Vol.12 No.2
Understanding Your Bible
You don’t need to be a Hebrew or Greek scholar to correctly interpret God’s Word.
By Kevin D. Paulson
If God spare my life, ere many more years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou doest.”
These were the words of the famous English Reformer William Tyndale, as he announced his goal to translate the Bible so that all might have access to the precious words of Scripture. Thanks to his sacrificial efforts, today the humblest Christian, aided by the Holy Spirit, can understand the Bible clearly in the English tongue.
Strangely, however, many people today believe that the Bible is a book that only scholars can understand. Yet the Bible itself declares: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Psalm 119:130.
THE BIBLE INTERPRETS ITSELF
The first and foremost principle of biblical interpretation is that the Bible is its own interpreter. Concerning the origin of Scripture, Peter writes: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:20, 21.
Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit’s work in impressing our minds with God’s words. “Now we have received … not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:12, 13.
In other words, Scriptures that the Spirit inspires must be compared among themselves in order to be understood. This is what Jesus meant when He promised, “… Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth …” John 16:13.
This approach is amplified in Isaiah: “Whom shall he [the Lord] teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept … line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Isaiah 28:9, 10.
This passage plainly shows how to glean Bible truth and also assures us that God entrusts the most humble people, or babes, with truth. Similar words from the Lord come to mind: “… I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Matthew 11:25.
Any humble, teachable heart, open to God’s Spirit, can open the sacred pages and understand divine truths.
THE UNITY OF SCRIPTURE
The Bible is one harmonious, consistent, and self-interpreting document. Thus, every part must be examined before a doctrinal or moral conclusion is reached. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16.
The Berean Christians were praised because “… they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:11. The only Scriptures they had were the Old Testament, so they were comparing the Apostle Paul’s teachings with those of Old Testament writers.
Paul used the Old Testament, often citing it as the authority for his doctrines. In Romans 1:17— “The just shall live by faith”—he quotes Habakkuk 2:4 as the basis for his teachings on salvation. Likewise, in Ephesians 6:1 he admonishes children to obey their parents on the basis of the fifth commandment. This verse is significant, since it is generally believed that Ephesians was written to a predominantly Gentile audience. Paul’s reference to the fifth commandment is strong evidence that he viewed the Old Testament in general and the Ten Commandments in particular as authoritative for all Christians at all times.
POOR BIBLE STUDY TECHNIQUES
Many Christians formulate their doctrinal views without considering the whole of Scripture. Dispensational theology, which teaches that at different times in history people have been saved by different standards, has caused many to give little credence to the Old Testament in their doctrinal studies. This thinking has had far-reaching influence.
Edward J. Carnell, a Calvinist scholar, lists five rules for biblical interpretation. The first two state:
- The New Testament must interpret the Old.
- The New Testament Epistles (really, those of Paul only) must interpret the Gospels.1
Carnell really means that the New Testament is to supercede or replace the Old, and the Gospels are doctrinally inferior to the Epistles. This biblical approach is arbitrary and selective. It becomes rational only as a means of sustaining the reader’s ideas. Would not consulting the whole of Scripture, including the Gospels and general Epistles, make a more balanced conclusion as Isaiah 28:10 teaches? Yet, many theologians leave most Scripture out of their doctrinal equations.
ILLOGICAL LOGIC
“Progressive revelation” teaches that God reveals more truth as time progress. Thus, some Christians make the New Testament more important than the Old. Still others prefer a few select writings of Paul’s to the rest of the New Testament. Why? Were not many of the Gospels and Epistles written later than Paul’s writings? Shouldn’t they then contain more advanced truth?
The fact is that no basis exists, either in Scripture or simple logic, for the way many Christians neglect so much of the Bible. Their approach only makes sense in order to defend ideas which cannot be defended if the whole of Scripture is considered.
Bible scholar Harold Lindsell comments on Ecclesiastes 9:5: “From this verse some have adduced the dogma of soul sleep for the dead until the resurrection. The doctrine of soul sleep is not biblical. The problem is solved when one understands that the Bible is a book of progressive revelation. The Old Testament does not have the full-orbed biblical doctrine of the intermediate state after death.”2
Progressive revelation for Lindsell, really means contradictory revelation. It would be one thing if the Old Testament said nothing about the state of man in death, and the New Testament then
clarified the issue. But the Old Testament teaches clearly that the dead are unconscious. Job 14:10-12; 21:30-32; Psalms 115:17; 146:4. If the New Testament said they are conscious, this would contradict Paul’s assurance that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine.
Robert Morey uses the same argument against those who believe the full biblical view of the state of man in death: “They do not see any progress from the Old Testament to the New Testament but flatten out the distinction between the testaments. Instead of giving priority to the clarity of the New Testament, they feel safer staying with the blurred vision found in the Old Testament.”3 One has a hard time reconciling Morey’s idea of “blurred vision” in the Old Testament with the praise accorded the Bereans for searching the Old Testament Scriptures.
CONCLUSION
If all who study the Bible would put aside human opinion, human scholarship, and human experience and permit the totality of Scripture to become their exclusive authority, God’s people would at last come together on the changeless platform of inspired truth.
References
- Carnell, Edward John, The Case for Orthodox Theology (Westminister Press, 1959) pp. 53-57.
- Lindsell, Harold, Editor, Harper Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1965), p. 979, emphasis original.
- Morey, Robert A. Death and the Afterlife (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1984), p. 23.
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