HERMENEUTICS #2

The first principle of sound hermeneutics is to interpret the Bible LITERALLY. When I say "literally," I am not talking about a rigid literalism that refuses to understand nuances of language. Literal interpretation means that we understand scripture in its NORMAL, NATURAL sense, which includes an understanding of figures of speech like parables, hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and symbolism.

How would you read a letter from a friend? You would assume a normal, natural meaning to the words, unless something in the letter alerted you to see it another way. Why do so many Christians refuse to treat the word of God with the same respect?

So many people think that the Bible is a mysterious, exotic, collection of magical sayings that need to be deciphered and read like tea leaves. But this first principle states that, since God inspired the Bible for the purpose of communicating with mankind, then God must have wanted us to understand it. The word of God is not a fetish, to be manipulated in order to get from it what WE want; rather, it is a record of propositional truth that God wants to impart to us. And the most obvious way to understand that truth is to begin by taking the words at "face value."

The words of scripture should be interpreted in the same way words are understood in ordinary daily use. God has communicated his word to us through human language, and there is every reason to assume that his word is to be understood just as we would interpret the language of normal discourse. So the first thing the careful student of scripture should do is to look for the ordinary, literal meaning of the text, and NOT go fishing for some mystical, hidden, deeper, secret meaning that would not be apparent to others.

It is true that some of the apocalyptic passages, and some of the prophecies, contain obvious figures and symbols that must be studied carefully to see the literal truth they are conveying. That kind of symbolic language, however, is not the norm in scripture, and it is conspicuous where it is employed. And -- even the figurative language is designed to represent something literal.

Those who abandon the literal principle of interpretation in favor of mystical or allegorical interpretation are really throwing away all hope of achieving any accuracy or coherence. Instead, we end up with a free-for-all, where only the imagination rules. When we deny the literal meaning -- by finding instead some "mystical" meaning, or a "personal" meaning, or a "principle" that contradicts that literal meaning -- we are not serving scripture by trying to understand it; instead, we are making it our slave by molding to to say what we want it to say.

This amounts to telling God what we think he SHOULD have said, rather than attempting to understand what God actually HAS said. This is known as EISEGESIS -- reading INTO the scripture our own ideas -- as opposed to EXEGESIS, which is deriving FROM the scriptures the meaning that the author intended to convey in the first place. It dishonors the word of God, and it dishonors the God who gave us his word. Again -- think how YOU would feel if someone habitually did such a thing to YOUR words!

Interpret LITERALLY -- that is the first principle of solid biblical hermeneutics. And that one principle will protect you from a host of erroneous teachings.