Bible study methods || Hermeneutics II

 

6) Understand unclear passages in light of clear passages - the Bible obviously has many unclear passages that are hard to understand. However, clear passages can be used to interpret those passages.

 

E.g. Jesus explicitly commanded to baptize in name of Triune God but some argue that there is other passage that says to baptize in Jesus' name. If Jesus is crystal clear on this then the other passage must be interpreted within the contemporary context rather than taking a harsh and bias position.

 

7) Understand high context and low context - the books of the Bible doesn't always necessarily provide straightforward explanations. Certain books record events and contents that are already familiar to the original audience and hence the author didn't build up the background. For us, we need some homework to study the background from other resources to get the proper context. This is called High context.

 

E.g. Some mysterious passages like angels bounded to prison, tongues of angels, etc. might need some other extra-biblical resources to get the context. This doesn't approve those resources as inspired rather they just help us to understand why the author was using them and what they were trying to deliver.

 

8) Try learning Hebrew and Greek languages - The Bible was originally written in those languages and any students who study those languages at Bible college certainly knows why Bible translations get somehow difficult. Meanwhile, learning these languages can help us a lot with textual analysis because not every words from these languages can be literally translated into our contemporary languages. One can use amazing resources like biblehub and blueletterbible for these workout.

 

For e.g. 1 Peter 3:15 uses the word 'apologia' for 'answering' word used in our Bible. The term actually means 'to speak or give defense of our faith' which led to rise of 'Apologetics field'. Therefore, the passage isn't just talking about giving testimony but giving a defense of what we believe and why as our hope lies in the same thing.

 

9) Textual criticism- This is a scientific study of manuscripts that enables us to know how accurately any materials have been handed over from generations to generations and how precisely they are translated. This also deals with how much variations exist in manuscripts and how much does that matter to the original message. The Bible too goes through this scientific tests and there are obviously variations and editions being made. However, scholars suggest us that they do not negotiate with the original message of the Bible except for minor details.

 

One classic example could be ending of Mark which is highly doubted to be its original part. Meanwhile, some manuscript does have that passages and due to certain evident proofs in lives of apostles, the passage is considered as inspired. Meanwhile, the passage is taken under prooftext by charismatics while others don't. This doesn't have anything to do with core message of the Bible.

 

10) Make assumptions as much as the text allows - sometimes we have to make certain assumptions but those assumption should also be based on allowance of the text. The impacting factors for assumption are cultural contexts, genre of the book, grammar and languages.

 

For example, one can assume Paul wasn't using hyperbole in 1 Cor. 13:1 while speaking of "tongues of angels" because the contemporary culture had an understanding of such languages in use which are also mentioned in extra-biblical documents like testament of Job. Again, in very next chapter he speaks of mysteries and speaking to God and not to men. These cases can allow for certain room of assumption that Paul could have mean tongues of angels as something literal instead hyperbole. Gordon Fee also uses this very argument. Even Christian apologist Sam Shamoun thinks it literal.