Biblical Interpretation
Proper
interpretation and understanding of the Bible requires three basic
tools;
- Understanding of biblical context,
- Understanding of historical context, and
- Understanding of original languages.
The Rule of Context is
Context Rules.
In
order to understand scripture we must always take the context of
scripture into account.
- What was the author saying in the whole chapter, the whole book?
- Who was he talking to?
- Why?
There once
was a man who wanted to know God’s will in his life, so he randomly opened
his Bible. It fell to the scripture where Judas killed himself.
Wondering what this meant for him, he randomly opened his Bible again.
This time it fell open to the scripture where Jesus says;
“...Then said
Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:37)
Was this God
telling him to kill himself? Of course not.
You must take scripture in
its context. You CAN NOT take a verse here and a verse there and put
them together to form a doctrine. This is mis-handling of the Word of
God.
God tells some people to do things He doesn’t want
everyone to do.
For example, all believers are not to go preach to
Nineveh as Jonah was told to do.
Or build a large boat and gather a
bunch of animals onto it.
Or lay in the middle of the city, naked,
eating nothing but bread and not talking for an entire year like Ezekiel
was told to.
We must pay attention to who each scripture was written to
and why. The moral lessons taught in every scripture can be applied to
our lives, but the fact of the scripture applies to who it was written
to.
History
The
second rule of biblical interpretation requires we see what was
happening in history.
For example, when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh
(the capital of the Assyrian empire), it was because the Ninavites were
very cruel conquerors of the entire region. They would cut the heads off
of the leaders of each city-state they conquered and often torture the
inhabitants.
God was fed up, so He sent Jonah to warn them to change their
ways or else.
Of course we know that it worked; they repented and God
spared the city. Well, for a while anyway. History tells us that the
city relapsed into its old ways and was destroyed for its cruelty a
generation or so later.
We must understand the history surrounding an event to truly understand what the Bible is telling us.
Original Languages
The
third tool we need to really understand the Bible is a knowledge of
original languages. This is not so hard as it used to be.
Any
Internet-connected computer has access to a Strong’s Concordance (and
they are available in book-form from any book seller for as little as
$10.00).
A concordance is a list of each word in the Bible and its location AND
its definition in the original language. You simply look up the words in
a verse and see what the original author meant.
The Concordance A
concordance is an assemblage of every word in the Bible in alphabetical
order with all of its locations. The Strong's concordance also links
you to the original Hebrew or Greek word and gives the definition of
that word. This better allows you to know what the author really meant
when he wrote that scripture.
Let's say we want to know
where the verse "For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall
have ever lasting life" is found.
First we will pick a word to look
up- “world.” In
the alphabetical listing we find that the word "world" is listed 249
times. This means that in 249 verses the translators translated a Greek
or Hebrew word to mean "world."
Forty-six of these are in the Old
Testament. In the 203 New Testament occurrences, three different Greek
words (represented by three different numbers; 165, 2889, and 3625) were
translated into the word "world."
By reading the part of each verse
listed we find that the one we want is John 3:16.
“World” in this verse
is number 2889. We turn to the Greek Lexicon in the back and find that
this "world" is κόσμος or in the English alphabet; kosmos. It means:
- The world, the universe
- The circle of the earth, the earth
3. The
inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family
4. The ungodly multitude;
the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the
cause of Christ
5. World affairs, the aggregate of things earthly
- The whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ
6. Any
aggregate or general collection of particulars of any sort
- The Gentiles as contrasted to the Jews (Rom. 11:12 etc)
- Of believers only, John 1:29; 3:16; 3:17; 6:33; 12:47 1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Cor. 5:19
Thompson Chain Reference Bible
This is the Bible required by many Bible colleges. It is King James.
Down
the sides of each page are two columns with numbers and scriptures. The
scriptures take you to other scriptures on the same subject as the
adjoining verses. The numbers take you to a supplement in the back that
lists scriptures by subjects. These numbers correspond to the numbers in the Strong's concordance. Before this supplement is a Table Of
Contents that lists all the different subjects so you can look up
whichever one you need.
The Thompson Chain also has:
- A concordance (not as complete as Strong's, of course),
- Maps,
- Charts about the life of Christ and other prominent Bible characters,
- Summaries of each book in the Bible,
- And an archaeological supplement.
Dickson Bible
(No
longer in print, but there are several similar Study Bibles out there)
In the front of it is a very good dictionary with scripture references.
In the back, the concordance also gives a definition.
It also has:
- In-verse definitions.
- “The Life of ….” outline pages.
- A chart of tables and measures,
- A timeline and synopsis of each book,
- And chapter, maps, and other helps.
Center Reference
(Cambridge
is one brand)
These Bibles have a column down the middle of the page
with small numbers or letters followed by definitions of words in the
corresponding scripture and sometimes other verses on the same subjects.
Bible dictionary
This is a dictionary specific to giving you the Biblical definitions of words and terms.
Comparative Bible
This
is a Bible that has more than one translation in the same book. It will
have one translation in one column and another right next to that.
These are good for Bible studies to see how each translation words each verse.
They have from two to twelve different
versions. (A great online comparative Bible is Here. It has many different version, commentaries and Strong's all in one place.)
Bible Atlas
This is a book
of maps, pictures and information about the biblical region of the world
(modern day Palestine).
They usually have different maps of the same
area marked for different time periods. For example, one map may be
marked for the travels Moses and the next for Joshua’s, while a later
one is marked for Christ and another for Paul.
Important!
Remember
that commentaries and all these helps, as well as the Internet, are
written by human beings.
They are fallible.
They may help us understand
the Bible or they may confuse us, or even lead us into lies.
Use them
carefully and always check EVERYTHING out with the Bible itself.
EVERY
Christian should read the entire Bible, cover to cover, at least three
times before
reading any commentaries and frequently thereafter (I try to read it through every year).
This applies to the Internet also. In fact, this may
even be true for listening to preachers on the radio who are not your
pastor.
It is important to be well founded in what really is in the
Bible before you listen to humans.