Our Hermeneutical Process

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Let’s talk about our hermeneutical process. How do we combine our search for Authorial Intent with our Bible Study method into a hermeneutical process?

This is Part 3 of 3 in our Hermeneutics series:

Beginning Principles for Studying the Bible (Part 1)
Bible Study Method (Part 2)
Our hermeneutical Process (Part 3)

Here is my Hermeneutical Process Statement that I’ve spent around 16 years developing:

“God inspired Scripture about the original-participants communicated to the original-hearers, teaching eternal principles necessary for the modern reader, in order to reveal Himself, His love, and His plan to reconcile all people to Himself and each other so that we might be fully the family of God.”

There is a lot in that little statement, so let’s unpacking the details of it.

NOTE: We discussed God’s inspiration of scripture in Part 1.

Our Hermeneutical Process: The Original Audience

I distinctly remember my “Ah-HA!” moment in Bible college. I had been sitting in two different classes with two different professors who were both discussing the book of Matthew – but from very different perspectives.

I realized that my professors agreed that we must seek authorial intent of a passage by considering the original audience of that passage. However, many different professors, authors, and Bible teachers do not always agree on WHO the original audience is!!

In order to clear up confusion I have created two distinct categories: Original participants and Original hearers.

Original Participants

These are the people ABOUT whom the Bible was composed.

They are easiest to spot in narrative passages – they are the ones doing the action, talking, thinking, etc. You can easily spot Adam, Eve, Deborah, Ruth, David, Daniel, Esther, etc.

In Psalms or Proverbs, the Original Participants are the ones who are doing the talking or the teaching, or the acting. As David laments before God, he is the original participant.

Original Hearers

The Original Hearers are those who received the inspired communication from God.

I specify “hearers” rather that “readers” because the ancient cultures were hearing cultures. Knowledge was passed down aurally from older generations to younger generations. Few people in the society were functionally literate. Books and documents were not available for public consumption, but were rather archived away – rarely used.{1}

We must keep the “hearing” nature of scripture in mind when discussing the original audience. The style and writing of the Bible reflects the audience to whom it was composed.

Understanding the difference between Original Participants and Original Hearers helps us discern the message of a passage.

For example:

Genesis 11-25 are written to the fledgling nation of Israel about Abraham and Sarah. So as we read the accounts of Abraham and Sarah’s life, we aren’t looking primarily at what Abraham and Sarah were learning.

We’re taking a step back and considering, what is God teaching the fledgling nation of Israel through the account of Abraham and Sarah’s life.

When we read about Paul and Lydia in Acts 16, we remember this passage is written to Theophilus. So, as Luke (the human author) participates with God (divine author) to compose the book of Acts, the authorial intent is firstly concerned with Theophilus. He needed to understanding the account of Jesus and how the gospel has spread throughout the Roman world.

The authorial intent isn’t to teach Lydia something – her role is as a participant in the account which is teaching something to Theophilus.

Both Original Participants & Original Hearers

Now, there are some books where the original participants and the original hearers are the same. Consider Philippians 4:2, Paul says, “I entreat Euodia and . . . Syntyche to agree in the Lord.” Here the person the passage is about, and the person the passage is to – are the same people.

Our goal in identifying the original audience is to create distance between ourselves and the text so that we can apply scripture rightly and know God Himself.

We miss some of His beauty when we run too quickly from the text to ourselves.

Our Hermeneutical Process: Eternal Principles

As we move up the pyramid of Bible study, we finally get to interpretation. But what are we interpreting?

We are discerning authorial intent, and what that teaches us about God and eternal principles about His world.

An Eternal Principle is a truth that transcends time, culture, gender, language, race/ethnicity, age, ability, status/wealth.

God’s character, attributes, and work are the foremost eternal principles revealed in scripture.

But about other pieces of information we ask ourselves:

Is this an eternal principle?
Is this wisdom (generally true and good advice, but not 100%)?
Is this contextually bound (applying to the original hearer, but not to us)?
Is this contextually specific (applying to a specific segment of the population)?

The saving work and mission of Jesus is the foremost Eternal Principle taught by Scripture.

However, other Eternal Principles are throughout the entire book of the Bible so that it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (1 Timothy 3:16b-17, ESV).

Examples of truths that are Eternal Principles:

Who God is, His character, and ethics.
The power of salvation available for all people.
Adultery & lust are wrong.
We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.
“...if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin…” (2 Chronicles 7:14a-b)

These principles apply to all people, regardless when or how they lived. There are no social or economic factors that change the applicability of these words.

Different Categories of Principles

How we interpret individual passages and commands is impacted by what category the principles fall under. All of the principles found in scripture matter, but they carry different weight according to the type of principle they are.

Wisdom Principles

They are general knowledge about the world, but they aren’t always true.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6, NKJV)

Wisdom principles tell us things that are generally true, but they do not promise an outcome or deal with every possible situation.

Contextually Bound Principals

These principals apply to the Original Hearer but not to the Modern Audience.

“…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will . . . heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14a-b, ESV)

This promise in 2 Chronicles 7 applied directly to Solomon and the nation of Israel. However, this is not a principle that applies today to America or modern countries.

Contextually Specific Principles

These principles apply to a specific segment of the population, but not everybody.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. . . Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, . . .” (Ephesians 6:1, 4a, NET)

“I urge the elders among you: Give a shepherd’s care to God’s flock among you, exercising oversight not merely as a duty but willingly under God’s direction, not for shameful profit but eagerly. And do not lord it over those entrusted to you, but be examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:1c-3, NET)

There are commands and verses in scripture that are given to specific segments of the population or people carrying certain responsibilities. These are not eternal principles because they do not apply to all people.

The type of principle determines our application

If we try to interpret a contextually bound principle as an eternal principle – we will end up applying that truth in situations it was not meant for. The same goes for wisdom principles and contextually specific principles

Christians will disagree as to which category various scriptural truths fall under. And that is ok.

My goal here, is to bring light to the categories to give us clarity in our thinking, and to help us defend why we categorize a principle the way we do.

Our Hermeneutical Process: The Modern Reader

The Modern Reader is all of us!

God intended from eternity past that YOU would read the Bible, see Him in scripture, and allow the Holy Spirit to change you through His Word. You are recipients of a beautiful, vast tradition of scripture which has been divinely preserved for our good and His glory!

God intended from eternity past that YOU know Him. He uses the text of scripture which reveals the Word of Go – Jesus to us. Because of this we get to respond to God’s character and join Him in His work in the world and our own lives.

Dear one, God wants to be known by you, and TO KNOW YOU. Scripture has been uniquely crafted in such a way as to help you know and love God as you are infinitely known and loved by Him.

Let’s revel in that truth together!!

This is how our hermeneutical process overlays with exegetical Bible study method:

NOTEs:

{1} See John Walton & D. Brent Sandy,The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority