LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Interpreting Scripture: A General Introduction
Submitted to Dr. James Sulfridge
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500
Discipleship Ministries
By
Anthony Bean
Interpreting Scripture: A General Introduction
Definition
Interpreting Scripture is the process of personally discovering what God through his human
authors intended the biblical text to mean and effect. Through exegesis and theology one
assesses, synthesizes, and applies God’s inerrant Word.
Summary
This study clarifies why we must interpret Scripture, synthesizes what presuppositions
should guide our interpretation, and offers a process for how to interpret. Scripture plays a
foundational place in all of life, and Scripture itself stresses the need to faithfully interpret in
order to stand unashamed before the Lord. Interpreting Scripture faithfully necessitates that
we view Scripture as God’s Word, assumes that Scripture’s truths are knowable, requires that
we respond appropriately, and demands that we engage in the task depending on God.
The interpretive process is about personally discovering what God through his human
authors intended the biblical text to mean and effect. It includes assessing, synthesizing, and
applying God’s inerrant word by means of exegesis and theology––both the narrow activity of
identifying and drawing out what God was actually saying through his human authors in specific
passages and the broader activity of relating this message to God’s overarching purpose in
redemption culminating in Christ, with specific application to our present situation. The move
from exegesis to theology includes at least twelve interrelated steps: (1) genre, (2) literary units
and text hierarchy, (3) text criticism, (4) translation, (5) clause and text grammar, (6) argument-
tracing, (7) word and concept studies, (8, 9) historical and literary context, (10, 11, 12) biblical,
systematic, and practical theology.
Why Must We Interpret Scripture?
Moses stressed that a right relationship with the Lord is only possible when one hears
God’s Word in a way that leads to fearing and following him (Deut. 31:12–13; cf. 6:1–3; 17:19–
20; John 6:44–45). The Bible, therefore, “is no empty word for you, but your very life” (Deut.
32:47)! Similarly, David highlighted that God’s words are perfect, sure, right, pure, true,
righteous, desirable, and sweet and that these same words revive the soul, give wisdom, rejoice
the heart, enlighten the eyes, inspire fear, warn, and guide obedience unto great reward (Psa.
19:7–11). Only through an encounter with God’s pure, perfect, true, and abiding Word (Pss.
12:6; 119:96, 160) can people be
Reborn in Christ and indwelt by the Spirit (Psa. 119:93; Rom. 10:17; Gal. 3:2; Jas. 1:18;
1Pet. 1:23);
Empowered for holiness (Psa. 119:50; John 17:17; 2Tim. 3:17; 2Pet. 1:4),
Sustained to glory (Deut. 8:3; Rom. 1:16; 2Tim. 3:15),
Satisfied always (Pss. 1:2; 19:10; 1Pet. 2:3).
Man lives through “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; cf. Deut.
8:3), so we must saturate our whole being with Scripture (Deut. 6:7; Josh. 1:7–8; Pss. 1:3; 78:5–
8). We must seek its truths like silver (Prov. 2:4) and do so in a way that moves us to tremble in
surrender and awe (Isa. 66:2).
God has given his Word to the simple and not just the scholar (Psa. 19:7; 119:130), and it is
because of this that we are even to instruct children in its teachings (Deut. 6:6–7; Psa. 78:5–8;
Eph. 6:4). Nevertheless, following the pattern of the priest-scribe Ezra, we must study the Word
so that we can loyally do what it calls for and then teach it faithfully (Ezra 7:10). The Lord calls
Christians to think maturely, which means yearning for the clear Word of God, rightly
understanding what is good, and then being innocent to what is evil (1Cor. 14:20). Ignorant and
unstable people are those who misappropriate God’s Word, but those who are knowledgeable
and steady can rightly understand the Scriptures (2Pet. 3:16). Paul charged Timothy, “Think
over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2Tim. 2:7). Biblical
interpretation is not an option. Christians must rigorously think over God’s Book and do so in a
way that looks to God for illumination––God’s Spirit guiding the human mind and altering the
human heart so that the interpreter can grasp Scripture’s message (1Cor. 2:13–14). “Do your
best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the word of truth” (2Tim. 2:15). The biblical interpreter handles God’s Word
without shame only when the Lord himself approves of the interpretation. We must, therefore,
carefully interpret Scripture.
What Presuppositions Should Guide Our Interpreting Scripture?
At least four foundational presuppositions should guide our interpreting Scripture.
1. Biblical interpretation necessitates that we view Scripture as God’s Word.
The only way to truly arrive at what the biblical authors intended is to believe (as they did)
that they were reading and writing God’s very Word (Isa. 8:20; 1Cor. 2:13; 14:37). This requires
a submissive disposition to Scripture’s authority. We must be willing to let our understanding
and application of truth be conformed to the Bible’s declarations, all in accordance with God’s
revealed intention. The Bible is special revelation—God’s disclosure of himself and his will in a
way that we can understand (1Cor. 14:37; 2Tim. 3:16; 2Pet. 1:20–21). The very words, and not
just the ideas, are God-inspired (Matt. 5:17–18; 1Cor. 2:13; 2Tim. 3:16–17). And the “words of
the Lord are pure” (Psa. 12:6); his “law is true” (Psa. 119:142); “every one of [his] righteous
rules endures forever” (Psa. 119:160); and his “commandments are right” (Psa. 119:172). Jesus
said, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), and Paul said that this is so because “all
Scripture is breathed out by God” (2Tim. 3:16). Indeed, as Peter said, “No prophecy was ever
produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit” (2Pet. 1:21).
These truths imply that Scripture is both authoritative and accurate in all it declares. In
order to stress that the Bible’s assertions are both reliable and unerring, the church has
historically stated that (a) in matters of faith (doctrine) and practice (ethics), Scripture’s
teaching is infallible—a sure and safe guide, and that (b) in matters of fact (whether history,
chronology, geography, or the like), Scripture’s claims are inerrant—entirely true and
trustworthy.1 Both terms mean something comparable but address different spheres, and both
are rightly understood only in relation to what the authors, led by the Spirit, intended to convey
by their texts. That is, submitting to Scripture’s authority means respecting the biblical authors’
intentions and the literary conventions under which they wrote.
We must allow for partial reporting from different perspectives, paraphrasing, and
summarizing and must not require the Bible to give definitive or exhaustive information on
every topic (e.g., the failure of Chronicles to mention David’s sin with Bathsheba [2Sam. 11–12]
or Solomon’s idolatry [1Kgs. 11]; the instigator of David’s census being Yahweh in 2Sam. 24:1
but Satan in 1Chr 21:1; the additional information that Manasseh repented from his deep
wickedness in 2Chr. 33:10–19 [cf. 2Kgs. 21:10–18]). We must allow for phenomenological
language, with which the authors describe a phenomenon as they observed it or experienced it,
not necessarily how it scientifically occurred (e.g., Josh. 10:12–13; Matt. 5:45). And we must
allow for the reporting of a speech without the endorsement of that speech’s truthfulness; a
biblical character may truly say something that is not true (e.g., Exod. 1:17–21; Josh. 2:1–7; Acts
5:1–11). Scripture is the very Word of God, so as we interpret it we must trust it to never lead
us astray and approach it as the highest influence in our lives.
2. Biblical interpretation assumes that Scripture’s truths are knowable.
Proper understanding of Scripture assumes that the Bible is, by nature, clear in what it
teaches. In short, truth can be known. Peter recognized that “there are some things in [Paul’s
letters] that are hard to understand,” but he went on to say that it is “the ignorant and
unstable” who “twist” these words “to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures”
(2Pet. 3:16). The psalmists were convinced that God’s Word enlightens our path and imparts
understanding (Psa. 119:105, 130). Paul wrote his words plainly (2Cor. 1:13) and called others
to “think over” what he said, trusting that “the Lord will give you understanding in everything”
(2Tim. 2:7).
The very nature of God’s Word demands that its message can be understood in any culture
and in any age. Historically, the church has called this the doctrine of Scripture’s perspicuity or
clarity. The Bible is sufficiently clear, but not everything in it is equally clear. It is sufficiently
clear to allow us to grasp the portrait of God’s supremacy and his overarching kingdom
purposes climaxing in the saving work of Jesus, but some other elements in Scripture are less
lucid. Wayne Grudem has helpfully noted that the Bible itself testifies that we can understand
it, but:2
Not all at once;
Not without effort;
Not without ordinary means;
Not without the reader’s willingness to obey it;
Not without the help of the Holy Spirit;
Not without human misunderstanding;
Never completely.
These things stated, we must interpret Scripture convinced that what God intends for us to
know we can know.
3. Biblical interpretation requires that we respond appropriately.
We as biblical interpreters are not finished with our task once we discover what God has
spoken. We must then move on to recognize that his Word is “profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2Tim. 3:16). We must grasp not only
the biblical author’s intended meaning (which is possible for nonbelievers) but also his intended
effect (which is possible only for believers, Rom. 8:7–8; 1Cor. 2:14). To rightly grasp God’s truth
bound up in his Book, we must employ the necessary habits of heart and mind captured in the
order of Ezra resolve: “Ezra set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach
his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). To study means observing carefully, understanding
rightly, and evaluating fairly; to do includes feeling appropriately and applying wisely; to teach
involves expressing articulately, faithfully, and boldly.3 These are the necessary habits of the
heart and mind needed for rightly grasping truth in God’s Book. Biblical interpretation demands
that we respond to Scripture appropriately.
