Biblical Interpretation

One of the first steps in biblical education is interpreting the Bible (hermeneutics). The word hermeneutics is derived from the Greek meaning to interpret. Hermeneutics is then the science of interpretation. Hermeneutic courses teach principles for studying, interpreting, and applying Scripture. Have you ever wondered why there are so many different denominations? One main reason is because there are different hermeneutics. We look at the same text and interpret it differently.

At West Florida Theological Seminary (WFTS), we believe that God has revealed Himself to man both through general revelation (creation) and special revelation (the Bible). The Bible is God's written revelation. It is His communication to us. Just as when any communication takes place, there is an:

Encoder - the one sending the message
Message - information
Decoder - the one decoding or interpreting the message

The Bible is God's message (or information), and we the readers are the decoders or the interpreters. So it looks like this:

Encoder - God
Message - Bible
Decoder - the reader

With all of this comes the question of who controls the meaning of the message in the process of communication? This leads us to hermeneutics. Does God the sender and encoder of the message control the meaning of the message or does the reader/interpreter get to decide what it means? The two choices are listed below.

God controls the meaning of the text and meaning is determined by Him - Authorial Intention
The reader determines the meaning of the text - Reader Response

At WFTS we teach Authorial Intention as the proper hermeneutic. God's meaning and truth are fixed in the message, they are objective and binding on all people. His truth transcends time, culture, ethnicity, and geography. The Author's meaning is found in the text and must be interpreted through its proper context, history, and grammar in order for us as the reader to discover the correct meaning (message) of any given text. Below is a portion of hermeneutical teaching taken from Grasping God's Word to explain.

When we use the term author in conjunction with the Bible, we are referring to both the human author and the divine Author. Ultimately, when we study the Bible, we are looking for the meaning God intended. However, although the biblical text is divinely inspired, it certainly has human fingerprints all over it. God chose to work through human writers to deliver his message to us. The languages he chose to use were human languages. The divine and the human elements in the Scriptures are frequently difficult to distinguish. Thus, we propose to lump them together under the term author.
At this juncture it is also important that we define the terms meaning and application. We will use the term meaning to refer to that which the author wishes to convey with his signs. Signs are simply the different conventions of written language—grammar, syntax, word meanings, and so on. Thus, in biblical interpretation meaning is not determined by the reader. Meaning is what the author intended to communicate when he wrote the text.
What the reader does with the meaning is application. Once we identify the meaning in the text that God is trying to communicate to us, then we must respond to that meaning. We use the term application to refer to the response of the reader to the meaning of the text. Thus, it would be incorrect for us to ask in a Bible study, “What does this passage mean to you?” The correct question sequence is, “What does this passage mean? How should you apply this meaning to your life?”
This may seem picky at this point, but you will see that this is an important distinction to maintain. Meaning is something we can validate. It is tied to the text and the intent of the author, not to the reader. Therefore, the meaning of the text is the same for all Christians. It is not subjective and does not change from reader to reader. Application, on the other hand, reflects the impact of the text on the reader’s life. It is much more subjective, and it reflects the specific life situation of the reader. The application of the meaning will vary from Christian to Christian, but it will still have some boundaries influenced by the author’s meaning.

-- J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading,

Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, Third Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 195–196.

At WFTS we make hermeneutics a vital part of our education from basic classes to advanced hermeneutical issues. Below are some of the textbooks and resources we use: