The Living Word (Lesson 6)

Historical, Grammatical, Contextual Hermeneutics

We have spent several weeks examining some spiritual realities that have a vital impact on our ability to understand the word of God, and to profit from that understanding. We have seen that all of our efforts will be futile unless the Spirit opens up the eyes of our heart to see and rejoice in the glory of Christ. But that does not mean that we have no part in the process of growth in scriptural understanding. On the contrary, recognizing that the Spirit uses scripture to perform his enlightening work in our heart should motivate us to search the scriptures diligently. This is why the psalmist prays, “Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law“ (Ps. 119:18). He realized that God had to open his eyes, but also that he would only perform this wonderful work through what he had already written in his law. The attitude of the psalmist is spirit-dependent, fervent study of scriptures. This is also why Solomon counsels us to seek wisdom as silver, and search for her as hidden treasures Prov. 2:3-6. The only way to arrive at the knowledge which God gives, is to seek diligently for it. God gives it, and yet we must seek.

This brings up the question, “How then do we seek for God’s wisdom from his word?” In other words, are their practical principles and methods that we can use to ensure that we are studying scriptures accurately? How can we be confident that we are understanding the life-changing, spiritual truths of the bible when we study? This question leads us to a truth that we recognized at the beginning of our study: the bible was written by human authors, employing human language, in contexts of human history, to address human needs. Understanding this is vital, for it tells us that, in order to interpret scriptures accurately, we must know something of human language, biblical history, and the authors whom God used to record his message. We must also know what the needs of the original audience of scripture were, and to what extent we have the same needs in common. In short, we must be well-informed to study accurately. And we must study accurately to be confident that God will give us true spiritual profit from his word. We may sum up this pursuit in one simple goal: let us strive to understand scriptures literally. Another way of saying this is, “Let us strive to determine what God is saying to us in his word (interpretation), and why he is saying it (application). And let us strive to determine this through a normal understanding of human language.” In one way, this should be comforting to us, because all of us understand naturally how language works. There is no “special set” of rules for interpreting the bible that is different from how we would interpret any written language. In another way it should be challenging to us, for it implies a great deal of work. We are not allowed to read the bible haphazardly and expect real growth.

But what exactly do we mean by understanding scriptures “literally”? It may be easier to explain by saying what we do not mean. First, we do not mean “literalizing,” (i.e. rationalistic). That is, we do not deny that the bible has a spiritual meaning, and that we can learn spiritual truths from the histories, commandments, poetry, prophecies, and all other genres of scripture. For instance, when Peter, in a sermon in Acts, quotes the prophecy of Joel,

“And I will give wonders in the heaven above, and miracles on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and glorious Day of the Lord. And it shall be that everyone who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

he first plainly states, “This [i.e. the outpouring of the Spirit resulting in speaking with tongues] is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:14-21.” A literalizing hermeneutic will deny that this could really be the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, since there is no record of literal “blood and fire and vapor of smoke,” or the literal turning of “the moon into blood”. Another clear example of what we mean is found in Galatians 4, where Paul finds spiritual truths allegorized in the histories of scripture Gal. 4:21-31. The literalizing, or rationalistic hermeneutic will say, “in order to be literal, history must be only history, with no spiritual allegorizing allowed.” It will also demand that prophecy must be fulfilled literally, to the extent that the sea must always be the literal sea, the temple must mean the actual building, Jerusalem can only mean the city in the Middle East, and so on. This rationalistic approach is dangerous and unbiblical. In the bible, we can see that the temple can be understood figuratively to mean the place where God dwells Eph.2:19-22; Rev. 21:3,22; Heb. 9:11,24. Jerusalem may signify the place where we as Christians have our citizenship, and not the earthly city itself Gal. 4:25,26. The sea may signify the flood of evils and sorrows that have come upon man since the fall Ps. 68:22; 78:53; Is. 5:30; 57:20; Jer. 51:41-43; Dan. 7:2,3; Zech. 10:11; Rev. 13:1. This may be clearly demonstrated by Paul’s quotation of Deuteronomy 30, in Romans 10, where he translates going beyond the sea as going into the depths of the abyss Deut. 30:13,14; Rom. 10:6-8. And when a literalizing hermeneutic denies this spiritual reality behind the literal sea, the spiritual implications of Moses’ song in Exodus 15, and the heart-stirring promise of John in Revelation 21:1 are sadly missed. But on the other hand, neither do we embrace a “spiritualizing” (i.e. existential) hermeneutic. This is the approach that says, “Let me find a verse of scripture and see how God will ‘speak to me’ through it.” In other words, I don’t have to understand what the original author intended to convey to his original audience, I just have to find out what this verse may “mean to me”. This could be quite different from what it “means to you”. But that’s ok, as long as we both get a blessing from it. It is quite sad that (whether consciously or not) this approach is so common among twenty-first century American Christians. It strips the bible of all real authority, for it makes the basis of what God is saying dependent on me and my feelings, and leaves no solid, objective foundation of truth which is the same for all of mankind. Let’s sum up what we’ve been saying. In interpreting the bible, we need a hermeneutic that:

  1. Is not literalizing/rationalistic
  2. Is not spiritualizing/existential
  3. But that is truly literal, and recognizes the possibility of figurative language
    • Figurative language that anyone can understand (common). e.g. metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc. Lk. 13:32; Is. 1:18
    • Figurative language that only those who know God’s purposes can understand (spiritual). e.g. Old Testament types and shadows Heb. 8:5

But how do we avoid these pitfalls? What are some practical steps to ensure that we are employing a truly literal hermeneutic when we study the bible? In the next three lessons we will lay out a basic approach to studying scriptures with a literal hermeneutic. In order to determine what God is saying (interpretation), we will consider three basic sets of questions to ask of each passage.

  1. Historical: Where does this writing fall in the epic story of God’s redemptive plan for mankind? To whom was it written? By whom? Under what circumstances?
  2. Grammatical: What does each word mean? How does it relate to the words around it. How does the author relate one phrase to the next to create a clear flow of thought?
  3. Contextual: How does this verse relate to the paragraph that it is a part of? How does that paragraph relate to the pericope (i.e. one passage of scripture with a unifying theme, or a “self-contained” unit)? How does the pericope relate to the book? How does the book fit into scriptures as a whole?

In order to determine why God is saying it (application), we will ask one more basic set of questions:

  • Applicational: What do I have in common with those to whom this passage was written? What do I have in common with the circumstances in which it was written? What does it reveal about my fallen condition? What does it reveal about who God is? What does it reveal about his plan of redemption in Christ?

Let’s put these principles into practice with a brief study of 1 John 2:3-5.

Study Questions:

  1. Can any passage from scripture have different meanings for different readers? Can any passage have different applications for the different life-situations of readers? Explain your answers.

  2. Explain the difference between a truly literal hermeneutic and a literalizing (rationalistic) hermeneutic. Explain the difference between a literal and a spiritualizing (existential) hermeneutic. Why is it so important to have a truly literal hermeneutic when we study the bible?

  3. Why is it necessary to interpret scriptures historically?

  4. Why is it necessary to interpret scriptures grammatically?

  5. Why is it necessary to interpret scriptures contextually?

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