Hermeneutics (How to interpret the Bible)

Why I'm making this page on Hermeneutics (How to Interpret the Bible)

I'm making this page on Hermeneutics or "How to Interpret the Bible" because many people today don't really know how to Interpret the Bible, and as a Seminary graduate, I feel I can add something of value.
On the one hand, since the Bible is God's message to us, it should not be difficult for the average person to interpret--and besides, He's given us His Holy Spirit to help (See my module on "The Role of The Holy Spirit" below).
On the other hand the Bible was writen thousands of years ago and thus, there is a gap of culture and language between us and the Biblical writers.
One can read the Bible and receive much in the way of inspiration and instruction. (See my other lense "God's Success Principles.")
Yet, when it comes to really understanding and interpreting a particular verse or passage, one needs to apply certain principles of interpretation or as they are known technically, "Hermeneutics" (from the Greek God of interpretation, Hermes), Seminaries offer whole courses in Hermeneutics, otherwise defined as the art and science of Bible interpritation. All I can do here is to list the major principles of interpretation along with some specialty areas of the Bible which deserve special treatment, and referr you to some tools which you will certainly need in order to interpret the Bible for yourself.

For starters, you may want to check out some of the over 42, 000 books on Hermeneutics available on amazon:

Or you may want to skip this for now and continue to my first point below. I just thought I'd mention it.

1. Context

The first principle of Biblical interpretation is context. It is the idea that you can't take one verse and build a doctrine on it without examining what surrounds it. As someone said a text without a context is a pretext.
To properly interpret any verse of Holy scripture, we must examine it in the light of an ever expanding circle of context. First we must notice the immediate context, that is the verses immediately preceeding and following our verse. Then we must notice the near immediate context, a wider area. Then we must notice the chapter context, that is the context of the particular chapter in which our verse appears. Then we must notice the book context, that is we must deteremine how our verse fits into the particular book of scripture in which it appears. Then we must notice the section context--that is, how does our verse fit in the particular section of the testiment in which it appears. Then we must see how it fits into the particular testiment (old or new) and then how it fits into the whole Bible.
This process may take some creative thinking but it will be well worth it.

For more on using context, read:

Scripture in Context: Essays on the Comparative Method (Scripture in Context)

by: Carl D. Evans

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The only book I found on the subject of contextual interpretation

Release Date: 12/31/1969

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2. Language.

The second thing we need to consider in interpreting a verse of scripture is the language it was originally written in. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Coine Greek. There are vast differences between these ancient languages and our modern English, both in semantics (word meanings) and grammar (word usage). So to bridge the gap between our minds and the minds of the writers we either have to study the original languages or make use of some tools which can help us to better understand the original meanings

2.(continued) Language tools

In Leu of taking courses in the original languages, Hebrew and Greek, here are some tools you can use to help bridge the language gap.

The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew-Greek-English (English, Hebrew and Greek Edition)

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The Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

by: James Strong, John R. Kohlenberger III, James A. Swanson

GREAT not only for finding a scripture passage if you can only remember a few words from the passage, but also if your want to compare how a certain word is used in different places in the Bible. With regard to the latter:
Let's say you want to know about how the Bible uses the word "song." First, take the concordance and look up the English. Under the headword "song" are three columns: the first with the book and verse number, the second with a brief excerpt from the verse, the third with a four-digit number. It looks something like this:

Ex 15:1 the children of Israel this s unto 7892
Ex 15:2 The Lord is my strength and s, and he is 2176
~
Rev 5:9 And they sung a new s, saying, Thou art 5603

The number stands for the Hebrew or Greek word which was translated by the English word "song." In the back of your concordance are very short Hebrew and Greek dictionaries; if the verse is in the Old Testament, look it up in the Hebrew dictionary; if the verse is in the New Testament, look it up in the Greek one. Using the list above, we find that 7892 is the Hebrew word "shir"; 2176 is the Hebrew word "zimrat"; and 5603 is the Greek word "ode." After you read the definitions, you'll know more about the word "song" as used in the Bible.

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Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible NIV

by: Spiros Zodhiates

Dr. Zodhiates greatest contribution to Bible students
everywhere is the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible,which takes the reader to the source of the Hebrew and Greek words and Greek grammar.

The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible combines essential tools for Hebrew and Greek with translations that are accurate and clear. An easy-to-use style plus the benefits of the Strong's Dictionary numbering system makes this study Bible one for every student of God's Word, no matter what age.

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Word Studies in the Greek New Testament (4 volume set)

by: Kenneth S. Wuest

(By A Customer:)
Originally in 16 volumes, this is an in depth analysis of the meanings of the original greek that places the original words in their contexts with the idioms placed in their cultural settings. A reliable understanding of the original meaning is gained by the student of the New Testament who uses this excellent work. One does not need an understanding of languages other than English. This provides a clear understanding of the culture, setting and language that gave us the New Testament. Kenneth Wuest's work is superb. Get yourself a copy now.

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Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Word Studies for Key English Bible Words Based on the Hebrew And Greek Texts

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3. Culture

Although the Biblical writers were Divinely inspired (IITim.3:16), they were still products of their culture. Thus, in addition to language, it is also important to understand the cultural differences between our time and that of the Biblical writers.

3 (continued). Some helpful tools for understanding the culture of the times

The New Manners & Customs...

Old Testament Times: A So...

New Testament Times: Unde...

Josephus: The Essential W...

Everyday Life in Bible Ti...

4. Speciality areas

Although much of the Bible can be understood and interpreted by applying the three principles of context, language and culture, because the Bible is compilation of many books with different styles and from different genres, there are several specialty areas which have their own rules of interpritation.

4a. First Speciality area: Parables

Jesus told many parables during His earthly ministry. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. These have their own rules of interpritation. For example, one rule which we learned in seminary is that can't make a parable "stand on all 4's" or in other words, you can't make every little thing in a parable stand for something, since parables are generally meant to convey one main point or spiritual lesson. For more on interpreting parables, check out these books:

Interpreting the Parables

Jesus and His Parables: I...

Interpreting The Parables

The Radical Stories of Je...

4b. Second specialty: Poetry

The psalms and other portions of the old testament are written in poetry, which has it's own rules of interpretation. For example, Hebrew poetry is famous for its parallelisms (one line saing the same thing as the former line but with different emphases,) There are several types of parallelism in Hebrew poetry. For more, check out one of these books:

Interpreting Hebrew Poetr...

Bible Exposition Commenta...

Dictionary of the Old Tes...

Hebrew Poetry in the Bibl...

4c. Third speciality area: Prophecy

Bible Prophecy is another specialty area which carries it's own rules of interpretation. The Old Testament prophets looked forward to both of the comings of Christ (His first coming as baby and his still future second coming) but the saw these as two mountain peaks without seeing the valley of our time in between. Of course the book of Revelation also carries its own prophecy rules. For more, check out these books:

The Popular Encyclopedia...

Mysterious Apocalypse: In...

Understanding Bible Proph...

Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study...

Interpreting the Book of...

4d. Fourth speciality area: Typology

Typology is the study of Biblical types and is a whole area of study by itself, although in one sense typology could be considerd to fall under the heading of prophecy, since a type could be considered to be a physical prophecy. A type is a literal person place or object in the Old testament which pictures something spiritual in the New Testament [the anti-type])
Typology is a legitamate and ueseful means of interpreting the Old Testament, as uese and endorsed by the Apostle Paul in several places, especially, I Corinthians Chapter 10. I Galations 3, Paul evey uses allegory. Allegory could be included with typology, as an allegory simply an extened type.

4d. (continued:) Interpreting Old Testamet Types

As with the other specialty areas, typology has its own rules of interpretation, and actually all Bible scholars aren't agreed on these. For examples, check out some of these books and search for more on Amazon.

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4e.-Fifth specialty area: Numerology

The meanings of numbers in the Bible

Actually, by rights, this should also fall under the general heading of typology, but some have made it a separate study of its own. I feel it must be linked to typology as the numbers in the old testament looking forward to and representing spiritual truth in the new. For example the number 7 is the perfect number representing prefection or completion, so the fact that the priests had to undergo a consecration that lasted for seven days speaks of the pefect consecration of Christ as our great high priest.
It is my opinion that numerology should only be applied to the old testament as part of typology, but check out these books for various views on the subject:

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The Role of The Holy Spirit

By now, some of you are probably thinking, "--but I thought the Holy Spirit would teach us." Yes, but the Holy Spirit doesn't work in a vacuum. He will use your God given mind and your dilligent study and application of these principles and tools and put them together in ways that may surprise you. The Holy Spirit will shed illumination upon your dilligent study of the word but, since the cannon of scripture is closed, he does not an longer give direct revelation of truth. Thus He will not immedately zap you with an interpretation. Yet, it is a good idea to pray before you begin your study and even during your study. It is also a good idea to check your conclusions with other Bible scholars from the past by the use of commentaries.

More on the role of the Holy Spirit

Search for Bible commentaries

Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics

Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation

by: Graeme Goldsworthy

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While there are many books on hermeneutics, Graeme Goldsworthy's perception is that evangelical contributions often do not give sufficient attention to the vital relationship between hermeneutics and theology, both systematic and biblical.
He gives a very practical guide for using Biblical Theology through the lens of the gospel to arrive at the much yearned-for meaning of Scripture. This book is worth reading for anyone who desires to read his Bible with hope of understanding it.

Release Date: 12/31/1969

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ideadesigns ideadesigns Nov 20, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

Glad for lenses submitted to the Everything Biblical Group, but they are changing the way groups are done, right now I can't add any more lenses... See on SquidU - hope to get something going soon. So far all past submitted lenses are still there! God bless!
Everything Biblical and Christian Group.

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Brookelorren Brookelorren Sep 2, 2009 @ 1:22 pm

Good job! I'm lensrolling it to my "Christian Resources" lens, as well as to "Numbers 10 to 12"

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Senora_M Senora_M Jul 31, 2009 @ 10:37 am

Great lens! 5*s! Thanks for putting it together. Welcome to the All Things Christian group!
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