How to Interpret the Bible (Hermeneutics)

Principle #4: Interpreting understanding genre (literary types)

  1. Literary type – Understanding the literally genre of the writing will guide you to determine whether to take a passage literally or not. Theology based on the more literal genres is safer than symbolic ones. Recommendations - It is best to start reading NT Gospels, Epistles, Psalms, Proverbs and OT history since they are among the easiest to understand.
  2. Jesus’ teaching & NT Letters – These are the clearest, most straightforward writingsand should be taken literally for the most part (Exception - There are some more difficult teachings of Jesus such as parables or Sermon on the Mount.)
  3. History– Reliable accounts where lesson can be learned through examples of people (e.g. Jesus in the Gospels, Paul in Acts, Moses, Joseph, David.)
  4. Psalms (Prayers) – Prayers that help us understand how to interact with God through examples. This is the core of our faith.

  1. Proverbs - Proverbs teach probable truth, not absolute truth. Wisdom should be a lifelong endeavor. By nature proverbs point out patterns of conduct that, if followed, give one the best chance of success. (Proverbs, Eccles., Psalms). It is best to gather Proverbs by topic due to the format of the prose (e.g. wise man, mocker, sluggard, wicked, virtuous woman, etc.)
  2. Theology based on historyonly- You should be careful when making conclusions ononlynarrative accounts without support of teaching passages since the event of the narrative could be unique (e.g. baptism of the Spirit).
  3. Symbolic Prose (e.g. Revelation, Song of Songs)-You should be careful when making conclusions based on symbolic literature such as Revelation. It is difficult to determine what can be taken as literal. Other examples of symbolic literature are Poetry & Song, or parables.

Question2: How literally should we interpret the creations story? (& other stories in Gen 1-11)?

Question3: Should we consider Song of Songs as an example of the goodness of human love or of an allegory of the love of God to Israel (Jewish) or Jesus for the Church/humans (Christian), etc?

  1. Parables - You should be careful when making conclusions based on elements of parables (e.g. what is hell like). They may be auxiliary to the main point and may be a construct of the story. Parables usually have three groups of characters; master, good servants, bad servants. There are usually three lessons when taking the viewpoint of each character. Sometimes, there are allegories (e.g. seeds representing the Word) but one must be careful to read allegories into the story.

  1. Prophecy–Prophecies serve an important role in validating the authenticity of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. However, you should be careful when make predictions based on prophecy. It is difficult to predict upcoming events with certainty or determine if current events truly correlate with the prophetic prediction[1]
  2. Ethics of Jesus - There is a type of teaching (Sermon on the Mount) where stark contrasts are taught in order to stir the listener to action. They are not necessary meant to be taken literally (pluck out your eye, hatred as murder, turning the other cheek, be perfect, etc.) but Christians through the ages have differed over their interpretation (Anabaptist (pacifism), Lutherans (the impossibility of following the law), Catholic (select disciples), existentialists (ethical action), dispensationalists (applies to millennial age only)

  1. Helpful Timeline charts of Old and New Testament

Interpreting the BiblePage 1

[1]“While OT prophets saw the coming age as a whole, the NT presents it as having phases. There are at least two periods: the present church age and the period after Christ’s second coming. Hence, when plotting the fulfillment of OT prophecies about the future, we must carefully analyze their content to see where they fit in this larger schema. We must add a second characteristic of prophecy: it may have two fulfillments, one near the prophet’s lifetime and one long past it.” Introduction to Biblical Interpretation by W. Klein, p 305.