Terms of Bible Interpretation
Hermeneutics
The process of interpreting the
Bible. This is what we are learning in this website.
It includes all the rules, principles, theory, and methods of
interpreting the Bible. It covers the process from
trying to understand the original meaning of the verses to
what it means to us today.
EXEGESIS
This is the process of interpretation where you are
trying to find the original meaning of the verse. It is
finding out what was the message that was heard by the original
recipient of the Bible. Example: Paul
told Timothy "stop drinking
only water, and use a little wine...(1 Tim. 4:23
NIV). Exegesis would
attempt to find out what it really meant to Timothy (not to us
today). The original message was given to Timothy under a specific
circumstance. The background may involve issues that are
evident to both Paul and Timothy but are not mentioned in the
Bible.
EXposition
Application of the Bible passages to modern
times. This is the process that most of us do will do with
the verses of the Bible. It is trying to find the
application or relevance of the Bible message for us today. It is
the process that follows exegesis.
So here is the
relationship of the terms with each other: To understand the Bible
properly we practice hermeneutics by first
applying exegesis because we want to find out the original
meaning of the Bible. Secondly, we do an exposition of the text because we want to apply the message to our
lives today.
Notice that exegesis is very important because that is how we learn and understand the original
meaning of the Bible. If you misunderstand the original
meaning, I doubt that you will have the proper application of the
Bible in your life today.
Goal of Proper Interpretation
The goal of proper
interpretation is not to find new revelations unrevealed to anyone
before, but rather to understand its plain and simple
message. Using proper guidelines of interpretation we should
be able to distinguished between the right, the possible, and the
erroneous interpretation.
People assume that the Bible is a mysterious
book and you need some extra ordinary abilities to be able to
understand it. They assume that it has a lot of hidden
meaning or secret codes that can only be revealed and understood
by those who are chosen. Well its true that it takes more
than just a casual reading to understand the meaning of Bible
passages but not because of some mysterious or secret code but
because of its nature. (see The
Nature of the Bible)
We must always remember
that the Bible was written for common people. Many of the
New Testaments epistles were written for a young Christian church,
so they are simple instructions and teaching to be understood by
every Christians on that day.
The correct or right meaning of many Bible verses can be understood by using
proper guidelines of interpretation. Does this mean proper
interpretation would eliminate disagreement of interpretation
among Christians? Of course not. Some difficult
verses, by its very, nature could have more than one possible
interpretation.
Possible meaning
is the result of using the guidelines of interpretation on
difficult verses and still coming out with more than one possible
meaning. Does this mean that the Bible can mean anything? Or
can anybody interpret the Bible on his own opinion? Absolute
not. Guidelines for interpretation puts a limitation on
meanings that can be derive from a passage, and only one of those
possible interpretation is correct, although none of us is
absolute sure which one it is.
Erroneous
interpretations are those interpretation that were given to the
Bible verses in violation of the guidelines of proper
interpretation.
Although there are
difficult verses where there is not a consensus of interpretation
among Christians, the basic doctrines of Christianity are all
based on clear teachings from the Bible. All possible
interpretation of a passage should not contradict the basic
doctrine of Christianity. It should remind us also that we
should be slow in calling other teachings that differs from our
own denomination heretical. We should analyze all
interpretation on the basis of the basic guidelines of
interpretation and the basic doctrine of Christianity.
Assumptions
In order for the reader of the
bible to gain the most out of their time reading/studying the
bible there are 6 basic premises that are important to consider.
1. The bible should be regarded
as the inspired, authoritative, infallible and inerrant Word of
God and not as ordinary literature.
2. In the study of the Bible,
accept the implicit Biblical understanding that the Old and New
Testaments together form a canon that contains the record of God's
unique revelation to human beings. Thus the Bible is its own best
interpreter, providing a unifying theological context for
understanding any particular chapter and verse.
3. The scriptures should be read
with a willingness to let them change our present beliefs
regardless of what we or anyone else may show us concerning the
subject in the scripture.
4. The whole of Scripture and
all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given
by divine inspiration. As such the reader should ask for God's
spirit to guide them. "The man without the
Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of
God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand
them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians
2:13:14
5. Recognize that the Bible is
the product of thought inspiration, not verbal
inspiration.
6. The Bible does not contradict
itself.
Exegesis
Exegesis
seeks to know the original message intended by the
author. The original meaning is
very important because that is the true and only meaning
of the verse. Although from that one meaning, we can have a
lot of applications for different situation in our daily
lives. Applications or "lessons" that we can derive
from the verse must not conflict the original meaning intended by
the original author for the original
hearer(s).
1 Corinthians as with
every passage, Paul message to the Corinthian church in a
particular context. If our present interpretation of a
passage in 1 Corinthians produced a meaning that made sense today
in our church but doesn't make sense if its being told to the
Corinthians church, then the interpretation is
incorrect.
To do an exegesis
requires expertise in a lot of areas, but because of the
availability of expert tools such as commentaries, dictionaries,
handbooks, etc. Everybody who has access and knows how to
use such tools can exegete. But the truth is, even with just
minimal access to these tools, anyone can do good exegesis of the
Bible.
Your most important
tools in understanding the message of the Bible is reading.
You must read and reread the passage that you are studying.
You must pay attention to all the details and ask questions as you
go along. You must read with an open mind to learn. This
means that you should not assume that an interpretation you have
heard before is the correct interpretation. By reading
alone, you should be able to know the context and identify the
theme or main
point of the
passage.
With good reading habits
and proper use of available tools we can all do good exegesis.
Understanding the Context
A word on its own doesn't really mean anything. A
word can only have a sensible meaning in a sentence.
Further, the sentences before and after will clear up the meaning
of a particular sentence. This is the reason we are
encouraged to study a passage (several verses) not a single verse
if we intend to get the real message the original author
intended. This is also known as reading in
context.
Generally speaking, when
the author wrote the book he had a particular theme or message in
mind. As the reader, it is important to follow the authors
flow of thought. You first must see the main theme of the
book, then the theme found within each chapters. Lastly, you
must decipher the theme of each passage. The smaller
section's theme must compliment the bigger section's theme.
To understand the context you must first read the whole book that
you are studying and find the units of thought that make up the
book. This is not really hard to do since most of the Bible
has titles for each passage and an outline at the beginning of the
book. But it is a good habit to make a simple outline of
your own after you have read the book.
The
Historical Background
Another way of reading in context is to understand the
historical background of the passage or the book that you
are studying. Knowing the background of the book is helpful
before you start reading. You should try to acquire reliable
information about the author and the original recipient of the
book, the date and the reason why it was written, and the cultural
or life setting when it was written. With this information
the modern reader will have an easier task to hear the same
message that was originally heard by the recipient.
Remember, exegesis seeks
to know the original message intended by the author. A
modern reader must somehow transfer himself to the time when the
author wrote the letter to be able to hear that original message.
Not knowing the Historical background will cause us to read things
in the passage according to our modern cultural background or
custom. This, of course, is totally different from the
author's own cultural background and thus causes many erroneous
interpretations and applications.
If you have a Study
Bible, reading the introduction page of every book that you study
is a good start to find historical background. Bible tools
such as a Bible Handbook or a good commentary is where you
would find a lot of information in this matter.
Example:
1 Corinthians 11:4-5,16 "Every
man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his
head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head
uncovered dishonors her head- it is just as though her head were
shaved...If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no
other practice- nor do the churches of God." (NIV) This is considered a difficult passage in the
Bible to interpret. A good interpreter should start by
gathering reliable background information before attempting any
interpretation of the passage.
Word Meaning
Some words have more than
one meaning, while some we don't know the meaning at all.
Understanding the true meaning of the words used in a passage is
very important in proper interpretation or exegesis. The
first thing we do to know what a word means is to read in its
context. This, however, is sometimes not enough, for a context can
sometimes take on different meanings for a particular word.
This has caused varying interpretations among Christians.
Remember, the real meaning of a word is the one intended by the
author.
Many teachers will find
the intended meaning of a certain word by studying its roots or
original meaning. This process can give us new insight to
the meaning, but at the same time it can lead us to
misunderstanding. Understanding the word's origin and
original meaning doesn't necessarily lead us to the meaning of a
word as used by the author.
A better way of
understanding a word's meaning is to understand what it means at
the time it was written. Words change meaning as time goes
by, and we cannot always put the same meaning we have today on a
same word that was used centuries ago. By reading other
older writings of the same period that uses the same word will
give us ideas on the meaning of the word.
Some word we just don't
have definitions because we don't use them such as the words
shekels, ephahs, talents, etc.
Finding word meaning
using an outside tool is often necessary. A reliable
commentary or Bible Dictionary can be helpful.
Interpretation
Subjective interpretation
has no standard to evaluate its validity. It is interpreting
the Bible in a way that others won't be able to find at all no
matter how they study the verse itself. It is putting the
meaning into the verse (eisegesis)
rather than finding the true meaning of the verse.
Therefore one of the most
important guidelines to interpretation is to interpret
literally. Literal interpretation doesn't mean reading the
words and just doing what it says. Literal interpretation is
taking the Bible at face value and reading it as a
literature. Literal interpretation recognizes the
differences between a historical narrative and a parable, or the
difference between written laws and poetry. In another word,
literal interpretation is not just reading and doing, it is
reading with common sense, because it takes in consideration the
real form or style of the passage. Literal interpretation is
what we do everyday, we differentiate between an instruction from
our boss and a joke we hear from him, and we interpret them
accordingly.
Literal interpretation
also requires analyzing the literary genre of the passage in the
Bible. This topic will be covered in Lesson 2.
Your comments are always
welcome.
Please send your comments
to mail@brooklawn.org