He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation
© 2013 by Third Millennium Ministries
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Unless otherwise indicated all Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 International Bible Society. Used by Permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
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Contents
Question 1: How can we develop the skills we need to understand the original meaning of biblical passages? 1
Question 2: What is the proper way to use Greek and Hebrew dictionaries when we interpret the Bible? 3
Question 3: Why is it important to identify the genre of a biblical book? 4
Question 4: How did the Reformers’ approach to interpretation differ from the Quadriga? 6
Question 5: Since many early Christians interpreted the Bible in "spiritual" rather and "literal" ways, is there any benefit to reading their interpretations? 7
Question 6: How did Paul use allegorical interpretation in his writings? 9
Question 7: Why is it important to distinguish between Scripture itself and our applications of Scripture? 10
Question 8: How does Jesus’ teaching on the commandment against murder help us better understand God’s commandments in Exodus chapter 20? 12
Question 9: What are some legitimate contemporary applications of the commandment against murder? 14
Question 10: How can we avoid legalism when we emphasize the behavioral implications of Scripture? 16
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He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation Lesson Five: The Complexity of Meaning
With
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He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation Lesson Five: The Complexity of Meaning
Dr. Jimmy Agan
Dr. Bruce Baugus
Dr. Steve Blakemore
Dr. P. J. Buys
Dr. David W. Chapman
Dr. Andrew Davis
Dr. Dan Doriani
Dr. David T. Lamb
Dr. Robert G. Lister
Dr. Robert K. MacEwen
Dr. John E. McKinley
Dr. Thomas J. Nettles
Dr. Jonathan T. Pennington
Dr. Greg Perry
Dr. Robert L. Plummer
Dr. Vern S. Poythress
Dr. Philip Ryken
Dr. Glen G. Scorgie
Dr. Stephen Um
Dr. M. William Ury
Dr. Simon Vibert
Dr. Brian J. Vickers
Dr. Carey Vinzant
Dr. Peter Walker
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He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation Lesson Five: The Complexity of Meaning
Question 1:
How can we develop the skills we need to understand the original meaning of biblical passages?
Discovering the original meaning of any passage can be challenging. And because a passage’s original meaning isn’t always apparent, we can’t simply rely on our intuitions to find it. Instead, determining original meaning takes practice and a certain level of skill. So, how can we develop the skills we need to understand the original meaning of biblical passages?
Dr. Robert G. Lister
In our growth as Christians, one of the things that we want to be sure that we’re constantly doing is growing in our ability to interpret and understand Scripture accurately. To the degree that we understand it better, to that same degree our Christian walk will be shaped in ways that it should. And there are a variety of ways that this can take place. Some of them on the more scholarly level, but here’s where I would start for every Christian: Find a gospel-preaching, Bible-believing local church where you can sit under the discipleship of godly pastors who will not only preach to you the Scriptures on a weekly basis, but in their preaching model for you how to understand, how to interpret Scriptures. And just in the process of being involved in that kind of fellowship with that kind of gifted teaching, we’re unavoidably going to absorb good habits about reading the Scriptures and interpreting them … So, one of the things that would additionally be helpful would be to learn to read the Scriptures on a broad level and a narrow level. And when I say read the Scriptures for their breadth, I mean maybe something like a "read the Bible in a year" plan where, in the course of a year, you get the full scope of the Bible’s teaching. And as you have the full scope of the Bible’s teaching, that’s going to help you understand individual passages… So we don’t only want breadth, but we also want to learn habits of good Bible study for individual books of the Bible where we go down a little bit deeper than you might in your four chapters a day reading in your annual Bible reading plan. But having that depth now is going to help us when we come around to read the Scriptures again next year and we get back to that passage. We’re bringing more information about its context, both historically and grammatically to understanding those materials. And at a more academic level, someone who’s involved in seminary or some advanced discipleship courses, you could certainly learn biblical languages. That would be helpful. The basic ability to recognize and interpret different forms of genre that are in the Bible are basic principles that are helpful for good Bible interpretation. So we know, for example, on the one hand, that a poem is to be interpreted differently than an epistle, and we bring different expectations to poetry than to epistles. Those would be some things that I think would be helpful, particularly in the early portion for beginners to get involved in a local church and have their reading of Scripture shaped and informed by very positive examples from the pulpit on a weekly basis.
Dr. Peter Walker
It’s so important to try and find the original meaning of Scripture. And we can sometimes be put off, perhaps, by a translation which gives us an impression that the original meaning was this but we’ve slightly misunderstood the translation. And so, there’s a real value, if it’s at all possible, if you’re working in a language where there is another translation of the Bible — more than one — then you could actually compare. And so you can see, well, this is perhaps a more literal translation of the original. This one is translated in a way which tries to apply it to our own culture, but in so doing it has slightly shifted what the original meant and I need to get back to find out what the original was. Sometimes using a different translation will actually help. Let me just give you an example. I love the verse in Psalm 23 which says that truth and mercy, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I’ve been wondering recently if that could possibly mean that when I go through life, goodness and mercy will be what I leave behind. I will follow and leave in my wake behind me goodness and mercy. And it’s a lovely idea that perhaps when I go on from a place I will leave behind goodness and mercy. But I’ve learnt recently that’s a complete misunderstanding of what the original Hebrew means. Actually the word "follow" there means God will pursue us. He will actively chase us. Goodness and mercy will find us out, will pursue us all the days of our lives. And so my interpretation was entirely wrong. It was a nice meaning, it made me feel good, but it wasn’t actually what the Hebrew was meaning, and I needed to actually have a bit of word study there to find out what the Hebrew word really meant, and I discovered I had misunderstood the word "follow." It actually means to "pursue," actively to pursue. And this is one example of how knowing individual words of the Bible in their original meaning can just help us to keep on track.
Dr. Jonathan T. Pennington
The Bible, of course, is full of many, many different passages, some of which are very easy to understand, some of which are very complicated to understand. And God has given to the church the gift of teachers to help us understand many portions of Scripture. And many of those teachers have written down things in books we call commentaries or Bible dictionaries. And when available, those can be a great help for us to develop our own skills and learning how to read the Bible well. But if those things aren’t available, and even if they are available, there’s something more important that any believer can do in reading Scripture, and that is, first, to pray that God would illumine him and to read with a posture of reception toward God. Read with a desire to hear from God … And secondly, after praying for God to reveal, just to read actively, to be an active reader who pays close attention to the text, reads it again and again and seeks to just observe things. Write down questions, or think of questions to ask the text so that you can be engaging it at a very personal level. Those skills will open up the texts of Scripture and help you receive it as a word from God and apply it to your personal life.
Question 2:
What is the proper way to use Greek and Hebrew dictionaries when we interpret the Bible?
One way we can discover the original meaning of a passage is by looking at how the author used particular words and phrases in their historical setting. To do this, many scholars today promote a healthy understanding of the Bible’s original languages. This often involves the use of dictionaries. So, what is the proper way to use Greek and Hebrew dictionaries when we interpret the Bible?
Dr. Dan Doriani
Greek and Hebrew dictionaries are an aid to our own study. They do not supplant our study. So if you’re looking up a word, what does it mean in the original language? It’s vital to recognize that almost every word has multiple meanings except for technical terms. Almost every word you read in the New Testament or Old Testament has at least two meanings that are possible, two shades of meaning. And the best way to find out which meaning is in your text is by reading your text carefully. In other words, the context will drive you toward the proper definition. Now, that doesn’t mean the dictionaries can’t help you. They can help you nuance, they can help you go deeper in understanding what a word may mean. Or you may be totally ignorant of it and you have to start from there. But they’re not a magic answer. You don’t go to a dictionary and say, "This is the meaning of this word." You’ve got to put it in its contextual speech. It’s contextual. We get into problems when we miss that, or when we say, "Oh, the word 'save’ can mean 'rescue from hell and damnation’ or it can mean 'to preserve something,’" and then when we try to pour both meanings into a passage. The term for that is "illegitimate totality transfer." That is to say, to take all the possible meanings of a word and say they’re all in this use. It’s very rarely the case that we do that. In the English language, for example, I’m sitting in a chair. A chair is an object where you sit in it; it holds our weight and so forth. But "chair" can also be a verb. It can mean to chair a meeting or committee meeting, to be in charge. Well, when I say I’m sitting on a chair, I don’t mean I’m sitting on being in charge. We don’t want to pour both meanings into one use. We say, "Is this a literal use of this physical object that keeps us off the ground, or is this the metaphorical use of being in charge of something?" You don’t try to pour all possible definitions into any one use of a word. If you do, if you do try to make that, you will make mistakes.
Question 3:
Why is it important to identify the genre of a biblical book?