SEEKING GOD AND CONTENTMENT

WHAT IS HERMENEUTICS?

 

Hermeneutics is the "theory and methodology of interpretation, especially of scriptural text".  It is both a science and an art.  Science because it has rules that can be classified into an orderly system, and art because the rules cannot always be rigidly applied.  Just because the rules applied to one or more verses, doesn't mean it applies to ALL verses.

We probably all remember taking English grammar classes in high school and having to diagram sentences, learn the definitions of words, and other things that we, at that age, thought we'd have no use for.

Little did some of us know that reading the Bible encompasses more than just reading.  You have to know the definitions of words; you need to have a knowledge of the culture and times in which the books of the Bible were written; and, you need an understanding of the rules of grammar, sentence structure, context, what the subject of the sentence is, and what are the nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, etc..

It's not an exercise for the faint of heart.

Thankfully, there are many resources out there to help us in our deep-dive of scripture.  One valuable resource is a concordance.  In 1890, James Strong took every word in the King James Version and gave it a number.  Each number starts with either and H for Hebrew or G for Greek.  He took all those words and numbers and compiled them into one book called The Strong's Concordance.  In that concordance, you will find the definition, and what type of word it is (noun, verb, preposition, etc.), and other useful information.

Using Bible dictionaries, commentaries, and other tools and resources can make studying Scripture a whole new experience.

Engaging in the practice of hermeneutics takes the study of scripture to a whole new level.  Verses you may have once thought you understood, could take on a totally different meaning when you apply the rules of grammar to the text.

Many people, women especially, get scared off by the idea of hermeneutics, but, when you think about it, we all engage in hermeneutics when we say, "Well, I think this verse means......" and we give our interpretation.  That is engaging in hermeneutics.  The problem is, a lot of people give the WRONG interpretation because they say, "What this verse means to me.....".  They're not practicing the proper techniques of interpretation.

Interpretation isn't about what the verse means to us.  If everyone did that, there would be no consistent interpretation because everyone would interpret it differently.  Proper interpretation is reading the verse in the proper context, and figuring out what the author was intending it to mean by studying the words, their definitions, and what that verse meant to the original audience, taking into consideration the society and culture at the time the book was written.

Newsflash.....the vast majority of the Bible was written to a Jewish audience.  There are a few books in the New Testament written to Gentile audiences (most of Paul's Epistles, for example, since he was a missionary to the Gentiles), but the rest were strictly written to the Hebrew/Jewish people. So, with that in mind, it's important to think about WHO the author was writing to originally so you can approach it from their standpoint.  A good resource for this can be found here .

I hope in the near future to include a blog with a list of online resources any student of the Bible can access to help them in their studies.  Until then, if you're the person who says, "This is what this verse means to me.....", please, PLEASE, stop using that phrase because God didn't intend for us to use OUR own interpretation.  God wants us to know what HE meant by what is written in the text, and that will require us to revisit our English grammar days in high school.  I did a Google search for Bible sentence structure tutorials on YouTube and found this channel where they demonstrate how to do sentence diagrams.  They have other videos I plan to explore more of and will post them if I see they have some value in helping with Bible Study.

Until next time, God bless and may we all grow to dive deeper into God's Word.