Page 95 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

Chapter 13: Principles for Interpreting the Bible

Connect…

Have you ever gone to a library and noticed that they have a list of rules for everyone using the library
to observe? They have rules for how many books you can check out and when you have to bring the
checked-out books back. They don’t want you talking loudly and disturbing others. They won’t let you
check out certain reference books. They don’t want you putting the books back on the shelves; they
would rather put them back themselves. And the rules go on and on. Why do you suppose they have
made so many rules to use the library?

Rules are not bad. They help to bring order to what otherwise would be chaos. They help the library to
run smoothly and efficiently, and they ensure that each person using the library has the opportunity to
get the most out of their time there.

In like manner, we have some rules when it comes to reading and interpreting the Bible. If you don’t
follow these rules, then your interpretation of the Bible may be completely wrong which may result in
you misleading others. God holds us accountable when we teach others, especially if we teach them
error. Today we are going to look at several good rules which will help guide you to properly interpret
the Bible as God wrote it. Let’s get started…

Objectives…

1. The student should be able to state the seven rules guiding Biblical interpretation.

2. The student should be able to discuss why we must be cautious about creating doctrine based on
historical events in the Bible.

3. The student should be able to describe how important the grammar of the original languages is when
interpreting the Word of God.

The Lesson ...

Principles for Interpreting the Bible

The first and most important rule in Bible interpretation is this:

1. The words of Scripture are to be understood in their normal meaning just as we normally
understand words in our everyday communication. They should be taken face value. When we read
any other book, we understand the words according to their literal or normal meaning. For example, if
you read a recipe and it says add two cups of flower, you don’t symbolize that to mean a great quantity

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