BASICS OF BIBLE INTERPRETATION
The Bible is unique. It was written by at least 40 different authors over a period of at least 1,600 years*, yet it is in agreement and the many authors utilize the same idioms and symbolism in the same way. This is an evidence that God's hand was guiding it and safeguarding His message.
Probably the most common way in which Scripture is misinterpreted is by taking particular verses out of context. The most famous example is the man who wanted to find God's will for his life. But He didn't know where in the Bible to look, so he just opened the Bible and pointed to any verse, trusting God to lead him. He looked and it said, "Judas went out and hanged himself." This made him a little uneasy, so he decided to try again. The next verse he pointed to said, "Go thou and do likewise". Really disconcerted this time, he decided to go for two out of three. The third verse he pointed to said, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Needless to say, this was not the intended interpretation of those verses! Former Columbia Biblical Seminary president J. Robertson McQuilkin was known for his oft-repeated hermeneutical tip, "Context is king".
Next, we should also start with the ways the ancient Jews--those who received God's word directly in their own language and interacted with the prophets--interpreted Scripture. They speak of four basic principles:
(1) The literal, straightforward meaning. When Daniel saw that the years decreed for captivity were almost up, he expected it to mean literally 70 years, and it was--to the very day; when Jesus rode into Jerusalem the exact day Daniel himself had said the Messiah would be revealed, He held Jerusalem responsible for not recognizing the specific day He was due to visit. So unless it is clearly meant to be poetic (as in Song of Solomon's "your neck is a tower..."), none of the secondary interpretations prevent us form also taking a passage literally.
(2) Allusions to deeper truths hinted at by certain features of the text. The place Jacob had his dream was the same place Abraham had offered Isaac. He "saw it afar off"--geographically, yes, but also chronologically (Heb. 11:13). After God stopped his hand, Abraham saw a ram (a male Lamb) "behind him"--a phrase that in Hebrew also means "in the future"! 2,000 years later God would sacrifice His own Son at that very spot: Golgotha, the highest point of Mt. Moriah. Jacob declared this place to be "God's house", and anointed with oil the stone on which he'd slept. "Messiah" means "anointed one", so God was saying something more about Jacob's resting place; later speaks of a glorious "resting place shall be glorious", referring to the Messiah's still-future reign from that same place. Jesus said He Himself was the ladder to heaven in Jacob's dream (Jn. 1:51).
(3) Interpretations drawn from searching other parts of scripture, sacred traditions, or daily life, with allegorical value as ethical precedents. And though "context is king", the whole Bible does have links much like the ones you use on the internet. But instead of clicking on a mouse, the means it uses to string together common threads of ideas is the particular words in the original languages. Even though they may be used in different ways in different contexts, the use of the same word often points to a connection that throws light on other passages.
(4) "Mysteries"--not things that can't be understood, but deeper meanings, like Jeremiah's 30 pieces of silver, or David's suffering in Psalm 22.
The names of these four forms of interpretation for an acrostic of the Hebrew word for "Paradise"!
The last major principle I will highlight is: "To the Torah and to the testimony! If they do not speak in agreement with this word, they have no light..." (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 8:20) If an interpretation of the New Testament does not agree with the earlier Hebrew Scriptures (sometimes called the Old Testament), then it is mistaken or the emphasis is at least misplaced. The New Covenant fulfills the former one, and improves on it in some ways, but it never contradicts it. The context for understanding so much of the New is a thorough knowledge of what God gave to Israel first. This web site attempts to give you many keys in this regard.
Always keep in mind that the number one overarching theme which forms the context for all of Scripture is the redemption of mankind from sin and its consequent curse. Thus, although there are no scientific inaccuracies in the Bible when the language is understood properly, the style in which it is written is more directly intended to point us to a symbol of the Messiah than, say, an astronomical fact. Prophesying about the Messiah, who accomplished outr redemption, David said, "In the volume (scroll) of the book it is written about Me". (Psalm 40:7) All of the details in the Bible somehow point to a characteristic of the Messiah or some event that will accompany His first or second coming. If it doesn't seem to relate to this, you may have the wrong interpretation --or at least are missing the main point.
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*If we take the interpretation that Genesis was a series of eyewitness accounts collected over the centuries by righteous men and later finalized by Moses--as the Hebrew text and tradition do seem to warrant--then it was written over about 4,090 years.
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