Interpretation Discussion: The Bible | MyPaperHub

The Bible comprises of messages of God to man; however if we cannot properly interpret what it says, we are meant to misinterpret, be confused as well as misapply biblical content. Paul says in Timothy that people should correctly deal with "the word of truth." Interpretive disagreement usually happens because of inconsistent and faulty approaches of interpretation. For example, other people inflict their own preconceived notions upon the Scripture rather than letting the scripture to speak for itself. However, when the basic principles of interpretation are put into practice, several hitches vanish. Scripture is a treasury full of an extensive range of literary styles from apocalyptic revelations, didactic epistles, and psalms to historical narratives, proverbs, and poetry. To read the Bible for all its value, it is vital that we interpret it just as you could with other forms of communication in the natural sense and its most obvious form. As such, people should read the bible as literature, focusing closely on fantasy imagery, figurative language, and its form.

The simplest method to interpret the Bible will be to read the Bible with a focus on the fact that God is present and speaks to us through the readings. We should take into consideration a three-step method for interpreting the Bible. The three steps are observation, elucidation, and application. The first as well as the main vital step in interpreting the Bible is observation. When reading the bible, it is important to look carefully at what is said, and how it is said. Interpretation is discovering the meaning of a passage, the key idea or thought of the author. Application is why we study the Bible. We want to be obedient to God; we want our lives to change and to grow spiritually.

The Bible is full of spiritual riches which can make us wise unto salvation. Even though, reading the Bible may seem like putting together a massive jigsaw puzzle. When reading the bible, you inevitably find things that you do not understand and ask several questions. Factors that make the bible difficult to interpret include various kinds of literature used. The Bible contains apocalyptic literature, wisdom literature, songs, poetry, law, prophecy, and history. Historical literature must be interpreted differently from wisdom literature. Also, we all make mistakes. Even though we try our best to read our preconceived biases into the Bible, it is unavoidable. Sadly, to a certain point people misinterprets a Scripture as a result of a presupposed understanding of what a certain Scripture cannot or can mean. 

Additional articles

Candide by Voltaire

Candide ou l'Optimisme is a piece of satirical literary work written in 1759 by French Philosopher of the age of enlightenment named Voltaire. The work was later translated into many languages including English from its original piece written in Fren...Candide-by-Voltaire …

Read Article
Behavior Observation on Hungry Children

Humans, just like animals behave differently when placed in different scenarios and in most occasions, it has something to do with past experiences. Perhaps that’s how theorists came up with classical conditioning and operant conditioning among ...Behavior-Observation-on-Hungry-Children …

Read Article
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Aging, Death or Grief

CAM ON IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE The first article by Lavretsky looks at various studies that have been conducted on how complementary alternative therapies can be used to treat cognitive impairment and mood disorders that come later in li...Complementary-and-Alternative-Medicine,-Aging,-Death-or-Grief …

Read Article
Let's give your paper the attention it deserves