The Science of Interpretation
 People cringe at the word “theology.” They think that
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theology is for the seminary trained, and not for your
average Joe. Some here may even think this.
However, every Christian is a theologian.
Theology comes from the Greek words theos (God) and
logos (word). Thus theology means the study of “God’s
word.”
God’s Word (the Bible) informs us on what to believe and
practice.
Every Christian should be studying their Bible, and every
Christian has ideas on what they think it says. Thus, they
are all theologians.
The difference is whether or not you’re a poor theologian or
a good theologian.
 There are various approaches people take when it
comes to reading, interpreting, and applying the Bible.
 They are engaged in what is known as hermeneutics,
the science of interpretation. As soon as you open your
Bible and begin reading, you are engaged in the art of
interpretation. And to be fair, one act of interpretation
has transpired even before you picked up
your English Bible. That’s right. You picked up a
translation of the Bible.
 It isn’t hard to see how radically different the modern
world is when compared with the ancient Biblical era.
 The writers of the Bible are kings, peasants, slaves,
free, fishermen, doctors, lawyers, philosophers,
generals, artists, poets, rich, poor, and so on.
 It has multiple genres: law, prophets, poetry, gospels,
history, letters, and apocalyptic.
 The Bible is composed of 66 books written by
approximately 40 authors and we even have a few
books that we don’t know for certain who wrote!
 These genres contain information about geography,
authors, audiences, population, genealogies, and
much more.
 To widen the gap a bit more between the “then of
writing” and the “now of reading”, consider that the
Bible was written from 1400 BC-93 AD, spanning the
entire Roman world, using 3 languages.
 This is an incredibly complex book or, rather library of
books, and really does take some rigorous intellectual
engagement to begin to get your head around what
you hold in your hands.
 However, anyone who puts forth the time, effort, and
diligence can rightly come to a full and adequate
understanding of the Bible.
How we approach the Bible.
 The Bible is old and you are new. There’s no way we
can come to the Bible unbiased. We all approach
Scripture with a worldview, preconceived ideas
(presuppositions), theological persuasions, political
stances, personal baggage, and so forth. And that’s not
always a bad thing!
 However, when it comes to actually interpreting the
Scriptures, there’s basically two ways of going at it and
the two methods are what theologians refer to
as exegesis and eisegesis.
Exegesis
 Exegesis means “to lead out” or
“extract from.”
 “Ex-odus”
 This is our approach to the Bible
at Bells Run.
 We want to extract from the
original meaning of the text,
understand it in the world in
which it was originally penned,
and then make the hermeneutical
jump over into the 21st century.
Eisegesis
 Eisegesis means to “read into.”
 This happens when someone
imposes their own personal or
cultural beliefs upon the Bible.
 This can be an attempt to make
the Bible less offensive or more
palatable to suit one's way of life
and avoid being conformed to the
image of Jesus.
 This can be done in ignorance.
 It ultimately undermines the
authority of Scripture.
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Who’s Word is this, actually?
Am I out to exegete or eisegete the Bible?
Do my culture and personal desires trump the
authority of Scripture in my life, or am I willing to
obey, love, and proclaim Scripture regardless of
whether I am accepted or rejected?
The Infallible Rule of interpretation of Scripture is the
Scripture itself.
 We adhere to the principle of interpretation known as
the “analogy of faith.”
 In other words, the infallible rule of interpretation of
Scripture is the Scripture itself.
 In the place or occurrence where there is a question
about the true or full sense of a particular passage of
Scripture, it must be searched by other places in the
Bible that speak more clearly on the same topic,
without disregarding the original text in dispute.
Never read one verse.
 When reading the Bible, we often make the mistake of
reading and interpreting a verse while isolating it from
the verses surrounding it.
 We fail to take into account the authors audience, the
time it was written, and the issues being addressed.
 This often leads to eisegesis, and we fail to see the
authors flow of thought and intended purpose of the
passage.
 When we detach a verse from its context, it becomes
very easy to subject it to our prejudices, biases, and
cultural assumptions.
 We’ve all heard it before. Some of us have said it, and
others have used it against us.
 Because eisegesis is so prevalent in our culture and
thinking, we come to the conclusion that any given
passage can have multiple meanings and
interpretations.
 This is simply UNTRUE.
 When the Holy Spirit lead men to write the Bible, God
had an intended purpose, meaning, and application
for a particular people in a particular setting.
 “…knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of
Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by
the Holy Spirit.”
 Men did not invent the Scriptures. If the Holy Spirit is
the author, then God gets to determine its
interpretation and meaning; not men.
 Our challenge is this: Be good theologians and try to
discern God’s singular intention for any given passage,
and then make the jump to the 21st century in our
application.
Take the principles you’ve learned and put them to practice.
We will start easy and each example will get more difficult as we go
along.
“There is no God.”
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
“Judge not, that you be not judged.”
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I
among them.”
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that
you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and
neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith
alone.”
Begin challenging every thought, bias, presupposition, and
interpretation you have using sound hermeneutics to begin
“rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)