JC Disciples

Interpreting the Bible

What is the Bible?

The Bible is a collection of 66 books which were written over a 1500 year period. The Bible is unique as compared to all other world religious books because of its unity (even across many authors and times), authority (claim that it is the Word of God), historical integrity (the Bible describes events that happened in history), and verifiability (there is archeological evidence to support Biblical claims).

  1. Organization
    The Bible is divided into two major sections, the Old and New Testaments.
    • What does the word Testament mean in the Biblical context?
      The word Testament means Covenant in Biblical terms. A covenant was a will or legal document between two parties.
    • What is the covenant that is described in the Old Testament?
      There are three covenants found in the OT. The first covenant is between Abraham and his descendants with God, that they would receive the land of Israel (Genesis 12:2,3). The second covenant is Mosaic Covenant is God's Law, the constitution for the state of Israel (Exodus 19:4-6,8; Exodus 20:1-7, Exodus 21:1-23:33, Exodus 24:1-8). The last covenant is the Davidic Covenant, where God promises that David's house will rule Israel forever (Psalm 89:2-4).
    • What is the covenant that is described in the New Testament?
      The new Covenant is predicted by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:33-34) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36) which would replace the sinful nature of man with the righteousness of God. This covenant is fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. Jesus himself describes the covenant in Matthew 26:28 and Luke 22:20.

  2. Old Testament
    The OT is broken into three major sections. The first section is called the Torah or Pentateuch, which contains the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). For Orthodox Jews the Torah is the only part of the Bible that is the "Word of God". The next section is the Prophets which includes both the historic and prophetic books. The last section is called the Writings which includes Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles.

    A firm tradition holds that the first books of the OT were written by Moses, approximately 1400 years before Christ. The last book was written around 400 BC.

    The OT was originally written in primarily Hebrew, with two books in Aramaic (Daniel and Ezra). The OT was translated to Greek around 200 BC for Jews who were scattered around the known world and did not know Hebrew any longer. This translation of the OT is known as the Septuagint.

    The Septuagint also include some books which are now referred to as Apocrypha. The Roman Catholic Church accepts these books as canon (officially part of the Bible). The Protestant part of the Church does not. We do not because the Jews do not consider the Apocrypha to be part of the Old Testament.

  3. New Testament
    The NT can be broken into four major sections: The Gospel message of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; The Acts of the Apostles; Epistles of Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John; and Revelation. Unlike the OT, the NT was written within a few decades after Jesus resurrection, about the end of the first century.

    The writings of the apostles and Paul were widely circulated in the first few centuries after Jesus resurrection. The present 27 books in the NT were generally accepted as Scripture ("God's Word") within the first two hundred years of the Church's birth. The authority of James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John were disputed by some. All were officially accepted by the councils at Hippo and Carthage before 400 AD.

Interpreting the Bible

Instructions from Paul, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, and a warning from Peter, 2 Peter 3:14-16. What do these instructions and warnings tell us about interpreting the Bible?

  1. Approaches to Interpretation
    I am going to show you five specific techniques for interpreting the Bible that should help you understand the any verse (or set of verses) that you read. These techniques or approaches have been the approach used by Christians to understand the Bible for centuries.

    But first of all I would like to suggest a pair of mindsets that you should have when reading the Bible. The Bible is God's Word for you, me and the Church. It is not some old and dusty book full of old and dusty ideas. Rather, these words are God's words to us and they can become alive if we approach them with a proper mindset. First of all we should be prayerful in studying the Bible. Know that God is speaking to you through the Bible, just like when you pray to Him. Secondly, be prepared to have you deepest and dearest held beliefs and opinions changed and sometimes shattered by what God's word is going to teach you.

    Has anyone had a Bible study or verse leap out at them and change some idea or opinion they had? Have you ever noticed how even after reading the same verse a dozen different times, it speaks to you in new and special ways?
  2. Context
    To interpret in context means that the verse should be interpreted within the context of the surrounding verses. Also the verse should be interpreted within the context of the book it is written in and within the context of the whole Bible. RC Sproul writes "What is obscure in one part of Scripture may be made clear in another. To interpret Scripture by Scripture means that we must not set one passage of Scripture against another passage."

    Another part of interpreting within context is to understand that something that is implied in one part of Scripture needs to be interpreted against the explicit. For instance the story of Abraham taking Isaac to the altar to be sacrificed might imply that God did not know that Abraham had true faith. But that implication is not true because there are explicit Biblical references to the fact that God is all knowing (omniscient).

  3. Literal
    The Bible is to be interpreted literally. But most people do not really understand what this means. To interpret literally means that you read the Bible as it is written. A noun is a noun, a verb is a verb, etc. It also means recognizing different literary styles that are found within the Bible. You will find every style of writing within the books of the Bible - poetry, historical accounts, words of wisdom, parables, and hyperboles.

    Here are some books that generally cause people a large amount of trouble: Genesis, Job, Ecclesiastes, Jonah, James and Revelation. Here are some guidelines I use in each case:
    1. Genesis - My personal view concerning the first few chapters of Genesis, up until we reach the point of Abraham, is that God is telling Moses about why the world is the way it is, not how God made the world the way it is. Jewish scholars, long before the advent of modern physics, discovered a number of essential truths about our universe based solely on their interpretation of Genesis. For instance, they stated that the universe has a beginning and an ending. They stated the universe is composed of ten specific dimensions, four of which are height, width, length and time. They also stated that time is not a constant in the universe. Each of these statements have now been confirmed by scientist. The Jewish scholars who did this interpretation all died over 1000 years ago
    2. Job - The NIV study Bible suggests looking at Job as a book of "wisdom literature", rather than an historical account. In fact the use and quality of rhetoric demonstrates the authors genius. It also suggests that the book be interpreted in light of its theme - theodicy - God's justice in light of human suffering.
    3. Ecclesiastes - Is a book of wisdom mostly based on a "human perspective". In fact its one great theme is "a life not centered on God is purposeless and meaningless."
    4. Jonah - This book is a narrative account of a prophets mission. It can be viewed as a historical book, i.e. Jonah was a real person who was given a real mission by God.
    5. James - This book is often used as a counter to many of Paul's teachings on salvation by faith alone. Any attempt to do so takes James and the writings of Paul out of their historical and theological context. Rather James is writing to people who claim to be Christians in an attempt to say "If you are going to talk the talk then walk the walk." Nothing that Paul ever wrote can be used to counter that theological idea.
    6. Revelation - As many who are in Pastor's Wed. class are learning Revelation is about symbology and the end times concerns. The symbols used in Revelation seem bizarre to modern Western readers, but made perfect sense to the original readers. Just like many symbols that we use today would seem bizarre to a time traveller from the future ("What does hang-ten mean?" Or "Give me five bro.")

  4. Historical/Cultural
    Often Bible verses that seem unfair or discriminatory to us need to be viewed within their historical or cultural context. For instance the Bible does not condemn slavery and in fact the Bible actually codifies the rules for keeping slaves. Today we find slavery abhorrent and for some of us the idea that the Bible codifies how slaves are to be treated is very upsetting. But in its historic and cultural context that codification of how slaves are to be treated was in fact a hard thing for people of that time to live up to. In other words, that codification made the life for the slave in Israel better than the slaves life would be someplace else.

    Another example are the passages that Paul writes about concerning marriage. How many women like the idea that Paul writes that wives are to submit to your husbands? How many husbands think that Paul saying that men should love their wives is a bit redundant? Well in Paul's day men measured their years of age by the Caesars they had served and women by the husbands they had. For a woman it was not uncommon to be married to a dozen different men before dying. How much love could a husband have for a wife he hardly knew? How much respect Or trust (submission) could a wife have for a husband she hardly knew? Paul teaches something radical here, but only when viewed from a cultural context. If we were to apply this part of the Bible to our marriages how "radical" would our marriages appear to nonbelievers?

    A final cultural context has to do with the writers themselves. These men (the assumption is that they were men) were Jews and they thought more like people from the Orient (East) than modern Western thinkers do. A classic example is that Westerns look at an issue and see black-and-white; either-or; right-or-wrong. Oriental thinkers see an issue and say "both". Also Western thinking tends to be fact oriented, to the exclusion of intuition. Oriental thinking is much more intuition oriented as opposed to fact oriented.

  5. Tradition
    This basically means that if you think you have discovered something radically new in the Bible, for instance you have discovered that Goliath is actually a description of a dinosaur, then you might want to consider "How is that I know this and no one else ever saw this before?" You may in fact be a Biblical genius, but it could also be that you are stepping outside of well established Biblical understandings that have been around for 2000 years. Basically ask yourself "Do I know more than Thomas Aquanis, Luther, Calvin, etc.?"

    By the way, the example I gave about Goliath is one that I saw recently saw someone publish to an Internet newsgroup.

    We have to be careful with this approach because sometimes the traditional interpretation is clearly not Biblical. That is the main cause for the Reformation. Luther "discovered" clear Biblical teachings that demonstrated that we are saved by grace through faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church, then and now, does not teach this kind of salvation. Rather they teach that salvation comes through faith and works.
  6. Lutheran Approach
    A uniquely Lutheran approach to interpreting the Bible is based on the fact that the Bible is telling a unified story about how man needs God's salvation. The instrument of that salvation is Jesus Christ. So a uniquely Lutheran interpretation about why Abel's sacrifice was worthy and Cain's was not is that Abel knew that innocent blood must be shed to wipe away his sins before God. Cain being raised by the same parents as Abel knew that as well, but instead brought his work (his work's righteousness) as a sacrifice. This interpretation can be supported by other scriptures which talks about our works as filthy rags before God.

Exercises

  1. Exercise
    Someone comes to you and says "I just read in the NIV translation of the Bible Then he went away and hanged himself. and Go and do likewise. and 'What you are about to do, do quickly,'..." From this I have concluded that all Christians should immediately go and hang themselves."

    Using sound Biblical interpretation develop an argument as to why this persons theology is wrong. Please present Bible verses and a sensible argument for why he is wrong.

  2. Exercise
    What is the implication from the following verses?
    Leviticus 24:19 "If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him:"
    Leviticus 24:20 "fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured."

    Is there anything else in the Old Testament that will help us to develop a better interpretation (ie explicitly define)?
    (Deut 19:15-21)

David Tannen

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