Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles and methods of interpreting
the text of the Bible. 2 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" (Eccl. 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
(Isa. 31:1) was motivated, in part, by God's explicit command that His people
not go to Egypt to seek horses (Deut. 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.
(Author Unknown, posted on https://www.gotquestions.org/Biblical-hermeneutics.html, denominational writers)
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