INTERPRETING THE BIBLE

A reader cannot create any meaning [he/she] likes. In any intelligible verbal or nonverbal communication, the sender communicates a message to the receiver with the assumption that the receiver will understand the intended meaning of the sender.

Dr. Cornelis Bennema, “Encountering Jesus: Character Studies in the Book of John” 
(see podcast below)

In our last newsletter, we discussed that when we approach Scripture, it is a great idea to use the Inductive Bible Study Method: 1) Observation, 2) Interpretation, 3) Correlation, 4) Application. This is not a magic formula to arrive at Scriptural truth, rather it is a guard rail that keeps us from “going off the rails” when we engage in the art and science of biblical interpretation.

We now turn our focus, briefly, to the second step of this process, Interpretation. Once we have spent time observing the text (which would of course include prayer), we then seek to interpret the text. We can’t apply a text that has yet to be interpreted. So often, we jump to application. The problem with doing so can quickly become clear. Joshua was instructed to walk around the walls of Jericho and then make a loud noise and then the walls would come down. Is this prescriptive for us today?  Are we to say “the Bible says it so I’m going to do it,” and then walk around the walls of a building and yell? It seems funny to think of such a thing, yet often, this is exactly how we apply Scripture. Cherry-picking can be a harmful and dangerous thing. We wrongly interpret and apply a verse and then get mad at God when He doesn’t do what we thought He promised to do, only to realize in retrospect, that God didn’t fail, it was our faulty interpretation of His Word that caused the problem. Don’t indict God for your mistaken interpretation. He ALWAYS keeps His promises. If it seems like He has not, then the issue is on our end, not His.

As one of my professors explained, we don’t have access to the events of Scripture, we only have access to the text. The events are 100% true, but we have the inspired text not a time machine. The written word is the medium God chose to communicate His Word to the immediate readers and to us today. Proper interpretation begins with the hard work of studying to see what the original sender of the message intended for the original recipient to understand. Only after we spend time in interpretation can we move on in our journey of methodical Bible study to correlation and application and, I will add, transformation.