Page 18 - Homiletics Student Textbook

are content with shallow “baby food” that comes from casual reading or whether you want to
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work for the “mature food” that comes from serious reading.

Being a serious reader of God’s Word is about practicing good skills of observation. Observation
is more than seeing words on a page. As Sherlock Holmes once said, “You see, but you do not
observe.”
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With all that we are exposed to in a given day, it’s very easy to miss the details unless we take
the time to stop and purposefully observe that which we see. The same is true in our study of
God’s Word. Verses that we’ve seen a hundred times typically hold truths that are never
unpacked simply because our skills of observation are weak.

B. Interpretation answers the question, “What does this mean?”

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Closely tied to the way a person seeks to interpret scripture is his exegetical method. The
more thorough one’s exegetical method, the more accurate his interpretation will be. A
thorough exegetical method should include the following six steps.

1. Context Study

Study the historical-cultural context (anything outside of the text – the author, the
recipients, the time in history, the geographical, social, economic, political, and spiritual
setting, etc.) and the literary context (anything inside of the text – the general and
immediate context, the type of literature, etc.) to gain a better understanding of the time
and situation in which the author was writing.

If our interpretation would not have made sense back then, we are probably on the wrong
track…We must first determine what a text meant “in their town” before we can determine
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what it means and how we should apply that meaning to our time and culture.

When it comes to interpreting and applying the Bible, context is crucial. In fact, we
would go so far as to say that the most important principle of biblical interpretation
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is that context determines meaning.

2. Word Possibilities

Study the possible meanings of each word in their original context and language with the
use of a concordance or lexicon. Give close attention to the verbs used, the grammar, and
the syntactical arrangement of the text.

3. Word Choice

Choose the best possible translation for each word based on their usage and meaning in
the passage in question. Look for how the words are used in the immediate context, in the

29 J. Scott Duvall & J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 29.
30 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” in Grasping God’s Word, J. Scott Duvall & J Daniel Hayes (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2005), 67.
31 Exegesis is the determination of the meaning of the biblical text in its historical and literary context (pg.1)
32 Duvall & Hays, 100.
33 Duvall & Hayes, 119.
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