The very fact that we study the Bible in English implies that someone has already interpreted the original message into our language. Discover the Bible’s organization and its numerous translations to understand some of our interpretive challenges.
While the entire Bible has interpretive challenges, none is so difficult to navigate as the Book of Revelation. Despite the debated details, the main point of the book is full of glorious and guaranteed promises.
Epistles are letters written for specific purposes. It is essential to determine who wrote the letter, who received it, and why it was sent.
The four Gospels all tell the story of Jesus but are delivered to different audiences from different perspectives. To understand the truth contained fully within them, we must understand the context in which they were written.
The Old Testament prophets spoke a specific message to a particular people. We can safely unpack the timeless truth and correctly interpret it for our situations with proper hermeneutical guidelines.
Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament is that portion of Scripture that helps us understand how to apply God’s wisdom in our lives. It makes sense to reason that if the LORD created the world, He knows the best way to navigate through it.
In the opening books in the Bible, God establishes the Law upon which the Israelites were expected to live. As New Testament disciples, we must use careful interpretative guidelines as we study and apply this portion of Scripture.
Narrative is the literary genre that communicates through story form. Within the Bible, narratives intend to teach truth through what has happened to highlighted individuals.
The Bible is one book made up of 66 smaller books with distinct genres differing from each other. To interpret the Bible accurately, we must understand the nature of genres and how the Bible is organized.
Even without acknowledging it, we project our context upon Scripture in order for it to say what we want it to say. As we study Scripture, we must filter the reader’s context through the knowledge of the author’s context.