What is Bible hermeneutics?

[missmuffet]

We are seeing all kinds of strange interpretations on Worthy. It leads to false teaching and allows a person to stumble and fall in their belief. This is not good

 

 

Question: "What is biblical hermeneutics?"

Answer: Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles and methods of interpreting the text of the Bible. Second Timothy 2:15 commands believers to be involved in hermeneutics: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who . . . correctly handles the word of truth.” The purpose of biblical hermeneutics is to help us to know how to properly interpret, understand, and apply the Bible.

The most important law of biblical hermeneutics is that the Bible should be interpreted literally. We are to understand the Bible in its normal or plain meaning, unless the passage is obviously intended to be symbolic or if figures of speech are employed. The Bible says what it means and means what it says. For example, when Jesus speaks of having fed “the five thousand” in Mark 8:19, the law of hermeneutics says we should understand five thousand literally—there was a crowd of hungry people that numbered five thousand who were fed with real bread and fish by a miracle-working Savior. Any attempt to “spiritualize” the number or to deny a literal miracle is to do injustice to the text and ignore the purpose of language, which is to communicate. Some interpreters make the mistake of trying to read between the lines of Scripture to come up with esoteric meanings that are not truly in the text, as if every passage has a hidden spiritual truth that we should seek to decrypt. Biblical hermeneutics keeps us faithful to the intended meaning of Scripture and away from allegorizing Bible verses that should be understood literally.

A second crucial law of biblical hermeneutics is that passages must be interpreted historically, grammatically, and contextually. Interpreting a passage historically means we must seek to understand the culture, background, and situation that prompted the text. For example, in order to fully understand Jonah’s flight in Jonah 1:1–3, we should research the history of the Assyrians as related to Israel. Interpreting a passage grammatically requires one to follow the rules of grammar and recognize the nuances of Hebrew and Greek. For example, when Paul writes of “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” in Titus 2:13, the rules of grammar state that God and Savior are parallel terms and they are both in apposition to Jesus Christ—in other words, Paul clearly calls Jesus “our great God.” Interpreting a passage contextually involves considering the context of a verse or passage when trying to determine the meaning. The context includes the verses immediately preceding and following, the chapter, the book, and, most broadly, the entire Bible. For example, many puzzling statements in Ecclesiastes become clearer when kept in context—the book of Ecclesiastes is written from the earthly perspective “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). In fact, the phrase under the sun is repeated about thirty times in the book, establishing the context for all that is “vanity” in this world.

A third law of biblical hermeneutics is that Scripture is always the best interpreter of Scripture. For this reason, we always compare Scripture with Scripture when trying to determine the meaning of a passage. For example, Isaiah’s condemnation of Judah’s desire to seek Egypt’s help and their reliance on a strong cavalry (Isaiah 31:1) was motivated, in part, by God’s explicit command that His people not go to Egypt to seek horses (Deuteronomy 17:16).

Some people avoid studying biblical hermeneutics because they mistakenly believe it will limit their ability to learn new truths from God’s Word or stifle the Holy Spirit’s illumination of Scripture. But their fears are unfounded. Biblical hermeneutics is all about finding the correct interpretation of the inspired text. The purpose of biblical hermeneutics is to protect us from misapplying Scripture or allowing bias to color our understanding of truth. God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). We want to see the truth, know the truth, and live the truth as best we can, and that’s why biblical hermeneutics is vital.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Biblical-hermeneutics.html

[Running Gator]

I take it you are big student of  biblical hermeneutics?

[Ezra]

20 minutes ago, missmuffet said:

We are seeing all kinds of strange interpretations on Worthy.

We can expect to see more and more throughout the Christian world.  Did you see the latest gaffe from the Pope?

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/09/01/pope-francis-global-warming-sin-man-can-atone-recycling-car-pooling/

[missmuffet]

1 minute ago, Ezra said:

We can expect to see more and more throughout the Christian world.  Did you see the latest gaffe from the Pope?

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/09/01/pope-francis-global-warming-sin-man-can-atone-recycling-car-pooling/

I know we are living in the end times. No I did not see the gaffe from the Pope. I try not to read his stuff. It is scary.

[Running Gator]

17 hours ago, Ezra said:

We can expect to see more and more throughout the Christian world.  Did you see the latest gaffe from the Pope?

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/09/01/pope-francis-global-warming-sin-man-can-atone-recycling-car-pooling/

What the pope said... Among these are “avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices.

These all some like pretty good ideas.

[Guest shiloh357]

1 hour ago, Out of the Shadows said:

What the pope said... Among these are “avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices.

These all some like pretty good ideas.

It's the theology of claiming that man can atone for his sins through works.  It's typical sloppy RCC theology and it stems in part from poor hermeneutic thinking on the part of the Pope.   No one is against those things, but all sin was atoned for by Jesus.  We can't atone for anything.

[enoob57]

19 hours ago, Out of the Shadows said:

I take it you are big student of  biblical hermeneutics?

Anyone serious about belief in Jesus The Christ is! The Lord has given us a objective path back to Himself His Word and by intake causing faith allowing for belief and need for repentance... then in new birth by calling out to Jesus we are given the resident truth teacher The Holy Spirit and God begins in us an eternal journey of sonship ... Love, Steven 

[missmuffet]

38 minutes ago, enoob57 said:

Anyone serious about belief in Jesus The Christ is! The Lord has given us a objective path back to Himself His Word and by intake causing faith allowing for belief and need for repentance... then in new birth by calling out to Jesus we are given the resident truth teacher The Holy Spirit and God begins in us an eternal journey of sonship ... Love, Steven 

Yes

[Ezra]

2 hours ago, shiloh357 said:

It's the theology of claiming that man can atone for his sins through works.  It's typical sloppy RCC theology and it stems in part from poor hermeneutic thinking on the part of the Pope.   No one is against those things, but all sin was atoned for by Jesus.  We can't atone for anything.

That was exactly the answer I had in mind.  What the Pope said is another example of muddled (if not perverse) hermeneutics. But that has always been the RCC way.

[StanJ]

On 9/1/2016 at 3:22 PM, missmuffet said:

We are seeing all kinds of strange interpretations on Worthy. It leads to false teaching and allows a person to stumble and fall in their belief. This is not good.

Question: "What is biblical hermeneutics?"

Answer: Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles and methods of interpreting the text of the Bible. Second Timothy 2:15 commands believers to be involved in hermeneutics: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who . . . correctly handles the word of truth.” The purpose of biblical hermeneutics is to help us to know how to properly interpret, understand, and apply the Bible.

The most important law of biblical hermeneutics is that the Bible should be interpreted literally. 

http://www.gotquestions.org/Biblical-hermeneutics.html

Overall I think the article is good but I disagree with their most important law being that it should be interpreted literally.

I think the following should be the proper order of Precedence;

Regard for genre

"A passage might be legal, narrative, polemic, poetry, wisdom, gospel, logical discourse, or prophetic literature, each having specific guidelines for proper interpretation."

Regard for literary devices

"Various forms of Hebrew poetry, simile, metaphor, and hyperbole need to be recognized if the reader is to understand the passage's meaning." 

Regard for literal meaning

A text should be interpreted with the degree of precision intended by the author. It should be interpreted "according to its literal, or normal, sense. The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer expressed. Interpretation according to the literal sense will take account of all figures of speech and literary forms found in the text."

http://www.theopedia.com/interpretation-of-the-bible

 

Many people make the mistake of taking something literally that was never meant to be literal and is used in a hyperbolic or metaphorical sense. That I think is the biggest problem with reading the Bible.