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Hermeneutics – What is that animal and can we eat it? Hahahha fo sure!
To interpret scripture correctly one must:
· Study the context of the passage and the theme of the book.
· Look up the actual meaning of each word in the original languages. (Not really necessary, but extremely helpful for those with a desire to go beyond the surface. I would say look up key words in the verses.)
· Note the verb tenses, the cases, and other grammatical determinants.
· Learn the cultural setting of the passage.
· Determine what the original readers understood it to mean.
· Check out cross-references to see how the words are used in other contexts.
· See how the first mention of the word or topic is presented in the Bible.
· Confirm an interpretation with two or three similar passages.
I got the above list from: http://billgothard.com/teaching/hermeneutics the article is well done and I highly recommend everyone reads it.
I will share a bit more to get your taste buds wet:
These are all proven study methods. However, it has always puzzled me how Bible scholars who claim to follow all of them arrive at totally opposite interpretations of the same passage. For example, in a seminary in the Northwest, two professors wrote on the topic of divorce and remarriage. Each one assured his readers that he was following sound rules of Biblical interpretation. Yet, each one arrived at a view that was opposite of the other. One day, I called up my former Greek professor at Wheaton Graduate School. He had written on the subject of hermeneutics, and I asked him if he could summarize the rules of hermeneutics in a concise list. His answer startled me. He said, “Bill, there is no such list.” I asked how we would know if we are breaking hermeneutical rules if there are no rules. He explained that there are certainly guidelines of interpretation. However, they cannot be confined to one set of rules.
So, what are the additional factors of correct Biblical hermeneutics?
1. Spiritual Perception Over Intellectual Understanding
2. God’s Revelation Over Human Reasoning
3. Genuine Love Rather Than Justification of Selfishness
4. Christ’s Commands Over Man’s Theology
5. One Interpretation and Many Applications
6. Correct Divisions of Truth Versus Truth Out of Balance
The writer goes on to give detail information about each of the above – enjoy! Proper hermeneutics requires diligent use of all the above factors under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The writer of the article concludes with the preceding statement and I say a big – Amen.
Is Hermeneutics necessary? or it is just a bunch of munbo jumbo by people who think they are intellectual and who complicate matters?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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What is a Figure of Speech?
A departure from the normal rules of grammar or word usage. Examples:
“breadth and length and depth and height”
“The mountains will sing.”
What is the purpose of figures of speech?To give special emphasis.
To call attention to the point.
To add force or power to an expression. Which sentence is more memorable? “A burglar snuck into my house.” OR “A burglar slipped into my house like a cat stalking prey.”
Why are figures of speech in the Bible?Figures of speech are universal to human communication. Every language, including the biblical languages, has them.
God used figures of speech to call attention to a point in the scriptures.
Why it is important to understand figures of speech in the Bible?To get to the correct interpretation of Scripture.
Serious misinterpretations of Scripture come from:
Calling something figurative that is literal. For example, the 6 days of Creation in Genesis 1 are literal 24-hour periods. But many who want to believe Creation couldn’t have happened that quickly say they are figurative.
Calling something literal that is figurative. For example, John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am” is used to support that Jesus is eternal and pre-existed Abraham. Really, it is the figure of speech heterosis or switching of word forms (here, verb tense). It emphasizes the certainty of Jesus’ coming.
It is not honest biblical interpretation to call something figurative simply because you don’t understand it or don’t want to believe it.
The words in God’s Word are perfect. God has a reason for everything He says – where He says it; when He says it; to whom He says it; and how He says it.
Figures of speech in the Bible are precise and exact, not haphazard.
How do we know when the words should be taken literally or figuratively?The Bible should be understood literally whenever possible.
But when a statement appears to be contrary to our experience, or to known fact, or to the general teaching of truth, then we can expect that a figure of speech is present.
If a word or words are truly a figure of speech, then that figure can be named and described. It will have a specific identifiable purpose.
How can we recognize figures of speech?The words don’t make sense literally.
1 Corinthians 11:16-21, Paul calls himself a fool. He isn’t one, but is using the figure “sarcasm.”
Isaiah 55:12, “the trees will clap their hands.” Trees don’t have hands and don’t clap. The figure is personification.
The words are clear and literal, but meant to convey a deeper lesson or application, such as in a parable.
The words are clear and literal, but are put together in a grammatical or structural way that brings emphasis to the section. This kind of figure may be lost in translation.
Genesis 2:17, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The Hebrew reads, “dying you will die,” using the figure “many inflections,” that is the same word in different forms.
Ephesians 3:18, “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” The “ands” is the figure “Many ands” and gives separate emphasis to each part, more than a comma would.
What are the various / different kinds of figures of speech?The study of figures of speech is complex because of the number of languages (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and English) involved, and because each language has many figures.
But the patterns of language are so universally common to mankind that most of the figures of speech cross over from language to language in a recognizable way.
Various scholars through the centuries have offered systems of classifying figures of speech. The clearest and best documented is by E. W. Bullinger, as follows:
1. Figures Involving Omission (words or meaning left out)
a. Affecting words (grammar or sentence structure)
b. Affecting the sense (the meaning)
2. Figures Involving Addition (words or meaning inserted)
a. Affecting words (grammar or sentence structure)
b. Affecting the sense (the meaning)
3. Figures Involving Change (words or meaning changed)
a. Affecting the meaning
b. Affecting the order of words
c. Affecting the application of words (interpretation of words)
Examples of Figures of Speech
1. Figures Involving Omission (words or meaning left out)a. Affecting words (grammar or sentence structure)
Ellipsis– words are left out.
Matthew 11:18, “For John came neither eating nor drinking.” Being human, John had to eat and drink. What is left out is “declining invitations to eat with others.”b. Affecting the sense (the meaning)
Tapeinosis– lessening, demeaning or understatement
Acts 5:36, “Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody…” meaning “someone great.”Antenantiosis – meaning “opposite.” Psalm 84:11, “No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless,” meaning He will give him every good thing.
2. Figures Involving Addition (words or meaning inserted)a. Affecting words (grammar or sentence structure)
Epizeuxis – duplication; repetition of the same word in a sentence.
Isaiah 40:1, “Comfort, comfort my people…” John 1:51 (KJV), “Verily, verily I say unto you…” Translated in the NIV as “I tell you the truth.”Anaphora – like sentence beginnings; repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive sentences.
Matthew 5:3-11, “Blessed are the poor…Blessed are those who mourn…Blessed are the meek…”Polysyndeton – many ands; repetition of the word “and.”
Acts 1:8, “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”Paradiastole – neithers and nors; repetition of neither or nor.
Romans 8:38 and 39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God…”Epistrophe – like sentence endings; repetition of the same word at the end of successive sentences.
Psalm 115:9-11 all end in “he is their help and shield.”Epanadiplosis – encircling; the same word and the beginning and end of a sentence.
Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice.”Anadiplosis – like sentence endings and beginnings; the same word at the end of a sentence and beginning of the next sentence.
Psalm 121:1 and 2, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord…”Repetitio – repetition of the same word irregularly in the same passage.
John 16:12-15, the words “shall” and “will,” depending on the translation, appear 11 times in 4 verses.Polyptoton – many inflections. The repetition of the same word in different forms.
Ephesians 6:18 (KJV), “Praying always with all prayer…”
Revelation 17:6 (KJV), “I wondered with great wonder…”b. Affecting the sense (the meaning)
Hyperbole– exaggeration
2 Samuel 1:23, “Saul and Jonathan…they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.”
3. Figures Involving Change (words or meaning changed)a. Affecting the meaning
Metonymy – change of one noun for another related noun.
Proverbs 10:20, “The tongue (words, speech) of the righteous is choice silver.”
Matthew 6:21, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart (thoughts and affections) be also.”Synecdoche – transfer; exchange of one idea for another associated idea.
Mark 16:15 (KJV), “Preach the gospel to every creature (man).”
Philippians 3:19, “Their god is their stomach (themselves)…”*Metonymy and synecdoche are very similar. The distinction is that in metonymy, the exchange is made between two related nouns; in synecdoche, the exchange is made between two related ideas.
Hendiadys – two for one; two words used, one thing meant.
1 Timothy 1:17, “honor and glory” meaning “glorious honor.”
Luke 1:17, “He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah…” (the powerful spirit, or spiritual power of Elijah)Antonomasia – name-change; change of a proper name for an appellative.
Acts 3:14, “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One (meaning Jesus)…”Euphemismos – euphemism, change of what is unpleasant for something pleasant.
Genesis 15:15, “You, however, will go to your fathers (die) in peace…”
John 11:11, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep (died)...”b. Affecting the order of words
Hyperbaton – transportation; placing a word out of its usual order in a sentence.
John 6:60 (KJV), “Hard is this word…”
1 Timothy 3:16 (Greek), “Great is, of Godliness, the mystery!”c. Affecting the application of words (interpretation of words)
Simile – resemblance; a comparison by resemblance.
Psalm 17:8, “Keep me as the apple of your eye.”
Ephesians 5:22, “Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church…”Metaphor – representation; a comparison by one thing’s representing another.
Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd…”
Matthew 26:26, “Take, eat; this is my body.”Hypocatastasis – implication; implied resemblance of one thing to another.
Matthew 7:6, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.” (both dogs and pigs imply people)
Mark 1:17, “I will make you fishers of men.”Parabloa – parable; continued simile.
Matthew 13, the parable of the sower. The story may be true or imaginary, but the events must be possible or likely.Gnome – quotation
Matthew 1:22 and 23 quotes Isaiah 7:14.Amphibologia – double meaning; has two interpretations both of which are true.
Acts 13:22, “…‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” A man after my own heart could have two correct interpretations. From God’s perspective, David was like-hearted with God; from David’s, he was after, or seeking, God’s heart.Eironeia – irony; expression of thought in a form that conveys its opposite.
Judges 10:14, “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”
Job 12:2, “Doubtless you are the people and wisdom will die with you.”Oxymoron – wise-folly; a wise saying that seems foolish.
Isaiah 58:10, “Your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
1 Corinthians 1:25, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”Idioma – idiom; peculiar usage of words or phrases.
“break bread,” “turn to ashes,” “hide from your eyes,” etc.Prosopopoeia – personification; things represented as persons.
1 Corinthians 12:15 and 16, “If the foot shall say, “Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body…And if the ear shall say, “Because I am not the eye…”
Leviticus 18:25, “The land vomited out its inhabitants.”http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=arti...
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Ouch hu hahaha you are so awesome. Hey girl I am running short in time and will answers you in a bit, but for now know I would like to share the following to you and all the family.
The little I know about the Lord did not come about studying hermeneutics or grasping the grammatical structures in which the bible was written. It came from waking up at 5:00am and before anything else in the day - I would feast on the word of God, always asking God to lead me to all truth and to give me wisdom from above. The truths that Guard my heart from falling into anxiety, depression etc came from a one on one with the Lord and not the seminary. Actually when I went to the Seminary I was in shock, we study many beautiful things, but not the bible. When I questioned the teachers why we didn't study the bible verse by verse they told me that it was assumed that that would be a discipline expected of all students and we were there to learn other aspect of ministry.
Love ya!
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Me lady - it is all good. You as I my sister and friend are works in progress. Alll we go to do is to KEEP STEPING/KEEP WALKING IN HIS WAYS AND ALL WILL WORK OUT FOR OUR GOOD.
1Co 7:17
Only, as the Lord hath distributed to each man, as God hath called each, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all the churches.
You digg my friend and sista. Greenbay Packers Rock!
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Permalink Reply by dean burrows on
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I have always wondered why it is we restrict ourselves. I believe John 16:13 tells us what we need to know in this issue. The Spirit will guide us in all truth and yes show us what is to come. Scripture is infinite. It has no end. All of man's rules and regulations only put boundaries on what we allow the Father to do in our lives. I as well say Amen to the Spiritually driven thoughts. Until we let go of self we hinder the teachings of the Spirit
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Thanks for sharing brother.
1. Spiritual Perception Over Intellectual Understanding
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Permalink Reply by LucyP on
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I'm just not sure on this.
1.Spiritual Perception Over Intellectual Understanding
2. God’s Revelation Over Human Reasoning
4. Christ’s Commands Over Man’s Theology
To me the opposite of these seem truer (putting them the other way round. To delve so deeply ie :
Note the verb tenses, the cases, and other grammatical determinants. Learn the cultural setting of the passage. Determine what the original readers understood it to mean. I see as creating intellectual understanding rather than spiritual.
Often in the discussions I read here one is said to have mistaken a certain verse/passage/meaning beacause they do not realise who the writer of the particular book of the bible were actually speaking to.e.g Hebrews.
and that because such and such book was written to a particular group therefore certain things dont apply to 'us'.
Now this is where my confusion lies: a lot of people,thinking here directly of my mum and her Christian friends, do their daily Bible reading, a passage from here, a passage from there another day but not reading the book continually. So the whole context of the book or letter is not fully apprehended. Also the Bible is so often used to quote from or inform by using single verses, completely taken out of context, and yet they convey meaning and beauty to everyday people.
I guess what Im trying to say is by over studying it can spoil the simple beauty and message of what is written and this surely is the purpose of our Bible, to appeal to everyone. It is not only through extensve examination that we get meaning.
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Amen.!!!! Although must admit enjoy the study(examination).
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yes I do too, although at times I think I try to understand too much with my human understanding instead of relying on the spirit to guide me, and I end up confused and with a fuzzy head (like tonight )....Gods working on this with me :)
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Yes know exactly what you mean. It is like Davids example of creation and the timing . When I think about it I recall the words in scripture that tell me a thousand years is as a day to the Father. So with that in mind I begin to ponder the thought could the earth be older. Then of course I come back to what does it really matter. The slate of the past has been wiped clean and we are not to worry about tomorrow. We are to live the best life in Christ we can now. Realizing His constant Love and provision.
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Permalink Reply by Grace by the Lake on
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Amen! :)
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Beloved Lucy,
You bring up great points, thank you for investing in this discussion.
When we fall into extremes, then we have fallen out of balance and that is what we are trying to avoid, so rules of interpretation are granted through tried and proven methods that have been integrated into our arsenal, to keep us rightly dividing God's word, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit through servants of the Lord throughout history.
>>Note the verb tenses, the cases, and other grammatical determinants. Learn the cultural setting of the passage. Determine what the original readers understood it to mean. I see as creating intellectual understanding rather than spiritual.
I agree with you sis, that taking all those factors into account one gains intellectual understanding, which we are very much for. We want an intellectual understanding. However, I believe that the intentions of the writer were not to diminish the importance of such, but to emphasis the supremacy of Spiritual perception over intellectual understanding should the two collide. Let me give you a real biblical example were we can see that at work.
I have studied most or maybe all the arguments that are made for an old Earth, yet I see nothing in the word to support an earth that is millions of years old. I do clearly see in the word the literal creation account of the heavens and the earth being a matter of six days, each composed of night and day. I have also studied many of the arguments by scientist to support an old age, including carbon dating of fossils etc... But when Science conflicts with biblical accounts, I take the biblical hands down, which may at times seem to go against logic to some. The word never goes against logic, but it does go against human wisdom, for heavenly wisdom is far superior.
>>I guess what I’m trying to say is by over studying it can spoil the simple beauty and message of what is written and this surely is the purpose of our Bible
This is why sis we have different forms of study. I will use my personal study method to show how we can avoid losing the beauty of the simplicity of the gospel and its enjoyment.
1. study the bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter and book by book without any outside help other than the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. This is very joyous.
2. Study the word using ALL the different tools God has provide us with, while remaining sensitive to the voice of the Spirit and the discernment we obtain through abiding in Christ: Commentaries, Lexicons, concordances etc are all acceptable tools and welcome.
I hope i made some sense.
Blessings
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