BIBLE-INTERPRETATION-GENERAL
When (we
interpret Scripture by focusing) on our inner voice, we risk losing the
original voice of Scripture, the historic anchor that has given the church its
foundation and faith, and the uniqueness of a moment of historical revelation
without parallel to anything we may experience.
And evaluating our own experience risks confusing what is subjectively
true for me with what is objectively true.
Truth (does not) reside in my own temporal experience (but rather in the
correct interpretation of the Scriptures.)
Interpreting the Gospel of John,
Baker, 1992.
Is it easy to
convince someone that the Bible is the Word of God on the basis of its unity,
its scientific, historical accuracy, its miracles, its
archaeological evidence? I haven't found that to be the case. In a special
series spread over a three-week period I presented such data at a private
college in California. I felt the proof was overwhelming and not one person
became a believer. Why doesn't it convince all unbelievers when it's so
convincing to us? Paul said it when he wrote, "The man without the Spirit
does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned" (1 Cor 2:14). Only when the Holy Spirit does His
regenerating work, only as He opens the mind, tears off the scales of
blindness, gives life where there is death and plants the marvelous
understanding of the revelation of God, only then do people come to believe and
trust in the Bible. The reason I know the Bible is true is that the Spirit of
God has convinced me of it.
John MacArthur
The task
of hermeneutics is to discover the meaning of the text in its proper setting;
to draw meaning from Scripture rather than reading one’s presuppositions into
it.
John MacArthur
Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, © John MacArthur, 1992, p. 103, www.zondervan.com.
Often our
misunderstanding of God's Word is due not to innocent intellectual slips or
lack of information, but rather to a deep refusal to submit to God's
demands. A person who intends to manage
his own affairs, maintain his pride, and secure esteem and glory from his
fellow human beings will twist the words of Jesus to support his own
self-esteem. The evil of the human heart
precedes and gives rise to many of our apparently intellectual
misunderstandings of Scripture.
Desiring God, p. 279, copyright Bethlehem Baptist Church, used by
permission. www.DesiringGod.org.
I believe that the Bible is God’s Word. Therefore I must define the ultimate goal of
exegesis so as to embrace the heart as well as the head. The Scriptures aim to affect our hearts and
change the way we feel about God and his will. The exegete, who believes that
this aim is the aim of the living God for our day, cannot be content with
merely uncovering what the Scriptures originally meant. He must aim, in his exegesis, to help achieve
the ultimate goal of Scripture: its contemporary significance for faith. It is the will of God that his Word crush
feelings of arrogance and self-reliance and that it give hope to the poor in
spirit.
Biblical Exegesis, p. 9, Used by Permission, www.DesiringGod.org.
Let us know,
then, that the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning;
and let us embrace and abide by it resolutely.
Let us not only neglect as doubtful, but boldly set aside as deadly
corruptions those pretended expositions which lead us away from the natural
meaning.
Any part of
the human body can only be properly explained in reference to the whole
body. And any part of the Bible can only
be properly explained in reference to the whole Bible.
The general
rule of interpreting Scripture is this: the literal sense of every text is to
be taken, if it be not contrary to some other texts. But in that case, the obscure text is to be
interpreted by those which speak more plainly.
Jesus Christ
is the link between the Old Testament and the New. God's revelation reaches its climax in the
New Testament - and this climax is not a new teaching...but a Person, God's own
Son. The Old and New Testaments are
related, therefore, not as law-gospel but as promise-fulfillment (a Person).
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 49. www.eerdmans.com.
The two
Testaments are not two books but one.
Since the literary context of the Old Testament in the Christian canon
is the New Testament, this means that the Old Testament must be understood in
the context of the New Testament. And
since the heart of the New Testament is Jesus Christ, this means that every
message from the Old Testament must be seen in the light of Jesus Christ.
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 51. www.eerdmans.com.
The
conviction that Jesus inaugurated the messianic age enables the New Testament
writers to preach Christ from the Old Testament, for this presupposition means
that God's redemptive history reaches its climax in Jesus. In Him all the Old Testament promises come to
fulfillment.
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 196. www.eerdmans.com.
The point is
that preachers must at all costs do justice to the biblical text and not twist
it into responding to a different issue than its author originally
addressed…Preachers are like transmission towers who transmit the original
biblical message from an earlier generation to the present generation. Their calling is not to invent their own
messages but relevantly to pass on the divine message found in the Bible.
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 281. www.eerdmans.com.
Christ is the
key which unlocks the golden doors into the temple of Divine truth.
In the Bible
itself, the two authors, human and divine, do not simply stand side by
side. Rather, each points to the other
and affirms the presence and operation of the other…God Himself points out the
importance of the human authors…God Himself requires us to interpret the words
of Scripture against the background of what we know about the human
author. We cannot simply ignore the
human author, when we concentrate on what God is saying…(The
human author) is not just any human author.
He is the one through whom God speaks.
His own intentions are that we should reckon with this. It is not a denial of human authorship, but
an affirmation of it, when we pay attention to God speaking…Hence there is a
unity of meaning and a unity of application.
The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts,
Edited by: G. K. Beale, Baker, 1994, p. 96-97.
Old Testament
narratives are not just stories about people who lived in Old Testament
times. They are first and foremost
stories about what God did to and through those people. In contrast to human narratives, the Bible is
composed especially of divine narratives.
God is the hero of the story - if it is in the Bible.
How to Read the Bible for all it’s Worth,
Zondervan, 1993, p. 81.
Correct
biblical principles of interpretation are ultimately far more crucial than the
exegesis of isolated texts and words, not only because such principles affect
and guide all exegesis, but also because they determine how false exegesis and
misinterpretation can be corrected.
The Israel of God in Prophecy – Principles of Prophetic Interpretation, Andrews University Press, 1983, p. 1.
We maintain
the validity of the grammatical-historical and the theological principles of
exegesis for all Scripture interpretation.
Recognizing the principles of progressive revelation, specifically
between the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament witness of Jesus
Christ (Heb. 1:1-2; Jn. 1:7-18), we accept the essential unity of both
Testaments which allows the meaning of any part of Scripture – including the
prophetic parts – to be ultimately determined by the totality of
Scripture. This classical Protestant
hermeneutic, known as the sola Scriptura principle, seems to be accepted
as an axiom of faith by all conservative evangelical Christians.
The Israel of God in Prophecy – Principles of Prophetic Interpretation, Andrews University Press, 1983, p. 32.
No one
statement wrested from its context is a sufficient warrant for actions that
plainly controvert other commands. How excellent a thing it would be if the
whole Church of Christ had learned that no law of life may be based upon an
isolated text. Every false teacher who has divided the Church, has had,
"it is written" on which to hang his doctrine.
G. Campbell Morgan
Since the
Renaissance, and more particularly since the Enlightenment, the world-views
have been developed which involve skepticism about basis Christian
tenants. Such are the agnosticism which
denies that God is knowable, the rationalism which denies that He is
incomprehensible, the idealism which denies that He is transcendent, and the
existentialism which denies rationality in His relationships with us. When these un- and
anti-biblical principles seep into men’s theologies at presuppositional level, as today they frequently do,
faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture becomes impossible.
Exposition: Skepticism and Criticism.
God’s
truth always agrees with itself.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 37.
Compare
Scripture with Scripture. False
doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among themselves.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 36.
The Scripture
is to be its own interpreter, or rather the Spirit speaking in it; nothing can
cut the diamond; nothing can interpret Scripture but Scripture.
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 37.
Would the
Holy Spirit, who authored the Scriptures for the purpose of their being our
infallible guide, promote them as a grab-bag of all kinds of meanings?
Jim Elliff
Led by the Spirit, Joshua Press, 1999, p. 31, http://www.solascriptura.ca/shop/store.php?crn=215.
You know how
it was with Moses, when he saw two men fighting, one an Egyptian, and another
an Israelite, he killed the Egyptian; but, when he saw two Hebrews fighting,
Now, saith he, I will go and reconcile them, for they
are brethren; why so, but because he was a good man, and gracious? So also it is with a gracious heart; when he
sees the Scripture fighting with an Egyptian, an heathen author, or apocryphal,
he comes and kills the heathen…but when he sees two Scriptures at variance (in
view, though in truth not), Oh, saith he, these are
brethren, and they may be reconciled, I will labour
all I can to reconcile them; but when a man shall take every advantage of
seeming difference in Scripture, to say, Do ye see what contradictions there
are in this book, and not labour to reconcile them;
what doth this argue, but that the corruption of a man’s nature, is boiled up
to an unknown malice against the word of the Lord.
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 38.
No man
understands the Scriptures, unless he be acquainted
with the cross.
Jesus said
that we will know the truth about Himself only if we
are willing to do His will, that is, if we allow ourselves to be changed by the
truths we find in Scripture. He said, "If any man's will is to do
his will (that is, if he determines to do it), he shall know whether the
teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority" (John
7:17). We must not assume that we will be able fully to understand any
passage of Scripture unless we are willing to be changed by it.
James Montgomery Boice
Taken from "Foundations of the
Christian Faith-Book I" by James Montgomery Boice, page 97.
(c) 1986 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA,
Revised edition. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box
1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=991.