Doctrine of Scripture Pt. 1
- Terrell Pugh
- Jul 20, 2024
- 13 min read
Updated: Nov 19, 2024
Lecture Notes:
The words of scripture are God-breathed; they are the sum total knowledge of who God is. Every word in scripture helps to reveal who God is and the dynamics of his culture. Think of it as social studies where the study of a culture’s history, economics, government, social relationships, and every other aspect that makes up that culture, is used to create a properly educated citizenry. This is the way we come to know God and live Christ-centered lives by meditating on his Word day and night, desiring to know every aspect of his holy culture.
Pillars to Understanding
When beginning your journey to understanding God and his word, there are certain prerequisites one must believe for a proper understanding of his Word.
1. You must believe (have faith) that God, is God
Hebrews 11:6 NLT “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” John 8:47 NLT “Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.”
2. Final Authority
You must believe that God’s Word supersedes our opinions and culture. We must be willing to adapt our thinking to scripture and not interpret scripture based on our opinions and culture. Proverbs 30:5-6 NLT “Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection. Do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.” Psalms 119:89 “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”
3. Inerrancy
You must believe that the affirmations of scripture are without error. Psalms 19:7-11 NLT “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.”
4. All Sufficiency
You must believe that all scripture contains everything you need for effective living in every area of your lives. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”
5. Infallibility
You must believe that scripture cannot fail and that God’s Word will always achieve its purpose. Isaiah 55:10-11 NLT “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to
grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”
6. Inspiration
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV) “All Scripture is breathed out by God and 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.” Inspiration is the idea that God organically used men, knowing all personal and cultural contexts to communicated his will to man.
General Revelation vs. Special Revelation
General revelation refers to God’s word revealed through natural means like nature, the bible, and our conscious. Special revelation refers to God’s word revealed through the Holy Spirit. Special revelation will never contradict God’s word.
Cessationists vs. Continuationism
Cessationist are those who believe that spiritual gifts (such as: tongues, healing, prophecy, signs, miracles, revelation) have ceased. This position holds that the spiritual gifts were given to the early church (or in some cases, only the apostles) as a sign to confirm the ministry of Christ and establishment of his church. Continuationist believe that these gifts are still active according to the Holy Spirit and did not end with the Apostolic Age. The primary argument on this topic is how this impact sola scriptura (Latin for “by scripture alone”).
Understanding Your Biases
When reading and interpreting and studying the Bible we must understand first God is the expert and we are all the novices. Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT declares, “ ‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’ ” It will be important to realize this because there will be times that the Word will challenge the way you are used to thinking and doing things. You will then have to choose if you will allow scripture to transform your thinking or will you attempt to force scripture to conform to your paradigm.
As a student of the Word, you will always be in the position of the learner in relationship to God. We all come to God with our own experiences and frames of references; however, these experiences should not always be relied upon and always tested against the Word. Experiences, though they grant us insight, may filter our perspective and skew how we understand a matter. This is why throughout the process of studying the Word we must remain unbiased often questioning our own assumptions. When we question our own assumptions, we allow the Word to transform our minds and recreate our thinking. Romans 12: 2 NTL tells us, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Once you have settled in your heart that God is real, and his Word is the final authority, without error, all-sufficient, never fails, and once you understand the biases that you may bring to interpreting his Word, then begins actual studying. In part two of How to Study & Interpret the Bible we will examine the role the Holy Spirit plays in aiding us in our studies. We will also explore Biblical hermeneutics, which is concerned with exactly how we interpret scripture and exegesis, which critically interprets scripture and extracts meaning from scripture.
Hermeneutics & Exegesis
Acts 17:11 “These [Bereans] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
In Acts 17 we find Paul and Silas in Thessalonica preaching the Word. The scriptures tell us that Paul went to the synagogue service for 3 week in a row, just to reason and explain that Jesus was the Messiah. With the converting of some Jews and Greeks, Paul and Silas began to once again experience persecution from those who did not believe and wanted them to stop preaching. Upon this uproar Paul and Silas were sent to Berea which was about 30 miles west of Thessalonica; this was all within the modern day Greece region. Once in Berea they went to the synagogue and began to preach. The Bereans were said to search the scriptures daily, confirming what they heard was truth. As a result many Jews and Greeks were converted and believed on Jesus.
These accounts provide us with a picture of how we should have a willingness to engage unbelievers, taking the time to thoroughly go through scripture. It also shows us that as a learner of the scriptures, we should search and study them to confirm whether or not a teaching is true. Both of these aspects are gravely missing in today’s Church. In this section of teaching we will take a look at Biblical hermeneutics, which is the science of interpretation or translation of scripture; it focuses on “how to interpret.” Exegeses is the actual interpretation and examination of scripture; it answers the question of “what this scripture means.” Hermeneutics is how your perspective approaches scripture; an exegesis then draws out the meaning and understanding from scripture. There can also be an eisegesis which is applying your own meaning to scripture not allowing the scripture to interpret itself.
The need to correctly understand God’s Word is critical. There was a time in history when it was illegal for the common person to read the Bible, or to understand it in their own language; the Bible was only read and interpreted by designated clergy. A man by the name of William Tyndale (1494-1536) understood the importance of everyone understanding scripture, and made a statement indicating his goal is that even a boy working in the field will have more knowledge of scripture then the Pope. Tyndale was the first to print the New Testament in English and smuggled thousands into England (John Wycliff was to first to translate the Bible into English). This is our same goal, that everyone has an understanding of scripture regardless of your position in life.
We will review some of the most common approaches to Biblical hermeneutics: Literal, Grammatical, Histo-Cultural, Allegorical and Liberal.
Literal Interpretation
This is the normal interpretation, the plain interpretation, the “what you see is what you get” interpretation. Unless the context of the scripture clearly calls for a different understanding, one should always first look to understand scripture in a normal common-sense fashion. Unfamiliar phrases and symbols must be understood as the author intended; reading between the lines is prohibited. This is for the obvious reason of applying unnecessary and unwarranted meaning to scripture. For example if you read Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” the literal interpretation or common sense interpretation would be instructing us to set a Christ-like example to those who see us. It is not telling us to turn on our house lights or that we will physically illuminate.
Some beginning questions that may be asked are:
Are there any immediate or obvious allegories in this text?
Is there any reason why I should not interpret this literally?
Did Jesus, the apostles or the early church interpret this literally?
Grammatical Interpretation
The grammatical approach to interpreting God’s Word examines the words themselves to help reveal the meaning of scripture or passage. The use of lexicons and concordances will aid with this approach. In addition, knowing other grammatical rules such as syntax, part of speech and word form will further aid in grammatical interpretation. An example of this can be found in Genesis where the word “day” is used. If you take a grammatical approach then you would translate day from English to Hebrew, getting the Hebrew word “yom.” Then you would use Biblical Hebrew grammar rules to determine if “yom” means 24 hours or a generalized time period within its use in Genesis 1. Since “yom” is used with an exact time period, along with other Hebrew grammar rules, it can be concluded that day means a 24 hour period. (If interested, you can view more information about the 24 hour day in Genesis at.
Some beginning questions that may be asked are:
1. What is the meaning of the word?2. What form, tense or part of speech is the word in?3. How is the word used in this sentence and/or passage?4. How is this word related to the other word in the sentence?
Historical (Cultural) Interpretation
This approach looks closely at the culture in which a passage was written and the audience it was first written to. There are many influences that may contribute to what a particular passage may mean. Meanings, of course, can get lost or become obscured over time requiring the reader to consider the mind of the author. A writer today would not be able to write within the context of the 21st century and expect a reader 2000years from today to know all the references, phrases and places without some aid. Bible dictionaries and other historical records help todays reader become better acquainted with the life and mind of both the author and first audience. An example of this would be finding out the significance of Paul being a Roman citizen and the privilege that came along with being a citizen versus a non-citizen.
Some beginning questions to ask are:
Who is the author and who were they writing to?
What were the relevant laws of that time?
Why did they write this work?
What were the cultural norms?
Allegorical Interpretation
The word allegory simply means a symbolic representation, thus, an allegorical interpretation would be a symbolic interpretation. This method is an eisegesis approach because it involves reading into or applying one’s own ideas into scripture. Looking for hidden meaning and spiritual connections within the scripture can have both great reward and great calamity with this approach. To better understand some of the errors that can come from this method, consider this was the Roman Catholic Church’s approach and is the reason behind much of its doctrine. This symbolic interpretation, amongst other things, gave rise to Protestant Reformers (e.g. Martin Luther). They believed that the Church was neglecting the literal, plain meaning of scripture, allegorizing everything. Although, there are apparent abuses, we should not disregard this method altogether. Galatians 4:21-26 reads:
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
From this scripture we learn that Paul is explaining to the Churches in Galatia the difference between the old and new covenants. He uses the Old Testament account of Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, as symbols to explain truth. If we do away with the allegorical approach then what of the bread or water or blood or any number of Old Testament symbols?
It is important to understand that the entire Bible is not meant to be understood allegorically, because then the literal understanding of things like murder, sexual immorality, prayer and other Biblical truths become subjective. Alternatively, not symbolizing can depreciate truths such as not having hate in your heart or not looking upon someone with lust; thus the use of multiple and honest approaches. The most important principle to remember is that the Holy Spirit will not reveal anything contradictory to the already established scriptures.
Some beginning questions to ask are:
Does it go against already established scripture?
Can I support my interpretation with other scripture that has been correctly rendered?
Is the context clearly allegorical?
Am I regarding myself or my interpretation more significant than the author intended.
Devotional Interpretation
This approach is employed most often in the lives of many Christians. As the approach suggests, personal interpretation of scripture is used to apply to one’s life. The question most asked is “What does this mean for me?” This method is often used without consideration of cultural, historical or literal context. Since it is used in this way, it is absolutely imperative then one is prayerful and led by the Holy Spirit when studying with a devotional approach. The danger here, if one has not yielded to Christ, is the potential to fall into the spirit of error.
While God’s Word needs only the interpreter of the Holy Spirit, there are still times where we must consult Godly men and women for understanding. Consider in Acts chapter 8 where Philip was commanded by God to travel south towards Gaza. On his way he met an Ethiopian man who was reading writings from the prophet Isaiah. The Ethiopian then asked the question “How can I [understand scripture], unless someone instructs me?” –Acts 8:31 Thus, here we see that personal devotion is not without its additional aids.
Some beginning questions to ask are:
Have I prayed and asked for clarity in my devotional study?
Am I being led by the Holy Spirit or am I letting my flesh lead?
Am I applying personal application of scripture or universal application of scripture?
Does my interpretation still applicable to scripture?
Liberal Interpretation
The last school of interpretation we will discuss is the liberal hermeneutic approach. The liberal approach varies greatly as it’s primarily based on relativism. Those who study and interpret the Bible this way tend to see scripture as a humanist experience and thus scripture is fallible and with error. Supernatural experiences and events such as miracles may be redefined into more rational terms. Modern science may also provide the foundation and context to understanding scripture more logically. All scripture becomes relative to the interpreter with no objectivity, which permits one to dismiss a scripture or passage that is not in harmony with personal experience. There is a heavy emphasis on God’s love and a push towards inclusivity and egalitarianism.
The obvious error in this approach is the prominence of man’s intellect and experience over the mind and ways of God. We are told many times throughout scripture that man’s understanding is limited in comparison to God’s (Isaiah 55:8-9, Jeremiah 32:27, Job 38, Romans 11:33, 1 Corinthians 1:25, 1 Corinthians 3:19, Matthew 19:26). It is not encouraged that this hermeneutical approach be practiced as it will subjectify the Word of God making it no different than an atheistic approach, save the belief in Jesus.
Healthy Hermeneutical Principles
While there are undoubtedly many principles one can use for Biblical hermeneutics, the list can become quite exhaustive. Therefore, the principles below are the core and most important guidelines to an honest approach to interpretation.
Holy Spirit Led –It is impossible to take God’s Spirit of the equation and ever expect to rightly divide the Word. Above all things one must believe that the Holy Spirit is real and has the real power to speak understanding into a person. It the Holy Spirit’s role is changed, devalued or left out altogether then there can be no confidence in a correct interpretation of scripture.
Literal Sense –Remember that is was not God’s intention to mystify his message to us and God is not the author of confusion. While there are times study will be required, God’s overall Word is to be taken just as it reads in plain text.
Context –Keep things in their immediate verse, chapter and the setting in which they are happening. This includes understanding the social, cultural and historical influences of period in which you are reading.
Scripture with Scripture –Do not assign meaning to something unless it can be supported with other scripture. There are many things in scripture that transcend the period in which it was recorded or written. Many truths, practices and principles are just as relevant for us today as it was when they were first recorded. The key is scriptural support, can you justify one scripture with other scriptures which all have the same meaning.
Understand the Genre –Be mindful of the style you are reading from. Are you reading from a historical book like Genesis; are you reading from a legal book such as Leviticus; are you reading from a poetic book such as Psalms, are you reading from an Apocalyptic book such as Daniel. Thus, remember what type of book you are reading.
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