Biblical Hermeneutics Basic Methodology of Biblical Interpretation

Transcription

1 Biblical Hermeneutics Basic Methodology of Biblical Interpretation I. Introduction A. The goals of interpretation: 1. Determine what the author meant by the words which he used. 2. Determine the timeless principles taught by the passage. B. A correct interpretation: 1. Consistent with the meaning of the words in the author s cultural setting. 2. Explains all of the details that are in the passage. a. Your observation of the details in the text is the primary evidence that your interpretation is correct. II. Basic methodological steps of biblical interpretation A. Follow these basic steps to arrive at the meaning: 1. Ask interpretive questions. 2. Answer your interpretive questions and justify your answers. 3. Find the timeless principles implied by the passage. B. Ask interpretive questions. 1. Interpretive questions identify the important issues to understand. 2. Interpretive questions flow from your observations. As you observe details, you should naturally want to know their meaning. 3. Some reasons to ask interpretive questions: a. Stimulate thinking. b. Force yourself to think seriously about the meaning of words and statements. c. Identify words and statements that need interpretation. d. Look more carefully at your observations to uncover their significance. 4. Example: 1 Thess. 1:4-5 a. What is the significance of the connective for? (v. 4) b. Who does Paul refer to when he says he has chosen you? (v. 4) Are others chosen or only the original readers? c. What is the gospel? (v. 5) d. How did the gospel come to them? (v. 5) e. Why does he say our gospel? Are there other gospels? Did Paul's gospel differ from the other apostles? (v. 5) f. What is the significance of the connective because? (v. 5) g. What did he mean by power and how was it shown? (v. 5) h. How would a person bring the gospel simply with words? (v. 5) Why did Paul not do this? i. How does the Holy Spirit relate to the power and deep conviction and the spread of the gospel? (v. 5) j. How did they live among the Thessalonians? (v. 5) k. What does he mean by for your sake? (v. 5) 5. Characteristics of good interpretive questions a. Open ended, not questions that can be answered with a yes or no. b. Focus on the meaning for the original audience. c. Indicates specific verses that the question relatse to (put the verse numbers in parentheses). 6. Interpretive questions should avoid: a. Questions that can be answered with simple observations about the passage ( Who did the Thessalonians imitate?) Copyright 2017 Dr. Harry A. Hahne

2 Interpretation: Basic Methodology Page 2 b. Questions should not focus on application or the relevance of the passage for today ( How can we bring the gospel to people with power? ) C. Answer your interpretive questions and justify your answers. 1. Justify your answers. Your goal is not simply to know what the passage means but also why that is the correct interpretation. 2. Follow this procedure: a. Propose possible interpretations. (1) For complex questions, brainstorm several different interpretations. (2) Brainstorming possible interpretations helps you get outside your normal ways of thinking to look at things in new ways. b. List the strengths and weaknesses of each proposed interpretation. c. Choose the interpretation which has the strongest support from the passage. d. Justify your interpretation. Justification will come from: (1) The details you observe in the passage. (2) Word definitions, in the original languages. (3) Grammar, syntax and structure of the passage. (4) Historical and cultural background. (5) Context: immediate context of the passage and the whole book. (6) Related passages in the Bible. This is the lowest priority, since you do not want to read the meaning of another passage into this one. e. Only look at commentaries after you have wrestled carefully with the issues yourself. If you use commentaries too early, they may stifle your thinking and narrow your insight into the passage. (1) Always compare several commentaries to get different perspectives. (2) Look for the justifications that the commentator gives for his interpretations. This is the most important information to gain from a commentary. 3. You may not be able to answer all of your questions. Keep them on the back burner. You may get an answer sometime later. a. Some issues can only be resolved by a knowledge of the original languages of the Bible or more historical and cultural background. Good commentaries can help fill in your lack of knowledge. b. Some issues will be resolved when you have a better knowledge of Scripture as a whole. As you mature in your understanding of the Bible they will resolve themselves. c. Some answers may have to be tentative. (e.g. When Paul was in Thessalonica, he identified the man of lawlessness mentioned in 1 Thess. 2) d. Not all questions are answerable with our present knowledge. (1) We may lack information which was known to the original readers. (e.g. the precise meaning of some Hebrew words or the nature of the heresies that prompted Paul's letters). (2) Some issues that were unsolvable ay one time have been resolved as scholars have learned more about the language, culture and history of biblical times. See Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. (3) Although we cannot understand everything with certainty in the Bible, everything God thought important for us to know is clear in Scripture.

3 Interpretation: Basic Methodology Page 3 D. Find the timeless principles implied by the passage. 1. Principles are doctrinal ideas or ethical requirements which are true in any culture and time in history. 2. Example: Acts 1:8: a. Interpretation: Jesus commanded the apostles to witness about Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the remote parts of the earth. This involves taking the gospel to every part of the world. b. Principle: Christians have a responsibility to take the gospel not only to people in their own locality, but also other parts of the world. 3. In order to draw the timeless principles correctly from the passage you must first correctly understand the meaning of the passage for the original readers. a. E.g. In Acts 1:8, we must understand the racial conflict between Jews and Samaritans to appreciate the significance of Jesus command to take the good news about Him to Samaria. Then it can be generalized to become a principle about the responsibility of the church for crosscultural and cross-racial missions. 4. Not all points of interpretation can be reduced to timeless principles. a. Some things only applied to the original readers. b. Some are simply descriptive of what originally happened. c. Timeless principles are drawn from an understanding of the place of the passage in the history of revelation and a correct understanding of the historical occasion of the text. (1) E.g. Acts 1:8 is not a command for every Christian to go to Jerusalem as a missionary, although Jesus commanded the first disciples to do this. Historically the church consisted almost entirely of Jewish believers and the Messiah was sent to Israel first. Later the gospel went out to the Gentiles. Acts 1:8 points to this historical process of the spread of the gospel and the universalization of Christianity. Once you understand these points it is valid to draw principles such as that we should take the gospel to our own locality first and that the Church as a whole should take the Gospel to the entire world. 5. Principles bridge the gap between the original meaning and the modern application. a. If you go too quickly to application you may try to apply things that were not intended for you. b. The principle helps us understand what applies in all ages so we can ask how to apply it in a culturally relevant manner to today's problems and needs. E. After finishing your study of the passage, summarize the principles taught in the passage. 1. This gives you an overview of the message of the passage. 2. It keeps you from getting lost in the details. 3. You may need to revise your paragraph and chapter titles, as you better understand the teachings of the passage. III. Checkpoints for a correct interpretation A. The correct interpretation is pointed to by the convergence of several factors: 1. Does the interpretation fit the normal meanings of words as used in the author's language and time? 2. Does the interpretation fit the grammar and structure of the passage?

4 Interpretation: Basic Methodology Page 4 3. Does the interpretation fit the context? 4. Does the interpretation fit the facts of culture, history and geography? 5. Is the interpretation consistent with the rules of interpretation for the type of literature? 6. Is the interpretation consistent with other Scripture? B. Some general suggestions about interpretation: 1. Use these checkpoints when you justify your interpretation. Any interpretation which does not cohere with these checkpoints is wrong. 2. All of these checkpoints together narrow down the possible meanings. Any one or two checkpoints in themselves may be ambiguous and may be inadequate to determine the correct meaning. 3. The checkpoints cannot be applied in isolation from one another. The factors interact with each other. 4. Weigh the interpretations of commentaries by these checkpoints. a. Commentaries are not infallible. b. The better ones bring a knowledge of the original languages, culture and history that you may lack. c. You can often trust the raw data such as word meaning to a greater extent than their conclusions. Use this information as additional input for testing the validity of various alternatives. 5. Avoid cherry-picking (selectively choosing data to prove a viewpoint, while ignoring other data). 6. What if there is no clear interpretation? a. Sometimes ambiguity on one or more points can lead to several competing interpretations. b. When several interpretations seem to have good support and godly interpreters disagree, have the humility not to be dogmatic and accept our differences. c. Occam's razor: If 2 interpretations are equally likely, the simpler explanation is to be preferred. 7. Always be open to modify your interpretations when you receive new information. You should be growing in your understanding of God's Word throughout your life. IV. Examples: A. Phil 4:6-7: example of justification and a principle 1. Interpretive question: What is the relationship between verses 6 and 7? 2. Answer: v. 7 indicates the result of v. 6. It promises that when a person prays in every situation with thanksgiving, the result is that God will give His supernatural peace which transforms the person s thoughts and emotions. 3. Justification: a. The connective and implies a continuation of thought between the statement about making a request and the statement about the coming of peace. b. The future tense ( shall guard ) suggest the peace comes after the praying or perhaps sometime after the praying has begun.

5 Interpretation: Basic Methodology Page 5 c. There are 2 contrasts: (1) Anxiety/peace--shown by but (2) Two responses to an implied distressful situation: anxiety, prayer (shown by but and the commands not to do one thing and to do another) 4. Principle: When a believer prays with thanksgiving in his heart, asking God to help him with a distressing situation, God will give supernatural peace that will help him not to be as anxious and to focus his thoughts on positive things. B. Joshua 3: example of a narrative (the story of the Israelites crossing the Jordan with Joshua):: 1. Interpreting a narrative can be more difficult that direct teachings, such as letters and sermons. a. You must look at the entire story, not just an isolated verse or scene. This gives you context to evaluate the actions of the characters. b. You must also ask whether the behavior is an example of good behavior, bad behavior or a neutral behavior that might have been reasonable in that situation, but not in every situation. c. In epistles and sermons (e.g. Mt 5-7), the principle will often be very close to the interpretation. For narratives, poetry and other genres, the principle may be slightly different than the meaning for the original audience, since it is more generalized than the meaning in the original situation. 2. Interpretive question: Why did God part the waters of the Jordan river? 3. Interpretation: When the priests put their feet in the water of the Jordan, God parted the waters of the river in response to their faith in his promise. Their faith in God s promise was demonstrated through their act of obedience. 4. Justification: a. Although the narrative does use the term faith or obedience, it illustrates these ideas. God s command is explicitly given in 3:3-8. The promise that God will bring them into the land is clear in previous chapters (e.g. 1:3-5). In 1:3 he promised that they would cross the Jordan. The command is repeated to the spiritual leaders and they were to lead the people in the act of faith. Note how important the larger context is in a narrative. b. Important: Never interpret a verse or pericope in isolation. The promise is the basis for the act of faith. This is not proof that faith can do anything. 5. Principles: a. God fulfills his promises to his people in response to their faith. b. We must exercise faith in order to experience the benefits of God s promised blessings. c. Faith is demonstrated through obedience to God. d. The faith of godly spiritual leaders has a benefit for the whole people of God to whom they minister. Note how the principle generalizes a specific historical situation of crossing the Jordan into the land of promise. But without understanding what was happening correctly in the original situation, we tend to allegorize rather than draw valid principles. C. Rom. 8:19: an example of weighing several options 1. Interpretive question: What is the meaning of creation? 2. Basic process: a. Do a word study of all places where the Greek word for creation (ktisis) is used in the NT (and possibly the LXX). This shows the range of possible meanings of the word.

6 b. Determine which of the possible meanings best fits the context. 3. Major Options: a. Universal view: All created things as a whole b. Cosmic view: The subhuman creation, or nature c. Anthropomorphic view: Humanity c1. Unbelievers c2. Believers Interpretation: Basic Methodology Page 6 4. Pros and cons of various views: a. All created things: (1) Strengths: (a) V. 22 refers to all creation. (b) A word study of creation shows that in many places in the NT the word is comprehensive. (2) Weakness: Certain parts of the created order are excluded by the context: (a) V. 23 contrasts believers from all creation in previous verse ( also we ourselves ). (b) Demons do not eagerly await the coming of believers with Christ at his second coming. They also will not be redeemed (v. 21). (c) Unbelievers are not awaiting the revealing of the saints. (d) Angels have not been subjected to futility (vv ). b. Subhuman creation: (1) Strengths: (a) When believers, unbelievers, angels and demons are excluded as above, nature is left from among created things. (b) Some OT and Jewish intertestamental passages use the term all creation to refer to a more limited class of created beings, depending on the focus on the context. (c) Some OT and Jewish intertestamental passages use the term creation for nature. (d) Many OT examples of personification of nature like this. (2) Weakness: (a) Emotional responses such as groaning and eager expectation are human responses, not animal or nature. (Rebuttal: this is personification, typical of the OT and Jewish intertestamental literature). c. Unbelieving humanity (1) Strength: (a) Mk 16:15 uses creation for humanity. (2) Weaknesses: (a) Mark 16:15 is not in the best manuscripts and using Mk. to support Paul is weak methodologically (b) Unbelievers are not awaiting the revealing of the saints. (c) This would suggest all people will be saved (v. 21). d. Believing humanity (1) Strengths: (a) Previous context speaks about suffering and glory of believers. (b) Paul uses creation to refer to believers in 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15.

7 Interpretation: Basic Methodology Page 7 (2) Weakness: (a) Romans 8 frequently contrasts believers from creation (v. 19, creation awaits them; v. 21. creation will benefit from the glory of believers; v. 23 contrasts the groaning of believers from the groaning of creation) 5. Conclusion: Subhuman creation is best supported by the context and fits usage in other places. V. Recommended reading: The Exegetical Summary series by SIL International included in Logos Bible software. It lists numerous interpretive questions on various biblical passages and summarizes the answers given by various interpreters.