed a few years later by the Old Testament.

The pioneer of the English Bible is William Tyndale who published the New Testament in 1525. Complete Bibles appeared as early as 1535 such as Miles Coverdale's edition. Thomas Cromwell had the Matthew Bible another English version of the time revised by Coverdale to become the Great Bible in 1539. It is interesting to note that about 90 percent of Tyndale's original translation made it into the King James Version that we know today. King James had sponsored a new translation of the Bible at request of the Puritans in 1604. It appeared in 1611, but apparently drew heavily on previous translations.

Today there are many translations, each claiming a special merit to accuracy to the original Greek, or wording to make it more understandable to an intended audience. Frequently it is necessary to look at multiple translations and versions of particular passages to establish the true meaning. Most all the modern translations publishers have sites on Internet which may be explored. A great site to compare passages is the WWW Bible Gateway.

BASICS OF BIBLE INTERPRETATION

The Bible is unique. It was written by at least 40 different authors over a period of at least 1,600 years*, yet it is in agreement and the many authors utilize the same idioms and symbolism in the same way. This is an evidence that God's hand was guiding it and safeguarding His message.

Probably the most common way in which Scripture is misinterpreted is by taking particular verses out of context. The most famous example is the man who wanted to find God's will for his life. But He didn't know where in the Bible to look, so he just opened the Bible and pointed to any verse, trusting God to lead him. He looked and it said, "Judas went out and hanged himself." This made him a little uneasy, so he decided to try again. The next verse he pointed to said, "Go thou and do likewise". Really disconcerted this time, he decided to go for two out of three. The third verse he pointed to said, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Needless to say, this was not the intended interpretation of those verses! Former Columbia Biblical Seminary president J. Robertson McQuilkin was known for his oft-repeated hermeneutical tip, "Context is king".

Next, we should also start with the ways the ancient Jews--those who received God's word directly in their own language and interacted with the prophets--interpreted Scripture. They speak of four basic principles:

(1) The literal, straightforward meaning. When Daniel saw that the years decreed for captivity were almost up, he expected it to mean literally 70 years, and it was--to the very day; when Jesus rode into Jerusalem the exact day Daniel himself had said the Messiah would be revealed, He held Jerusalem responsible for not recognizing the specific day He was due to visit. So unless it is clearly meant to be poetic (as in Song of Solomon's "your neck is a tower..."), none of the secondary interpretations prevent us form also taking a passage literally.

(2) Allusions to deeper truths hinted at by certain features of the text. The place Jacob had his dream was the same place Abraham had offered Isaac. He "saw it afar off"--geographically, yes, but also chronologically (Heb. 11:13). After God stopped his hand, Abraham saw a ram (a male Lamb) "behind him"--a phrase that in Hebrew also means "in the future"! 2,000 years later God would sacrifice His own Son at that very spot: Golgotha, the highest point of Mt. Moriah. Jacob declared this place to be "God's house", and anointed with oil the stone on which he'd slept. "Messiah" means "anointed one", so God was saying something more about Jacob's resting place; later speaks of a glorious "resting place shall be glorious", referring to the Messiah's still-future reign from that same place. Jesus said He Himself was the ladder to heaven in Jacob's dream (Jn. 1:51).

(3) Interpretations drawn from searching other parts of scripture, sacred traditions, or daily life, with allegorical value as ethical precedents. And though "context is king", the whole Bible does have links much like the ones you use on the internet. But instead of clicking on a mouse, the means it uses to string together common threads of ideas is the particular words in the original languages. Even though they may be used in different ways in different contexts, the use of the same word often points to a connection that throws light on other passages.

(4) "Mysteries"--not things that can't be understood, but deeper meanings, like Jeremiah's 30 pieces of silver, or David's suffering in Psalm 22.

The names of these four forms of interpretation for an acrostic of the Hebrew word for "Paradise"!

The last major principle I will highlight is: "To the Torah and to the testimony! If they do not speak in agreement with this word, they have no light..." (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 8:20) If an interpretation of the New Testament does not agree with the earlier Hebrew Scriptures (sometimes called the Old Testament), then it is mistaken or the emphasis is at least misplaced. The New Covenant fulfills the former one, and improves on it in some ways, but it never contradicts it. The context for understanding so much of the New is a thorough knowledge of what God gave to Israel first. This web site attempts to give you many keys in this regard.

Always keep in mind that the number one overarching theme which forms the context for all of Scripture is the redemption of mankind from sin and its consequent curse. Thus, although there are no scientific inaccuracies in the Bible when the language is understood properly, the style in which it is written is more directly intended to point us to a symbol of the Messiah than, say, an astronomical fact. Prophesying about the Messiah, who accomplished outr redemption, David said, "In the volume (scroll) of the book it is written about Me". (Psalm 40:7) All of the details in the Bible somehow point to a characteristic of the Messiah or some event that will accompany His first or second coming. If it doesn't seem to relate to this, you may have the wrong interpretation --or at least are missing the main point.

_______

*If we take the interpretation that Genesis was a series of eyewitness accounts collected over the centuries by righteous men and later finalized by Moses--as the Hebrew text and tradition do seem to warrant--then it was written over about 4,090 years.

More help:

* List of Books in the Bible and spellings I use in transliteration

* Symbolism frequently used in the Bible

* Usage of double meaning in Scripture

* Parallelism

* For a light-hearted way to practice your hermeneutical skills--and see how others do it--click here.

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HINTS AND HELPS TO BIBLE INTERPRETATION

ILLUSTRATIONS OF BIBLE IDIOMS

(Examples are from the KJV, simply because of its widespread use and availability, and are meant to be illustrative and not exhaustive.)

1. a) Human feelings, actions, and parts are ascribed to God, not that they are really in Him, but because such effects proceed from Him as are like those that flow from such things in humans.

b) God is frequently spoken of as dealing with humans as they deal with Him.

2. Abstract and inanimate things are frequently PERSONIFIED, e.g. -- Ears are attributed to the heavens, the earth, death, and destruction; hands to the deep; eyes to the sea and the mountains; a voice to the deep, wisdom, and understanding; a will to the flesh and mind; witnessing to an altar, a song, a stone, blood, and water; speaking to the ear, eye, foot, days, years, blood, law, righteousness, and blood of sprinkling; knowing, rejoicing, rising and going down to the sun; being roused from sleep to the sword and arm of Jehovah; skipping and leaping to mountains and hills; crying out to the heart and flesh, wisdom and understanding; seeing and preaching to the Scripture; judging to the word; teaching to grace, the heaven, and the earth; leading and guiding to light, truth, and the commandments; dominion and enmity to death; mastery to sin; comforting to a rod and staff; carrying message to anger, fear, mercy, light, and truth; and every Christian virtue to charity or love.

3. Opposite statements are to be carefully compared.

4. General statements are frequently to be limited.

5. Positive statements are frequently to be understood comparatively.

6. General reasonings, of various kinds, are sometimes employed.

7. The language of the messenger frequently glides into that of the sender.

8. What a servant says or does is ascribed to the master.

9. Persons and things are spoken of according to what they once were, or professed (or are presently thought) to be, though not really so, either formerly or at present.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 1-9

10. Words are frequently used in an ironical manner.

11. Transposition of clauses is frequently necessary.

12. Hebraisms, Latinisms, Syricacisms, etc., are frequently used.

13. The same persons and places have frequently different names.

14. The same word may have a different meaning, sometimes even in the same verse.

15. (a) The name of a book or its writer is frequently omitted.

(b) The name of the writer is frequently put for his writings.

(c) The subject treated of is frequently put for the book or writer.

16. A negative and an affirmative statement imply certainty.

17. The repetition of a word denotes the superlative degree.

18. Some words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc.,) are expletive. E.g., account, begin, find, seem, etc.

19. The denial of the act frequently implies denial of the power of acting.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 10-19

20. References are sometimes made to Non-Canonical Books, which yet were true and contemporary histories.

21. (a) God's promises and threats are frequently conditional.

(b) Promises and threats are to be understood as referring to the present condition of man.

22. Distribution is expressed in a variety of ways:

(a) by repeating the cardinal number "two, two."

(b) by repeating the noun ("heaps, heaps" as in Exodus 8:14; "companies, companies" as in Mark 6:39)

23. Various readings are to be duly studied and weighed.

24. Interpolations are never to be adduced as proof texts.

25. The order of events is frequently disregarded.

26. Scripture writers frequently use round and common numbers.

27. A part of a thing is frequently put for the whole.

28. The whole is frequently put for a part.

(a) "the world" for the Roman Empire or Palestine.

(b) "every creature" for the human race.

(c) "all flesh" (as above)

29. A definite number is frequently used for an indefinite.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 20-29

30. The definite article is sometimes injuriously omitted.

31. The definite article is sometimes injuriously inserted.

32. The coming of God (or Christ) frequently means a manifestation to assist, deliver, reward, or punish.

33. Things are spoken of as given, done, or possessed, which are only promised and proposed.

34. That which is difficult is frequently spoken of as impossible.

35. A pronoun frequently refers to a more remote antecedant.

36. Persons and things are reckoned children of that which they imitate, or to which they are attached.

37. The verb "to hate" is frequently used for "love less."

38. A people is frequently called by the name of its founder.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 30-38

39. When two nouns are coupled by a conjunction, the second is frequently equal to an adjective.

40. The name "Christ" is frequently used to denote the doctrine, subject, or spirit of His religion.

41. The verb "to have" is frequently used for "to hold fast, to use."

42. The name of a person is himself or his character.

43. To be "in Christ" is frequently simply to be a Christian.

44. The word "answered" is frequently used when no preceding statement appears.

45. The cause or source is frequently used for the effects. (E.g., "the Spirit" for His operations.)

46. Abstract words are sometimes used for Concrete ones, and Concrete words for Abstract ones.

47. The phrase "to be called" frequently indicates actual being.

48. Plural nouns, pronouns, and verbs are frequently used for the singular.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 39-48.

49. "Cannot," in Scripture idiom, frequently means "will not."

50. Nouns are frequently used for personal pronouns.

51. Some particles, such as "all," are frequently used for "some" or "most."

52. The word "some" is frequently used for "all."

52. The word "many" is frequently used for "all."

54. The active voice in Greek is frequently used for the causative.

55. The present tense is frequently used to express habitual or immediately future action.

56. The past tense is frequently used to express the certainty of a future action.

57. Son or daughter are frequently used for a descendant.

58. Father and mother are frequently used for an ancestor.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 49-58

59. Brother and sister are frequently used for a relative or companion.

60. "God" is used of any one (professedly) mighty, whether truly so or not, and is applied not only to the true God, but to false gods, magistrates, judges, angels, prophets, etc.

61. "Spirit" is used of God Himself, or the Divine Mind, His energy, influence, gifts; of the vital principle of animals, and of breath, wind, or air in motion.

62. "Angel" is used of a messenger (good or bad) from heaven or from men, and is applied to spiritual intelligences, to the pillar of cloud and fire, to the (pestilential) wings, to priests, prophets, ministers, disembodied spirits, etc.

63. "Prophet" is used of one who (professedly) announces the will or celebrates the works of God, whether these relate to things past, present, or future, and is applied to patriarchs, orators, singers, songstresses, priests, and preachers.

64. Active verbs are used with various connotations.

(a) Active verbs frequently express only an attempt to do the action.

(b) Active verbs frequently express a permission to do the action.

(c) Active verbs frequently express an announcement of the action.

(d) Active verbs frequently express giving an occasion for the action.

(e) Active verbs frequently express a direction or sanction to the action.

(f) Active verbs frequently express a promise to do the action.

(g) Active verbs frequently express a continuation of the action.

(h) Active verbs frequently express what is done by a deputy.

65. Paronomia, or play upon words to excite attention, is often observable only in the original.

Click here for Bible references to Tips 59-65

Now Learn from the Parable . . . .

Copyright 1999 by Bob and Gretchen Passantino

Analogy, parable, metaphor, symbol, icon, myth, epic, type -- all of these words relate to

the idea of communicating intangibles by means of the tangible, and all are used in

Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, to communicate many times in many ways the

sublime truth of God's love, justice, and redemptive plan. All too often, however,

Christians today seem afraid of imagination, afraid that if we speak an eternal truth in the

transitory words of human stories, we somehow betray God's Word. Nothing could be

further from the truth. Think of the images God uses as he describes Himself as a lover

wooing his estranged spouse (Hosea 11), a pillar of fire guiding His people (Exodus

33); a mother hen protecting her chicks (Matt. 23), the Sovereign from whom come a

tree and river of life (Rev. 22).

We rob ourselves and our children of a profound experience with the divine when we

retreat from imaginative ways of communicating God's truth. There is nothing unbiblical

or untruthful about stories that, in the very vehicles of imagination, bring us to the truth of

God. C. S. Lewis remarked, "The Fantastic or Mythical is a Mode . . . [that] has the same

power: to generalise while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts

or even experiences but whole classes of experience, and to throw off irrelevancies. But

at its best it can do more; it can give us experiences we have never had and thus,

instead of 'commenting on life', can add to it" (On Stories, 48).

For more than five hundred years English literature has celebrated and proclaimed the

truth of God in imaginative stories that have provided unforgettable scripture lessons to

millions. From the transformation of Beowulf as Christian epic to the realms of Middle

Earth as Christian myth, stories captivate readers of all ages and bring us spiritual

insight, experience, and challenge like nothing else. Take the following example from

children's literature. The Spider and the Fly, composed in the nineteenth century by a

remarkable Christian author and apologist, Mary Howitt, has provided countless children

and adults with an indelible understanding of the seductive power of self-centeredness

and pride. (Thanks to CRI librarian Valerie Julius for finding the complete text of this

currently unappreciated story.)

The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt (1799-1888)

Is the Bible Reliable?

by Bob and Gretchen Passantino

Copyright 1998 by Bob and Gretchen Passantino

Doubts about the Bible range from how it is translated, what was meant by the writers,

how the text was preserved, how books were included or excluded, and its truthfulness.

Each of these topics is complex, but there is ample evidence to affirm the Bible's

complete reliability.

Bible Translations

Reputable Bible translations[1] are produced by careful scholarship in textual criticism,

linguistics, translation, grammar, vocabulary, style, and history. Various texts of the

original language Testaments (Hebrew and Aramaic of the Old Testament and Greek of

the New Testament) are published and generally available, along with documented

accounts of how the texts were derived from existing copies over time.

Linguistic scholars work together, ensuring that the original languages are understood

and translated accurately into the receptor language. Grammarians and specialists in

vocabulary, style, and history are consulted as well.

Some translations, such as the New American Standard, favor "formal equivalence,"

preserving much of the original language structure and vocabulary equivalence.

Sometimes readers have difficulty understanding a culturally, linguistically, or historically

unique statement with no close English parallel. Other translations, such as the New

International Version, combine formal equivalence with "dynamic equivalence" for

culturally or historically obscure texts. Paul talks of the "sinful flesh" in a cultural and

religious context that associates "flesh" with sacrifices, but in our culture is more readily

understood as "sin nature" (Romans 7:18 NIV).

Whether you prefer the literary beauty of the New King James, the complexities of the

New American Standard, the concise clarity of the New International, or some other

reputable translation, the text of the Bible we have today is essentially what was

written.[2]

How We Got Our Bible

The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books composed under inspiration of the Holy Spirit

by many authors over almost 1500 years throughout the Middle East. Authors include

adopted Egyptian nobility (Moses), a shepherd (David), a Babylonian official (Daniel), a

tax collector (Matthew), a doctor (Luke), a philosopher/rabbi (Paul), and a fisherman

(Peter). The Bible includes poetry, history, government records, prophecy, dialogue,

parables, sermons, letters, and religious instructions. The Bible is written in three

languages, Hebrew (Old Testament), Aramaic (part of Daniel), and Greek (New

Testament). Despite this diversity, the Bible has been remarkably preserved, contains

no contradictions, and is widely supported by history, archaeology, science, and

philosophy.

As the books of the Bible were composed, they were recognized by God's people (first

the Jews regarding the Old Testament, then the Christians, who also recognized the

New Testament books) as God's Word. The books were tested according to the

following principles:[3]

1.The book must be written by a person of God (e.g., a prophet, an apostle, a trusted

associate of an apostle, etc.).

2.The writer and writings must be confirmed by facts and the acts of God (e.g.,

Moses said a prophet whose prophecy did not come true was a false prophet --

Deuteronomy 18:18-21, etc.).

3.The book must come with the power of God. Application produces godly

transformation in believers' lives (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:17, etc.).

4.The book must be accepted by the people of God initially (see Peter call Paul's

words "scripture" in 2 Peter 3:15-16) and over time (before the second half of the

second century all of the main churches in the Roman empire accepted at least the

four gospels, the Acts of the apostles, and Paul's writings as scripture[4]).

At the beginning of the fourth century the Christian churches generally agreed on which

books composed the Bible and which books were excluded. This was the earliest time

such a question had general significance. Emperor Diocletian Galerius decreed that

Christians were to be persecuted and their scriptures burned. It was a matter of life and

death to determine which books one would risk martyrdom for. By the end of the fourth

century the Bible as we know it was formally recognized by all Christian churches.[5] It is

important to note that the church recognized the scriptures, it did not determine or make

up scriptures.

For many centuries the texts of the Old and New Testament books were copied by hand

on papyrus, parchment, or vellum in scrolls or in codexes (books). Professional copyists,

or scribes, were meticulous, skilled workers. Convinced they were copying God's Word,

they could not alter it in any way. The remarkable preservation of the original texts is

traced by comparing our earliest copies of books or portions of books with those of later

centuries. Our oldest copies of Old Testament writings are from before the time of

Christ, and our oldest copies of New Testament writings may date to before A.D. 70,

contemporary with their composition. In addition, we have citations by other authors,

collections of scriptures used in church services, and versions in other languages.

Critics point to the absence of the originals to discount the Bible, but biblical scholars

like F. F. Bruce note, "there is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such

a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament." Slight variations among

copies do not obscure the original, Bruce continues, "the wealth of attestation is such

that the true reading is almost bound to be preserved by at least one of the thousands of

witnesses."6 And although the copies of the Old Testament are fewer, their unique

copying standards "give us ground for greater confidence than might be supposed,"

confirming "that no serious changes were introduced into the text of the Old Testament"

through the centuries.[7]

Does the Bible Tell the Truth?

Most disputes about the truthfulness of the Bible can be grouped into three categories:

(1) misunderstandings; (2) ignorance of the facts; (3) dislike of its teachings.

One example of an interpretive Bible problem is the common misunderstanding that

"God of the Old Testament" is harshly judgmental while "Jesus of the New Testament" is

lovingly forgiving. However, the God of the Bible is consistent from Genesis to

Revelation in bringing judgment against unrepentant sin and forgiveness to those who

repent.

Ezekiel 18 explains, "Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous

man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it. . . . But if a wicked

man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right,

he will save his life. . . . I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the

Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses you have committed, and get

a new heart and a new spirit. . . . I take no pleasure in the death of anyone . . . Repent

and live!" (vv. 25-32).

Jesus makes the same kind of declaration in Matthew 23, pronouncing judgment against

the Pharisees, calling them "blind fools," "hypocrites," "sons of hell," "full of hypocrisy

and wickedness," "condemned to hell." But his loving desire for them to repent is evident

as well: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,

how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks

under her wings, but you were not willing" (v. 37).

Interpretive (called hermeneutic in literary terms) problems range from misunderstanding

the type of literature in a passage (confusing poetry with historical narrative, for

example),through vocabulary, to confusing time and circumstance differences between

two events. A good book for further information is Walter C. Kaiser and Moises Silva's

An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: A Search for Meaning.[8]

Ignorance of the facts concerning the trustworthiness of the Bible can be embarrassing

for critics. For example, for many years doubters disputed the New Testament accounts

concerning Pontius Pilate. No historical sources outside the New Testament mentioned

him, so they considered him a fictional character. Then, in 1961, archaeologists

unearthed an early first century theater inscription at Caesarea Maritima in Israel,

dedicated from "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea," to "Tiberius Caesar."[9] What the

Christians had preserved in scripture and the historic creeds ("suffered under Pontius

Pilate), the liberal critics admitted in 1961.

Finally, some say they distrust the Bible when they really mean they don't like or agree

with it. However, the Bible has more supporting its truthfulness than does any critic. The

historical and textual evidence of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, for example,

would compel anyone who did not already discount the existence of God to accept its

reality. When Christ endorses the Bible,[10] the wise man believes the Bible, even if he

dislikes it. After the French Revolution, political factions attempted unsuccessfully to

construct an alternative to Christianity. One individual complained to the prominent

politician Talleyrand, who had been a bishop before he abandoned his faith. Talleyrand's

response is telling: "Surely, it cannot be so difficult as you think. . . . The matter is simple:

you have only yourself to get crucified, or anyhow put to death, and then at your own time

rise from the dead, and you will have no difficulty."[11]

1.Translations not meeting these standards are usually produced by those who deny

essential Christian doctrine and modify the Bible accordingly, ignoring proven

standards of language, grammar, vocabulary, style, and translation.

2.A good resource on this topic is Alan S. Duthie's How to Choose Your Bible

Wisely. Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press, 1995.

3.Adapted from Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix's A General Introduction to the

Bible. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986 (revised edition), pp. 223-234.

4.See Milton Fisher's "The Canon of the New Testament" in Philip Wesley Comfort,

ed. The Origin of the Bible. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, pp. 69-72.

5.See Earle E. Cairns. Christianity through the Centuries. Grand Rapids, MI:

Zondervan Publishing House, 1981 (revised edition), pp. 93, 118-119.

6.F. F. Bruce. The Books and the Parchments. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell

Company, 1984 revised edition, pp. 168-169.

7.Bruce, The Books, pp. 112-113.

8.Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994.

9.John McRay. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book

House, 1991, pp. 203-204.

10.Luke 24:25-27; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:12-15.

11.Quoted in Wilbur M. Smith. Therefore Stand. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book

House, 1945, pp. 586-587.

II PET 3:16 NIV "He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in

them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to

understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the

other scriptures, to their own destruction."

HERMENUTICS - the rules for Biblical interpretation.

Just as there are rules for grammar, math, and physics - so are there

rules of interpretation.

Christians and cultists break these rules.

Importance of the truth and proper interpretation.

MISREADINGS DEAL W/

1) Text of scripture.

2) Authority of scripture.

3) Literary aspect of scripture. (Context)

4) Evidence from scripture.

5) Reason from scripture. (Conclusions drawn)

We are dealing w/ arguments - proving what we believe.

Paul argued (reasoned)

Acts 17:2,3"As his custom was Paul went into the synagogue, and on three

Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and

proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead 'This Jesus I

am proclaiming to you is the Christ' he said"

Have you ever been confronted on a doctrinal heresy only to have them

quote a vss. which seems to support them.

We should derive our doctrine from scripture not read our doctrine into

scripture.

MISREADING #1 WORLD VIEW CONFUSION

World view - A set of assumptions we hold about the basic make up of our

world. Culture, Customs, traditions, settings.

e.g. mini skirts v.s. the Victorian era.

World view confusion - reader interprets the Bible in their own cultural

framework.

Bible written :

In 3 languages

On 3 continents

Over 1500 yrs.

By approx. 40 authors.

Differing socioeconomic times.

c.a. 2000 yrs ago.

ACTS 14:8-18 Their world view was polytheism.

TODAY Some holiness groups interpret I Tim not knowing their customs.

2) OVERSPECIFICATION

We tend to be curious. We step beyond what the normal person knows.

e.g. ventures in business, science, space.

In religion it can lead to new insights, answers, deeper study or error.

We often want scripture to say something so we read into it.

OVERSPECIFICATION draws a more specific conclusion from a text than is

legitimate.

In Science and Health Mary B. Eddy interprets Gen 1:1 as follows :

"The infinite has no beginning. This word 'beginning' is employed to

signify the only - that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man,

including the universe. The creative principle - life, truth, and love -

is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one

creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and

their identities, which are embraced in the infinite mind and forever

reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the

highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God"

3) CONFUSED DEFINITION

We must understand each term in scripture to argue correctly.

Understanding of orig. lang. helps.

Interlinear, dict., lexicons, Strong's.

Pacifist philosophy interprets "Thou shalt not kill" Ex. 20:13 KJV to

preclude capital punishment.

Kill is also trans. murder.

c.f. Ex. 21:12-17 Vs12 "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall

surely be put to death"

4) IGNORING ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS

In the night sky you see a light moving rapidly - too rapidly to be an

airplane - it is a UFO. What about a satellite, a vandemberg rocket,

fighter plane, etc...

Rule - don't accept a way out explanation when there is a more logical and

possible explanation.

Erich Von Daniken claims that Gen 1:26 teaches that God was 1 of many

astronauts.

"'And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness...' Why

does God speak in the plural? Why does he say 'us' not 'me' why 'our' and

not 'my'? One would think that the one and only God ought to address

mankind in the singular, not in the plural."

Best prevention - know your Bible and doctrine.

5) VIRTUE BY ASSOCIATION

Guilt by association - a person guilty by their company.

"He must of done it, look at the crowd he runs with"

Virtue by association - something is good because it is related to

something good. "He couldn't have done it, he's a good churchgoer"

If you can associate you doctrine with that of Christ, the apostles, the

patriarchs you have made your doctrine more credible.

The Mormon book "Doctrine and Covenants" gains credibility by imitating

the language of the Bible. "...In the beginning the word was, for he was

the word, even the messenger of salvation - The light and redeemer of the

world; the spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was

made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men"

(D&C 93:8,9)

6) INADEQUATE EVIDENCE

Parts of the Bible are difficult to understand.

II PET 3:16

Qu. Dr. Billy Grham "Some parts of the Bible I don't understand"

Therefore people draw conclusions based on inadequate evidence.

Erich Von Daniken believes that the giants in Gen 6:4 were spacemen.

"What sort of creatures were they, these giants ? Were they our

forefathers who built the gigantic buildings and effortlessly handled the

monoliths, or were they technically skilled space travelers from another

star?

We simply don't know who they were - it isn't that important.

He also gives inadequate evidence to prove:

1) The ark of the cov. was a radio transmitter to an orbiting spaceship.

2) Sodom and Gomorah were destroyed by astronauts in nuclear explosion.

3) Ezekiel saw a spaceship.

Remedy - don't make scripture say more than it says.

CONC: 4 ways to avoid bad hermenutics.

1) Learn the rules of hermenutics.

2) Base your study of scripture on a reliable text and quote it

accurately.

3) Realize what type of Bible text you are reading.

Poetry

Polemic

Narrative

Prophetic

Epistle

4) Gather as much evidence as possible before drawing a conclusion.

5) Compare your conclusions w/ the commentary of Godly men.

HERMENUTICS - THE RULES FOR PROPER BIBLE INTERPRETATION

MISREADING #1 WORLD VIEW CONFUSION

MISREADING #2 OVERSPECIFICATION

MISREADING #3 CONFUSED DEFINITION

MISREADING #4 IGNORING ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS

MISREADING #5 VIRTUE BY ASSOCIATION

MISREADING #6 INADEQUATE EVIDENCE