Biblical hermeneutics deals with the effective interpretation of understanding of God’s viewpoint as revealed in the scripture. Many Ministries and theologians search the Scriptures for “proof” of what they have previously taught or believed to be true.
It is vitally important that we realize that God inspired the scripture and it is not important what ” WE THINK, WE THOUGHT, HE SAID”
Textual Or Lower Criticism
The first step in correctly interpreting Bible text involves restoring the original text of documents which have been exposed to the hazards of successive copying and recopying. Obviously, we do not have any original manuscripts produced by Moses, David,the Prophets, Paul, Mark, Matthew, etc.
A number of scholars have devoted their entire lives to interpreting the various ancient manuscripts and writings of the church fathers in order to give us, except in a few cases still disputed, what is genuine and true to the original manuscripts.
Higher Criticism
The next step called “Higher criticism” involves asking a number of questions concerning any given text to establish the basics of when, where, why, and how the text was produced. This is precisely what we will be doing in the upcoming lectures titled “Old Testament Survey” and “New Testament Survey.”
Higher criticism involves the following considerations.
1. Determining the authorship of a manuscript (by means of internal or external evidence) – For instance, it is significant to note that the book of James was probably written by the half brother of Jesus and pastor of the Jerusalem church.
The books of Luke and Acts were written by a well-educated physician named Luke, and this explains the detail with which he describes various illnesses in his writings.
2. Establishing the date of its origin – It is interesting to note in Acts l9:6 when “…the Holy Ghost come on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. ” that it was 25 years after the original day of Pentecost.
3. Genuineness – Did events or details recorded in the text actually occur? Example: The temple described in chapters 40 – 48 of Ezekiel was never built, and this caused some serious doubt of the legitimacy of the book.
4. Destination – What was the target audience or to whom was the book originally addressed? Example: The book of Acts is addressed to Theophilus, yet no one knows who this is.
It has been suggested that Theophilus refers to all Christians (Theophilus means “loves God”), or perhaps it refers to an undiscovered city of that day; and still others have suggested that Theophilus was Paul’s attorney and that the book of Luke and Acts were written to serve as his defense during the Trial in Rome.
5. The purpose – Why was the document written? Example: The books of Job and Psalms, as well as others, were written as Hebrew poetry.
6. The place of writing – Example: Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon while in prison.
7. The nature of the document – Is it historical? Is it fictional? Is it prophetic? Example: The book of Revelation is considered apocalyptic literature meaning “hidden from view.”
By subjecting the text to these various steps, we begin to close the gaps separating the reader from the intent of the author.
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By Pastor Kirt Eure
