Presuppositions for Interpretation#

I. The Bible is God’s Word#

This is not something we are seeking to prove, this is something we take as a given as Evangelicals, as those who believe the Bible is God’s Word, we take it as a given that the Bible is God’s Word.

The Bible is Inspired by God#

The Old Testament carries a sense, a constant sense throughout that this is the Lord’s word, “the Lord says”, the prophets frequently says that. The New Testament has the stamp of apostolic authority.

One of the key texts for the inspiration of Scripture is 2 Timothy 3:16-17 where it says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” That word inspired by God is a Greek word theopneustos which seems to have been coined by Paul himself, he seems to have made it up by combining two words. It means God exhaled or God breathed out His word.

The Authority of Scripture#

Scripture has claim to our life and that we submit ourselves to Scripture’s authority.

1. Over Personal Experience#

We don’t allow our human experience to determine what we believe or the behaviors we practice, we submit to Scripture’s commands, Scripture’s authoritative statements.

2. Over Reason#

We leave our brains at the door when we read Scripture. It’s authoritative over rationalism or over naturalism. Unresolved issues or apparent contradictions that we find in Scripture do not negate Scripture’s authority, instead we accept a wait and see attitude if we cannot resolve a particular issue in Scripture.

3. Over Tradition#

Church traditions are good. The ancient creeds of the church are good. They help us to understand who God is and what His word means but ultimately all church tradition must be subordinated to the authority of Scripture.

II. The Interpreter Must be Born Again#

The interpreter must be in a relationship with Jesus Christ in order to comprehend, fully comprehend God’s Word.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says “The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 says “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

Can non-Christians understand the Bible? Many great Bible scholars who do not have faith in Jesus Christ, who are not believers and yet they know the historical culture, they know the background, they apparently interpret God’s Word very well. Someone can interpret Scripture but if they do not apply it to their lives, they are mishandling God’s Word.

Hebrews 4:12 says “For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and narrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” God’s Word is meant not just to be read and understood, it is intended to be applied to our lives.

III. The Interpreter Must be Filled with the Spirit#

Not only they be born again, but they must actually be empowered to understand God’s Word and be guided in their understanding of God’s Word through the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13 says “But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide into all truth, he will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come.” In order to properly hear God speak, to properly understand God’s Word, we have to be filled and empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Theologians speak about inspiration by the Holy Spirit and they speak about illumination by the Holy Spirit.

• Inspiration would be a product of the author, the human author and the divine author. Inspiration means receiving new revelation, so the authors of the Bible were inspired to write God’s Word.

• Illumnination related not to the author but to the reader and that is interpreting and applying previously given revelation.

The Holy Spirit was the one who inspired the original authors to write, to record God’s Word, but the Holy Spirit also illuminates us as we read and interpret God’s Word, He guides us into all truth.

The Nature of the Bible: Unity and Diversity#

I. Diversity of the Bible#

Kinds of Diversity#

The Bible is a diverse collection of literary works. Various kinds of diversity.

• Diversity of time: The Bible is written over a long period of time, something ike 1,500 years

• Diversity of authors: We have authors from all walks of life in the Bible - fisherman, tent makers, prophets, priests, kings

• Diversity of languages: The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek. There is a smattering of Aramaic, both in the Old Testament and then a few Aramaic words in the New Testament.

• Diversity of genres: Two main genres are prose and poetry. There are psalms, parables, letters, historical narratives, laws, proverbs, prophecies.

Implications of Diversity#

How does that diversity affect the way we read Scripture?

Adapt methodology for various kinds of literature#

Different genres require different methods of interpretation, different approaches.

Some illustrations of this from the Bible:

“After that I looked and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard, and on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads and it was given authority to rule.”

Daniel 7:6

This image of a beast is a cross between various animals. In order to understand this passage, we have to identify the literary form, the genre. We cannot possibly understnad it unless we identify and recognize that this is what is called apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature often uses symbolic, sometimes bazaar imagery in order to communicate spiritual truth or in order to communicate some historical event or some historical person.

“Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks.”

Psalms 137:9

We have to recognize its genre, its literary form. It is not just a psalm, it is actually what we call an imprecatory psalm. An imprecatory psalm is the psalmist crying out in agony and suffering against his enemies. We recognize this is not necessarily something we should be saying about our enemies, this is someone’s human emotion expressed towards God.

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Isaiah 55:12

In order to understand this passage, you have to acknowledge and recognize that the genre is poetry, it is poetic and it is eschatological poetry or focusing on God’s end-time salvation. It’s using symbols, metaphors to describe the restoration of creation at the end of time. It is not to be taken literally. It is figureative poetry, it is meant to be taken figuratively.

Recognize the Process of revelation#

There is a development of doctrine in Scripture. Later stages of the Bible do not replace the earlier stages, but they clarify the earlier passages and they develop a gradual developing understanding of the people of God.

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe.”

Hebrews 1:1-2

The verse points out that the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, was given at various times and in various places in a somewhat scattered way through the prophets. The New Covenant, the New Testament, is God’s final revelation, complete revelation, through His Son. We see progress from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

Allow the Biblical Writers to Speak for Themselves#

Too often we have a tendency to interpret one author exclusively by another author instead of first listening to that particular author.

For example, compare two New Testament writers, James and Paul, on the issue of faith and works. At first reading, these two seem to contradict each other.

• Paul says a person is justified (declared righteous by God) by faith alone apart from work.

• James says faith without works is dead. A person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

We must listen to James in the context of James’ letter. We must listen to Paul in the context of his life and letters and overall theology. So, we must allow the biblical writers to speak for themselves. Once we understand James and once we understand Paul, we can be confident that these two will ultimately agree, they will complement each other rather than contradict each other.

The issue of the diverse theologies of various New Testament writers, the study of each diverse theology is known as biblical theology. Biblical theology deals with God’s progressive revelation through the distinct theological emphases of persons and periods.

Doing theology as we apply God’s Word to life is always a three-step process and biblical theology is the center point of those three steps.

• First step is exegesis. Exegesis is seekign to determine the author’s original meaning in a particular passage.

• Second step, relate that particular passage to an author’s overall perspective.

• Third step, systematic theology, taking those various distinct theological perspectives and bringing them together into a system of truth.

II. Unity of the Bible#

Unity of Theme#

Despite the diversity of authors, diversity of times and places and languages, we have an ultimate unity in Scripture and it is a unity of theme.

The actions of God in bringing salvation to humanity through Jesus Christ, it is a story of God’s redemption.

The Old Testament looks forward to the coming of Jesus Christ and the salvation He will accomplish. The New Testament looks back at the salvation achieved through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and it looks forward to the final salvation, which will be accomplish when He comes.

Implications of Unity#

The Bible is one story#

Every book of the Bible relates to God’s ultimate redemption. For example:

1. The Joseph story

The Joseph story is part of a larger story: the story of Israel. The Joseph story shows us how God preserved His people, the nation of Israel, during a great time of famine by sending Joseph ahead of his family into Egypt. He prepared the way for them and so the children of Israel were saved, were delivered from that famine. It is part of Israel’s story, the story of their redemption.

But Israel’s story is part of God’s grand narrative, the story of redemption that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. The story of God’s plan to save an redeem His people, because the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come through the nation of Israel.

2. The Esther story

The Book of Esther is unique in many ways and one way it is unique is the fact that the name of God never appears in Esther, not once is God mentioned in Esther.

The story of Esther is part of a greater story, the story of Israel. Esther is once again a story of how God’s people are rescued and delivered. When someone attempts to destroy them, Esther becomes queen and through that story she accomplished Israel’s deliverance.

The story of Israel’s deliverance is once again part of the larger story of God’s redemptive plan for all of humanity.

A systematic theology becomes a possibility#

We can ask the question: What is truth? By examining Scripture, we can come up with answers, propositions, statements that are complete, cohesive, and complementary.

We have the whole story. Genesis through Revelation forms a complete narrative of God’s purpose and plan covering all topics that we need for faith and practice. The unity of the Bible reminds us that God’s story is complete.

The Bible is a story that makes sense, that begins at one point and ends at another, that describes God’s actions in human history.

The Bible is complementary, not contradictory. We can read one author and understand them within their context. Then, read another and understand them within their context. Those two authors will be complementary, they will not contradict one another, because of the unity of God’s Word.

Biblical Hermeneutics#

The word hermeneutics comes from a Greek work hermenuo, which means to interpret. We can define hermeneutics as:

The science and art of biblical interpretation. It is a science in that there are methods, there are rules, there is a measure of objectivity. It is art in the sense that it is a skill that is learned.

Every act of reading is also an act of interpretation, you cannot read something without interpreting it.

The Goals of Hermeneutics#

We are going to look at two key goals.

A. Exegesis: Determine the Meaning of a Passage in Its Original Context#

Exegesis is from a Greek word meaning to draw out the meaning of the text. Our first goal in interpreting Scripture is to draw out the author’s original meaning. We contrast exegesis with what we call eisegesis. Eisegesis means to read into an outside meaning. In other words, our goal is to hear Scriptre speak to us, not to bring our ideas and confirm our own presuppositions and ideas in Scripture. We want to read out of it, comprehend what the original authors intended.

1. The original meaning is the author’s intended meaning

The original meaning refers to the author’s intended meaning. But where does meaning reside? In a written text, there are three possibilities for where meaning resides.

• The original author of that text, the person that wrote it.

• The text itself, that is the words, the snetences, the paragraphs on the page

• The reader of the text, the one whether ancient or modern who picks up that document and reads the words that the author wrote.

The original meaning we are looking for is the author’s intended meaning, but our approach has to be text-centered.

2. Meaning is text-centered

It is the author’s intent as discernible from the text itself and its context. It refers to everything around the text, that is the life situation that prompted the author to write it, the recipients to whom it was written, the time and place in which it was written.

3. The text is historically positioned

The text represents what linguists call a speech act, a communication event in space and time. Some people will say that you can make a text mean whatever it wants, because every reader, every person reading a text comes to it and comes to their own conclusion on what it means. However, we can get around that difficulty by recognizing the difference between a sentence and an utterance.

Suppose I say, “He hit the ball.” Now that is a sentence because it is a grammatically complete unit of thought. But suppose I am in my home and I am watching the television and there is a baseball game going on. The batter swings the bat and hits the ball. I say to my wife “He hit the ball.” But then, my son is out back, he loves baseball, he is swinging the bat and he throws the ball up and he hits it. I say, “He hit the ball.”

We have exactly the same sentence, “He hit the ball” but the sentence has two difference contexts. One related to the baseball game that I am wathching on television, one related to my son out in the back yard. One sentence has two different utterances.

Why is this important? That distinction between sentences and utterances is important because sentences only have potential meaning. It does not have real meaning until a context is given to it.

So, what do we have in the Bible, sentences or utterances? We have utternaces because every passage in the Bible was written by a real author, in a real context and they had a real intention, a real meaning in mind when they wrote that context. Every passage, every sentence, every paragraph in the Bible has a specific place, time, and historical position. Because it has a historical position, it has a meaning in that position.

B. Contextualization#

If the first process is determining the author’s original meaning is called exegesis, we call the process of bringing that message to us to day as contextualization.

• Exegesis is determining the original meaning of the text.

• Contextualization is determining the contemporary siginificance.

What that text means to us today is the contemporary significance: how that text applies to our particular life situation, to our culture, to our context. The reason we need contextualization is because not every command in the Bible was meant for all believers for all time.

“This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day, two lambs a year old”

Exodus 29:38

Exodus 29:38 command us to offer on the altar regularly each day two lambs a year old. So do we allow that Old Testament command? Most of us do not follow that Old Testament command, because that command was not given to us; it was given to the nation Israel under the Old Covenant.

The reason the Bible is sometimes so hard to understand is because it was not written to you. None of these books originally, in their original context, was written to us as individuals, to us as modern readers. We do not live in that cultural context, we do not speak that original language, we do not always know all the circumstances, all the situations, everything that was going on. That why we need exegesis to enter into the world of the text.

But although the Bible was not written to you, it was written for you. In other words, this is God’s Word for you even if it was not written to you.

Avoid shortcutting the Hermeneutical Process#

There are mistakes that are sometimes made and we want to avoid those mistakes as we read and study God’s Word.

The first mistake is application without exegesis. In other words, applying God’s Word without fully understanding God’s Word. One form of this is called subjectivity, assuming that whatever I first understand the text to mean is what it means to me.

Another mistake we make by applying the Bible without understanding it we call proof texting. Proof texting is trying to find a verse that supports our perspective. We have a tendency to come to the text of Scripture and we know that we believe. Maybe we know what we believe because our church has taught it to us or we know what we believe because our parents have taught something to us and so we read the Bible assuming we know what it is going to say.

A liberal error related to exegesis without contextualization is not allowing the Bible to transform your life. Reading it, understanding it in its original context, but not allowing it to change us.

But there are also conservative errors that misapply God’s Word. One example is confusing eternal principles with cultural applications. Sometimes in Scripture what we have are specific cultural applications of eternal principles, but God never intended those things necessarily to apply for all time.

For example, 1 Corinthians 14:34, Paul says a woman should remain silent in church. It is obvious that Paul does not mean that command to apply to all women in all churches for all time. We know that because ever earlier in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul assumes that women are prophesying and praying in church.

A second conservative error with reference to exegesis without contextualization we migh call the magic answer book or the verse-for-the-day syndrome. That is searching Scripture for the answer to a specific problem and so taking a passage out of context.