Theology

As you can see by threads on this board “Theology” can be very heated. Some get angry when their position is challenged. They demand an equally intellectual approach from an average Christian to a subject and then start name calling and discrediting and such if one does not bow to their argument.

Many times to some Theologians their personal beliefs and preconceived theories and doctrines, based on intelectualism, philosphy and unbelief, are more important than good interpretation and exegesis. These may claim to use good exgesis but many times what they exegete is not the Scriptures at all. What they exegete is the opinions of themselves and other Theologians that they hold in high esteem. This is not true exegesis or sound Theology.

I am not a highly trained Theologian but I do uderstand the basics fairly well.

You do not have to have a PHD to learn good and honest Bible interpretation skills. In fact too much education can sometimes be a hinderence when one gets puffed up with worldy knowledge and great debating skills and becomes proud and arrogant.

Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is the process of interpreting the Bible. It includes all the rules, principles, theory, and methods of interpreting the Bible. There are many approaches and techniques. Yes there are rules.

Exegesis

Exegesis is is the process of interpretation where you are trying to find the original meaning of a verse in the bible. It is finding out what the message was that was heard by the original recipients of the Bible. Example: Paul told Timothy "stop drinking only water, and use a little wine...

(1 Tim. 4:23 NIV). Good Exegesis would attempt to find out what it really meant to Timothy (not to us today). The original message was given to Timothy under a specific circumstance. The background may involve issues that are evident to both Paul and Timothy but are not mentioned in the Bible. The original meaning is very important because that is the true and only meaning of the verse. Although from that one meaning, we can have a lot of applications for different situation in our daily lives.

To do an exegesis requires some expertise in a lot of areas, but because of the availability of expert tools such as commentaries, dictionaries, handbooks, and a multitude of online tools. Everybody who has access and knows how to use these such tools can exegete. But the truth is, even with just minimal access to these tools, anyone can do good exegesis of the Bible if it is approached opened mindedly and honestly.

Exposition

Exposition is application of the Bible passages to modern times. This is the process that most of us will do with the verses of the Bible. It is trying to find the application or relevance of the Bible message for us today. It is the process that follows exegesis.

To understand the Bible properly we practice hermeneutics by first applying exegesis because we want to find out the original meaning of the Bible. Second, we do an exposition of the text because we want to apply the message to our lives today. At least I assume that Christians want to apply the message of the Bible to their lives. Unfortunately there are those who simply want to prove themselves right and will go to any length to do so.

Many people think that the Bible is a mysterious book and you need some extra ordinary abilities to be able to understand it. Or that is has a lot of hidden meaning that can only be revealed and understood by those who are chosen or highly educated and intellectual. This is not the case at all.

However it does takes more than just a casual reading to understand the meaning of Bible passages, not because of some mysterious or secret code but because of its nature

We should remember that the Bible was written for all people. Many of the New Testaments epistles were written for a young Christian church, so they are simple instructions and teaching to be understood by every Christians on that day.

Goals

The goal of proper interpretation is not to find new revelations unrevealed to anyone before, but rather to understand its plain and simple message. Neither is is to go the Scriptures to prove a preconceived theory or doctrine.

Using proper guidelines of interpretation we should be able to distinguished between the right, the possible, and the erroneous interpretation.

Below is part of an article by Andrew Kuliskovsky. It deals with the interpretative process.

The link can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5948/hermeneutics.htm

Bill Roth

The Interpretive Process

Presuppositions & Pre-understandings

No-one is ever completely unbiased. Everyone approaches the Bible with presuppositions and pre-understandings or preconceived ideas about what the text means. However, this is not necessarily a problem, provided you are conscious of them and aware of how they may influence the way you read and interpret the text. Indeed, many interpreters come unstuck at this point because their presuppositions and pre-understandings often rule out a priori various interpretive options.

The Interpretive Cycle
The process of reading and interpreting the Bible should be cyclic. A reader approaches a passage of scripture with presuppositions (e.g. the Bible is the inerrant word of God) and usually has a pre-understanding about what the particular passage can or cannot mean. These presuppositions and pre-understandings, along with the context, influence the reader’s understanding of the passage, and help them derive their interpretation. This interpretation then effects the reader’s presuppositions, and becomes part of their pre-understandings the next time they read this passage. If our exegetical information, reasoning and judgements are thought through again and reassessed each time we go through the cycle then the accuracy and correctness of our interpretation will improve.

I will post more in the future on Bible Interpretation and Hermeneutics

God Bless,

Bill

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Welcome

Theology and Bible Interpretation

Hermeneutics

Exegesis

Exposition

Goals