3 Things To Keep In Mind While Interpreting The Scripture
Basic of Interpreting the Scripture
In today’s world, people open the Bible and start interpreting the Bible on the pulpit itself. Many ‘celebrity’ pastors have interpreted the Bible wrongly. And the reason is they don’t put enough time and effort into interpreting the Bible properly.
Before we go any further, let me clarify what Interpreting the Scripture means. “Interpreting Scripture is the process of personally discovering what God through his human authors intended the biblical text to mean and effect.”1
With this basic understanding, let’s move towards the three basic principles to keep in mind while interpreting the Bible.
1. Keep the Genre in Mind
Imagine that you open your Bible and Psalm 23 opens up. You then start reading the first verse. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” The Psalmist David is referring to God as his shepherd. How do you interpret this verse? How do you understand it when David refers to God as “shepherd”?
If we take the entire Bible literally, we will interpret this phrase as God literally is our shepherd. But we all know that that is a wrong interpretation or at least that is not intended to be meant like that. So, what is the correct way to interpret this verse? It’s simple. King David is using a metaphor here. He is saying that God is like a shepherd. But why did we not interpret this literally? Because of the genre of the text.
What does genre mean? “The word genre is a French word from the Latin genus, and it means a literary type. Literary genre refers to the literary form being used by the author and the rules governing that form. In the Bible, there is narrative (history), poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, Gospels (which includes parables), epistles, and apocalyptic literature. Distinguishing the various genres in scriptures helps one to interpret it more accurately.”2
Hence, when it comes to interpreting the Bible, genre is very important. One should not make the mistake of interpreting the prose sections as poetry and the poetry sections as prose. Always keep in mind to check the genre of the text before interpreting it; and then, use the principles of that genre to interpret the text.
2. Keep The Original Audience In Mind.
Many people read the Bible arbitrarily. They open the Bible randomly and start reading and applying the Scripture to their personal lives. While the Bible should be applied to our lives, it should not be done in an unexamined way. It is famously said that “The Bible is written for us, not to us.” What this means is that we are not the original audience, the recipients of the letter of Paul or the warnings of the prophets. Therefore, extreme care should be taken in order to interpret the Bible.
Since we are not the original recipients of the text, we need to put in more effort before applying it to our present context, as the 7th century BCE Israelite context and the 1st century Palestinian context are different from our contemporary contexts. There is a huge gap between the original audience and ours: time gap, language gap, and even context gap.
So, before applying any text to yourself, take some time to study the intended audience, their times, their context, and so on. This might take a lot of time, but the Biblical text would be appropriately interpreted.
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3. Keep The Intended Purpose In Mind
No book or letter is written just for the sake of writing it. There is a meaning and a purpose behind all literature. It might be to appreciate someone, or to warn others, or even to make an appeal to someone. Biblical books are no different.
Take the Gospel of John as an instance. John did not write it so that there would be another Gospel book written. John 20:30-31 reads, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Other instances are the letters of Paul. It might come as a surprise to you, but (almost) all of the letters of Paul were written to address false teachings.
Some of the books of the Bible have clearly laid down their purpose or intention of authoring the book. While others have not mentioned it, their purpose is woven into the very fabric of the text. When you know that everything is purposefully recorded and written, it helps you to better understand the books of the Bible.
May the Lord help us to interpret His Word correctly.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/interpreting-scripture-a-general-introduction/
G. Isaiah. Preach the Word.
Thank you