Hermeneutics
The word Hermeneutics means “the art or science of the interpretation of literature.” If the word hermeneutics bothers you, just substitute the phrase interpretive rules for Bible study. Most everyone understands that there are ways of figuring out what someone means by their words. For example, if you walk in on a telephone conversation and hear one person say to another “I really hate it when you do that”, you don’t really know what it is that the person hates, do you? However, chances are you will have ways of figuring this out, or interpreting what was said. Your first thought might be to wonder what the rest of the conversation was about, or who is on the other end of the phone. This is called context. You know that if you can figure out what the context was, you might be able to figure out what it is that this person hates. It’s clear that without knowing the context of the conversation you wouldn’t have a clue about how to figure out what was being discussed.
You probably don’t view this kind of occurrence as being a rule of interpretation, but in practice “context” is a rule that you and I use every day. Hermeneutics is just a fancy way of describing a set of rules that we use for interpreting the written word. The fact that we need rules is not debatable, since we’ve all seen what happens when someone’s comments are taken out of context. The question is over what rules to apply to the Bible, and how to apply them in specific cases.
The Literal Grammatical-Historical Interpretive Model is the method that we will employ. This method holds to a belief in a ‘God breathed’ or inspired Bible. We start there because the Biblical writers themselves understood and declared that their writings were inspired. Jesus Himself also supported the assertion by quoting from books of the Bible – never questioning the correctness of the words or their meaning. Secondly, this method supports the Christocentric approach, essentially that the OT as well as the NT is Christ centered, allowing for figures of speech and symbolic interpretation when the context clearly supports it. The literal method on the whole does not support the Allegorical view practiced in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Each verse does NOT have a literal, historical meaning and a secret meaning that only the super spiritual can understand. This leads to multiple interpretations where interpreters can’t agree upon an accepted interpretation. God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33). It also leads to a division among Christians by creating a cast system of spiritual haves and have-nots.
Hermeneutics, or a set of interpretive rules, includes 5 key stipulations:
- Literal – means that we take the words for what they mean in their normal, plain sense and usage.
This means that we start out by understanding the words in their most normal meaning. Literal doesn’t mean that we reject symbolism. This is a misunderstanding among people in our day that throw stones at those who claim to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. Is poetry to be taken literally? Certainly all biblical texts have a point, or literal truth, but the words being used to describe the truth may not be meant to be taken literally. That is often the nature of poetry and acknowledged by our method of interpretation.
- Grammatical – means we follow accepted grammatical rules of literature
Hermeneutics follows the rules of grammar and is expected to identify grammatical tools like similes, metaphors, etc. When interpreting the Bible, standard grammatical tools must be recognized and then interpreted in light of the normal usage of the grammatical tool. 1 Peter 5:8 says “Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Does this literally mean that the devil is a lion that eats people? No. It’s very clear that He is comparing the devil to a lion. It tells us something of the nature and purpose of the devil.
Also included here is the ability to use the original languages to determine the true sense of a word. While not everyone knows Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, most everyone has access to a commentary that will give notes on points of grammar from the original language. Language students might argue, but in most cases one can come up with a correct interpretation of a passage of scripture with an English Bible, or possibly a couple of versions of the English Bible based upon a shared consensus of those who have expertise in the original languages.
- Historical – means we seek with diligence to determine the historical background and context before rendering an interpretation.
To drop the history of the time period is like stripping any conversation from its context. Try applying everything in the book of Jeremiah to the 21st century. Forget about the fact that the author is directing much of his words at the Southern Kingdom of Judah thousands of years ago, warning them to repent or be sent into exile. Should we fear that our country is about to be sent into captivity for 70 years?
We are very fortunate today to have more information about Bible times than has been previously known. Archaeological discoveries have opened many doors to a better understanding of biblical history, and thus the context of the books of the Bible.
- Interpret according to context
Biblical passages must be interpreted as part of a whole. To be more precise, each passage of scripture has 1) its immediate context, 2) the context of the book to which it belongs, and 3) the context of the whole Bible. This is a rule of interpretation that is quite often ignored. New interpretations of familiar passages of scripture often make a mistake of context. Spiritualizing scripture in places that don’t warrant this kind of interpretation often breaks this rule of context. Words mean things or, more precisely, communicate original meaning only within their proper context.
- Compare scripture with scripture
This may seem like common sense but historically it hasn’t always been practiced. Any interpretive analysis of a specific passage should be compared against other similar Biblical references since God doesn’t contradict Himself. This of course assumes a belief in the verbal inspiration of scripture which insists that every word of Scripture was written exactly as God intended. Given God superintended the writing, He can not contradict Himself.
Conclusion: God intended His Word to be understood and, as He is not given to confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33) following the steps above is a good start – but don’t forget to ask God for guidance, wisdom, understanding and appropriate application. Prayer is our first and last action.