UNDERSTANDING
THE WORD (Part II)
We
begin with the recognition that “all scripture is given by inspiration of GOD.”
(II Timothy 3:16) That is, God’s will is God’s Word. It is the divine and final testament of our
Creator, disclosing the Mind of God, i.e. His past, present and future plans
concerning us. Accurate interpretation of Scripture always
involves “HERMENEUTICS” [hur-muh-NOO-tiks], which may be defined as
“the science of interpretation, especially of the Scriptures” (or) “the branch
of theology that deals with the principles of Biblical exegesis.”
(Dictionary.com)
Today,
we commence the presentation of ten
principles of biblical hermeneutics, which will enable us to glean a greater
comprehension of the scriptural record.
It goes without saying that accurate interpretation requires consistent effort
and openness to the leading/teaching of the Holy Spirit.
First
of all, it is beneficial to define key terms that are useful in understanding biblical
hermeneutics. We will briefly examine
four terms: Inspiration, Interpretation,
Illumination and Revelation.
Inspiration is the operation of the Holy Spirit that imparts accurate
and unified truths from the Mind of God through the hand of man. Since inspiration is not dictation, the Holy
Spirit utilizes the unique life experiences, writing styles, vocabularies and
cultures of diverse authors to impart divine truth.
Interpretation is the prayerful application of hermeneutic principles
by which the reader arrives at an understanding of the Scriptures that is aligned
(as much as humanly possible) with the inspired meaning.
Illumination is the operation of the Holy Spirit which convicts readers
of the truth of Scripture and leads us into acceptance of the truth of God's
Word.
Revelation is the operation of the Holy Spirit which unveils and
discloses divine truths which cannot be discovered through human intellect,
reason or interpretation.
Now, let’s take a look at two of the ten principles
of biblical hermeneutics. We should note the fundamental fact that
Scripture serves to interpret itself when the reader is dedicated and
prayerful. That is, these hermeneutic principles
are embedded in the Word, itself, since Scriptures skillfully serve to
interpret other Scriptures. This is
accomplished by “precept upon precept …line upon line.” (Isaiah 28:13)
hermeneutic Principle #1: The Literal Interpretation Principle
Since
Scriptures emerge from the Mind of God, we must take The Holy Bible at face
value, first and foremost. This is actually
a common sense approach. For example, if
I were to leave you a written note detailing instructions for a class
assignment, your first instinct would be to read (and believe) that I said and
meant exactly what was written. You
would observe this simple practice before looking for any hidden or symbolic
meaning in what I had written. Therefore, the literal meaning of
Scripture must come first and must serve as the foundation for any other
interpretation.
In
seminary, I was exposed to the golden
rule of interpretation: ‘When the plain sense of the Scripture makes
common sense, seek no other sense.’ Our
first impulse should be to take every word at its primary, literal and usual
meaning, unless the facts of the Scripture context (studied alongside related Scripture
passages) clearly indicate otherwise.
hermeneutic Principle #2: The Scripture Interprets Scripture Principle
As
we study The Holy Bible, we may be assured of one simple thing. Since the Word of God emerges from the Mind of God, who is all wise, He would never make the
elementary error of communicating important truths through one scripture
alone. Jesus first said it; Paul later
confirmed it: “By two or three witnesses…every word may be established.” (Matthew
18:16 – II Corinthians 13:1) Therefore,
all essential Bible doctrines will be clearly explained and confirmed by more
than one Scripture.
This
principle is the heart of topical Bible
study. But there are two important
rules to observe. First of all, the context of the two (or more) Scriptures must always be similar. In other words, we cannot draw a conclusion
about offerings (for instance)
based on two Scriptures that reference two totally different matters, even
though we are tempted to extract a phrase from each Scripture that ‘seems’ appropriate
to use. In this instance, we are guilty
of quoting scriptures out of context,
which unfortunately happens quite often in many churches! The second rule is that the Scripture passage
that is clearest (of the two) must always guide our interpretation of the
Scripture passage that is more obscure, and not vice versa, however much we favor
one of the Scriptures.
No comments:
Post a Comment