5 Principles Of Good Hermeneutics (3)

     Now that we have established that Hermeneutics is a science that must follow rules in order to be considered valid, here are five principles of GOOD hermeneutics.

1) The Literal Principle
     The Bible is about real people, real history, and uses real (normal) language. It is not a metaphoric, symbolic list of mumbo jumbo. When the writer (namely God) wanted to communicate something, he said it. I like to say that if God is smart enough to know what He wants to say, He's smart enough to be able to make sure the message gets across.
     Going back to my previous post, keep in mind normal language does have NORMAL metaphorical language (e.g. she's as smart as a whip, it's a stone's throw away). But as the great Hal Lindsey once said,

If the plain sense makes perfect sense, seek no other sense, lest you end up with nonsense.

     If you torture the data long enough -- even the Bible -- it will confess to anything. The Literal Principle is to be take very seriously.

2) The Historical Principle
     Historical context is everything! Culture, geography, racial views, figures of speech, politics, problems, pressures, customs... All of these factors shape the lens through which we interpret scripture. For example, in America we have the phrase, "Benedict Arnold!" (coming from American History, it means a liar, backstabber or traitor). If a person who never learned American history heard the phrase not only would it mean nothing, it would be confusing. On another level, right after the Twin Towers in New York City fell to Muslim terrorists, how do you think the entire Muslim community was viewed by native New Yorkers?
     All of these issues are present in the Bible. What the author intended to communicate is the most important of all of these factors: understanding the culture is everything.

3) The Grammatical Principle
     The Bible was NOT written in English. Although some would like to argue otherwise, the BEST interpretation of the Bible must come from studying the original languages. This does not necessarily mean that one has to go to seminary and take four years of Greek and Hebrew (though that certainly helps!) but there are plenty of sources for the layperson to use and still have just as much understanding and access to the original languages (see my sidebar link to Blue Letter Bible.)
     The Language and Syntax of a text -- word studies and the syntactical construction -- are the brass tacks of understanding any language. When proper time is spent on understanding the actual words and phrases another level of meaning is revealed.

4) The Synthesis Principle
     Very simply: Scripture interprets Scripture. The Bible talks about itself all the time! The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is a colossal cross-reference system to help you find the places where the Bible interprets itself.

5) The Practical Principle
     I'm not talking about application of scripture here. The question is, "What are the implications of this interpretation?" Does it make sense with the more clear, more easily understood passages? Most importantly, it is the Holy Spirit that illuminates Scripture so that it may be understood. If the scholar has not submitted himself to Christ Scripture CANNOT be understood.
     Read the whole chapter of 1Corinthians 2, but I'd like to focus on verse 14:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

     Natural Man cannot understand the Bible because he does not have the Holy Spirit guiding his study.

     With these tools under your belt, hopefully, you're better prepared now to study the Bible in the fullness God desires for you. Something I like to do (I've tried to adopt it for everything) is to pray that in anything and everything that I may bring glory to God, and that He will guide me to know Him better. Since the Bible is God's mode of speaking to us, why not ask Him to help us understand it?

     One last thing: The smartest people in the world don't have everything memorized; they just know where to find it. Undertaking the study of anything (much less God) can seem overwhelming. Don't be afraid to ask for help or search for those who've been doing it longer than you have. They are usually the best sources of encouragement.

Errors To Avoid In Hermeneutics (2)

     As promised, here are three errors to avoid in biblical interpretation.

     1) Do NOT make a point at the price of proper interpretation.

     This can be difficult if you're like me, and will go to great lengths to win an argument. The tricky part is understanding and remembering that this is God's word with which we are dealing! Mess with it and you mess with HIM. Something of which I have personally needed to repent is when I continue to use a particular interpretation that is widely accepted -- even when I know it is FALSE. God is powerful enough all by Himself; He doesn't need any "extra help" that we have to offer by resorting to petty or manipulative means in order to get His (or more likely OUR) point across.

     2) Avoid Superficial Study.

     Bible study is hard work -- it cannot be done flippantly. We are aliens reading an alien text; EVERYTHING about the Bible is foreign to us -- therein lies the work. It takes time and effort to be able to understand the Bible AS IT WAS INTENDED. One cannot expect to open the Bible to any random page and understand what it says without proper study.

     However! Do not be dismayed. The perspicuity of scripture stands true! The Bible is NOT so alien that is cannot be understood. It is hard work to get the the meaning, but it can be done if proper time and effort are put in to understanding the Word of God.
     With this in mind, it is arrogance to believe that one has the ability to perfectly interpret scripture WITHOUT the education and wisdom of two thousand years of Biblical scholarship. Those who say, "I understand the Bible perfectly. I read it myself and I don't need anyone else to explain it to be. I can do it all on my own," those are the ones who most likely fools. To believe that one can understand the depth of a text written over two thousand years ago, in another language, in another part of the world is foolhardy, arrogant and dangerous.

     3) Do NOT spiritualize or allegorize the text.

     This would be classified as using the scripture to make up a story in order to make it mean whatever you want it to mean, OR to mystify the scripture into being inapplicable (call it, glossing over the "hard" parts). This is dangerously close to Deuteronomy 4:2,

"You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."

and Revelation 22:19,

"and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book."

     Does this mean we must interpret every single verse of the Bible completely literally? No, but keep in mind, we are aliens reading an alien text. Just as we have idioms and metaphors in English, the Bible has the idioms and metaphors of its time. The great danger of spiritualizing and allegorizing the Bible is to take away the real meaning being communicated through the Bible. God put those words there for a reason, and He wants to be understood.

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter." (Proverbs 25:2)

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)

Beginnings of Hermeneutics (1)

     Being true to my former post, I am going to try to give some beginnings/basics of theology. Or perhaps it would be better said, "Deeper study, in small pieces." I do not want to water down truth in an attempt to make it shorter, but I don't like reading long blog posts anymore than you do ;) That being said, here is a little bit that I learned about HERMENEUTICS.

     Hermeneutics is the interpretation of Scripture. It is the study of the biblical grammar plus syntax in order to come up with the proper translation AND asking a series of questions to best understand the translation AS THE WRITER INTENDED.

     Hermeneutics is a SCIENCE. Just like any other science, hermeneutics operates under a list of fixed rules -- the same way the study of any literary or historical document is to be taken seriously. Scripture therefore has ONE true interpretation (there may be several or many applications but ONLY ONE correct interpretation.) If you think about it, that's the whole point of good communication. For example, if we're in the military, and the general gives his troops a list of commands, what good does it do if there are multiple interpretations of the commands? How will the troops ever know what the general really wanted if he was not clear in his orders? Why should it be any different with God and man? After all, there is a war going on and the troops need clear instructions from their Leader.

     The question, "What does this verse mean to me?" has nothing to do with what it actually means. If one cannot rightly divide scripture they will stand before God ashamed. (Scarey thought! But this emphasizes why digging deep into scripture and theology is so important!) Misinterpretation is not believing what the Bible says because one believes what is does NOT say. (Wrap your mind around that one! It sure blew mine!)

     There are two words that we will probably be using a lot -- if not they're still good words for any aspiring biblical scholar to know ;P -- so let's get those out of the way...
     Exegesis : this comes from the Greek root exe which means out of (think like the word exit). Exegesis means to pull the meaning out of the text. Keep in mind, this means the meaning being taken OUT of the text must be IN the text in the first place.
     Isogesis : this comes from the Greek root iso which means into. Isogesis means to put meaning from the outside into the text. This will result in poor or false interpretation of the text.

     That seems like a good start for now. I'll follow up with some more posts on errors to avoid and principals of interpretation.

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter." (Proverbs 25:2)

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)

More Than Skin Deep

      Now stop right there! This is not going to be a post about how true beauty is on the inside or anything like that -- not that I have a problem with those kinds of posts, but that is NOT what I'm going to do here. This is actually going to be a post with guys -- who will be are futures leaders -- in mind. BUT don't tune out ladies; this is every bit as important for you as it is for them!

     With that out of the way, let us begin. The new year is almost here, Christmas, the oh so special remembrance of Jesus' Christ's birth, (should be) fresh in our hearts and minds. Something that has been recently pressed into my mind is the importance of studying the Bible -- and I mean really studying the Bible!

     In the words of one of my favorite teachers, John MacArthur, "When reading the Bible, we have to understand that we are Aliens reading and Alien text." I'm not talking about the little green men that fly around in silver saucers here, but the traditional definition of alien:

"Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange" (The American Heritage Dictionary)

       The Bible was written, literally, thousands of years ago; in a different language; with different people, politics, values, geography, culture, figures of speech, customs; and WE -- today --  are not brought up knowing any of these. How can we possibly expect to understand -- I mean really understand the deep issues and meaning of the Bible -- without putting in a great amount of effort to understand the Bible the way the writer (God) intended it to be understood?

     People spend lifetimes studying and learning in order to be able to rightly divide scripture; is it unreasonable that we Christians today should devote some time and effort into understand the Bible? Taking time to begin devotions is the first step to understanding and studying the Bible, but it is just that: the FIRST step. To end there is not enough. As Christians, we are to devote all of our essence to being the best representatives of Jesus Christ that we can be; part of this effort is learning and truly understanding the Bible.

     God has been pressuring me, personally, lately to begin to dig down deep into His word -- to truly understand what I believe, why I believe it, and, most importantly, what He actually says. It is my desire to grow in my knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Bible. I ask that you, my beloved audience, join me in the journey of deeply studying the Bible as The Author intended it to be understood -- All to the Glory of God!

     Here are some resources to help get you started:

     Grace To You is John MacArthur's  website. He is an amazing pastor at Grace Church in California and one of the founders for the Master's College. He is a gifted teacher and is so passionate for everyone to learn the Bible that he has posted all of his sermons for free online! He style of "preaching" isn't really "preaching" at all, it's much more like "seminary lectures" -- but have no fear! He makes everything easy to understand and throws in some entertaining humor as well.

     Here is a searchable list of his sermons:

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/title

     Here is a searchable list of all of his resources:

http://www.gty.org/resources

     In my blog's sidebar is a link to the Blue Letter Bible -- which has absolutely saved my hide in many a theological project. The Blue Letter Bible has (virtually) every translation of the Bible that is automatically paired with a lexical interlinear of the original language (all you have to do is click the verse reference!) Here is another link to it:

http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm

     Beginning study of the Bible can be intimidating; however, if you pursue understanding with a heart of devotion to the Lord, God will honor your desire. Being the master of all thing, He will provide you with both the resources and the teachers necessary for understanding His Word. He is smart enough to know what you need and when you need it ;)