You can Understand the Bible
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The bible is an incredible book.
To us Christians even more so for we believe it to be trhe divinly inspire Word of God.
And in that believe we also believe that the bible is not just a story about God but also a guide as to how God wants us to think, speak and behave.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
There is a small problem however: The bible is not written like a rule or guide book.
Over 40 differnt people, all from very different background, living in very different times, each with very different intentions were inspired to write.
And this matters because the way in which the Holy Spirit inspired each writer.
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
The phrase “moved” by the Holy Spirit is the word: Thero.
It means carried along by the wind. It speaks of a sail boat being moved by the wind.
Each writer used their own boat, that is, their own mind - but was moved to write by the Holy Spirit.
This matters when it comes to understanding the bible!
Why? Because it means that the bible, though its truth is eternal, is speaking the truth from a cultral and historical point of view.
Not only that, but the interpretor themselves is also reading the bible from a historical and cultral point of view.
Not only this but there are other challanges: The bible is composted of about 15 different litrecy genres including:
Law, song, poetry, apocaliptic imagery, history, drama, fables, parables, maxims, monologs and diagalogs.
Each one of these generas require a different set of interpralative techniques.
And then of course there is the challange of knowing which parts of the bible are either descriptive or perscriptive.
Not to mention the many, many steps of exegisis one must do!
However, for this study we will not focus on origional lauange interpretation.
The process of figuring this all out is knows as Hermanutics: The Art of Interpretation.
There are very important questions that one MUST answer before a passage can be correctly interpreted.
1: Who wrote it?
2: When was it written?
3: What was the political situation?
4: What was the Spiritual situation?
5: What kind of literey genera is it?
6: Who was the origional audience? (To whom was it written?)
7: What was the authors intent?
8: It is a descriptive passage or a perscriptive passage?
Let me show why each of these questions are vital!
1: Who wrote it?
1: Who wrote it?
Let us look at a passage without any refrence at all:
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
This is very alarming! So God, after filling us with the holy Spirit might take it away from us? Why? What happened?
This verse makes very little sense and if misunderstood can lead to tremendous problems, but just by knowing who wrote it brings clarity:
It was written by David.
2: When was it written?
2: When was it written?
This passage was written by David after he was convicted of his sin with Bethsheba.
Right so David is calling out to God in spiritual remorse and repentance asking God to forive him.
Clarity.
3: What was the political situation?
3: What was the political situation?
27 The commander came and said to Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.”
29 Therefore, those who were about to interrogate him immediately backed away from him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.
Lets go:
Who wrote this? Luke! A historian.
Who Said this? Paul
When? When he was to be flogged.
Political situation?
Rome was the ruling authority. Paul was born a Roman citazin - it was against Roman Law to flog a Roman Citazin.
4: What was the Spiritual situation?
4: What was the Spiritual situation?
9 Her uncleanness was in her garment’s seams; She did not think of her future. So she has fallen in an astonishing way; She has no comforter. “See, Lord, my affliction, For the enemy has honored himself!”
Who? Jeremiah
When? 578BC - This matters because it tells us that this was written AFTER the holy Temple was destroyed by the Bapaloyians.
Political? Israel was defeted and under Babylon rule.
Spiritual? Juda had entered into a spiritual state of apostasy, the book of Lamentation opens with an expression of Juda’s humiliation.
5: What kind of litery genera is it?
5: What kind of litery genera is it?
This is one of the most important questions because each genra has its own interpratve rules.
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Strange. And compare this with:
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
What do we make of this
Its very simple: Jesus was using hyperbole.
Jesus was actually fond of using hyperbole.
29 Now if your right eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Has your eye ever caused you to sin? Then why are you being disobedinet to a direct command from Jesus himself, and have not plucked out your eye?
Because you dont have too! Its hyperbole. But of course if you did not know this, then you woul be blind from having your eyes out!
Look at another example:
1 Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, And on His Law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.
This is poetry, which means tht we have to apply the rules of poetry - primary being that poetry is written in figrative laungage and should not be understood literally.
We ware not trees, we will not be planted in soil and we will not grow leaves.
6: Who was the origional Audience?
6: Who was the origional Audience?
Let look:
10 Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Listen to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah!
So who was this passage written to?
If you think Soddom and Gomora raise your hand.
You are all 100% incorrect!
But pastor it says so in the passage! I know, but you are still wrong.
1: Who? Isaiah
2: When? 701BC.
So already we have clarirt because Sodom and Gomora had long since been destroyed. This could not have been written to them as they no longer existed.
3: Political? The evil Assyrians were expanding the rule having already conquered Israel. Juda was all that was left.
4: Spiritual? God’s people were full of evil and wickedness.
5: What kind of genra? Both prophetical and poetical
6: Audience? The peopl of Juda who had become so evil God compared them to Sodom and Gomorra.
7: What was the origional Authors intent?
7: What was the origional Authors intent?
Why did they write what they did?
Was to it warn people?
Was it to record historical events?
Was it to address a specific problem?
Was it to tell people how to behave?
lets see example:
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, namely, that someone has his father’s wife.
Is this a rebuke to all christins? Did any of you repost such a thing about UFGC?
No, this passage is about a specifc problem in the Corinth church.
Let see another:
13 He shall take a wife in her virginity.
What? God commands that His people only marry virgins?
1: Author? Moses
2: When? The giving of the Law to Israel in the Desert.
3: Political? Theoacrasy - God in Charge.
4: Spiritual? The people were being set apart from all other nations.
5: Genera? Law.
6: Audience? Israel
7: Intent? To instruct the tribe of Levi.
8: It the passage descriptive or Perscriptive?
8: It the passage descriptive or Perscriptive?
In other words: Is the passag describing what happened or it is perscribing what we must do?
This is actually the easiest question to answer yet often proves to be were many people go wrong.
Lets look at examples:
Lets begin with how the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church.
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.
13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying, that is, Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
So this passage: It is descriptive or perscriptive? Is God tells us what happened or is God telling us what we must do to make it happened?
To recieve the Holy Spirit like the disciples did must we:
Be on a second floor?
Must we be in Jerusalem?
Must we be in a house?
Must we be sitting down?
All o these things are in the passage, so must we do them as a perscription or is this a description of the events only?
It is obviously descriptive.
Look at Peters sermon, it en with:
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
Is this a perscription that every time a person preaches the gospel at least 3000 peopl must be saved?
Or it is simply informing us that on that day when Peter preahed 3000 people were saved?
Exacally.
Lets look at one more, and lets stayin Acts.
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
Is this passage telling us that a message much take untill midnight to preach?
Or it is simply describing that Paul, on that day, prolonged his message until midnight?
Does this passage perscribe that the church must break bread on every first day of the week, or is it simply telling us that, on that day this is what they did?
hat about the next verse:
8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered together.
Is thi passage perscribing that we must have many lamps in our room? Or simply that in that room, on that day, there were many lmabs in the room?
What about the next verse:
9 And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, Eutychus was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor, and was picked up dead.
It is passage tells us that a person, a young man specifically, mut fall to his death out a window during a sermon? Or it is simply describing the day Paul preached and a man fell asleep and fell out a window?
So far these have all been descriptive passages and one of th worst hermanutical mistakes one can make is to give a church a perscription based on a description.
Lets look at perscriptive verses:
1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
Is Paul describing a wlk or perscribing a walk?
Clearly he is perscribing it - he is telling us what to do.
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or a greedy person, or an idolater, or is verbally abusive, or habitually drunk, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a person.
Only when you have properly answered all 8 of these questions can you even begin to understand it meaning, message and application.
However, i am fully convinced that these 8 questions are simply not difficult to answer at all.
But there is one more step:
Evaluating our own cultral bias.
Evaluating our own cultral bias.
No one can say they read the bible without bias. It is simply not possible.
What you think about certan things is based on where you live, when you live and what world you live in.
These realities represent your cultral bias.
Let me give an easy example:
14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
How many of you have called me or Charles or one of our leaders and asked for prayer?
Did you call them on their phones? Yes you did, because when you read “call” you think phone call, and thats what you did.
Did any of you write a letter?
No, but thats what you would have done 80 years ago.
There are tons of cultral biases that we have.
These are often things that we think are right when they are wrong, or things that we thing are wrong but are not.
We make these assumptionsbased on our 21st century understandings. Understandings which are often very different from a person with 1st century understandings.
Foe example lets look at smoking.
Smoking is a great example because there is no bible verse regarding it at all.
And its popularity has changed dramatically over the centuries.
Charles Spurgion. CK Chesterson, CS Lewis even Billy Graham were all open smokers.
Unbelivable to us now, imagine me having an ashtray on my pulpit.
What about Doctors?
Do you believe that that it is sinfl to go to a doctor?
The early church fathers did!
St Basil the great said “To put our hope in the hands of a physician is the act of an irrational animal”.
St John the cassian said: “However, for those whose trust in God is very deep and strong, there is a higher calling: for those souls, realizing their sins and what is the purpose of life, "bear all of the afflictions which are sent in silence and, if possible, without recourse to medicine, in keeping with these words: I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against Him”.
Why did they say this?
Because 2nd an 3rd century medacine was nothing like the 21st century meacine we have today. Back then medacine was more like akin to witchcraft.
In fcat look at this:
20 idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions,
See that work witchcrfat in Greek its the word Pharmakia - where we get our english word Pharmacy.
Back then it was about potions and spels - now its actualy medacine.
If were went back and sai you went to chemist to get vitamin C - you would have said you went to wichcraft.
Lets look at one more:
8 for bodily training is just slightly beneficial, but godliness is beneficial for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
I know exacally how you read this from your 21st century position. Clearly the bible is saying that running and exsersisng is fine, but not particulary impostant as it is only slightly benificial.
Can you see how our cultral bias impacts our understanding of scripture?
I am honest: But i do not have any idea whati would think if i had a time machine and could go back in time and see how the disciples behaved. How much would shoick me and surprise me?