How to Read, Interpret, and Understand the Bible

A Study of Hermeneutics, Discernment, and a Last Word about Prophecy

Four Key Concepts to Know and to Start With:

Revelation: The act of God the Holy Spirit unveiling or uncovering truths that man through his own intellect, reason, and investigation cannot discover for himself.

Inspiration: The act of the Holy Spirit superintending the writing of the truths that God wants man to know. God uses the personality, experience, vocabulary, and writing style of the author. Inspiration is divine guidance, not dictation! By superintending the Bible’s authors, God ensures that His revelation is recorded accurately and without error or contradiction to the rest of the Bible.

Illumination: The act of the Holy Spirit to convict the reader of the Truth of Scripture. The Holy Spirit helps us to know that what we are reading is indeed God’s Word.

Interpretation: Called by theologians “Hermeneutics”, interpretation is the prayerful application of Scriptural principles by which the illuminated student of God’s word comes to an understanding of Scripture that corresponds as closely as humanly possible to the inspired meaning.

Hermeneutics (from Greek “hermeneuo” and possibly originating from the Greek god Hermes who was called “the messenger of the gods”) is first a science meaning a classification of the laws of interpretation; second an art in that it is an acquired skill of the ability to apply the laws of interpretation; and third a Spiritual act because it is meaningless without the Holy Spirit’s illumination.

There are three levels of hermeneutics. The first is exegesis which is what the text meant at the time it was written, the circumstances and societal pressures that existed at that time, and the geographical location surrounding the writing at that time. The second level is devotional or personal in that it asks the question, “what does this mean FOR me?” NOT “what does this mean TO me?”! And the third level is sermonic or teaching referring to how to share the meaning of Scripture with others.

Hermeneutics is essential and extremely important because by using proper hermeneutics, God’s Word is not just text in a book but much more meaningful when viewed in the context of when, how, and where the text was written. Conveying the meaning of God’s Word is exposition with purpose of the text being highly significant in the application of the words into and becoming a part of a person’s life.

There are several ways to define the details of hermeneutics, During the 16^th century and the Time of the Reformation of Martin Luther and John Calvin, certain “Reformation Principles” were discovered as essentials in the proper understanding of Scripture. First is the Clarity of Scripture because when read and compared with the rest of the entirety of Scripture, clarity is obvious. God means what He says. The second principle from the time of the Reformation is the Unity of Scripture. There are absolutely NO contradictions, differences, or errors. It is a unified book of two Testaments with the main purpose of the reconciliation of mankind back with the Creator God. The third principle is the Analogy of Scripture in that specific doctrine cannot, by definition of analogy, contradict other parts of Scripture. In other words, there must be correspondence of meaning across all books in God’s Word. And the fourth principle is that God has revealed Himself in stages corresponding to the dispensations He designed to bring mankind back into reconciliation with Himself.

One of the most important perspectives in biblical interpretation is that there can be absolutely no presuppositions made which would render the doctrines and precepts worthless; such as assuming that we interpret according to modern cultural or historical or linguistic standards. Placing ourselves into the time, culture, location, traditional, religious, governmental, and historical environment that the books of the Bible were written in is the only manner in which to gain, with the Holy Spirit’s illumination, the true Truth so we can apply that Truth to our lives in today’s world.

The Principles of Biblical Interpretation

In order to accurately and spiritually interpret the Word of Truth, there are certain other principles that we can get from Scripture itself. The Bible actually interprets itself, if you let it. That means we bring no bias into the study of Scripture, do not go beyond the boundaries of the Bible to discover meaning.

Principle 1: The Literal Interpretation Principle – “When the plain sense of the Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, or you will end up with nonsense!” Take every word at its usual meaning being careful to always consider the overall context from which the word, phrase, or sentence is taken.

Principle 2: The Grammatical/Historical Principle – The author’s grammatical impact must be recognized through careful examination of intent. Consideration of the environment in which the text was written including historical relevance must also be taken into account when determining proper interpretation.

Principle 3: Authorial Intent – A common mistake by readers of God’s Word is to interpret what they read with a bias of present-day influence when all Scripture must be read from the perspective of the author and his intent for writing to the recipients and their circumstances.

Principle 4: Context – Any particular word, phrase, sentence, section of God’s Word must be read in full context in order to interpret properly. Taking portions of Scripture out of context to prove a point or defend an action is easily done but can be harmful and deceitful.

Principle 5: Analogy of Scripture – Scripture interprets Scripture. All of the Bible is unified in purpose, meaning, and intent. One part of Scripture is analogous to another part of Scripture – there is no contradiction. There are no contradictions, no errors, no inconsistencies anywhere in God’s Word because God cannot lie, deceive, or mislead.

Principle 6: Progressive Revelation – God reveals Himself in a step-by-step manner through a series of dispensations/revelations so that we humans can understand His intent and purpose for us. (Hebrews 1:1)

Principle 7: Accommodation – God humbled Himself to descend to the Earth as a Man in order to accommodate our assurance of forgiveness of sin through His personal sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin – death, then resurrection.

Principle 8: One Interpretation – God has given mankind His Living Word to be interpreted in only one way – the original intent. From that original intent comes individual application to each and every believer.

Principle 9: Unity of Scripture – 40 authors over 1500 years from three continents using three languages combined in a book that is totally unified in the singular intent of reconciliation of mankind back to God after Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden.

Principle 10: Genre – Meaning from God’s Word is genre-dependent. There are four basic discourse genres in all languages, and the reader of God’s Word must be aware of them. The first is “expository” which refers to the epistles or letters written by the apostles in the first century. Those letters explained something through logical development to someone or some church all applicable to all men of all ages. The second genre is “hortatory” which means commands are given to be obeyed. God is pleased when mankind obeys and wrathful when disobeyed. The third genre is “narrative” or in a story-relating manner that encompasses about 70% of God’s Word. And the last genre is “procedural” which means the text is written in a step-by-step, recipe, or user’s manual form.

There are also “types” used in Scripture, typology, where a person or event pictures a person or event in the future such as Melchizedek was a type of Christ (Hebrews 6 an 7) or the Mosaic Priesthood and Sacrificial System were types of Christ’s redemptive and reconciliation actions (Hebrews 9:8-9).

Allegory is a term referring to a factual account that represents something else such as Israel’s escape from slavery in Egypt is an allegory of the Christian’s experience (1 Corinthians 10:1-6), or the Hagar and Sarah conflict is an allegory of the conflict between law and grace (Galatians 4:21-31).

There are figures of speech which are expressions implying an idea other than what is actually written. The most common figure of speech used in the Bible is a metaphor which is prevalent in Hebrew Poetry such as the Psalms. Six metaphors occur in a single verse (Psalm18:2), “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” A metaphor speaks of an equivalence, not a resemblance. God is not a high tower – His magnificence is more easily pictured that way.

Exegesis is an explanation or critical interpretation of a text. Utmost care must be taken by the speaker and the listener to be sure that proper exegesis is being accomplished. Many fallacies are possible through improper exegesis such as taking literal language figuratively or allegorically. A good example would be Jonah and the big fish taken only as an allegory or not believing the Good Samaritan was a real event, just an allegory to prove a point.

Alternate Viewpoint to Reading, Understanding, and Interpreting God’s Word

Another way to view interpretation is more “theological” or using a slightly different approach more attuned to the true “hermeneutics” or biblical interpretation so that good and useful “homiletics” can occur (true and proper and understandable preaching and teaching). Let’s get started with 2 Peter 1:19-21, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

We cannot really have a “sure word” as Scripture says unless we can interpret the Word of God properly, as God intended. There are eight accepted rules that are universally used in all grammatical interpretation. These “Rules of Bible Interpretation” date back before the New Testament was written so that “rightly dividing the word of truth” can actually happen. God tells in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that He is not the author of confusion, so then there must be a certain manner in which to interpret the Bible and its doctrines with assurance that what God is saying to us is understood without error.

Nearly all false doctrines that are incredibly prevalent today are taught by cults and ill-informed Christians. They can be traced to the distortion of the meaning of biblical words. These eight rules are for those eager-to-learn Christians who desire the purity of God’s Words without bias, distortion, deceit, or misuse.

The Eight Rules of Bible Interpretation

1. The Rule of Definition: The study of words begins with determining the plain meaning of the words. Just relying on English lexicons may not give the proper sense of the context of the Scripture that was originally written in either Hebrew or Aramaic in the Old Testament or Greek in the New Testament. A Hebrew/English lexicon and a Greek/English lexicon may be needed to make sure that the sense of the English translation is understood as written. A good example of the need for this level of study are the Greek words “allos” and “heteros”. Both words are translated “another” in English, but “allos” means “another of the same type” and “heteros” means “another of a different type”.

• The Rule of Usage: The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic originally for Jews, by Jews, and to Jews. Of course, all the words in the Bible are for all Christians, those who have repented of their sins, humbly sought out the forgiveness of sins provided by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross paying our death sentence because of sin, and assured of eternal life through the resurrection from the dead by Our Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament was written in Greek to a Greco-Roman and Jewish culture. However, in order to understand the entirety of Scripture, it is imperative to not superimpose our modern culture or pre-conceived notions learned from others over proper interpretation based on the culture of the time the Scriptures were written. That can be challenging requiring intense preparation and study since the time period for the Scriptures’ authors covers over 1500 years on three continents.

• The Rule of Context: Every word read must be understood in light of the words before and after it, even complete chapters prior and after. Many present-day prosperity gospel teachers use verses out of context to fool congregants into believing that the Bible teaches everyone can become materially prosperous when the Bible clearly shows that the prosperity spoken about is primarily spiritual – abundant spiritual life over abundant materialism; heaven over hell.

• The Rule of Historical Background: The interpreter must have an awareness of the life and society of the times in which the Scriptures were written. Whatever spiritual principle is being offered, knowledge of the background that the writer had must be understood in order to appreciate the true meaning of what was written. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Our only interest in the past is for the light it throws upon the present.”

• The Rule of Logic: Interpretation is really logical reasoning with which God blessed all of mankind in order to lead a responsible life. When reading Scripture, the question must be asked, “Does the interpretation make sense?” God’s Word invites investigation and analysis since there is so much depth to each and every section, phrase, even word by word. Logic is a reader’s tool to fully understand and appreciate the totality of Scripture and eliminate false theological speculation.

• The Rule of Precedent: God’s word is analogous meaning that it is consistent across all 66 books. This enables using studies of previous cases or precedence to understand another portion of Scripture. The common error in interpretation is to invent some definition or interpretation for which there is no precedent. This principle again supports the notion that Scripture proves Scripture. The Bereans of Acts 17:10-12 is the example to follow because they searched for precedent in other parts of Scripture to validate what was being taught.

• The Rule of Unity: Any interpretation must be consistent with the rest of Scripture. A test of interpretation correctness and unity is to ask if the interpretation aligns with the entire Word of God. If unity throughout the Bible is not found, then the interpretation is not sound. Virtually every other religion today worships a single god where the Christian Worldview knows the One True God as a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This doctrine of the Trinity is in unified throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation even though the word “Trinity” cannot even be found in Scripture.

• The Rule of Inference: An inference is a fact reasonably implied from another fact; a logical conclusion and consequence. Such inferential facts in the Bible are true and binding when they are established by satisfactory evidence or proof that would convince a reasonable mind beyond a shadow of a doubt. When Jesus confronted the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection, proposed a question to Him assuming resurrection, Jesus proved the resurrection of the dead by quoting Old Testament Scripture that referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proving that those men were not dead but alive spiritually. An inference was made to those men still known by God because they are with Him in Heaven. That revelation from Old Testament Scripture completely shut down the Sadducees, by the way!

These eight rules are essential in keeping an interpreter from making errors and, hopefully, resolve disagreements among Christians digging into the Scriptures. Yet, there is another factor which is much more important that even the entirety of these eight rules – the Holy Spirit as guide, illuminator, and revealer of the Truth. Without the Holy Spirit, the Bible is just another literary work with words on a page. But with the Spirit’s enlightenment, the Scriptures come alive with deep, personal meaning to each and every true believer. King Solomon told us in Proverbs 1:5,6, “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: to understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.”

What About Discernment?

Spiritual discernment is a requisite for maturing Christians. Hebrews 5:12-14 says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish (discern) between good and evil.”

Discernment is the process of using keen and educated insight to make good judgment when needed. Christians must pray for the Holy Spirit’s discernment and insight in order to be sure that human understanding does not override what God deems correct. Therefore, discernment for Christians indwelt by the Holy Spirit is identifying the true nature of a spirit, doctrine, practice, or group; to distinguish truth from error and everything godly as opposed to human or demonic.

Paul says it best for those who are true followers of Christ and are indwelt with the Holy Spirit: (1 Corinthians 2:11-16), “For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot

understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

The key to proper, reliable, and godly discernment is the reliance on both the guidance of the Holy Spirit and on God’s Written Word that is a true and original manuscript translation of the original languages. Examples of trustworthy translations are (among some others) the King James Bible, the New American Standard Bible, the Legacy Standard Bible, the Holman Study Bible, and the Amplified Bible. Care should be taken to avoid translations labeled as paraphrases such as The Living Bible, The Message, and The Good News Bible. A paraphrase rewords the Bible into plain or modern language. It is the author’s interpretation of God’s Word, using imagination and literary skill, rather than an actual translation of the biblical text. Since the Bible consists of God’s inspired words, the intent in reading it should be to understand what its words communicate and to apply them – the true translation of God’s Words not someone’s modern interpretation of them.

Many Christians fall into the category of being “willfully ignorant” instead of being “spiritually enlightened”. The cause for this often is the habit of following a “favorite” preacher or teacher without ever testing what is preached or taught against what Scripture says. Great orators, good expositors are still human and subject to error, but the Word of God is never wrong, just misused or mis-interpreted. The Christian’s duty to God and himself is to always receive the Word eagerly from trusted sources both in print, from media, or in-person, always accompanied with discernment and searching the Scriptures Berean-style to know that what was taught coincides with God’s Word.

And, lastly, be aware that discernment is analogous to the dreaded word “judgment” that so many Christians think is to be avoided based on Matthew 7:1-2. The New American Standard Bible translation states it this way, “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” This is not a prohibition of judgment, nor is it a command to stop using godly wisdom, common sense, and moral courage together with God’s written word to discern right from wrong, to distinguish between morality and immorality, and to judge doctrinal truth. There are many judgments that are not only legitimate but are commanded (John 7:24; 1 Cor 5:5, 12; Gal 1:8, 9; 1 John 4:1-3; 2 John 10). Also, in the same chapter, Matthew 7:15, we are told to beware of false prophets and by their fruits we will know them. Is that not judgment?

The translation of Greek words into English can be difficult simply because the English language is very weak compared to Greek or Hebrew. Weakness of a language refers to ambiguity of words such as in English compared to precision in words like in Greek and Hebrew. Consider that in Matthew 7:1 ‘judgment” when properly translated from the Greek actually refers to condemnation not simply judgment. Matthew 7 goes on to say do not condemn others for a sin that you are committing yourself. The Amplified Bible states the same two verses (Matthew 7:1-2) like this, “Do not judge and criticize and condemn [others unfairly with an attitude of self-righteous superiority as though assuming the office of a judge], so that you will not be judged [unfairly]. For just as you [hypocritically] judge others [when you are sinful and unrepentant], so will you be judged; and in accordance with your standard of measure [used to pass out judgment], judgment will be measured to you.” See the difference?

So, what are the lessons here? Discernment is to be biblically researched and influenced by the Holy Spirit with attention to correct translation of the original language Bible texts. Discernment is just good and accurate hermeneutics that all true followers of Christ must practice – the habit of being “spiritually enlightened” through Bible-based judgment that we are commanded to possess and utilize.

As an addition to proper interpretation of God’s Word, here is a summary of David Jeremiah’s instruction concerning understanding, properly discerning Bible Prophecy which certainly applies to correct interpretation. Simply accepting the meaning of words based on experience in the world can lead to completely misunderstanding the true meaning of what God is telling us. This brief summary is very enlightening to discernment and very valuable to all true believers.

Understanding Prophecy

(Adapted from David Jeremiah’s Turning Points Devotional May 2023)

The Greek word in the New Testament that we translate “to prophecy” comes from two Greek words: the preposition meaning “before” and the verb meaning “declare’ or “say”. There is an interesting and sometimes confusing tendency by many Christians (and others) that combining these two Greek words always means saying something before it happens, as some would say, “foretelling”. That would be an incorrect tendency simply because combining the two Greek words can often times mean speaking “before” people, or, put another way, speaking forth the Word of God to others or, “forthtelling”. So, these two meanings of “to prophecy” must be carefully interpreted as meaning either prediction of things to come or speaking forth (just speaking the already written words of God from Scripture).

First Corinthians 14:3 lists the benefits of prophecy including edification (strengthening, building up), exhortation (encouragement), and comfort (hope). These three benefits manifest themselves in six ways.

1. Perspective – Knowing what is to come in the future gives us perspective on just what is really happening now and how close we are to seeing fulfillment of future events such as the development of a one world system of government, society, politics, healthcare, finances, justice, and even religion. When we see these things developing in front of our very eyes, we know just how clear prophecy has always been and how close we are to the Rapture.

• Perception – In order to perceive we must understand the context of prophecy to know to what time frame these predictions apply, how to interpret the language written two thousand years in the past (or more) as it may apply to today, and whether the prophecies are aimed at the Church, the Jews (or both), or to unbelievers.

• Promises – Bible Prophecies are really God’s Promises. We know that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), so we can be certain that God’s promises, His predictions of the future, his prophecies WILL come to pass just as He said. He said it and that settles it!

• Gives Confidence – Prophetic words from Scripture can be used to encourage, comfort, and give confidence to all who need to escape from this world’s worries. Confidence comes from trusting the Truth of God’s Word which keeps us from anxiety about our ultimate future.

• Empowerment – Peter wrote that the prophetic word “can” serve as a “light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Through the prophetic Scriptures, we are empowered to stay on the right path, God’s path of His plans and purposes for us “until the day dawns”.

• Future Planning – When we know for certain (because God said it) what the future holds, we can face the daily frustrations and challenges with a new insight, a great desire to share the Word of God because the time is short, and re-prioritize our lives to be in agreement with God’s plans and realizing and using the talents and abilities with which God has uniquely blessed each of us.

What the Author (God) has given to us is a way to “read ahead” using prophecy about what is to come, to allow us to make sense of not only the recent past but the distant past, and to provide strength, encouragement, and comfort as we approach the Final Chapter of His eternal plan of Reconciliation of man back to God.