Hermeneutics

Introduction

Today’s Sermon is more of a Special Teaching more than anything. My hope is that from it, you will learn lessons and tips in how to study your bible that it would benefit your personal devotional life and consequently your relationship for your entire life. There are some important things today that will enrich you, so please listen carefully and be diligent in your notes.

Today I will begin by: Giving you a definition of what Hermeneutics is and why it matters to you. I Will Pray then look at some key verses from the bible. Next I will give you several principles in Hermanutics, followed by emphasizing the need for personal application from your bible. Then, I will give a few moments of open question time. To conclude, I walk you through what an optimum 20 minute bible study would look like if you are using good hermeneutics.

To begin, let’s first define what that word, Hermeneutics, is. In and of itself, Hermeneutics is the study that we use to find scripture’s meaning and explain it for application. So, it is the study of how we study The Bible so that we can both understand it and apply it to our daily lives. This is an important practice for all believers, and in one way or another we all frequently participate in Hermeneutics as you are studying the bible for the sake of application any time you: hear a sermon, participate in a bible study, or read your bible. Essentially, any time you have bible intake, as a consequence, you are participating in Hermeneutics. So, it is good for us to participate in it as well as we can so that our time will be fruitful and our relationship with God much much deeper.

Prayer

Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can be more like You, and made more into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all too often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possibly can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. I ask these things for your glory and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.

Scripture

Let me share with you a few verses from the Bible that inspire Hermeneutics and show us our need for it.

The First I want to share with you comes From the Book of Joshua Chapter 1. It reads: Joshua 1:8 8 This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on[a] it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

These verses are clear to the Christian, we are to view our Bible as a book of instruction (teaching). We need to keep it on the front of our mind all the time. We are to meditate on it (think on it for application) frequently throughout the day so that we can observe everything written in it. When we do this, it will help us to prosper in our commitment and devotion to Christ.

The Second Set of Verses comes from the Book of James. In the first chapter, James (the half brother of Jesus writes) 22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face[f] in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.

Here, James the elder in charge of the Jerusalem church writes to all of us, to not just be idle readers of Scripture. To do so, only devices ourselves in supposing we are on the right track with God. We are to read and approach scripture every time with the expectation that we will learn something we needed to know and that their is an important application for us to make that has something to do with either something you are going through right now or will soon in the future. The person who purses and studies scripture this way will be blessed in their relationship with God in a way that those who do not will never understand, because you are fostering and growing your relationship with your redeemer, Jesus.

A Third Set of Verses comes from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. In his final recorded letter before his death, Paul writes to his protege the pastor Timothy that 16 All Scripture is inspired by God[a] and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

This means, we are to trust scripture as it comes from God’s mouth, and it is all to be taken seriously as it is good and profitable for us for the sake of teaching us, for rebuking (getting on to us) when we are wrong. For correcting us, getting us back on track. And training us for righteousness and goodness; all of this so that we can be prepared to do any good work that The Lord has for us. So once again, you read with the intent of finding something useful that you need to apply to your life.

With all of these verses in Minds, let’s move into some of the Principles within the study of Hermeneutics so that we can better understand what God is showing us through the scriptures so that we can apply it, just as He has charged us to do over and over again.

Now, lets move into some of the Principles of hermeneutics

Information Gaps

One of the reasons it is important for us to have good practices and procedures in our hermeneutics is because as 20th and 21st century Christians in living in our life, city, state, and community contexts, we all lack the experience of living life in the way, shape, and places that the original writers and audiences did. So, there are some things that would have been very obvious to them, that we will completely miss out on because they are just not a part of our lives as it was for them. So, we have Gaps in our information that keep us from understanding what the writers of the text wanted the readers and listeners to understand.

The first gap in our understanding is the Time Gap- which means 1 we do not live in their times and contexts and 2 without first looking into it, we would not know what the date/year/time something within the bible first happened. This is an important thing to know, as the books in your bible are not written and listed in Chronological (timeline) order, but rather by Genera and Author. So, you must know when you read the books of the bible, you will see overlapping of events and no clearly recognizable order of events.

The second Gap is The Geographical Gap that is, without study, we do not have knowledge of where the mentioned events and locations are in the Bible. To the original audience, they would have been so familiar with the names and locations of many places, that it would have been obvious, as you know I mean when I say Hopkinsville or Western Kentucky.

The Third is the Cultural Gaps- their culture was much different to ours. Things would have been unacceptable to them that were for us and vice versa. Word and actions that would been considered an insult to us, might have been a word of endearment of their time. Greeting expectations would be different for them, the way lived, was very different than ours and what they valued was different as well.

The fourth is the Language Gap. The original Texts of the Bible were in 3 languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koinaic Greek. These languages have very different meters, sounds, sentence and song structures then ours. So, in translation it is possible to lose something or a word meaning a few different similar (but feasible) words.

The fifth is the Literary Gap, this is very similar to the Language Gap, but in the written word. A Good example would be that in ancient texts, if a word is mentioned multiple times in a row, it shows emphasis. Whereas we might say something is VERY Big, they might say it was Big Big. This isn’t the only thing, really the Literary Gap has to do with anything about how they would have written verses how we do.

The sixth is the Supernatural Gap- This is the gap we experience as finite Humans to the reality and possibilities of all powerful, all knowing, all the time, infinite, supreme, and divine power that God has. So, this Gap refers to the difference of how God sees and acts and knows what is possible versus what we know and see and think and what we think is possible. This is a very wide gap indeed.

The 7th Gap is the Theological Gap. This refers to the gap in theology between the writer and its audience's understanding of God and theology (the study of God) and ours. We run into this gap often in the old testament, as the original people who received it did not yet have Jesus as their redeemer, and they could not yet see how all the text pointed towards Him and should be interpreted through the lens of what He has done for us.

The 8th and Final Gap is the Appropriation Gap. This is the gap that we all have to jump to take that information from the ancient biblical text and make it applicable to us today. This is what gets us to the timeless message that we need to heed and apply.

So, those are the Gaps in information that we have. Understanding that you have these, will help you be a better bible interpreter, because then you have some idea of what you are up against, what is keeping you from easily understanding the bible in the same way we might easily understand a modern book.

Reading a text w/0 Context is to have a pretext

Next, I want to share with you a saying that is hard to understand at first, but makes perfect sense when it is explained. It is Any Text Without A Context Is Pretext For A Prooftext. So, what does this mean when you are reading your bible? It means that if you are to simply take a verse or set of verses out of it’s context (out of what the author was saying and meaning) then you can pretty much get it to say whatever you want it to. So, as diligent and careful bible scholars, it is always important to have the context of what the author was communicating. To not do so, can lead you 1, to seriously miss interpreting the text, 2 teaching others incorrectly, 3, making bad application, and 4, this is the worst, even up to making blasphemy. Let me give you an example. In Rome before they converted to Christ, for a long time people thought that Christians were a cult of cannibals, because they heard that Jesus told them, to “take and eat, this is my body.” Well, without understanding the context that Jesus was talking about bread at a supper and how it being broken represented what He was about to do to them, well you could see how without that information, if a Roman heard that, they were cannibals but didn’t look into it, they could easily believe it.

Another verse that comes up often nowadays is written in Matthew 7, where Jesus says to Judge not lest you be judged. Many people use this as a “gotcha card” for their sins whenever we try to call them out of it. Yes, Jesus said those words, but directly after them in the same breath He said, “2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. 6 Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces. So, Jesus says, do not judge unless you are ready to be held by the same standard. It also says for us to not expect people who don’t follow Christ to be held to the same standards that Christians should live up to. So, there is no blanket condemnation of Judging as many would have you think from these verses.

To Counter these kinds of mistakes, it is important for us to not only understand the context that bible commentators have provided for us, but also to not regularly read a single verse not connected to any others, but rather to read larger sections like whole books and chapters together so that we can better understand what it is God is saying through the text. All of this to say, having context is key when it comes to interpreting and applying what the Bible is showing us.

Biblical Interpretation Guidelines

Next, I have spoken to you before about this, but it bears repeating. So, I want to share with you guidelines in how to understand words and ideas that you do not understand from the biblical text.

The first thing you need to know when doing this, is that The Bible in and of itself is not 1 book. No, it is 66 individual books from many various writers, during many various times in history, it has many different genres and stylings in its writings, meanwhile it has one author (God) who is telling one large story (The Creation of everything, The Fall of Mankind, The Redemption of Mankind through Jesus, and the Restoration of mankind and the World to a perfect relationship with god).

The 2nd thing you need to know, is that the books of your bible are not in Chronological (time order). No, it may seem like it at first, but they are not. Rather, they are divided in this way. 1st- By Testament (New and Old). 2nd By Genera (for the sake of time I have included in your notes what the genres are and how they are to best be interpreted). 3rd by Author. Once you know this, if you are having a hard time understanding a word or phrase, you need to first look to the same or similar word within your bible in this pecking order of most likely to be correct. The most likely to be correct would be: The same Word, in the same book of the bible by the same writer (note, some books have multiple writers). You then go down the line if you can’t find something that works, find something by the same author, if that that doesn’t work find something in the same genera, if that doesn’t work, look in the same Testament, if that doesn’t work look in the entire bible, if on extremely rare and extremely unlikely circumstance you find it after going all the way down that list, THEN you can turn to outside commentaries and dictionaries.

A few other helpful hints/guidelines to remember is these: Cross References are extremely useful. Follow those rabbit trails before reading a commentary or looking it up online. Yes, this does take much longer, but the point of Bible study is building your relationship with God, as with any other relationship, you won’t get there well by cutting corners. Also, remember that when you read your bible, the main Character is always God. Now, that can be The Father, The Son, or The Holy Spirit, most often it is the entire God-Head. Even though a character may seem to be the Main Character, really what you need to be looking for is what God is doing through or to that person. So, just because a book of the bible may carry a person’s name, doesn’t mean they are the main Character of that book, God is the main Character of the entire Bible.

You MUST Find personal Application

The most important thing to take away from Hermenticus is this. When you are studying your bible, the most important thing is that your find personal application. You need to find something from the text that applies to your life, some sin you need to remove, somewhere you need to have greater faith, somewhere you need to believe the Gospel of Jesus more. If you are not finding personal application from the Bible, then you are simply reading it either as a history lesson, to gain knowledge that puffs you up, or out of an unrighteous and irreverent duty that you feel you owe God.

To be frank, if you are reading your bible without the expectation that God is going to show Himself to you and some way you need to respond (making a personal application), then you are wasting your time. You need to change what you are doing and do something better. You need to trust that God is speaking to you through His Word and that He is showing you something about Himself and yourself that needs to be done so that you can grow closer to Him. I used to say this all the time, but without application knowledge is just information. So be wise, be smart. As we saw in Joshua, James, and 2nd Timothy, find the timeless lesson God is showing through the text and apply it to your life. This means, you will have to do something, this means every time you read your bible, your not just becoming a better follower of Jesus because you read The Bible, but also because you did what it says to do.

Now that you know all of this information, let me charge each and every one of us to solemnly put it into practice and let me be clear about something. Everyone in this room is smart enough and capable enough to not be regularly relying on premade devotionals in your individual quiet times with God. Now, they do have their time and place such as: When you want to learn something extra on a particular topic you don’t know about, when you are working on something together with a small group, or on a day when you have much less time in your day than usual to do a devotional. However, in your regular daily time, the norm should be that the only thing you need is a good study bible. Do not become dependent on premade devotionals, as they will never push and pull you in the way you need as your own bible and God’s conviction on you through His word will. Premade devotionals are a supplement much like a vitamin is. As good as a supplement/vitamin can be, it can never compare to getting what you need through the meal that God is giving you through your Bible with the Holy Spirit in you as your guide.

Open Questions

A look at a 20 Minute Bible Study Using Good hermeneutics

What a good bible study looks like:

Pray first, asking God to reveal something to you (1Minute).

Look into the context first (reread previous parts) and/or context section in a study bible. This is why reading through large sections/entire books is helpful, you get to spend less time in understanding context as you progress. (2-5 minutes)

Read the Verses you are studying. (3-5 Minutes)

Read the Verse(s)

Seek to understand any words/phrases you don’t understand,

Check out Cross References.

After you do this THEN you can read a commentary. Seek to find the information through the text first!

Find/Identify the Timeless lesson/application from the text (2-3 Minutes).

Meditate on the verses and the application and think on what you need to change in your life to apply it. As a general rule, you should spend more time on this then the actual reading part. If you need to read less to do good Meditation, then do that every time. (5-7 Minutes).

Thank God for what you have learned and ask Him to help you make any changes. (1 Minute)