Biblical Hermeneutics is just a fancy word for principles of Biblical interpretation.  Basically, these are guidelines for how to approach Bible study.  Why do we need such guidelines?  When Bible students do not follow some commonsense rules when reading the Bible, they can miss out on God’s real message and create their own fake messages that match their personal opinions and desires rather than the eternal truths of the kingdom of heaven.  The following principles are not presented in order of importance.  They are all equally important.

The first principle of hermeneutics is to base your interpretation on the pattern of the whole of scripture rather than selecting a few verses that match your opinions.  We need to compare scriptures for meaning rather than taking meaning from one isolated verse or passage.  Many of the Jews of Jesus’ day missed out on the coming of the Christ because they were selectively reading the prophecies about Messiah.  They eagerly clung to the prophecies of a conquering king, but they ignored the suffering servant prophecies.  Because of poor hermeneutics they were not ready to greet their Redeemer with open arms.  Unfortunately, many Christians are still misinterpreting scriptures because they put all of their emphasis on a few Bible verses while ignoring others that would clarify or limit or expand the meaning of those few verses.

One reason for selective interpretation is interference from our personal biases.  We all have cultural and individual biases that affect our reading of the scriptures.  However, not all of us are aware of how our biases have caused us to read God’s word selectively.  Our cultural taboos can make us gloss over important Biblical passages.  For example, I have a hard time focusing on the passage where Jesus speaks of eating His body.  Intellectually, I know that this is symbolic, but I cannot seem to focus on the truths that He was trying to teach with this symbol because my mind has a hard time jumping past my emotional abhorrence of cannibalism.  I know that Jesus is not saying to take a bite out of His arm, but the language of the passage makes me avoid thinking about the symbol’s deep meaning.  Another place where I have only recently been able to start understanding the deep spiritual lessons of the scriptures is the book of Judges.  There are some stories there that simply make me cringe, and I have focused so much on avoiding them until lately that I missed out on a lot of beautiful insights about God.  Conversely, our cultural biases can push us in the opposite direction so that we do not give enough weight to the basic conflicts that are happening in the passages that we read.  For example, most Americans do not comprehend the tremendous leap of faith that Peter took when he entered Cornelius’ house and later chose to baptize him and his household.  There was a reason that Peter took witnesses with him, both to the house and later to Jerusalem where he would have to explain his actions.  Because of our assumptions, we focus on Peter’s mistakes and do not give him credit for his total trust in Jesus as exhibited in his actions in accepting a Gentile as his brother-in-Christ.  We need to be aware that we bring presuppositions and biases into our Bible study and pray for the Spirit to open our minds and guide us past our personal and cultural blinders.

The second principle of Biblical interpretation is to consider the genre and literary devices being used in the passage that you are studying.  You need to read the Bible as it is and adapt to the different styles of literature that are present.  For example, a parable is not necessarily a true story and even if it is based on a real event, not everything in the parable aligns with reality and the lesson being taught.  For example, in the parable of the pearl merchant, he sells everything he owns in order to obtain the perfect pearl.  In real life, this would not be the wisest move to make because you cannot eat a pearl.  However, Jesus’ message was that we need to value the kingdom of heaven as a treasure that we would sacrifice anything else in our lives to acquire.  He was not saying to go buy a pearl, and He was not saying to starve.  A parable is not meant to be realistic in all of its details.  On the other hand, a narrative, such as the story of Ruth should be read as literal history with beautiful spiritual messages embedded in it.  In addition to genre, literary devices, such as symbolism, are used in many parts of the Bible from Ezekiel swinging a sword around to Nathan telling a sheep story to King David to the visions described in the books of Daniel and Revelation.  Symbolism should not be taken literally.  Instead, we must carefully decipher the meaning of the symbols from the context and other parts of the scriptures.  What we cannot do is assume that the symbol is literal or that a source outside of the Bible will give us the correct meaning of a symbol. Let the Bible interpret itself!  The Bible has poetry and songs with figurative language, history with long lists of genealogies, local prophecies, apocalyptic prophecies, sayings, letters to churches and individuals, and parables.  There are prescriptive passages, which guide us into the behavior that God accepts, and descriptive passages, which include horrific actions that God abhors.  We need to differentiate between all of these genres and literary devices as we read.

A third principle is to understand scripture through the lens of faith in its inspiration while using your intellect to deal with the parts of the Bible that are difficult to understand or that seem to be conveying contradictory messages.  On the one hand, there are skeptical biblical scholars who have completed doctorates studying the scriptures while treating the Bible as simply a human piece of literature.  They receive no sustenance from the inspired word of God because they have closed their minds to the possibility that the Bible is more than a collection of works by ancient authors.  On the other hand, another group of people believe in the Bible’s inspiration, but they turn off their logic if they find a passage that makes no sense to them.  They just skip over it or accept it on “faith.”  Too often Christians who declare, “The Bible says it, and I believe it” are really saying, “I’m not going to question and look deeper when I see something contradictory or confusing in the scriptures.”  These sincere believers do not understand that there is a difference between a literal reading of the scriptures and a literalistic reading.  A literal reading looks at the context to see the literary genre and interprets within the limits of that genre.  It compares scriptures to scriptures to understand meaning and searches for reasons behind the apparent contradictions that they see.  For example, why was Paul adamant in his opposition to circumcision in one place while personally overseeing Timothy’s circumcision in another part of the Bible?  For faithful readers of the Bible, it is important to look at the nuances of Paul’s opposition to circumcision within the context of his actions with Timothy.   In contrast to a literal reading of scripture, a literalistic reading simply takes each word and applies it without considering genre or contradictions.  Thus, in Genesis 22:2 when God says to take Abraham’s only son Isaac and sacrifice him, a literalistic reading would assume that there were no other sons or that God was rejecting Ishmael as Abraham’s son.  Conversely, a literal reading would take into account that Ishmael was listed as Abraham’s son in other areas of the Bible and ask why God used these words in this particular situation.  Believing in the Bible’s inspiration does not require that we ignore apparent contradictions and confusing sections of scripture.  Instead, it requires that we search ever deeper to understand the message that is being conveyed.  Some of my most satisfying glimpses of God’s character have resulted from focusing intently on the reason for confusion in these kinds of passages.

One of my favorite theologians, Dr. Richard M. Davidson, has come up with a list of hermeneutic principles that he calls the Hermeneutic Decalogue.  The first four are presuppositions that we should bring to our Bible studies: (1) Sola Scriptura-the Bible is the inspired word of God and should be the foundation of our beliefs and life. (2) Total Scriptura-take into account all that the Bible has to say rather than proof texting to find support for your opinion. (3) Let scripture interpret itself-the Bible is its own light, so look to see what other parts of the Bible have to say about the topic or story that you are studying. (4) Pray for the Spirit to guide your study-Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.  Since the Spirit gave us the Bible, we need the Spirit to interpret the scriptures for us.  The next six items in Dr. Davidson’s Hermeneutic Decalogue are practical steps that the Bible student should take as he or she is reading the scriptures.  (5) Examine the text.  Look to see what the verse is saying on a surface level.  Is your translation providing the best interpretation of the passage?  Consult multiple versions of the Bible to ensure that you are not misreading the text.  (6) What is the historical background of the passage?  For example, who wrote it and what was the situation that instigated the message?  (7)  Look at literary patterns in the passage.  This includes genre, structures and organization like chiasms, and figures of speech.  (8) What does the text actually say, not just at the word level but also within the larger passage.  This would include grammar and syntax, such as a progressive tense indicating that the process is not yet completed.  It also includes looking for the main idea of the passage.  Find connections to see how this verse relates to the verses before and after it.  Examine the passage to understand the logic of the argument that the author is using to present his point.  (9) What is the theological message?  Focus on what this passage tells you about God and the spiritual realities of the world.  (10) What is the practical application for your own life?

You do not have to be a Biblical scholar with a doctorate to understand the scriptures.  The basic message of salvation is clear enough that even children can understand.  That message is the basis for everything else in the scriptures.  However, there is even more beauty in the Bible that can be reached as you dig deeper and deeper into its treasures.  The meaning may be simple, but it is not simplistic.  The greatest minds will spend eternity plumbing the depths of the spiritual lessons that God has revealed to us in the Bible.  If you follow these basic principles of hermeneutics, you will avoid many pitfalls of misinterpretation and experience rewarding spiritual insights that will help you grow into a mature Christian with a close relationship to God.