The Necessity of Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutics
A fundamental aspect of Biblical interpretation is the method by which the reader chooses to engage the text and the hermeneutical principles applied in any given passage of scripture. These principles ultimately function as guard rails for the reader and will always guide the interpretation of the text. The primary goal of biblical interpretation is to understand what the author intended to communicate when they wrote what they wrote. With that goal in mind, a grammatical-historical (GH) hermeneutic is the only faithful way to arrive at any biblical text's true meaning.
Understanding Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutics
While there are other systems and principles that many pastors, scholars, and theologians throughout the centuries have attempted to utilize to unpack what God has communicated through his word, only one system stands apart. Only one system consistently adheres to the universal laws of communication that govern all speech and writing. That system is GH hermeneutics. The very nature of universal law is that they are discovered, not invented.
When God spoke through his word, He did not intend his creatures to interpret His scriptures according to their liking. Nor did He desire for man to attempt to decipher “secret messages” in His word. Yahweh is a God of truth, order, and logic, and in seeking to communicate His plan, purposes, and promises to His creatures, He has done so in a way that humanity can definitively understand what He has said. Thus, the need for interpreting any text according to its grammatical structure and historical and literary context is fundamental in arriving at an objective understanding of what God has communicated and revealed through his word.
GH hermeneutics applies three primary principles derived from the laws of communication to determine the original author's intended meaning objectively: the ordinary sense of the language, the rules of grammar, and the historical context. Once these three principles are applied, then and only then can anyone have an objective understanding of what God is communicating to us through His word.
The Consequences of Ignoring GH Hermeneutics
When GH hermeneutics is disregarded, and other methods of interpretation are utilized, the study of God's word becomes subjective, unauthoritative, meaningless, and, at worst, outright heretical. This approach can lead to a variety of interpretations where passages mean different things to different people, undermining the true message of the Bible and potentially leading to heretical beliefs and practices.
GH hermeneutics is not merely a choice but a necessity that must be upheld with the most profound conviction to uphold the truth of God's word. It is only then that the followers of Jesus Christ can teach, reprove, exhort, and rebuke God's people with the authority of His word and protect God's flock by holding fast to what is true and being able to refute those who contradict the clear teaching of scripture.
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
Comments