Introduction
Imagine if everything I wrote down for the next 365 days would be recorded and bound into a book so that my daughter could reflect on everything I wrote down in fifty years. These compiled writings would include birthday cards, notes to my wife, a daily journal, academic papers, and so on. Now imagine 50 or even 100 years later, my great-granddaughter picked up the book I left for my daughter, and she sees a daily journal in the first few chapters. In the middle, she sees all of the cute notes I wrote to my wife, and at the end, she sees an academic paper I wrote on a passage in the Bible. How would she go about understanding my writing? Would she take my words literally? What if the type of English I spoke and wrote in differs from the one she speaks 100 years later? If I wrote a note to my wife saying, "I love you to the moon and back," would she take that literally since, let's say 100 years later, it's normal to take a space cruise ship to the moon and a phrase that was once used as a figurative expression could now, based on her environment be used literally.
The Need for Hermeneutics
After reviewing this example, most people would observe that there ought to be some parameters that my great-granddaughter should utilize to understand what I was trying to communicate to my daughter. Guidelines that would restrict how anyone who picked up a compilation of my writings would be able to engage with, interpret, and understand what I, the author, intended to say. These parameters, in fact, already exist and are laid out in a study known as hermeneutics.
Defining Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is defined as the "art and science of communication." It is a tool that readers utilize in order to understand what the text they are engaging with is communicating. Ultimately, the goal of hermeneutics should be to understand what the original author intended to communicate when they wrote what they wrote. This goal is fundamental for everyone who seeks to unpack any text, and this is especially true of those who consider themselves students of the text of scripture.
Hermeneutics and the Bible
Applying hermeneutics to the Bible is a fundamental necessity when approaching the text of scripture. For The Bible is the medium by which God chose to communicate His will, purposes, promises, and ultimately redemptive story to His creatures. Yet, God did not magically transplant our Bibles into our lap; rather, He chose specific men, throughout the centuries, who "spoke from [Him]" as they were "carried along by the Holy Spirit," all so that God's word would be revealed to His creatures. Nevertheless, these men whom God chose to speak through spoke to a specific audience. This audience had their own cultural values, religious ideologies, geographical settings, geo-political climate, linguistic style, idiomatic language, and many more factors that influenced their way of life, thinking, and how they would interact with God's word. Inasmuch as all of these play a vital role in understanding what God was communicating to a specific audience within a particular period of time, the time-specific and cultural realities present at the writing of God's word also can make understanding the text of scripture difficult to the modern reader, all of which points to the essential role hermeneutical guidelines play when understanding, interpreting and applying God's word today.
The Consequences of Misinterpretation
Without set guidelines, parts of the Bible can seem irrational, irrelevant, or flat-out wrong, stating things contrary to fact. Observe an excerpt of Jesus' parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13:32, as Jesus says, "[the mustard seed] is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is the largest of the garden plants and becomes a tree" (Mtt 13:32). Now if this passage were not understood in its context someone might say, "Ha! I knew Jesus was not God, for if He were God, he surely would have known that the smallest garden plant seed isn't a mustard seed; rather, it's the Orchid seed!" Indeed, the orchid seed is the smallest garden plant seed. However, Jesus was not making a botanical statement. Instead, He sought to use a reference point that His audience was aware of to make an analogous statement referring to the growth of the kingdom of God.
Furthermore, taking scripture out of context and attempting to redefine God's word into what it "means to us" can lead to many abuses of scripture. Take Jeremiah 29:11, for example. This is a specific inspired promise given to the nation of Israel by the prophet Jeremiah to reassure God's people that even though they have turned away from God and, as a result, are exiled in a foreign nation, God has a plan for their future. Unfortunately, this text has been misquoted and misused to support hope for the United States of America and much more.
The Importance of Proper Hermeneutics
Needless to say, the ability to read and understand God's word is vital because God has communicated through His word. And His word is "living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb 4:12), and God wants us as His children to apply His word. Yet not by taking it out of context and determining the meaning of it on our own, but instead by understanding what God has said and to derive meaning from the truth of what He chose to reveal to specific people in a specific place in time. Therefore, to honor God and be a good steward of His word, every Christian should recognize the vital role of hermeneutics when engaging with the biblical text.
Recommended Resources:
Michael J Vlach: Youtube Video: "What Is "Literal-Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutics"?: An Explanation for Bible Interpretation"
Basic Bible Interpretation -Roy B Zuck.
https://www.christianbook.com/basic-bible-interpretation-roy-zuck/9780781438773/pd/61819?event=ESRCG
Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation: Henry Virkler
Comentarios