The Ohio Independent Baptist, April 1964

' ri nn ,( man br~pl t l I gnuf q ... BIBLE INTERPRETATION By Davis Mayes (Based on a message by Dr. Arthur Williams) In rder for a hri tian to know , d b tter and to Ii,,e n1ore to Hi g] r) . it i inwortant that he know ho,,· t under tand and interpret God' \\ n \ ord, the Bible. A lack in thi ~k ill f interpretation ha cau ed n1an,· a Chri tian to become weak and unfruitful . Some Christian are confu ed when they find two pa sages in the Bible that eem to contradict each other. Other lo e the ·thought of a Bible pa age when they try to interpret literally a pas age in which figurative language i u ed. Still others are led a tr ay when they apply certain Bible ver e out of context. There– fore, to interpret the Bible as God mean for Hi Word to be interpreted, one mu t fir t recognize and eliminate the enemie of Bible interpretation and then follow the accepted rule for correct Bible interpretation. There are ba ically three major enemie of Bible interpretation. They are rationali m, sentimenta1i m and traditionali m. Let us look at each of the e enemie in greater detail. Greatest enemy Of these three, perhaps rationalism is the Bible' greatest enemy. The rationalist ba es his opinions and ac– tion solely upon what he considers reasonable. In short, he refuses to believe any thing that cannot be proven. While it is true that many events recorded in the Bible ( e.g. the great flood, Jonah and the whale, Christ's miracles) cannot be demon– strated because of their supernatural nature, still man's inability to dupli– cate the miracles of God is not proof that the miracles never occurred. In– deed , if a person could use the knife of rationalism to cut out all of the passages that cannot be demonstrated , the Bible would be greatly reduced in thickness. This does not mean, how– ever, that all of the events that the Bible relates could not have happened. PAGE 12 APRIL, 1964 • o,ce o Davis Mayes, president of the Grace Baptist Yourh Fellowship, recently was selected for Boy's State. He is also president of the Junior class at Cedar-Cliff High School, Cedarville, and is active in sports. Many thing hap,pen every day that men cannot even under tand much le prove. And one would have to admit that it i unu ual that in a Book with o many ' trange idea ," written by o many people through so many different ,period of time there i not one contradiction anywhere. Surely the Bible' authenticity should not be que tioned imply becau e tiit doe not corre pond at all times with the reas– oning of man. The other two enemies of Bible interpretation, sentimentalism and tra– ditionalism are closely related. The sentimentalist believes that which his ancestors and forefathers have taught about the Bible. The traditionalist believes that the traditions of his church are not only to be taken into consideration when he interprets the Bible, but are also equal to the teach– ings of the Bible in holy sanctity. The obvious flaw in each of these be– liefs is that they are derived from man and not from God. How could man alone by his own reasoning pos- ibly interpret the writings of a Be– ing so infinitely wiser than ·he? Having thrown aside these three great stumbling blocks in the way of true Bible interpretation, one can now earnestly go abouit interpretation in the correct manner. The first ,pre– requisite to true Bible interpretation is that the reader be a born again be– liever. It Sitands to reason that to get the most out of any ,good book one must know something about the auth– or, and so it is with the Bible and God. Since God is the Bible's author, it is He that the reader should know. Unlike the authors of other books who may be tin distant p'laces or even dead, God through the Holy Spirit is always present and is always ready to help in the proper interipretation of His own Book. When one knows ,the Author of the Bible personally and be also bas the help of the Holy Spirit, the rest is fairly easy. There are basically three rules to which one must adhere in order to get the greatest enjoyment and enrichment from the Bible. I. Note the meanings of words In order to fully understand the Bible, or any other book for that matter, it tands to reason that one mu t know the meaning of the words u ed. It is important to note that some meanings of words change over the centuries, mainly to keep abreast of the .changes in civilization. Since the Bible was translated from Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek writings, it is cer– tainly ,probable that when translated to English some of the original mean– ing was lost iin the transition. Take for example Proverbs 1 : 7, "The fear uf the Lord is the beginning of knowl– edge." Fear to us usually means timidity or dread. Fear in this case, however, includes more than this. It includes awed reverence. ' 'Let" is an– other word that has changed. ' 'Let' ' as we know it means " to allow or permit." In 17th Century English it meant exactly the opposite. When one comes across a verse in which the meaning is omewbat ambiguous he must be sure to consult a good Greek– Eng1ish dictionary, for he may be using the wrong definition for im– portant key words. II. Note the literary character of the Bible The Bible is a beautiful Book; it is a masterpiece of great literature. In the Bible we find various forms of literature, such as historical, narra– tive, poetic verse, biographic sketches, prophetic declarations, and great or– ations. The five books of Moses are incomparable in historical content. The book of P salms and the book of Job are great examples of poetry. It is im,portant to remember this, for poetry tends to use figurative speech, while history tends to be very literal. Therefore one must be very sure to recognize the use of literal or figura– tive language in the passage being read. THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTJST