INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE

The theory of interpretation itself has become a central theological issue. Interpreting the Scriptures without the help of the Holy Spirit will lead to false doctrines. Those who do not believe in the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit in understanding the Scriptures, depend on their own power and knowledge and end up in formulating their own false theories.

Misinterpretation of the Word of God is the most systematic and most serious spiritual lie. Some tell spiritual lies by over-spiritualizing Bible. Others misinterpret the Bible in such a way as to steal the God-intended meaning out of it. Any attempt to edit the revelation of God through man’s theories and philosophies is an affront to the Word of God.

Bible does not approve everything that is recorded in it. E.g. Cain kills Abel. Gen 3 not approve of murder. It is just the record of an event. The seeming discrepancies and problems of the Bible are due to the lack of knowledge. They can be solved with relevant information.

PRINCIPLES OF THE BIBLE INTERPRETATION

Interpretation is the process by which the meaning and message of the biblical text is determined and understood. Its purpose is to decide on the original meaning of the passage. Because if we miss God's meaning, we no longer have God's word. Bible was written by people to be understood by people using normal human language. Bible is normal literature with prose, poetry and narrative. It is a special literature with parables, prophecy and proverbs. It contains divine, progressive revelation but is totally unified. The OT is not complete without NT and the NT can only be understood fully in the light of the OT. Moreover, the truth of God's word is spiritually discerned and accepted. Hence reason, study and man's mind alone will not reveal the truth of scripture and enable us to accept it as truth. For understanding Bible effectively, one should remember that Bible is trustworthy, authoritative and inerrant; that it is a unity and one part will not contradict another and that Bible's revelation is divine, progressive and complete. Moreover, one should study diligently and rely on the Holy Spirit.

SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BIBLE INTERPRETATION

INTERPRET LITERALLY: The scripture should be interpreted literally taking words, phrases and sentences in their usual, normal, natural and customary sense. Literal interpretation could be both plain literal and figurative literal. The opposite of literal interpretation is allegorizing or spiritualizing which looks for a secret or hidden meaning which is often unrelated to the true, original meaning of the passage. Over-spiritualizing a passage is telling spiritual lies and thus obscuring the meaning of God's word.  Allegorizing is too subjective and hides the real meaning of the text.

INTERPRET IN CONTEXT: Each passage of Bible has to be interpreted in its context where it is located, what precedes it, what follows after it and how it is related to other scriptures. The context for each verse is the Bible itself.

INTERPRET IN VIEW OF HISTORY AND CULTURE:   Each passage of the Bible has to be interpreted considering the author, date, place and reason for writing and other historical factors. Moreover, the cultural context (beliefs and practices) of the people at that particular place and time are also to be considered. But the cultural practices and tradition should be measured against the teaching of the word of God.

INTERPRET IN VIEW OF LITERARY FORM: Each passage of the Bible has to be interpreted considering the various literary forms such as prose, narrative, prophecy, poetry, parable or proverb.

INTERPRET IN VIEW OF OTHER PARTS OF SCRIPTURE AND THEOLOGICAL CONSISTENCY:    Each passage should be interpreted by relating similar passages in the Bible. Bible will never contradict itself. A simple, natural meaning should be chosen over a more a complex one. The NT and OT help us understand the other. Ambiguous passages should be interpreted in view of clear, central ones. When NT quotes OT it need not have to be exact. Bible doesn't approve everything recorded in it. Different accounts of the same incident are complementary, not contradictory. Some numerical inconsistencies are copyist's errors. If we do not have a complete explanation for a passage it doesn't mean that there is not one.

BASIC STEPS IN HERMENEUTICS

Determining what the passage meant to those who first received it and determining what God wanted me to do as result of what that passage meant to those who first received it. God’s command to Noah to build an ark, obviously, was limited to a particular time and circumstance. The commands of the Law of Moses were not given to Gentiles or to those living under the Christian dispensation. We do, however, live under the law of Christ (Romans 7:1-7), and Jesus left commandments for us to follow (John 14:15). So we find commands that apply in our dispensation: believe in Jesus (Acts 16:31) and repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). We have commands to worship, to put away sinful deeds, and to care for the needy.Romans 13:1-7, commands us to obey the government, but Acts 4:19 teaches us, by the example of Peter and John, that if man’s law contradicts God’s command, "we must obey God rather than men."

HOW TO DETERMINE THE MOST ESSENTIAL ISSUES FOR SP LIFE

Identify those issues which are commonly focused by all writers and apostles in the Bible. Those issues most repeated. You will see it as the faith in God Jesus and obedience to him.

IF WE HAVE UNDERSTOOD A PASSAGE CORRECTLY, WE MUST ALSO ASK WHETHER THE PASSAGE CONTAINS AN EXAMPLE FROM WHICH GOD WANTS US TO LEARN.

To find out that ask questions such as: Is this practice intended to establish a precedent? Is this practice one that was consistently followed by early Christians? Does the practice has apostolic approval? Is this practice the result of an underlying principle? Are there exceptions to this practice approved by the apostles? For example, the early Christians sometimes met in upper rooms. But they also met in other places. Hence no precedent is to be established for meeting in upper rooms only. On the other hand, there are some practices that clearly do meet the above criteria. In all of the recorded cases of conversion in the book of Acts, people were baptized. This also corresponds with commands that are given. We have no command, however, about the particular day in which Christians are to meet to take the Lord’s supper.Yet we know, both from scripture and from history, that the practice of the early church, under apostolic guidance, was to meet on the first day of each week and, at that time, to take of the Lord’s supper.

EIGHT RULES OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

"And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation." [2 Peter 1:19, 20]. Since the Bible teaches that God is not the author of confusion [1 Cor. 14:33]. All false doctrines taught today by Christians and cultists alike can be traced to the distortion of the meaning of Biblical words.

Here are the rules:

1. DEFINITION. Define your terms and then keep to the terms defined. The interpreter should conscientiously abide by the plain meaning of the words.
2. USAGE. The Old Testament was written originally by, to and for Jews. The words and idioms must have been intelligible to them - just as the words of Christ when talking to them must have been. The majority of the New Testament likewise was written in a milieu of Greco-Roman (and to a lesser extent Jewish) culture and it is important to not impose our modern usage into our interpretation.
3. The rule of CONTEXT: The meaning must be gathered from the context. Every word you read must be understood in the light of the words that come before and after it. A good example of this is the Mormon practice of using 1 Cor. 8:5b: "...for there be gods many and lords many..." as a "proof text" of their doctrine of polytheism. However, a simple reading of the whole verse in the context of the whole chapter (e.g. where Paul calls these gods "so-called"), plainly demonstrates that Paul is not teaching polytheism.
4. The rule of HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The interpreter must have some awareness of the life and society of the times in which the Scripture was written.
5. The rule of LOGIC: Interpretation is merely logical reasoning. When interpreting Scripture, the use of reason is everywhere to be assumed.
6. The rule of PRECEDENT: We must not violate the known usage of a word and invent another for which there is no precedent. Just as a judge's chief occupation is the study of previous cases, so must the interpreter use precedents in order to determine whether they really support an alleged doctrine. Consider the Bereans in Acts 17:10-12 who were called "noble" because they searched the Scriptures to determine if what Paul taught them was true.
7. These eight principles are no substitute for the Holy Spirit which will, if you let Him, guide you in the truth [John 14:26]. If you receive Christ into your heart, God will give you the Holy Spirit freely as a gift [Acts 2:38].

SPECIAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION

PARABLES:            A parable is a 'true to life 'story taken from common life and constructed around one main idea. The parable should be examined to determine the central truth taught.

PROVERBS: The proverb should be examined to determine what it teaches about how to live wisely. It is a simple statement of truth.

POETRY: The figurative language and parallel structure of the Hebrew poetry should be examined to determine the meaning of poetry. Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas not words.

FIGURES OF SPEECH: It is an unusual form of expression of word or phrase which creates a mental image or paints a word picture. One has to determine the figure of speech used and evaluate its impact on the idea stated. Examples of common figures of speech in the Bible are simile, metaphor, personification, anthropomorphism, idiom, euphemism, hyperbole, irony etc.

SYMBOLS: A symbol is a word or phrase which represents something else. Its purpose is to illustrate an idea. One has to examine all symbols carefully to determine the purpose and meaning of the representation.

TYPOLOGY: A type is an OT pattern, example, prefiguring or foreshadowing of a NT person or event. One should examine the types to make sure that there is direct correspondence between the OT example and its NT counterpart.

PROPHECY: One should examine prophetic passages using the general rules of interpretation, but carefully considering special features of biblical prophecy such as that the time of fulfillment of the prophecy was unknown to the prophet, near application and far fulfillment, and progressive nature or the partial fulfillment of the prophecy to date. While interpreting a prophecy one has to compare all related and parallel passages. One has to also realize that there may be a long time between the announcement of the prophecy and its fulfillment. Moreover, the already fulfilled prophecy and yet to be fulfilled one should be distinguished.

DO MINISTRY ACCORDING TO RULES OF THE BIBLE AND FOLLOWING THE MODELS OF JESUS AND PAUL AND OTHER APOSTLES.

GOD COMMANDED MOSES TO COMMAND TO ROCK. But Moses beat rock 2 times. God gave water, but punished Moses. So, we must keep the commands of God as it is. Some may do ministry in disobedience and may find some positive result. But that is not God’s approval of your style but God’s mercy to the people.

IN the New Testament SPIRITUALITY, the doctrinal criteria include:

1. What Jesus commanded.
2. What apostles instructed
3. What is instructed in epistles and recorded as experienced by God’s people. Because when we obey what God commanded, we may even have different experiences from God than the recorded ones (2Cor 11:4; 2:17).
4. EVERY WORD OF BIBLE IS IMPORTANT – SO THE NUMBER AND WEIGHT OF WORDS DEALING WITH A PARTICULAR ISSUE IS IMPORTANT IN DEFINING THE FOCUS OF THE ISSUE.
5. REPETITIVE INSTRUCTIONS ON A PARTICULAR ISSUE MARKS ITS PRIORITY. WHAT ALL THE WRITERS ARE FOCISSING IS MORE IMPORTANT.
6. DO NOT USE ASSUMPTION FROM A BIBLICAL EVENT OR EVENTS, OR SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCE TO MAKE A DOCTRINE. OUR INTERPRETATION OF THE EVENTS SHOULD MATCH AND BALANCE WITH THE BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE EVENT, PROPORTIONALLY.