The "Law of First Mention"

Something God never promised- except in the original languages.

 

Which KJV do you use? False teachers have always been around. Scripture says what characterizes them and how to treat the.

 

The claimed principle or law of first mention could conflict with other principles of interpretation. What if the meaning of a certain word at its first mention or use is unclear or obscure while a later use is very clear in its context?

Milton Terry observed: “The obscure or doubtful passages are to be explained by what is plain and simple” (Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 186).

What if the first mention or use of a certain word is used in relationship to a different subject and with perhaps a different meaning than later uses?

James Sire noted: “When two or more unrelated texts are treated as if they belonged together, we have the fallacy of collapsing contexts” (Scripture Twisting, p. 58). In an appendix, James Sire defined this fallacy as follows: “Two or more verses which have little or nothing to do with each other are put together as if one were a commentary on the other(s)” (p. 156).

 

Hi Logos1560, another way scripture is twisted is to claim the use of a word in one parable or metaphor carries over into another parable or metaphor. For example in one illustration Jesus is the door and the lost are sheep but in another, Jesus is the Shepherd and the saved are His sheep. To claim "sheep" refers to the same people in both illustrations based on the guideline of first usage would be mistaken.

So the guideline is not bad, consider all the usages of a word or phrase to see if a common meaning or common meanings present themselves, but do not use a hammer to put a square peg in a round hole.

 

Good point. Too many interpret apocryphal literature in light of a particular theology has promoted in literalism rather than the literature of the time the book was written. Even book in the OT use the same language which points to judgment.