It is not possible within the scope of this
article to cover the subject of hermeneutics in any great depth, but I will
suggest a good book below in case you want to study this subject further.
Hermeneutics is the art of biblical
interpretation. As seen from my previous articles, this is matter of great
importance. Many handle the Word of God in a slapdash and frivolous fashion
and, in doing so, cause great damage to the body of Christ. This is sad because
there are tools available to us that would greatly help our understanding of
Scripture. Let us briefly consider some of them.
What musical genre are national anthems? Country.
The Bible is a book like no other. There are sixty-six books collated into one, with varying types of literary genre. Therein can be found law, narrative, wisdom, poetry, gospel, parable, epistle, and apocalyptic. Each of these kinds of literature have specific features that must be considered to properly understand what the text is saying. To not take into account the particular genre of writing will almost certainly lead to a misunderstanding of the text.
The Meaning of the Text
As a former Secondary School teacher, it was my
job to enforce the rules. At the beginning of a lesson I may have had a rule
written on the board. It may have said something like: ‘No talking when the
teacher is talking.’ It was a clear and obvious instruction, but it did not
stop students challenging it. ‘But Sir, what does that even mean’? To which I would
reply: ‘It means what it says. Now shut up and get on with your work.’
A basic premise of biblical interpretation is
that, unless there are clear and obvious reasons not to, we should take the
text at face value. If the text can be understood literally, then there is no
reason why it should not be understood literally. The text means whatever the
author intended, not what I think it means, and to understand what the author
meant we need to consider the text’s historical and grammatical context.
Context – Context - Context
The interpreter should, therefore, endeavour to take himself from the
present, and to transport himself into the historical position of his author,
look through his eyes, note his surroundings, feel with his heart, and catch
his emotion. Herein we note the import of the term grammatico-historical
interpretation.[1]
"A text without a context is a pretext”
In not considering the context, many cults use texts as a pretext for
false teaching. Sadly, it is not only cults that are guilty of this, many
within the Christian church can also fall into this trap.
Therefore, considering the context is vital to proper biblical interpretation. By context we mean, the immediate verses around the text, the paragraph, the chapter, the book, the author and how it then fits into the entirety of Scripture.
The Bible as interpreter
There is no doubt that there
are some verses in the Bible that are difficult to understand. What are we to
do with those? A hermeneutical principle can be used here. Where we find a
challenging verse, we should seek to understand it by holding it up against
clearer biblical passages which are dealing with the same issue. An example of this could be those tricky
verses found in Hebrews 6:4-6. Can a believer lose his/her salvation? What does
the Bible say elsewhere on this topic?
John 10:28,29 I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them
out of my hand. My Father, who has
given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out
of the Father's hand.
1 John 5:13 These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that
you may know that you have eternal life.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I
say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from
death to life.
Romans 8:38-39 For
I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As the weight of Scripture on this topic indicates that a true believer cannot lose his salvation, this would bring to bear on how one would interpret and understand Hebrews 6.
Bridge Building
We need to a build a bridge which takes us from
interpretation to application. Though we should understand the historical and
grammatical context, so we might comprehend the author’s original intent, we need
to also recognise that the Bible is not just a history book. The Bible is theopneustos
– God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness.[2]
The Word of God is alive and speaks to us and so we are right to ask how does the
text apply to us today.
As we have discovered Jeremiah 29:11 is not about
us, but that does not mean that there aren’t eternal principles that we can
take from it and apply to ourselves. We see in Scripture that God is making all
things new and, in the future, He will restore us to a promised land
where ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for
the former things have passed away.’[3] Through Jesus, God has plans to prosper us,
to give us a future and a hope.
Wait a minute – there’s more
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition: Gordon D. Fee
& Douglas Stuart
[1] Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics (NY:
Philips and Hunt, 1883), p.231.
[2] 2
Timothy 3:16-17
[3]
Revelation 21:4
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