Some Hermeneutical Principles

Hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation. It is a science because it is based on set rules and specific methods. It is an art because it is imperfect and sometimes uncertain. Rather than go into the history of biblical interpretation and without going into the details of the competing theories of how best to go about it, let me just lay out briefly what method I will use--what method I always try to use--when approaching any biblical text. The way I try to interpret Scripture is really the way one should attempt to understand any writing or literature. Let me explain.

Certain questions must be asked when approaching any body of writing.

a) Who wrote it?
b) To whom was he writing?
c) Why was he writing?
d) What is the genre?
e) In what language was it written?
f) If in a foreign language are there barriers and limitations in the translation into the receptor language?
g) What is the time-period and culture involved?
h) What is the historical setting?
i) Are there similar writings with which to compare it?

I could probably go on, but you get the idea. The bottom line is that I want to understand it in the same way that the original readers were intended to understand it by the original writer. If I can do that, then I am off to a great start.

As large a task as this seems, it is still only the beginning for the Bible student. The next questions to ask are--what does it say about God? What have I learned about God? What was God saying to the original readers? What was God saying to the Ages? What is God saying to me?

Without boring the reader with too many details, let me just say the method I use is the method used by confessing evangelicals for the last, well, since Martin Luther. That is, I use the historical/grammatical method of interpretation. This is the method I outlined above.

And I take a high view of Scripture. In other words, like Jesus and the Apostles I treat it as divinely inspired. This means that while real human authors wrote real human texts to real human people in real human language, there is another, deeper aspect to these. The evangelical view of inspiration is not mechanical dictation as it is sometimes caricatured. It is genuine inspiration--but on a higher level than, say, poetical inspiration. The words are Isaiah's in every real sense. But they are also God's.

2 Timothy 3:[16] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:[19] And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, [20] knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. [21] For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So as Isaiah was carried along by the Holy Spirit let us pray as Paul did for the Ephesians . . .

Ephesians 1:[17] . . . that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, [18] having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, [19] and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might [20] that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, [21] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [22] And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, [23] which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.