Hermeneutics

Playing with Fire by Walt Russell

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

I just finished this book.  The book is a guide to biblical interpretation.  I think it is one of the finest works done on the area of interpretation and application.  Russell champions a historical-grammatical interpretation of Scripture.  He is consistent throughout the book in emphasizing this hermeneutical method.  Russell also addresses some areas that evangelicals have neglected in years past.  He strives to persuade readers to take genre and the occasional nature of the Scripture into account when interpreting.  I would highly recommend this book to any believer who would like a better understanding of God’s Word and a closer walk with God.  If I were teaching an introductory Bible class this would be one of the required text books.

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The Role of the Holy Spirit in biblical interpretation

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

What do you think the role of the Holy Spirit is in interpretation?

The Holy Spirit has revealed God’s wisdom which was previously unknown. In particular the Spirit has revealed the glorious things that God has provided for believers through Christ (1 Cor. 2:10, 12). This wisdom, which was previously hidden, is now recorded in the N.T. Scriptures. These things were “spoken” (now recorded) with the Spirit’s guidance (2:13). As a result of Scripture coming from the Holy Spirit unsaved people do not accept it (2:14).

Here are the things that Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit does for the believer in the process of biblical interpretation:

  1. The Spirit enables believers to accept the teaching of God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:12, 15-16).

The indwelling Holy Spirit desires the Word of God and gives believers the ability to accept the teaching of Scripture into his life. This reception of Scripture is only made possible through the supernatural influence of the indwelling Spirit. An unregenerate person rejects Scripture because he does not have the desire to accept it apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit (2:14). The believer accepts God’s Word as authoritative in his life as a result of the Spirit’s presence in his life.

One thing bears mentioning. Paul states that he is able to share this spiritual wisdom with the spiritually mature (2:6; 3:1). Therefore, as a believer matures spiritually the influence of the Spirit becomes greater in his life. This would result in the believer more readily accepting God’s Word in his life. Spiritual immaturity causes believer to be slow to accept God’s Word.

  1. The Spirit enables believers to recognize Scripture as truth (1 Jn. 2:20, 27).

John tells the recipients of his letter that they as believers have an “anointing” from God (2:20a). Believers have received the indwelling Holy Spirit. John’s audience had already been taught biblical truth, to which they were to adhere (2:20b-24). John states that false teachers were attempting to lead them astray from the biblical teaching that they had received and believed (2:22-23, 26). John tells them to adhere to the biblical teaching that they had already received and believed (2:24). He also tells them that the Holy Spirit (the “anointing” from God) will enable them to recognize the difference between the truth of Scripture and the lie of false teaching (2:27). The Holy Spirit will enable believers to recognize Scripture as true.

One thing that bears mentioning. The believers had already been discipled to an extent. They had received, not just the gospel but, further biblical teaching. This further biblical teaching was to help them progress in spiritual maturity. Application for today would be that believers need to increase in their knowledge of Scripture so that the Spirit will be able to help them to more clearly recognize truth, error, and the difference between the two.

  1. The Spirit enables believers to apply the teaching of Scripture to their lives (1 Cor. 2:12-16).

This aspect of the Holy Spirit’s involvement results first from careful exegesis of the biblical text. As a believer carefully exegetes a biblical text and discovers the author’s intent, the Holy Spirit then works supernaturally to enable the believer to respond to the biblical teaching. The Spirit acts upon the believer to enable him to apply the teaching of the biblical text to his life, if appropriate. This role of the Spirit in biblical interpretation grows out of the Spirit’s role in accepting Scripture.

Before a believer can apply the teaching of Scripture to his life he must first accept the teaching of Scripture as God’s Word. Before a believer can apply the teaching of Scripture to his life he must practice careful exegesis to discover the author’s intent.

The role of the Holy Spirit in the process of biblical interpretation was challenging. In working through the biblical text it was difficult not to affix the traditional view of illumination to the biblical text in view. The result of that would have been eisegesis, instead of exegesis. In the study I found the following three aspects to the role of the Holy Spirit in biblical interpretation:

      1. The Spirit enables believers to accept the teaching of Scripture as God’s Word.

      2. The Spirit enables believers to recognize the teaching of Scripture as truth.

      3. The Spirit enables believers to apply the teaching of Scripture to their lives (when appropriate).

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Playing with Fire, by Walt Russell

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

I have begun reading a book called, Playing with Fire, by Walt Russell. It has provided the reader with a wealth of good instruction in regard to biblical interpretation. I find it so refreshing that the author has confronted head-on the erroneous view that a “devotional” reading of the Scriptures is altogether separate from a historical-grammatical reading of the Bible. This has led to the rampant misinterpretation of the Word of God as a result of a “this is what it means to me” interpretation. The author warns that a serious reading of the Scripture is like “playing with fire.” The reason for this is that God supernaturally uses His Word to transform the lives of His people. This is again reinforced for me the importance of the right Bible reading skills. This really seems to be the reason for the rise of allegorical interpretation, which is still widespread today. The ironic part is that those who use allegory (especially those who use replacement theology – i.e. the church has replaced Israel) claim to use a historical-grammatical hermeneutic. The evidence shows the contrary.
A great book so far. I would recommend others to pick it up.

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The Roles of Author, Text, and Reader in Interpretation

/ Christopher Terry / Leave a comment

The Roles of Author, Text, and Reader in Interpretation

  1. The Role of the Author

    The Bible had human authors which were used to compose it. The Bible describes itself as the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). As a result of these two realities, there is a human aspect and a divine aspect to the Bible. The author of the biblical text has a supreme role in the interpretive process. The author composed a literary work that has meaning and purpose. Simply stated, whatever the human author intended to say when he originally wrote, that is the true meaning of the biblical text. Any interpretation or conclusion that is contrary to the authorial intent is erroneous. This must be stated clearly because even though the Word of God has a divine aspect it is not removed from the intent of the human author. The human author had an accurate understanding of what he was writing and therefore that is the real meaning of the text.

  2. The Role of the Text

    The text of the Bible as mentioned above has a human aspect and a divine aspect. The Bible as originally composed was written in human languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) that were able to be read and understood by those who understood those languages. The literary units were not a new invention. Therefore a reader (or readers) would interpret those biblical texts (taking genre into account) the same as any other literary work (of the same genre). The text is meant to communicate a message to those who would hear it read or who would read it for themselves. The authors of the biblical text used idioms, poetry, apocalyptic imagery, and other grammatical tools to communicate the message to their recipients.

  3. The Role of the Reader

    When an individual (or perhaps a group) comes to a biblical text he is attempting to understand what an author has written. Every reader comes to the biblical text with certain preunderstandings and also certain presuppositions. There are many things that affect the interpretive process. Yet, the reader must seek the understand the biblical text with a historical-grammatical hermeneutic. The reader must seek to determine the author’s intended meaning, or authorial intent. The reader does not determine the meaning of the biblical text. Rather, he discovers the meaning of the biblical text. The reader must recognize the preunderstandings that he brings to the text and allow the text to correct his preunderstandings. The reader must remember that the biblical text has only one meaning but it possibly has multiple applications. There must be an effort made to distinguish between meaning and application.

  4. Conclusions

    In the interpretive process the authorial intent has supreme authority. In studying a biblical passage the first goal is to discover what the author was intending to communicate his original audience. This is the meaning of the biblical text. There is only one meaning for a biblical text. The real meaning of the text is what the intended to communicate to his original audience. The role of the text in the interpretive process helps to give boundaries for meaning. The text has meaning that is tied to the period of time in which it was communicated. The role of the reader is to seek to discover what the biblical author was communicating to his original audience. The reader does this through studying the historical backdrop of the writer and the recipients. The reader seeks to study the text in the original languages (if possible) to get closer to the original situation. A historical grammatical hermeneutic is the tool that must be employed to be able to discover the actual meaning of the text, of which there is only one. After this actual meaning is discovered, then and only then, may the reader seek to make modern application. If application is sought before discovering the authorial intent, then it is very likely that the application will be informed by preunderstanding and not the actual meaning of the text.

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