Holman Guide to Interpreting the Bible

How do you handle a sharper than sharp two-edged Sword? Very Carefully

George H. Guthrie, David S. Dockery

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781433674778
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

David Dockery and George Guthrie set forth the basics of interpreting, applying, and communicating the Word of God in teaching and preaching. The heart of the book is a mentoring session with Dockery and Guthrie. It's as if they are at the table with you showing you the steps to interpretation, applying it to Philippians 2: 5-11. They have summarized the steps to interpretation in a chart that will be useful every time you prepare a lesson or sermon. And, you will find helpful workbook features for hands on experience

CHAPTER ONE

THE IMPORTANCE OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

The story is told of a lady who went to catch a flight at the airport. She was in a hurry and had not had time to eat, so on the way to her gate she stopped at a newsstand to pick up a pack of cookies. When she arrived at the gate she found a seat, and in the seat next to her, just on the other side of a little table, sat an older gentleman. After a few minutes, and to her shock, the man picked up the pack of cookies from the table, opened it, and, with a smile, popped a cookie in his mouth. He placed the cookies back on the table and munched away happily. She was shocked and stunned for a moment! Nevertheless, not wanting to make a scene, the lady picked up the pack of cookies, took one out, and too began eating. She then placed the pack back on the table, thinking the man would not have the audacity to repeat his offense. Yet, he did. Again he took a cookie, looked at it thoughtfully, nibbled, and then gobbled the rest down. Now she was seething inside. How dare he help himself to her cookies! Still fuming, the lady took another cookie from its wrapper and popped it in her mouth. Now there was just one cookie left. To add insult to injury, the gentleman took the last cookie, broke it in half, slid one half to her, and ate the remaining half. Then, with a smile and a nod, the gentleman got up and left. Boy, was she mad! Thankfully, her flight number was called and passengers were asked to board. Mumbling to herself about the selfishness of some people, she got up and made her way to the gate. On the way to the gate the lady reached into her purse to get out her boarding pass and there found her pack of cookies!

How embarrassing! The lady traveler was so caught up in the hurry and hunger of the moment, she did not even know whose cookies were at stake! I am sure we all can identify with losing perspective in the rush and crush of life, and one of the areas that tends to get out of focus is our intake of God's Word. In Mark 4:18-19 Jesus interprets the seed that fell on thorny ground as the Word falling into a life that has lost an eternal perspective. The cares of life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for nice things, Jesus tells us, can choke the Word out of a person's life, just as weeds choke the life out of a would-be productive plant.

Others are sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, but the worries of this age, the pleasure of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.—Mark 4:18-19, HCSB

You probably are interested in God's Word and in being used in God's work, or you would not have this book in your hands right now. Yet, you may be at a place in life where you need to regain perspective—to remember how important Bible study and the good work of interpretation are for a healthy Christian life and ministry. So, let's move our hearts away from those other “cookies” that tend to be so distracting—those “weeds” that crowd out our hunger for the Scriptures—and think in a fresh way about why Bible study, coupled with sound interpretation, is so important. There are three very important reasons, and they all revolve around why God created us in the first place. The reason why you exist has everything to do with why you should take biblical interpretation very seriously.

In my home are a wide variety of tools. My wife has tools in the kitchen, some very expensive, but most very simple and economical. For instance she has a mixer and a gas cooktop (examples of the expensive items), as well as an egg separator and a “tea ball” (examples of the inexpensive items). On my tools shelf you can find a screwdriver, a nail set, and a tape measure, for instance, and out in the shop you might stumble on my handy Makita circular saw. My tools also vary in price as well as their functions. When my wife reaches for a tool in the kitchen, or I seek out a tool for some project, there are two issues that are paramount at that moment: (1) the tool's availability and (2) the tool's ability to fulfill the purpose for which it was created. The most inexpensive tool is a most valuable tool when it functions as its creator intended to meet the need of the moment.

You may not feel very fancy as a Christian or very gifted as a minister. You may feel like a tool that has been misplaced or fashioned out of inferior materials. Yet, God purchased you with a great price (Rv 5:9; 14:4), and has very specific purposes for you in relation to himself, in your fulfillment as a person, and in your ministry to others. The key is your availability to him for the fulfilling of those purposes, and that availability has much to do with your intake of God's Word. Let's take a look at how hearing God's Word rightly interpreted has an impact on your relationship with God, your own joy in life, and your ministry to others.

TO KNOW GOD

“God does not ask your ability or your inability. He asks only your availability.”

Mary Kay Ash

First of all, you were created to know God in an intimate relationship. We see this throughout the Scriptures, beginning with creation, through the covenants that culminate with the cross, and all the way to the coming of Christ at the end of the age. We as human beings, in our first parents Adam and Eve, fell away from God. Abraham received the promise and covenant with God that established a special relationship with God and would issue forth in a nation to bless all nations. That nation, the Israelites, later agreed to and then rebelled against God's gracious offer of a covenant relationship at Sinai. Throughout the Old Testament, God constantly calls out for his people to “hear,” to “call” to him, to “seek” him, and to “thirst for” him. Relationship obviously is very important to God. Yet, nowhere can the importance of relationship be seen with greater clarity than in the promise of a new covenant (Jr 31:31-34) and in its fulfillment in Jesus' death and resurrection. God paid a great price to establish a new covenant relationship with us. That relationship will find its ultimate fulfillment when Christ takes us, as his bride, to the great wedding feast at the end of the age. It is all about relationship.

“Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me.”—Jesus (Rv 3:20)

There are at least three ways the Scriptures, as rightly interpreted, have a profound effect on us fulfilling our purpose (that is, of God fulfilling it in us) of knowing God. First, God chose to communicate with human beings through human language. John Calvin wrote that God, in giving us the Scriptures, has accommodated himself to human language. This means that God chose human words, issued by real human beings, at real places in the world, at real times in history, to communicate with us as the human race. Receiving those words as God's messages to us, hearing accurately what God intended to communicate, forms the basis for how God speaks to us. In other words, if we do not hear God's Word accurately, we have no basis for relationship with God in the first place. General revelation, God's revelation of himself through nature and history, can form a backdrop, but we as humans hear God's voice give specific messages concerning his will and ways through his Word, the Bible, as it is rightly interpreted.

“Just as old or bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God.”

John Calvin

Institutes of the Christian Religion, l,vi, 1

“Lord Jesus Christ, open the eyes of my heart…illumine my eyes with your light you alone, the only light.”

John Chrysotom's prayer before reading Scripture

This brings us to a second reason Bible interpretation is so important for our relationship with God: God has chosen his Word as a means of communicating his invitation to relationship, the gospel. In Romans 10:14- 15 Paul writes,

But how, then, can they call on Him in whom they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How welcome are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!”

Faith in Christ comes by hearing the Word of God. The mystery of salvation, in part, is that God effects in human hearts a supernatural, eternal work of spiritual deliverance and transformation by using his divine Word rightly spoken by human lips. God's Word must be rightly interpreted because the gospel must be heard clearly.

Third, God has called us to hear his Word as a means of growing in our relationship with him. In 1 Peter 2:2 Peter challenges us, “Like newborn infants, desire the unadulterated spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it in [your] salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good.” The images of milk and meat were used broadly in the ancient world to distinguish elementary from advanced teachings. However, wherever a person is on the spiritual maturity scale, it is the Word of God that the biblical writers point to as the means of spiritual nourishment and growth. You and I must have a steady intake of God's Word if we are to experience spiritual maturity and, thus, ever deepening relationship with our Lord. This brings us to a second reason we should want to interpret the Bible responsibly.

EXPERIENCING A FULFILLING LIFE

Several commentators on Christian culture at the dawn of the twenty-first century rightly have pointed out that the modern church too often focuses on human fulfillment to the exclusion of the more weighty teachings of Christian doctrine. They are concerned that moderns are fed a sugary substitute for God's Word, a diet both self-focused and devoid of real spiritual nourishment. This concern is a real one and one to which we will return shortly. However, there is what John Piper calls a biblical “Christian hedonism,” that suggests human fulfillment is a topic widely addressed in the Bible. The Scriptures proclaim that people should seek fulfillment, and that fulfillment is found as we abandon our own agendas to God's agendas for us. God wants us to have fullness of life, the abundant life Christ came to bring. We are invited to experience that abundant, joy-filled life had by those who follow God's Word, and nowhere do we see this more clearly than in Psalm 119. Notice some of the benefits experienced by those who follow God's Word as witnessed by this incredible psalm. Do you want to know a source of true happiness in life? See verses 1, 2, 35, 56. How about pleasure? See verse 103. Do you need strengthening in the area of integrity, or do you lack stability, or endurance? See verses 1, 3, 89-92, 133, or 140. Perhaps you need wisdom or guidance in the face of a difficult decision and should look to verses 19, 24, 98, 100, 105, or 133 for the source of those gifts. On the other hand you may be running low on emotional resources and should look to verse 28 for the source of encouragement, verses 25, 40, or 83 for emotional and physical renewal, or verse 143 for the key to joy while under pressure or stress. Verses 18, 34, 66, 142, 151, 160, and 165 extend an offer to know truth, have knowledge, and learn obedience through the Word. Difficulties and times of trial go with life, and so you may be needing hope, freedom, deliverance, a way to avoid disgrace, or comfort. That the Word of God is the means to all of these may be found in verses 6, 31, 43, 45, 49, 50, 81, and 114. In short the Word of God addresses and offers help in almost any circumstance in which we could find ourselves. It promises joy, fulfillment, help, and hope for those who will take it seriously. Ironically, to value God's Word above our own agendas is to find the source for experiencing life in its fullness.

“…the sweet joy with which the hidden mouth of his heart partook of Thy Bread, I had no inkling or experience.”

Augustine on remembering Bishop Ambrose's love of Scripture

The story is told of a rich old man whose son had died tragically many years before he himself passed. Since he had no remaining family, his incredible wealth, including numerous valuable paintings, statues, and artifacts, was to be auctioned, and the event was greatly anticipated as art dealers and collectors dreamed of obtaining pieces of the old man's lifelong love of precious artwork. The day came for the auction, and the first item on the block surprised everyone. Rather than one of the more valuable pieces, the auctioneer b...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5