hermeneutics

bible, hermeneutic, life verse, what this verse means to me

Avoiding Misinterpretation: A Guide to Biblical Hermeneutics

Posted on January 29, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Hermeneutics. It’s not a word you hear often inside of churches. In our watered down state of the church, preachers and pastors don’t often use the “big words” any more. If they do, they’re abashed and even apologize for saying theological words like ‘justification’ or ‘inerrancy.’ Hermeneutics is a battleground in our continued spiritual warfare against the schemes of the devil. You have to know what it is.

From the Compact Dictionary Doctrinal Words by Terry L. Mithe, hermeneutics is

From the Greek hermeneutikos, “interpretation.” Hermeneutics is the science of the study and interpretation of Scripture, the branch of theology that prescribes rules by which the Bible should be interpreted. Biblical hermeneutics strives to formulate guidelines for studying scripture that help recover the meaning a biblical text had for its original hearers.

Here are some thoughts regarding hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the science of interpreting text, in this case, biblical text. The problem today isn’t so much Bible inerrancy, it’s Bible insufficiency- the Bible isn’t enough so we interpret it the way we want. The opposite of hermeneutics is casual interpretation and practices such as “life verses” and “what this verse means to me”.

In this essay you will find-

1. John MacArthur explains the fallacy of teaching ‘What does this verse mean “to me?”‘
2. A recommendation of Todd Friel’s teaching series “Herman Who? The art and science of interpreting Scripture“. (His ministry is now called Fortis Institute) is very helpful.
3. Matthew Henry’s quote

I think we’ve all seen either in real life or in videos, where a popular women’s ‘Bible teacher’ stands up to welcome her audience and to share with us her ‘life verse.’ Or as we hear the teacher ask the women, say, “Now, what does this verse means to you?…”

Biblical interpretation is not a Rorschach test “What do you see in the inkblot?”

What does John MacArthur say about this method of interpreting scripture, looking for what it means to the individual? What Does This Verse Mean “to Me”?

That’s a fashionable concern, judging from the trends in devotional booklets, home Bible study discussions, Sunday-school literature, and most popular preaching. The question of what Scripture means has taken a back seat to the issue of what it means “to me.” The difference may seem insignificant at first. Nevertheless, our obsession with the Scripture’s applicability reflects a fundamental weakness. We have adopted practicality as the ultimate judge of the worth of God’s Word.

In just one paragraph, MacArthur punctures the practice. We cannot adopt a scripture because it has personal applicability to us and dispense with other verses because they don’t. MacArthur continues,

No believer can apply truth he doesn’t know. Those who don’t understand what the Bible really says about marriage, divorce, family, child-rearing, discipline, money, debt, work, service to Christ, eternal rewards, helping the poor, caring for widows, respecting government, and other teachings won’t be able to apply it. Those who don’t know what the Bible teaches about salvation cannot be saved. Those who don’t know what the Bible teaches about holiness are incapable of dealing with sin. Thus they are unable to live fully to their own blessedness and God’s glory. True doctrine transforms behavior as it is woven into the fabric of everyday life. But it must be understood if it is to have its impact. The real challenge of the ministry is to dispense the truth clearly and accurately. Practical application comes easily by comparison.

Solid biblical hermeneutics searches for truth under the premise of “What did God intend for me to know about Himself in this passage?” versus today’s practice of me-centered interpretations asking “What does this verse mean to me?” The latter leads to a false kind of open-mindedness regarding interpretation. It’s also “me-centered” and not God centered.

In theology at some point you need firmness, it’s imperative to obtain a settled authoritative stance on at least the fundamentals of the faith.

When it comes to possessing a firm understanding of the foundations of the faith gained by a proper interpretive methid, it’s OK to be ‘dogmatic’.

Dogmatic theology gets its name from the Greek and Latin word dogma which, when referring to theology, simply means “a doctrine or body of doctrines formally and authoritatively affirmed.”

Biblical hermeneutics appropriately conducted leads to an illumination of the scriptures which leads to a Spirit-settled understanding which leads to an authoritative witness with conviction. S. Lewis Johnson this in his sermon “Paul’s Right to Compensation.” In highlighting the importance of dogmatism he compared the ridiculousness of open-minded non-dogmatism in the secular world:

Now, I’ve been talking like I’m dogmatic, haven’t I? I’ve been trying to inject a little bit of the apostolic dogmatism in it. The world has little use for people without convictions when — for example, when your child becomes very, very sick and you want to call a doctor, you don’t call a doctor who is open-minded about personal disease, do you? Or we don’t send our children to school if we know the teachers are open-minded about the multiplication tables and things like that. We don’t do that. We want someone that we have confidence in…

Does a pastor ascend the pulpit on a Sunday morning after a week of study, and say, “Open to John chapter 3, here is what the verse means to me. It may mean something different to you.” No. Not a good pastor.

In contrasting the “this verse means to me” approach with the biblical approach, we now turn to Acts 8:26:40. The Spirit directed Philip the evangelist to go up to the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was seated in his chariot reading scripture, Isaiah 53 as it turns out. How did Philip begin the teaching lesson? Did he say, “Oh, I see you are reading scripture. What does the verse ‘“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth’ mean to you?”

Of course not. We read in Acts 8:30-31 that Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” This indicates there is one understanding, not many understandings dependent on personal applicability, whether the reader likes it, or how it fits into their culture or era.

In humility, the Eunuch said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” indicating that interpreting a verse is not about a mutual exchange of different interpretations relative to an individual’s personal meaning, but a teacher-student relationship wherein one submits to the other’s greater knowledge and listens. (Always check for proper interpretations as a Berean afterward as per Acts 17:11). What happened next was,

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:35)

Philip told him. Dogmatically, authoritatively. That’s what a teacher does, he studies, submits himself to the Spirit and seeks the interpretation. Then he tells the Good News. Do we say “I will share the Good News. It’s Good News to Me. Maybe it won’t be to you.” Heavens, no!

This is not to say that we aren’t humble when we’re dogmatic. Philip was humble when he submitted to the Spirit’s order to go where he didn’t know and approach the person he didn’t know and explain the scriptures to him. The Eunuch was also humble in his reply.

The difference between errant dogmatism and correct dogmatism in hermeneutical interpretation is the Holy Spirit. He will settle you, if you earnestly seek the Lord and submit to His teaching. Once a passage or doctrine is settled in your mind due to the Spirit’s illumination, then it’s the time to explain, exhort, and defend.

Observe, No scripture prophecy is of private interpretation (or a man’s own proper opinion, an explication of his own mind), but the revelation of the mind of God. … But though the scripture be not the effusion of man’s own private opinion or inclination, but the revelation of the mind and will of God, yet every private man ought to search it, and come to understand the sense and meaning thereof.

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2436). Peabody: Hendrickson.

Further Resources

Todd Friel’s teaching series “Herman Who? The art and science of interpreting Scripture“. (His ministry is now called Fortis Institute) is very helpful. Link brings you to a product.

What is dogmatic theology? GotQuestions essay

beth moore, bible study, discernment, hermenutics

When teachers rely on word studies to create lessons

Posted on January 27, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The Master’s Seminary published an essay titled “Exegetical Fallacies: The Word Study Fallacy” by William Barrick

I found it interesting because much of women’s ministry teaching comes from this kind of study. The Grandmother of word studies is Beth Moore. Her proteges are following suit and her proteges’ proteges, third generation Bible teachers for women, are following suit also.

I attended a BM Living Proof “study” in North Carolina years ago. I had begun going to church regularly only a few years prior. So I was a newbie to church and to the faith. I was totally new to discernment. Most of my earliesty blogging had to do more with prophecy than discernment or encouragement.

I re-read the discernment essays I had written back then regarding Moore’s teaching and I am proud of the Holy Spirit because I think they hold up over time. I believe I was on the money with my concerns to a degree that only the Holy Spirit can take credit because, as I said, I was new and fairly unlearned. I had written a review about my concern with how Moore approaches a teaching she said she constructs for delivery at Living Proof.

She explained how she arrives at the lessons she teaches on her tour. She said that when she prays the Holy Spirit will deliver a word to her. [This is an extrabiblical, Mystical practice] In the case for the teaching in Charlotte, it had been “Hold Fast.” In the case of her next tour in Columbia, it will be “Prepare.” She then creates an acrostic of teaching points that begin with each letter in the main word. In that long-ago Living Proof conference I attended ours was –

His affection is set upon us
Only He is your praise
Loving Him awakens your true heart
Doing His will does us good
Fleeing to Him means fleeing with Him
Any tighter embrace will also replace
Satan wants what we have
The Lord is your life

Looks kind of OK, doesn’t it? I won’t explain each of the eight mantras point by point, but share with you some of what troubled me most. I think word studies are good, and I like when teachers look into the Greek or the Hebrew meaning. This manner of exegetical study, finding all the words that relate to a subject and building a lesson out of it is fraught with danger. You lose the context of each passage you are extracting the word from. If you cross OT to NT that context gets more complicated because you have to research whether the word used in a context was meant only for the Jews in the Old Covenant or can be extrapolated into the New Covenant for the Gentiles. Getting meaning from the Hebrew-to-Greek is also problematic for a layman.

This approach also means that you wind up using a LOT of verses in one study and that tends to feel cobbled together and superficial. Rick Warren does this constantly and he has been called out for it. You can’t really explain to full depth each verse so you simply refer to them, and there winds up being a lot of different points. It gets unfocused, really fast.

What is Hermeneutics? from Ligonier, “the art science of biblical interpretation” … more at link

Moore had said that she found every ‘hold fast’ in the Bible, OT or NT, and she put together a lesson from that. A lot of people in the audience were so impressed with her mention of the Greek word for this or the Hebrew word for that. Even at my naïve state years ago, ripping out a word from its context and matching it to other words it may seem like, wasn’t a good approach. Context is everything.

The Master’s Seminary article explains in detail just why students should not absorb lessons from teachers who crafted lessons based on these kinds of word studies, nor should teachers create lessons based on studies of these kinds. Below are two short excerpts from the short version of their article. If you want to go deeper into the whys and wherefores, there is a fuller, lengthier version of the same article, here.

When it comes to studying Scripture, word studies are popular, easily obtained from available resources and an easy way to procure sermon content. However, word studies are also subject to radical extrapolations and erroneous applications. It is not always possible to strike exegetical gold by extracting a word from the text for close examination. Word studies alone will not suffice. Indeed, over-occupation with word studies can be a sign of laziness and ignorance involved in much of what passes for biblical exposition in our times.

Study of the words alone will not present us with a consistent interpretation or theology. This is one of the misleading aspects of theological dictionaries/wordbooks. One learns far more about obedience/disobedience or sacrifice and sin from the full statement of a passage like 1 Sam 15:22–23 than he will from word studies of key terms like “sacrifice,” “obey,” or “sin” in the text.

The most important thing about studying the Bible is actually reading the Bible. Too many people spend too much time warming up first. Getting the right chair, the cup of coffee, the notebook, the pen, the devotional, the book about how to read the Bible … all fussing over the preparations and never digging into the main event.

Be a good Bible student. And watch out for shallow word study teachers. Just because they mention “Greek” or “Hebrew” doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve delved deeply. Many times it means the opposite.

Recommended resources:

Hermeneutics: her·me·neu·tics- ˌhərməˈn(y)o͞odiks/
noun. The branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts.

Short book: How to Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God by Nate Pickowicz

Grace To You/John MacArthur-
Essay: How to Study Your Bible
Essay: Simple Steps to Solid Study
Book: How To Study the Bible

Article by Tim Challies: How To Study the Bible

Book by Richard Mayhue How To Interpret The Bible By Yourself

Challies Review of Mayhue’s Book

Article by Focus on the Family: How to Study the Bible

Lesson series Herman Who? by Wretched/Todd Friel

bible, hermeneutic, life verse, what this verse means to me

When it’s right to be dogmatic: Rejecting ‘What does this verse mean to me?’

Posted on August 13, 2022August 13, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Hermeneutics. It’s not a word you hear often inside of churches. In our watered down state, preachers and pastors rarely use the “big words” any more. If they do, they’re abashed and even apologize for saying theological words like ‘justification’ or ‘inerrancy.’ However hermeneutics is a battleground in our continued spiritual warfare against the schemes of the devil. You must know what it is.

Continue reading →

clarity, humble, perspicuity, scripture, The Hermeneutics of Humility

What good is unknowable truth? Be certain!

Posted on August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Some sayings sound legitimate on their surface. They sound pious. They sound biblical. Like this one: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. Only problem is, that one isn’t in the Bible. At all.

Yesterday I wrote about the verse in Colossians 2:18,

Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

I’d noted that the false professors, i.e. false believers were standing on three things that were designed to draw people away from the faith, or at least dilute their effectiveness for a while: delighting in humility, worshiping angels, and visions/experiences.

The humility part sounds good, doesn’t it? But if you really think about the phrasing here, ‘delighting in humility,’ you begin to realize that delighting in your own humility is not humble at all! In fact, that s pride not humility, and we know what God says about the proud. They fall.

Part of humility is claiming to be uncertain. In other words, they said then and are still saying today that if you’re certain about an interpretation, or certain that Jesus is coming back, or certain about anything, you’re not humble. This is called the Hermeneutic of Humility. It was a problem then, as seen in Colossians 2:18, and it’s a problem today. Just think of all the people who say we need to approach the Bible with ‘nuance’ and ‘we can’t be sure’. (“I’m too humble to claim anything for certain!” they claim)

Mike Ratliffe said, “Hermeneutic of Humility” is a way of looking at our faith and interpreting the very Word of God through a filter that sees certainty as a product of pride and uncertainty as a virtue. … These people contend that to be certain divides people while uncertainty creates an environment of unity.

However the mantra that doctrine divides is a misconception. True doctrine does divide, and that is a good thing, because that is what it is supposed to do. But first let’s define hermeneutics.

CARM defines Hermeneutics as “The science of interpretation. Theologically, and biblically, speaking it is the means by which a person examines the Bible to determine what it means.”

The hermeneutics of humility says that anyone saying for sure what the Bible means is being proud and displaying arrogance. Ultimately, it is a subtle denial of the truth.

“There’s a new hermeneutics, a new science of interpretation called the Hermeneutics of Humility, and this is serious to the people who espoused this and their Hermeneutics of Humility say, “I’m too humble to think that I could ever know what the Bible really means and so I can only offer my opinion and I certainly can’t say that this is in fact the truth.” (source)

Now, while it is good to be humble (that’s why this saying is a subtle trick), let’s look at the difference between personal humility and interpretive humility. In personal humility, Romans 12:3 says,

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

In other words do not exalt yourself, but think soberly and judge rightly.

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Do we suppose that sober judgment and rightly handling the truth means that we can never know what it means? As Paul would say, “What a ghastly thought!” Denying that the Bible can be clear is denying the work of the Holy Spirit, who makes it clear. (John 14:25-26).

Yet the issue is a delicate one. Professor of religion and philosophy Winfried Corduan said, [link is to a .pdf]

“…the Bible is the inspired Word of God. And Jesus has promised the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth (John 14:26; 16:13). The Christian interpreter ought never to proceed without relying in both mind and spirit on God’s gracious gift of illumination. Nonetheless, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer (undeniable though it is) does not provide a short cut through the hermeneutical process. The obvious counter-example to any such presumption is found in the fact that Christians who are equally committed to the discovery of truth disagree with each other. But the Holy Spirit does not teach different truths to such believers. Apparently it is possible to (at least claim to) rely on the Holy Spirit alone and not arrive at truth. Consequently it is best to say something along the line that the Holy Spirit’s work of disclosure is not entirely divorced from the human task of interpretation.”

It is why we strike a balance between personal humility and interpretive humility in the learning process, and boldness and confidence in proclaiming what we have learned.

If you think about it, if you’re too humble to say anything about the Bible’s contents for certain, then, what is there to proclaim? Proclaiming biblical truths would be seen as prideful, so we must remain silent…and therefore never tell anyone the Good News? Would such a conversation go like this: ‘Um, I think I have the answer to the problem you are having, it may be sin, but maybe not, and repenting of sin is the solution, but I can’t say for sure that repentance actually is, it might be a work, which would be bad but it might not be a work, but I can’t say for sure if repentance is required,…” and so on?
The doctrine of the clarity (or perspicuity) of Scripture (that the central message of the Bible is clear and understandable, and that the Bible itself can be properly interpreted in a normal, literal sense) has been a cornerstone of evangelical belief ever since the Reformation. ~John MacArthur
The reason why these sayings resonate is because they sound almost right. There is a grain of truth to the fact that we need to demonstrate humility when we approach the scriptures. It is an interpretive humility we need to possess. But once we come to a settled conviction, then, we’re sure that we know, because the Spirit will confirm in to our soul and our mind will be transformed. How is the Spirit supposed to transform the mind if the mind never settles on anything for sure.

It sounds exhausting.

In Kevin J. Vanhoozen’s book,”Is there a meaning in this text?” he writes,

“God is a speaking God. The Father is the one who, in the words of the creeds, est locutus per prophetas. [spoken through the prophets]. Most of what God does, creating, commanding, warning, communicating, promising, forgiving, informing, comforting, etc., is accomplished by speech acts. Moreover, God’s speech agency is the epitome of clarity and efficacy.”

Pride rears its head in people exhibiting a lack of interpretive humility when we believe we have got the meaning right before we have made the appropriate effort to recover it, as Vanhoozen explains. In other words rightly divide and make a sober judgment and with the aid of the Holy Spirit we will know what God is saying to us as far as our assigned faith will take it. Clearly and definitively. Because what good is unknowable truth?

Ultimately as Vanhoozen says, “Humility must be balanced by conviction. The uncommitted interpretation is not worth hearing.“

What a person adhering to a hermeneutic of humility is really saying is that:

–I am too lazy to put in the effort to really understand God’s written word,
–If we can’t know for sure what the Bible means, then I don’t have to follow its commands,
–Look at me, I’m so humble I won’t even try to figure out what God is saying,
–God spoke but not clearly enough to understand it. [He is a God of confusion].

Ask the Spirit to aid you in remaining personally humble, and seek His aid in being interpretively humble. Then, when the Spirit illuminates a truth to you, proclaim it boldly and certainly! The Bible never says that bold faith is arrogance. Peter and Paul were definitely certain of what they taught!

–In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. (Ephesians 3:12)

–Proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:31)

“Scripture itself at tests its own perspicuity, but not to the point that it can not be misunderstood or is in every point equally simple and clear. The doctrine does not rule out the need for interpretation, explanation, and exposition of the Bible by qualified leaders. The doctrine does mean that Scripture is clear enough for the simplest person, deep enough for highly qualified readers, clear in its essential matters, obscure in some places to people because of their sinfulness, understandable through ordinary means…“ Professor Larry Pettigrew, The Master’s Seminary

Put on your armor and wield some truth!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What does this verse mean to you?” Not manifold meanings, but one

Posted on November 18, 2017 by elizabethprata

bible “What does this verse mean to you?” is a phrase oft-heard at Bible Study groups and the like. It suggests that Bible verses and passages can be interpreted variably, or that there can be multiple meanings to one text.

This is not so. The question should be “What does this verse mean?” Period.

The Author intended one meaning to any verse, any passage, and to all of scripture. There might be many applications the Spirit puts in our mind as He illuminates it, but there is one meaning and one meaning only.

As RC Sproul says in his course Knowing God, a 12-part lecture series on interpreting the Bible:

There is only one correct meaning of any biblical text.

The Westminster Confession states,

IX. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.

The implications of this understanding about how to interpret the Bible are as follows:

Some say there is a rapture. Some say there is no rapture. Only one interpretation is right. It’s not both. It can’t be.

Some say the rapture will happen prior to the Tribulation. Some say it will happen afterward. Only one interpretation is right.

Some say that the Church is the new Israel. Others say that the Church and Israel’s destinies are separate and distinct. Only one interpretation is right.

Some say that any person can, on their own initiative, ignite an internal faith in Jesus and be saved. Others say that faith is ignited by the Sovereign alone, and it only comes upon those whom He has chosen since before the foundation of the world. Only one interpretation is right.

Some say that there will be a 1000-year Kingdom on earth after the Tribulation. Others say there will not be any such literal Kingdom. Only one interpretation is right.

Some hold to believer’s baptism (credobaptism) and state that only those who make a credible profession of faith ought to be baptized. Others hold to infant baptism (paedobaptism) and believe that the children of believers ought to be baptized. (Challies). Only one interpretation is right.

The doctrines noted above from eschatology or covenant theology or ecclesiology are diametrically opposed. One cannot believe both at the same time. It is unwise to believe the Bible projects both as true. Therefore, if a person believes one interpretation is true, by necessity, one must reject the other as false.

Here is a booklet you can order if you never contacted Grace To You before, or purchase for $1.50, or just read for free online to help get you started on interpreting the Bible correctly.

How to Study Your Bible

Learn specifically how to read, interpret, meditate on, and teach the Bible in this life-changing study!