THE TRUE BIBLICAL METHOD OF INTERPRETATION

[Eddie Ramos]

Since our method of biblical interpretation is the backbone of our doctrine, would God simply provide a book for us without teaching us how he intended for us to understand what he wrote? It's common knowledge that the most widely known and accepted method of biblical interpretation is the "Literal-Grammatical-Historical Method". This means that most doctrines people hold to be true are built upon this foundation.

My first question, to those who hold to this method is, can you provide any scripture that teaches this method as the correct method of biblical interpretation? For example, Timothy 2:15 tells us to rightly divide the Word of Truth, but we can't infer that this means to look for the Literal-Grammatical-Historical Method. It simply says to rightly divide it. And who can teach us how God intends for us to rightly divide it, if not the one whose very words these are? God himself.

It seems that so much trust has been placed on the scholars and theologians and church leaders who've handed us a method of hermeneutic that they've come up with, but that isn't actually derived from the scriptures themselves. Does anyone find that strange? But did you know that God has indeed provided us with scriptures upon scriptures that teach us just how he intended for us to approach His Word and rightly divide it?

I will begin by posting just a few and expounding from there as the conversations progress.

1. The Bible is a spiritual book, therefore, in looking for the literal understanding of a passage as our source of truth, we have missed the mark and the intended meaning of the deeper truth that God has provided, which is the gospel message.

Romans 7:14 (KJV 1900)
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

2. As a spiritual book, the Bible teaches us that we must compare, not literal with literal, but spiritual with spiritual if we expect the Holy Ghost to teach.

1 Corinthians 2:13 (KJV 1900)
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

3. When we merely search for the Literal-Grammatical-Historical rendering of a passage, then we will miss the spiritual meanings contained within the Word of God. And that is exactly how God designed His Word, to conceal spiritual truth. God's hermeneutic is by design and easily rejected by those who trust more in man's wisdom than in God's.

Isaiah 28:9–10 (KJV 1900)

9  Whom shall he teach knowledge?
And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned from the milk,
And drawn from the breasts.
10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
Line upon line, line upon line;
Here a little, and there a little:

[William]

[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #40]

Wouldn't the divine be better than divide?

1 : to discover by intuition or insight : infer divine the truth. 2 : to discover or locate

[Eddie Ramos]

[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #40]

Wouldn't the divine be better than divide?

1 : to discover by intuition or insight : infer divine the truth. 2 : to discover or locate

We should never use secular dictionaries to try and define biblical words. The Bible is self sufficient in all areas of understanding. This means that it is it's own dictionary, as well as its own commentary.

[William]

[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #40]

Wouldn't the divine be better than divide?

1 : to discover by intuition or insight : infer divine the truth. 2 : to discover or locate

We should never use secular dictionaries to try and define biblical words. The Bible is self sufficient in all areas of understanding. This means that it is it's own dictionary, as well as its own commentary.

Are you arguing that the secular dictionary definition I posted is not the same thing/has a different meaning as you are saying re dividing

[Eddie Ramos]

[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #40]

Wouldn't the divine be better than divide?

1 : to discover by intuition or insight : infer divine the truth. 2 : to discover or locate

We should never use secular dictionaries to try and define biblical words. The Bible is self sufficient in all areas of understanding. This means that it is it's own dictionary, as well as its own commentary.

Are you arguing that the secular dictionary definition I posted is not the same thing/has a different meaning as you are saying re dividing

Yes. This is a book like no other Because it came from the mouth of God. Therefore God wrote it to cause confusion to the natural minded man who picks up this book and thinks he can logically understand all the truth it contains.

Proverbs 25:2 (KJV)
2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing (a WORD):
but the honour of kings is to search out a matter (a WORD).

[William]

[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #44]

So I wanted to know what exactly dividing was, and looked into other Bible translations

"correctly handles the word of truth"

"rightly handling the word of truth."

"handling the word of truth with precision"

Interestingly, "exactly dividing" is written as "handling" - an activity.

One is active with things.

It is true that the Earth orbits around the Sun.
If I once thought it true that the Sun orbited the Earth, and was given new information that showed me that the truth was, "The Earth orbits the Sun" and in exactly dividing [handling] that information I examined the new evidence and therein found it to be truthful, I would then be required to let go the old notion I had once believed to be true, and adopt the new.

That would be an example of exactly dividing.

Indeed, that is the task of science.

In the case of "Gods Word" - if I am taught that Gods Word is "The Bible" and at some point am shown evidence supporting the notion that "Gods Word" wasn't referring to the Bible alone, but to every truth about all things/matters [like the Sun and Earth existing together and the relationship of that togetherness...how the relationship operates/functions] then I would be required to let go of the old notion I had once believed to be true, and adopt the new.

Agreed?

If someone claimed it to be true that the Bible is "a book like no other because it came from the mouth of God."

I could examine [exactly dividing] that opinion and see what truth - if any - could be found.

If someone tells me that "God wrote the Bible to cause confusion to the natural minded man who picks up this book and thinks he can logically understand all the truth it contains", I could examine [exactly dividing] that opinion and see what truth - if any - could be found.

I could literally do this with all things, not limited to any book or any opinion anyone has about any book, movie, statement, song, food, planet, star... all stuff like that.

[Eddie Ramos]

[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #44]

So I wanted to know what exactly dividing was, and looked into other Bible translations

"correctly handles the word of truth"

"rightly handling the word of truth."

"handling the word of truth with precision"

Interestingly, "exactly dividing" is written as "handling" - an activity.

One is active with things.

It is true that the Earth orbits around the Sun.
If I once thought it true that the Sun orbited the Earth, and was given new information that showed me that the truth was, "The Earth orbits the Sun" and in exactly dividing [handling] that information I examined the new evidence and therein found it to be truthful, I would then be required to let go the old notion I had once believed to be true, and adopt the new.

That would be an example of exactly dividing.

Indeed, that is the task of science.

In the case of "Gods Word" - if I am taught that Gods Word is "The Bible" and at some point am shown evidence supporting the notion that "Gods Word" wasn't referring to the Bible alone, but to every truth about all things/matters [like the Sun and Earth existing together and the relationship of that togetherness...how the relationship operates/functions] then I would be required to let go of the old notion I had once believed to be true, and adopt the new.

Agreed?

If someone claimed it to be true that the Bible is "a book like no other because it came from the mouth of God."

I could examine [exactly dividing] that opinion and see what truth - if any - could be found.

If someone tells me that "God wrote the Bible to cause confusion to the natural minded man who picks up this book and thinks he can logically understand all the truth it contains", I could examine [exactly dividing] that opinion and see what truth - if any - could be found.

I could literally do this with all things, not limited to any book or any opinion anyone has about any book, movie, statement, song, food, planet, star... all stuff like that.

God's Word is not a book that can be taken and analyzed logically, not even by the smartest minds in this world. Look at Stephen Hawking who was a genius by our standards, yet when it came to spiritual matters like God and His Word, Stephen was as blind as he could be. Why? Because God is no respector of persons, and he gives spiritual wisdom to whomever he has chosen to give it. He gave it to fishermen and withheld it from teachers of the Bible. Spiritual wisdom of God's Word can only come from God himself.

[William]

William: If someone tells me that "God wrote the Bible to cause confusion to the natural minded man who picks up this book and thinks he can logically understand all the truth it contains", I could examine [exactly dividing] that opinion and see what truth - if any - could be found.[/quote]
[Replying to Eddie Ramos in post #46]

God's Word is not a book that can be taken and analyzed logically...

I will assume that it is your opinion you are stating re the Bible being written by יהוה‎.



There are many who believe as you do, tell others about it as you do, and yet disagree with one another over biblical interpretations.

I have no horse in that particular race...I have already examined the claim and asked for evidence to support said claim and received nothing of any substance to support said claim and think it nothing more serious that a misguided opinion, rather than actual factual.

[Eddie Ramos]

Since our method of biblical interpretation is the backbone of our doctrine, would God simply provide a book for us without teaching us how he intended for us to understand what he wrote? It's common knowledge that the most widely known and accepted method of biblical interpretation is the "Literal-Grammatical-Historical Method". This means that most doctrines people hold to be true are built upon this foundation.

My first question, to those who hold to this method is, can you provide any scripture that teaches this method as the correct method of biblical interpretation? For example, Timothy 2:15 tells us to rightly divide the Word of Truth, but we can't infer that this means to look for the Literal-Grammatical-Historical Method. It simply says to rightly divide it. And who can teach us how God intends for us to rightly divide it, if not the one whose very words these are? God himself.

It seems that so much trust has been placed on the scholars and theologians and church leaders who've handed us a method of hermeneutic that they've come up with, but that isn't actually derived from the scriptures themselves. Does anyone find that strange? But did you know that God has indeed provided us with scriptures upon scriptures that teach us just how he intended for us to approach His Word and rightly divide it?

I will begin by posting just a few and expounding from there as the conversations progress.

1. The Bible is a spiritual book, therefore, in looking for the literal understanding of a passage as our source of truth, we have missed the mark and the intended meaning of the deeper truth that God has provided, which is the gospel message.

Romans 7:14 (KJV 1900)
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

2. As a spiritual book, the Bible teaches us that we must compare, not literal with literal, but spiritual with spiritual if we expect the Holy Ghost to teach.

1 Corinthians 2:13 (KJV 1900)
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

3. When we merely search for the Literal-Grammatical-Historical rendering of a passage, then we will miss the spiritual meanings contained within the Word of God. And that is exactly how God designed His Word, to conceal spiritual truth. God's hermeneutic is by design and easily rejected by those who trust more in man's wisdom than in God's.

Isaiah 28:9–10 (KJV 1900)

9  Whom shall he teach knowledge?
And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned from the milk,
And drawn from the breasts.
10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
Line upon line, line upon line;
Here a little, and there a little:

In continuation with this most important doctrine of Hermeneutics, it's important to also understand that God wrote His word so as to purposely confuse the wisdom of man (i.e. their logic). This is why many statements that were actually made in the original languages, were not only translated by each translator in their respective languages, but many passages must have left the translators confused when they read it in the original language, that they really didn't know how to translate it, so they did the best they could and translated many words, completely different that they would have normally translated. But in doing so, they concealed much truth in what God had originally spoken. Here is just one example:

Genesis 25:27 (KJV 1900)
And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

The word translated here as "plain" is never translated as "plain" anywhere else because it's actually the word "perfect". But as you can imagine, when the translators came to this verse, they already had an understanding about what kind of man Jacob was as he supplanted his brother Esau for his birthright and then for the blessing of the firstborn. As a matter of fact, Jacob's own name means "supplanter". Therefore, when they came to this verse, it may have seemed like a big stretch to say that Jacob was a perfect man because of what he did to his brother and his father. Therefore, they chose to translate the word "perfect" as a word which they never translated this Hebrew word before and chose to describe Jacob as a "plain" man. But the problem is that these are God's words, not man's. And if God chose to use the word for "perfect" to describe Jacob, then it's not for us to try and correct, but to try and understand. Why did God use this particular word to describe Jacob? Because when God describes people in the Bible, he isn't looking at the outside of a man but he looks on the heart. And so, this biblical principle that God uses throughout the Bible must be understood if we hope to come to an understanding of what God is trying to teach us.

In this verse, God is describing both men. And he's teaching us that Esau was a man of the field which means that Esau was a worldly man (i.e. unsaved) because elsewhere, God describes the field as the world (Mt 13:38). Then he describes Jacob as a perfect man because Jacob was a true child of God (i.e. saved). And we can further confirm this if we study what it means for Esau to be called a "cunning hunter" (again, although historically he may have been), and Jacob, dwelling in tents (tabernacles).

So, this teaches us a very important Bible study principle, that we need to approach the Bible with extreme care and not casually as a simple textual book. And we need to let God (through his word) explain what he means by what he says.