“Among the principles of Bible interpretation one of the most prominent is that we must let Scripture explain Scripture, or, to put it differently, we must let the Bible interpret itself. Where this principle is adhered to, not only will mistakes be avoided which are commonly made, but difficulties will be overcome which can be solved in no other way.”

(W. Arndt. Bible Difficulties: An Examination of Passages of the Bible Alleged to be Irreconcilable with Its Inspiration, St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1932, 12)

Interpretation: Plenary Inspiration

“In their interpretation of Scripture the ancient Rabbis held a doctrine of what we would now call plenary or verbal inspiration. They regarded the Hebrew Scriptures as coming from heaven, they treated them as if they were dictated, indeed as if they were pronounced, by God himself.”

(R. P. C. Hanson, Allegory and Event: A Study of the Sources and Significance of Origen’s Interpretation of Scripture, Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1959, 11)

Interpretation: Interpretative Approaches

(The World in Front of the Text)

“Most readers today have some expectation of what ought to be in the story of Jesus’ birth because they have heard that story many times. Because so many others have read these stories and because their interpretations have entered into our cultural heritage, we cannot approach them with the immediacy of their first audience. There is a world in front of the text, sometimes clarifying the text, sometimes obscuring it, that we have to be conscious of in our reading.”

(David L. Barr, New Testament Story: An Introduction, 3rd. ed., Wadsworth, 2002, 5)

“What is a correct interpretation? A perfectly correct interpretation of anything is the one that matches the ‘god’s eye’ view, the divine vantage point from which all things appear as a coherent whole. As we have said, human finiteness and falleness prevent us from seeing the world from this pristine perspective, and hence, all of our interpretations are in some respects mistaken. However, it is important to aver that this does not prevent us from succeeding as interpreters. Our perceptions of reality or clearly partial and warped, but they also overlap with reality in such a way that our interpretations can be reasonably accurate. The real question is this: how can we explicitly and intentionally pursue better interpretations of texts . . .”

(Vincent Bacote, Laura C. Miguelez, Dennis L. Okholm, Eds. Evangelicals Scripture: Tradition, Authority and Hermeneutics, Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVasity Press, 2004, 131; Kent Sparks, The Sun Also Rises: An Accommodation in Inscripturation and Interpretation)

The Grammatico-Historical Method

”For many generations the interpretation of the Bible within the Church has been dominated by what has come to be called the ’Grammatico-historical method’. It can be claimed that the vast number of Biblical commentaries, guides, and dictionaries which fill our book shops and libraries and find their place on the shelves and desks of our pastors, owe much of their contents to the use of this method. The purpose for which they were written is to explain what the words and sentences of the text mean as they occur and lie in their context.” ”They also seek to inform us as adequately as possible about the circumstances under which the texts were written and the situation of the people addressed or involved. They seek to explain ’the original intention of the writer’ of the document or book.”

(Ronald S. Wallace, On the Interpretation and Use of the Bible: With Reflections on Experience, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1999, 65-66)