Bible Question: What is an evanglical hermenutical approach and why does it matter. |
Bible Answer: Greetings, Basically, hermeneutics is the field of proper interpretation of the Bible. This includes exegesis, or getting the meaning out of the passage. It's a big and complicated series of terms that basically mean to study in context. I had a class at bible college where I got my religion degree called "Religious Authority and Biblical Interpretation", or "RABI" for short. It was all about hermeneutics. Hermeneutics basically gives principles on identifying the parts of the context, how to study the context, applying the context, and organizing the information in a workable outline. The context basically includes two primary parts: Greater and Immediate. Others might have different terms for them, but the basic definition is that the Greater Context is the background information. This includes the locations mentioned in the passage, the author of the passage, the people focused on in the passage, as well as the culture of the people in the passage. It also refers to the intended audience. The Greater Context also includes the passages immediately before and after the focus passage. The immediate context is the passage itself, and what it says. It also includes the grammar, language, theology taught, and literary style. Having a basic understanding of Hebrew and Greek is often helpful in hermeneutics. Now, apart from getting a degree from a major university in the field, you can accomplish much of the same thing by keeping in mind four simple phrases, which also coincide with the basic tenants of Hermeneutics. 1) Context is king! Basically, don't take a passage out of context. It's like reading the verse that says "Judas went out and hanged himself" and believing that suicide by hanging is permissible. Many false religions/denominations/teachings have come about because people didn't pay attention to the context, and yanked a verse out to apply their own meaning to it. Read the series of verses before and after the focus verse. Read the entire chapter if you have to, or even the entire book if you need to in order to get a proper understanding of that verse. 2) Scripture interprets Scripture! Are you confused about the meaning of a certain phrase or word? Look it up in the concordance, and read how it is used elsewhere in the Bible. More often than not, a similar meaning for the word or phrase is carried throughout the Bible. 3) The Simplest explanation is usually correct! As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, God is not the author of confusion. When you have multiple options for what a passage means, and you'll have that come up quite often, lay them out as it were and approach from which is the simplest to wrap your mind around. Nine times out of ten, the simplest explanation will be on the mark. 4) You're studying History, not mythology! This is a major mistake done by most secular readers. They approach the Bible from the belief that it's just like Homer's Illiad or the stories of Hercules's trials. The Bible is the recorded history of Israel and the Early Church, not a collection of myths and legends like some secular skeptics like to claim. As for why it matters, well, it should be obvious. It's important to study the Bible properly. It's our guide into the will of God. Many people have been led astray by false teachers who ignored the basic guidelines of proper biblical interpretation, and warped the Bible into supporting their own weird ideas. Many of those false teachings are listed as heresies. Proper interpretation helps steer you away from them. Jalek |