Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Five Ways Not to Teach Biblical Interpretation

Five Ways Not to Teach Biblical Interpretation

Last updated on: February 13, 2014 at 8:22 am by Brad Vaughn

Five Ways Not to Teach Biblical Interpretation 2014-02-13T08:22:53-07:00 Brad Vaughn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In order to interpret the Bible well, we need to know both what we should do as well as what we should not do.

I suggest that biblical interpretation may be the single most important yet neglected skill in the church, certainly in missions. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that we have either very limited or even mistaken views of interpretation.

I will highlight five ways that we should not teach biblical interpretation. In this post, I’ll note three. Later, I’ll discuss the final two.

Interpretation is not . . .

1. Simplistic

A phrase that captures the idea is this: “The Bible is plain enough that a child can understand it.” The reason for the popularity of this notion is that it is a half-truth. There are plenty of things that anyone can understand. The very biggest ideas in the Bible are easily to see. In addition, the Bible is God’s revelation to all humanity, not just scholars. However, people infer too much from these two points.

The Bible reflects the God whom it reveals. Although God has made himself plainly known to humanity, we would be more reticent to say God is “simple” to understand. Rather, God is infinitely beyond our ability to completely comprehend him. We need the Holy Spirit.

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (1 Cor 2:11–13)

Why then do we therefore think everyone should be able to interpret everything in the Bible?

2. Exclusivistic

The opposite problem is also common. People get very intimidated when they read the Bible. They say, “The Bible is very complex.” They think biblical interpretation is an exclusive privilege of pastors and scholars.

As a result, they assume from the beginning that they won’t understand it. Guess what then happens? Our brain locks up and we fulfill our own prophecy. Just because we can’t understand everything does not imply that we can’t understand a lot.

I have two brief responses. First, God uses normal human speech to reveal the words in Scripture. Most of its original readers were not extremely educated. There were no ivory towers in the Sinai desert where Israel received the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).

Second, I again refer to the 1 Corinthians 2 passage above. God’s Spirit gives us insight into God’s revelation. The Lord gives his Spirit to all his people, regardless of education, culture, or background. If there is anything “exclusive” about understanding the Bible’s meaning, it would be at this point–– to grasp in one’s heart the significance of God’s revelation, we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes.

3. Arbitrary

A number of methods overly reduce biblical interpretation to a series of arbitrary questions. “Just ask this . . . ,” so they encourage us. At one level, I understand the need to simplify the process. After all, this is why I created a bookmark (in color or black-white) to help anyone interpret the Bible, even if they only have the Bible and nothing else.

My point concerns why we choose the questions we do. Our questions should fit the task we’re doing. For example, understanding context is a critical aspect of interpretation. However, many people don’t know what it means to study the context of a passage. They just ask, “What do you mean by ‘context?’”

As a result, the methods people use are driven by other well-meaning agendas. Consider the SPECKA-method (which I talked about in a previous post). The questions don’t lead us to look at how the context flows together towards any particular point. It doesn’t make us reflect on our own biases when reading the text. Instead, the questions are more driven towards application questions. In Chinese, SPECKA focuses more on the 意义 (yìyì) and not the original 意思 (yìsi).

Photo Credit: Flickr/gdsteam

Interpretation/Exegesis

Missiology

Previous Post

February 12, 2014

Free book -- Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church

Next Post

February 17, 2014 Five Ways Not to Teach Biblical Interpretation (Part 2)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement Biblical Theology Book Reviews China Chinese Church Chinese Culture Chinese Language Collectivism Contextualization Culture (General) Ecclesiology Evangelism Gospel Honor & Shame (Face) Interpretation/Exegesis Justification/Righteousness Missiology Mission Methods One Gospel for All Nations Other Practical Contextualization Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes Resources Romans Salvation (General) Saving God's Face Seeking God's Face The Cross in Context Theological Contextualization Theological Education Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days after resurrection did Jesus ascend?

Select your answer to see how you score.

40 days 60 days 50 days 30 days

Books by This Author Books by Brad Vaughn

See All Titles »