Principles of Interpretation

Introduction: The way we interpret Scripture has great life-impacting consequences:

If you are convinced that at any moment you will joyfully slip away to heaven and escape the worst this world has to offer, you tend to discount future planning. Why get an education? Why try to pass on an inheritance for future generations when we are the terminal one? Why bring children into this mess that the world is in? Why try to change the world if things are only going to go from bad to worse? Why not dismiss most efforts to fight against sin and evil here and now. What good is a struggle against perversion, poverty, hunger, and homelessness, against the culture of death, against the propaganda of immorality's champions, if we are soon to be snatched away? Why bother, if the fate of the world we will leave behind has already been signed, sealed, and determined to be under the control of the devil and his followers? Why not refocus all our efforts on flying away to heaven as soon as possible?

For this reason we are going to begin this series of studies on eschatology by looking at biblical hermeneutics or principles of interpretation.

Hermeneutics) -- is defined in one dictionary as “the art of finding the meaning of an author’s words and phrases, and of explaining it to others.”

1. The Bible was not written to me but for me!
   

2. A text can have only one primary interpretation but many applications.

Each book of the Bible was written by someone to specific readers in a specific historical, geographical situation for a specific purpose. Since the books of the Bible were written to people who lived in certain locations and times we must first seek to understand what the words meant to those initial readers before we can know how they apply to us today. Thus we must always ask, "What did this passage mean to the original readers?"

We live in a time when the thinking of many people is colored by the idea that all truth is relative—that what is true for me may not be true for you. Thus, when someone prefers a doubtful interpretation of Scripture, he may justify himself by saying, "Everyone is entitled to his own interpretation," as if any interpretation is as good as another. The rule of authorial intent shows this thinking to be in error. The only correct interpretation is the one faithful to the author's intent.

Ralph Woodrow gives an illustration of making a text mean toy you what it could have never meant to those to whom it was written: “When a husband grew weary of wiping dishes each night after dinner because in his opinion, 'It was not a man's job,’ his wife found a verse to use that would keep him next to the sink. It was 2 Kings 21:3, “And I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish.’”

John Calvin (1509-1564) said, "It is the first business of an interpreter to let his author say what he does say, instead of attributing to him what we think he ought to say"

3. A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or readers. (audience relevance)

Let me tell you an interesting fact: End times prophetic words have a success rate of exactly 0% and a failure rate of exactly 100%. 

When interpreting any biblical book of the Bible it is important to understand the audience to which it is directed. The evangelical interpreter should understand a passage’s grammar in light of its historical context, not despite it.

An Example from the Book of Revelation

At least three factors in Revelation emphasize the original audience and their circumstances.

Historic Churches

First, in Revelation John is writing to particular, historic, individual churches that exist in his day. Revelation 1:4 provides a common epistolary opening: “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come.” In verse 11 he specifically names the seven churches to whom he writes: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. We know these cities as historical places containing actual churches.

Revelation 1:4 does not read: “John to the many churches which are in America in the Twenty-first century.”

Concerned Communication

Second, we learn that John writes to those churches in order to be understood. The first sentence of John’s work contains its title. And from that title we know John fully intends that his work be a “revelation” so that he might “show” his readers what must take place. The Greek word for “revelation” is apokalupsis, which means an “opening up, uncovering.” John intends for his book to open up divine truth for his original audience.

Furthermore, in Revelation 1:3 we read: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” John expects the members of the seven churches to hear, understand, and keep the directives in Revelation. Revelation calls upon each church to give careful, spiritual attention to its words (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).

Revelation 1:3 does not read: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and pray for those who will live 2000 years from now so that they might keep those things which are written in it.”

Suffering Audience

Third, in his first chapter John also notes that he and the seven churches are already in “tribulation,” which anticipates the major focus of the book: the “great tribulation” (Rev 7:14). “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in the tribulation” (Rev 1:9a). Revelation 2 and 3 contain allusions to greater problems brewing on the world scene (Rev 2:10, 22–23, 25; 3:9–11).

So then: John is obviously writing to particular historical churches about their current, grave, and worsening circumstances. We must not overlook the original audience factor; Revelation’s message must be relevant to them. This is especially significant since, as noted in my previous email, Revelation is filled with notes stating the prophecies will occur shortly (e.g., Rev 1:1, 3).

Revelation 1:9 does not read: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in relatively comfortable times.”

4. Interpret Scripture Christologically and not Just Literally, Common Sense Based, or Based on a Man’s System of Theology

The modern and very popular position of interpretation known as dispensationalism, states, scripture must be interpreted literally and when plain sense makes the best sense, seek no other sense. This is not sound hermeneutics. The Bible must be interpreted by the Bible and Biblical truth, not common sense or wooden literalism must be the standard.

The dispensational position claims to take the bible literally. But in reality they do so only when it fits in their predetermined form and works in their favor. When it doesn't, they take scripture figuratively or symbolically. The clearest example is in Matthew 24. Here Jesus makes two clear statements that if you were to take literally would destroy the whole dispensational position. Due to this, they choose to drop their literalism for the sake of upholding their positions. In Matthew 24 Jesus states very clearly that: (1) this generation will not pass away before these things happen (these signs which are often said to accompany the rapture. For example, wars, earthquakes, famines, blood moons, etc); (2) that these things will all take place regionally, not globally. These statements are found in Mat 24:34, "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." and in Mat 24:16, "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." If taken literally, they destroy their dispensational premillennial theory. But that’s the problem, they only prefer and use literal interpretations of the Bible when it supports their preconceived theories.

Not literalism, symbolism, or allegorism, but Jesus must be the criterion by which all Scripture is read and interpreted. (Read Lk. 24:25-27;44; Jn. 1:45; 5:39; Acts 10:43;28:23,31) In other words, the Bible has only one Big Story and one exclusive Star and it is not Israel, the Church, legal or life principles, or any other person or thing. It is Jesus the Messiah!

Jesus fulfills and interprets all the Bible for us. He said, in essence on that day in the synagogue in (Luke 4:21  And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."): "I am going to fill up with meaning everything you read here. I am it. Without me in your life, this book is locked shut." Jesus full-fills OT expectation and the OT fills out our knowledge of Christ!

5. 5. The Old Testament is interpreted by the New Testament.

The key to the O.T. is Christ in the N.T. The unfolding unity of scripture is from shadow to substance, from the natural to the spiritual, from the ritual to the reality.

What was racial Israel's primary mission? It was to present the Messiah to the world. In the birth of Jesus from the tribe of Judah, Israel fulfilled that mission exactly as God planned, even though as a whole the nation rejected their native Son!

Jesus fulfilled in His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and ongoing ever-presence in the person of the Holy Spirit, all the covenants of the O.T.! Jesus is the true Son of Abraham (Mt. 1:1) and believing in Him makes us children of Abraham (Gals. 3:29); Jesus kept the whole law for us, including its curses (Gals 4:4-5); He is our law, our sacrifice, our temple priest, and prophet. He is the Son of David and the Son of God who now sits as the eternal king upon the throne of David (Mt.1:1; Acts 2:29-35). The full theological meaning of the O.T. can be grasped only by those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, that God’s covenant with the twelve tribes is fulfilled and completed – not postponed in Christ’s covenant with His twelve apostles. The Jewish nation of the old economy failed in many ways, but they didn’t fail in the main way, i.e., they brought forth the Messiah! The writers of the N.T. recognize Christ as the perfect fulfillment of God’s promises to the patriarchs and Israel: Acts 26:6-7, “And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our fathers that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me.” (NIV)

Acts 13:32-33, "We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers, he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: "'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'”

Gal 3:29, “And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

The first 39 books of the Bible are shadows that Predict the Son, (who is the cause of the shadows) is coming. In the gospels the reality of all the OT rituals, the substance of all its shadows, the fulfillment of all its types and pictures, comes fulfillment as they Present the SON! In the book of Acts Jesus is Proclaimed as Present in the Spirit. In the epistles, He is the Precious Possession of the saints (The Treasure and Pleasure of the Christian’s life – in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge). In the Revelation, He is the Predominate Potentate who Controls the Destiny of all men and nations.

6. Identify the type of literature.

Remember, the Bible is a collection of diverse books. Or to say another way, unlike most literature, the Bible is not one book written by one author during one time period. Rather, the Bible is a collection of sixty-six distinctive books composed by numerous writers over hundreds of years.

As you think of the Bible more as a collection or library of different books, recognize that each book was written under unique circumstances and for unique reasons. This means that the writing styles and types of literature included therein are extremely diverse. In fact, scholars categorize the different types of literature in the Bible into several genres (a genre is a category):

• Historical narrative: stories about historical people and events.
• Poems or songs: lyrics, songs, and prayers that express emotions and ideas using distinctive language, literary styles, and rhythm.
• Prophecy: poetic messages conveying divine blessing or judgment on people and calling for a response from them.
• Letters: written by one or more individuals to others, often addressing specific issues.
• Proverbs and wisdom literature: pithy sayings or discourses about living life well and making wise choices.
• Legal codes: laws—both general and specific—for ordering a just society.
• Parables: imaginative stories that relate to life and illustrate a point.
• Apocalyptic literature: writings that have to do with end times, including vivid portrayal of the cosmic battle between good and evil.

The Bible contains passages and whole books in each of these distinctive genres, which explains why some parts are boring (legal codes) and others beautiful (poetry). But how does it all fit together?

How are to view and read the Bible?  For some the Bible is a sort of philosophical treatise; for others it’s a systematic theology; for some it’s a guideline for making positive confessions of faith; for others, it’s the Owner’s manual that tells them how to operate their lives, or a book of success formulas that reveals how to make it big in life. Nor is it a collection of moral tales, or a series of personal-psychology studies of Great Heroes of Long Ago.

The Bible is God’s Big Story Book about the Covenant, Christ, and the Community of Faith. The Old Testament is 40% narrative and the New Testament is over 60% narrative.

God’s Glory Story is not designed to just inform us about God, but to suck us into the story and involve us a never-ending love-relationship with the True and Living God. The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself, the story of His coming to us in the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ; and it is the story of the Church’s relationship to Him through the Covenant He has established with her.

The Bible is essentially a thrilling, action-packed drama with God as the main actor and in which we can play a part. It is not a pick-and-mix catalogue of religious goodies or spiritual recipes. It is not an occult code to be deciphered by elite disciples. And the Bible most definitely is not a compendium of texts which we can use to buttress our own theological position.

The written Word – the Bible, is designed to get us to the Living Word – Jesus. It’s designed to transform us and not just inform us; to stir our hearts and not provide us with a lot of charts; to satisfy our minds, fire our imaginations, fuel our emotions, kindle the flames of worship, and be a lamp of for our feet and a light for our path!

We squeeze the life out of it and render it a “flat” book, a bland moral mandate with passionless principles. But this is not the way the Bible came to us.

In Jesus all the promise-plans of God converge. The Israel story is conclusively redrawn, the world’s story is redeemingly rewritten and the story of God is fully revealed to us.

Meeting God like this in His own story we find a God who is involved, intimate, wild, passionate, unpredictable, utterly faithful, powerful, unmanageable, and persuadable – a tough and tender God who travels and travails with Israel with genuine emotions.

This is a story that must be told, understood, believed, received, acted upon, passed on to others, and a story that must give glory to God its author!

7. Maintaining the Unity of Scripture in the Light of its Great Diversity

The Bible is really one book with sixty-six chapters, (i.e. books). It isn’t two books, about two peoples, two plans, two ways of salvation, and two destinies, but one book with and one main story, one people of faith and grace and not a favored race, one plan, one way of salvation and one final destiny and all of this finds its fulfillment in ONE PERSON – THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

According to dispensationalism, there are two distinct programs of God, two distinct peoples of God, and two distinct dispensations for Israel and the church. The church belongs to God’s ‘mystery’ program for this dispensation only. The dispensation of the ‘church’ is seen as confined to the period between Pentecost and the rapture. In their view, the concept of the mystery removes the church from anything anticipated in O.T. prophecy.

However, the Star of the Bible's Grand Unfolding Drama of Redemption is not racial Israel, for they were but frail, fallen, and failing sons of God. Jesus was the True Son and the Final Israel.  What commenced as death in the First Adam culminates in life in the Last Adam. In the First Adam Paradise was lost (Gen 3:23), in the Last Adam – Jesus – Paradise is Regained (Rev 21:1); in the first part of the Story, Satan is victorious (Gen 3:1-7), in the final chapter, Satan is defeated forever (Rev. 12:10-11); in the first chapter a curse is pronounced (Gen 3:17) in the final chapter of the Story the curse is removed (Rev. 22:3); in the first chapter the gates to the Garden are shut (Gen 3:24) in the final chapter the Gates to God are forever opened (Rev 21:25); in the first chapter we see death descending and reigning (Gen 2:17) in the final chapter death is destroyed (Gen 21:4).

Jesus Christ: The True Israel

If we stand within the field of prophetic vision typical of Israel’s prophets after the exile and captivity, and with them we look to the future, what do we see?  Israel’s prophets clearly anticipate a time when Israel will be restored to its former greatness.  But will that restoration of the nation of Israel to its former glory mirror the days of the monarchy?  Or does the monarchy itself point us to the monarch?

Such a prophetic vision includes not only the nation, but the land of Canaan, the city of Jerusalem, the throne of David, as well as the temple in Jerusalem.  Since the nation had been divided and the people were hauled off into captivity in Babylon some five centuries before the coming of Jesus, the magnificent temple destroyed and the priesthood gone, such prophetic expectation related to Israel’s future quite naturally spoke of a reversal of fortune and the undoing of calamity which had come upon the nation.

But with apostolic hindsight Peter speaks of how “concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” (1 Peter 1:10-12).

In Isaiah 41:8-9, the prophet spoke of a future restoration of Israel in these terms.  “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, `You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.'”  The same promise is reiterated in the next chapter of Isaiah (42:1-7), when the LORD declares of his servant, “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations”( v. 6).  Isaiah continues to speak of this servant in chapters 44 (vv. 1-2) and 45 (v. 4).

Dispensationalists, given their so-called "literal hermeneutic," are bound to interpret such passages literally, thereby assign the fulfillment of these prophecies of Isaiah to a future earthly millennium in which Israel co-exists with Gentiles under the reign of the Davidic king (See Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom, 302-304; and Pentecost, Things to Come, 503-508).   In effect, this amounts to the restoration of the monarchy as Jesus takes his place on David's royal throne and rules the nations from this restored Israel.

But is this how the New Testament interprets these messianic prophecies regarding the servant of the Lord?  Who is this servant of the Lord?  It is the nation of Israel, or is it Jesus, Israel’s Messiah?

In order to answer this questions, we must see that the gospel writers interpret these prophecies from Isaiah as fulfilled in the messianic mission of Jesus.

First, in Matthew 12:15-21, for example, when Jesus withdrew from the crowds who had followed him, Matthew reports that this event fulfilled what had been spoken in Isaiah the prophet.  This event serves to demonstrate that Jesus is the true servant of the Lord.

Second, as Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, Matthew saw in this the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies of a suffering servant who would take upon himself our infirmities and carry our diseases (Matthew 8:17 with Isaiah 53:4).

Third, in Luke’s gospel, Luke speaks of both Israel (cf. Luke 1:54) and David as the servant of God (Luke 1:69).  Yet in Acts, Luke pointedly speaks of Jesus as the servant of God (Acts 3:13).  After his crucifixion, God raised Jesus from the dead so that people everywhere might be called to repentance (3:26).

Fourth, when the Ethiopian eunuch hears a reading from Isaiah 53:7-8 and asks Philip about whom this prophecy refers, Luke tells us that Philip informed the Ethiopian that this passage does indeed refer to Jesus (Acts 8:34-35).

But this is not all that is in view here.  In Hosea 11:1, Hosea predicted a time when “Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”  But in Matthew 2:15, the evangelist tells us that Hosea’s prophecy was fulfilled when his parents took Jesus to Egypt to protect him from Herod’s “slaughter of the innocents” (Matthew 2:3-18).  Yet, after Herod had died, God called Jesus and his family to return to Nazareth.  Matthew takes a passage from Hosea, which clearly refers to Israel, and tells his reader that this passage is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ!  He does this to prove to his largely Jewish audience that Jesus is the servant of the Lord, foretold throughout the Old Testament (especially Isaiah).

By now it should be clear that according to many New Testament writers, Jesus is the true servant, the true son and the true Israel of God.  Recall too that it was Isaiah who spoke of Israel and the descendants of Abraham as the people of God.  It as through the seed of Abraham that the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Therefore, even as Jesus is the true Israel, he is the true seed of Abraham.  This is the point that Paul is making in Galatians 3:7-8, when he says “know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, `In you shall all the nations be blessed.'”