A Matter of Interpretation
The Rev. Lou Tiscione, Pastor, Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Without doubt for the believer, the Bible is the most important book in existence. More aptly, the Bible is a collection of 66 books that will change your life! For non-believers, the Bible is recognized as the most historically reliable ancient text as attested to by secular historians. Sadly, many have spent their lives trying to discount or even dismiss biblical records. Yet, in the providence of God, archeology has continued to support the veracity of Old Testament and New Testament records.
Yet the Bible is the least understood literature in our day, I would propose by both the religious and the secularists. It is the most distorted as well. We’ve been led to think that what is contained in the Bible is a matter of individual interpretation. There are as many opinions concerning the meaning of a particular passage as there are readers. But the logical reality is that every interpretation cannot be right. In fact, there can be only one right interpretation of any passage. Logically, different or opposing interpretations may all be wrong. But they cannot all be right. There are some difficult passages of Scripture that may not be conclusively and rightly interpreted, at least not this side of glory.
God gave us the Bible because He is a God who desires to be known. The Bible is His revelation of Himself and how we as His creatures are to relate to Him. Therefore, in general, it is possible for us to understand what God has said.
Most biblical doctrine is clear. For example, the doctrine of salvation is one such clear and indisputable doctrine. It is clearly revealed by God that men (and women) are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Bible teaches that justification is an act of God’s free grace whereby He imputes Christ’s righteousness to a sinner and takes our sins and places them upon Christ.
How can we navigate through the myriads of personal interpretations of the Bible that may not be as clear as those noted.
The answer is hermeneutics, which is interpretation. There are two principles by which we are able to interpret Scripture. The first is called the biblical principle. The second is called the literal principle. The biblical principle is also referred to as the analogy of faith. The Protestant Reformers did not discover this principle; they merely recovered it. They understood the importance of this principle which means that the Bible interprets itself. The clear passages of Scripture shed light upon the more obscure ones. It is also understood that one place of Scripture must not be placed against another. In other words, there are no contradictions in the Bible. Further, the Old Testament is understood in light of the New Testament. There may be an apparent contradiction on the surface, but once we study it, we find consistency rather than contradiction because God does not speak with a “forked” tongue. He does not contradict Himself.
The second principle, the literal one, is also called the historical/grammatical principle. It means that the plain meaning of the text is always sought. You may have heard the saying that, “Text without context is pretext.” The words of Scripture find their meaning within the broader context of the passage. For example, let’s take a look at Hebrews 6:4-6.
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt (ESV).
Because of the difficulty in understanding this passage, it would not be accurate to base a theology on the possibility of losing one’s salvation! Keeping that verse within its context makes it clear that the writer is speaking of one who may profess faith, but does not possess genuine saving faith. In other words, the writer was speaking of those who are called apostates.
Furthermore, the Bible is literature. Recognizing literary devices and usages must be considered in arriving at a literal understanding of a particular passage. Grammar, the meaning of words, the context, time in which it was written, and other factors are involved in discovering the literal and plain meaning. It is important to remember that the literal interpretation of the Bible is different from a literalistic interpretation. For example, we know that when the prophet Isaiah wrote that the “trees of the field shall clap their hands”, he didn’t mean that trees have hands. The prophet used a figure of speech called a personification to describe the joy of all creation when God’s plan of redemption is finally consummated. Or, when Jesus said that He was the “door of the sheep” (John 10:7, 9), He did not mean that He looked like a door! In the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John, the Apostle John was declaring that Jesus is the only way for His people to have safety and security, and he used a metaphor in describing that Jesus is the only way!
With these tools in mind, the biblical and literal principles of interpretation, you can then seek to understand what God has said to apply it for His glory. Guard yourself against the purveyors of subjective interpretations of the Bible. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
