… where do we get our instructions about interpretation. The ole’ standard by command, example and necessary inference is good till we get to something that folks see differently because they may be using a different standard by which to interpret a given scripture. ~ Steve Summers
Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation. It is “the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible).”1
HERMENEUTICS. This term, from Gk. herme登euo (‘interpret’), is used to denote (a) the study and statement of the principles on which a text — for present purposes, the biblical text — is to be understood, or (b) the interpretation of the text in such a way that its message comes home to the reader or hearer.2
Contrary to what some may imagine, the common procedure by which one understands any set of instructions in the secular world is identical to the procedure by which one interprets biblical text. Hermeneutics is not some sort of religious apparatus that has no relationship to the world in which we live. Hence, the commands or imperative statements, approved examples and implications (from which we necessarily infer) by which one can properly evaluate biblical text are the same means by which each of us understands communication between any persons. In other words, logic or what is able to be reasoned from available evidence is equally adept for understanding both religious and secular communications.
Little children learn the language within a few short years, complete with an understanding of the significance of commands, approved examples and implication. There are no other mechanisms of communication! Amazingly, people often have little difficulty in everyday communications, using these tools of interpretation, but border upon becoming spiritual idiots when called upon to apply their skills of communication to Scripture.
The understood premise of hermeneutics is the intention to exegete or derive from a communication only what it intends to convey. Regarding the Bible, for instance, one ought only desire to understand precisely what the original recipients of any text were expected to understand — no more and no less! On the other hand, eisegesis is “the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one’s own ideas.”3 Likewise, to allegorize a communication, such as a Bible text, is to remove it from its true context and meaning by reducing it to symbolism. Neither eisegesis nor the allegory satisfactorily communicates the meaning of either Bible text or any contemporary communication.
Regarding commands or imperative statements, one needs to ascertain if they are general or specific. Mark 16:15-16 records a general command respecting evangelizing the world with the Gospel — “go.” The means of going to accomplish the proclamation of the Gospel is not specified. We must choose the means, such as car, train, boat, plane, radio, television, printed matter, etc. Ephesians 5:19, though, specifies a kind of worshipful music — singing — which excludes due to its specificity every other type of music in worship. This principle occurs respecting the reason Jesus Christ could not be a priest on earth (Hebrews 7:14; 8:4).
Often when encountering Scripture, the obvious meaning of which they find distasteful, some people resort to the ploy of “using a different standard by which to interpret a given scripture.” This approach is the essence of the so-called new hermeneutics. Unlike formerly accepted commands or imperative statements, approved examples and implication that characterized hermeneutics, the new hermeneutics has no formula to elicit the meaning of any communication. The only fundamental rule of new hermeneutics seems to be that it cannot mean what it has always been understood to mean, if what it has always been understood to mean is something that is now viewed as distasteful. That is not hermeneutics; that is rebellion against God by changing is holy Word (Galatians 1:6-9).
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21).
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1 Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated) 1993.
2 The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962.
3 Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
