BobRyan said:
What about using the basic principles of exegesis to determine the meaning?
1. The intent of the author for his primary audience
2. The use of the same topic by the same author in his other works.
3. The use other authors make of this same topic.
4. The customs and traditions of the period that would have influenced the reader's understanding of the text.
5. Marking the "inconvenient details" of the text that don't fit our pre-bias.
etc.
in Christ,
Bob
I agree that those a e a good starting point, but as I said you will find many that will start out agreeing with these only to drop them when these principles begin to dispute a pet doctrine. Here is an article I wrote some time ago that may add a bit more to those principles for you.
Honest Bible Study
Do you seek to understand your rich Judeo-Christian history? Do you seek to know God’s plan for all men and you personally? Do you seek to know the character of Christ and become like him?
Your motives in researching the word will strongly effect whether you will follow these principles or not.
We all interpret whatever we read. Interpretation is the basis under which we comprehend what is being said. In order to really be honest with the Word it is necessary to have certain logical rules for interpretation. These rules are commonly called Hermeneutics or principles of exegesis. They are based on logic and very simple concepts of the christian walk.
The most common form of interpretation used today is called “Cut and Paste Theology”. In this method a person can take a scripture out of context put it with several others, disregarding any proper hermeneutical principles and make a doctrine out of it. Not understanding the culture or definitions of words. Using ambiguous scriptures that are misinterpreted to contradict very clear scriptures. With this type of “scholarship” a person can prove just about anything from scripture. When one actually looks at these doctrines with proper principles they completely fall apart. This is not to say that there are not scriptures that can stand on their own but always must also stand within the proper interpretive process. In otherwords they need no other scriptures for their meaning to be very clear.
First we must be honest with ourselves and our nature ---
1. We are easily deceived - Jeremiah 17/9 - “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? We must be willing to set aside our preconceived ideas and let God speak to us. We must be willing to set aside our pride and fear in our hearts. Our fear of being proven wrong. We must have enough courage to trust God that if the truth stands in contradiction to what we have always believed then we must love the truth more then our historical beliefs.
II Thessalonians 2/10 - 13 “.... And with all the deception of wickedness for those that perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved....” We must love the truth no matter how it upsets our apple cart. The word must be the final authority no matter how it shakes our traditions or doctrines.
Most Christians will proclaim this until you touch a pet doctrine that they are afraid to change.
2. The purpose and inspiration of Scripture -
II Timothy 3/16 and 17 - “All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
( This comes right back to the motive. The truths we derive from scripture must train us for righteousness and equip us for good works.)
We start from a premiss that the “original scriptures” as written by the prophets and apostles were inspired by God Himself. No particular later translation has inspiration. There are good and bad translations. Those who penned the scriptures wrote exactly what God wanted to say and that God wants us to know the truth. God used the personalities of the authors, situations, natural realm and circumstances for the purpose of teaching us. The purpose of scripture is to win the lost and to teach the saved how to become like Christ and walk with God as He did.
We must also come to grips with the fact that one book cannot contain everything about God. Not even this magnificent testimony in scripture can tell us all the facts about the actions of Jesus on this earth.
John 21:25
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.
Even great knowledge about the scriptures cannot take the place of personal interaction and relationship with God. You can study all the scriptures about salvation. You can read all the great teachers on the subject, but untill you experiance the sweet grace of God and feel the burden of sin lifted from your soul and the first intimate touch of the Holy Spirit, you do not know salvation. The word is a teaching tool to bring us to relationship with Christ.
3. In the past 100 years there have been very significant archeological finds that directly impact our understanding of scripture such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Keep you research material current.
Now that we have established a basis to begin, let’s talk about the fundamentals of understanding scripture.
Here is a list of principles to use to properly use, translate, and understand scripture.
1. Scripture must interpret scripture. No one has a private interpretation but all proofs must come from the word itself. A good idea and safety is to use scriptural terms to understand the meaning of a verse.
2. It does not matter what we believe to be true or how we feel about a subject. All that matters is what can be clearly and properly proven in the word.
3. Spend a majority of time in clear understandable scripture. Never base a belief on ambiguous scriptures.
4. There is only one truth. Never base a doctrine on an interpretation of scriptures that causes contradiction with other clear scriptures. If there is a seeming contradiction, this indicates a need for further research to ascertain the truth. A clear scripture always supersedes and ambigous one and does not cause a contradiction.
5. When attempting to understand a difficult scripture follow these guidelines --
A. Form a hypothesis of what you think it may mean then test it. this really is automatic, since we will come to an idea by simply reading the verse in question.
B. Does your idea fit the immediate context? This is the first and formost challenge and the one most often missed.
C. Does your idea fit the general over all tenor or context of scripture and the heart of God. This can be a bit more difficult since some Christians have false ideas about the heart of God and His character.
D. Is the language figurative or literal. In many cases a little common sence can be applied here. For instance no biologist in the world is going to confirm the existance of a seven headed beast as is mentioned in Revelations. This is obviously a figuritive story.
E. Understand the historical, geographical or cultural time in which it is written.
F. Understand who was inspired to write the scripture and to whom it was being written.
G. Use several translations to avoid the possible bias of one particular translator.
H. I. Compare scripture with scripture. Compare a questionable scripture to other scriptures that use the same words or speak of the same concepts.
J. Understand that God uses allegories and parables to teach spiritual truth.
K. God uses the physical realm to teach about the spiritual realm.
L. God lives out of our linear time frame and looks at things from an eternal perspective.
M. The original text was not separated into chapter and verse. Many times one verse is directly related to, or part of, the verses before or after it. Many times they are connected by words such as “for” or “and”. (Furthermore for those more advanced in ancient manuscripts of scripture, much more weight should be placed on older copies of scripture then on more recent copies. (there is less chance for errors in copying)
P. The original text is written in several languages from several time periods and cultures. Hebrew writers think differently then those of us brought up in the modern world. Their writings also are effected by this difference. We must therefor understand how Hebrews thought and wrote. In the cases of the epistles, you must understand the culture and circumstances of the people to which the letter is written.
Q. In the case of seeming contradictions where one scripture says one thing and dozens say the opposite go with the preponderance of evidence. In other words side with the majority of clear scripture until the apposing scripture can be properly understood.
R. In the gospels Jesus uses a form of debate common among rabbis of that time. He would quote a portion of scripture and the Pharisees would know that He implied the entire context of that verse. In this manner he would allow them to see the conclusion he wanted them to see without pointing to it exactly. He led them to the truth without confrontation.
The biggest test for doctrine is very simple. Does the end result of following this doctrine bring you closer to understanding and becoming like Christ or take you further away from these goals.
I have saved the most important lesson of all for last.
BE LED OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
Prayerfully seek God’s guidance in understanding. The most important reason for study is to have our hearts and character molded to be like Jesus. We do not seek to have only head knowledge but a living truth that transforms lives.
