Observation to Interpretation

Or introduction to hermeneutics, which means that we are halfway there. When we finish tonight, we will be finished with half of the class. Hopefully what you've learned so far has been an encouragement to you, and we will just continue to build on that.

So in classes two and three, we looked at the value of observation and the methods of observation. We looked at six different methods of observation last week, six different things to look for, things that are alike, things that are unlike, things that are emphasized, things that are repeated.

Those are some of the things that we looked at in our last class. And what we have noted so far is that observation, in my opinion, is the most neglected and also the most important part of good Bible study.

So tonight in class four, we're going to begin on the subject of interpretation. We are going to look at the value of interpretation. We're going to look at understanding literary types. Then we're going to break for a few minutes.

Then we're gonna go over our workbook assignment. How many of you did the workbook assignment? Good, good. So we'll have an opportunity to get in that and do that together. How many of you are sticking with your reading?

You're up to date on your reading?

Was it a workbook assignment or reading? It was a reading assignment.

Was it this week was a reading assignment? Yes. And we're gonna be going over the workbook in class. Okay, that's what it was. Okay, all right, all right. Just if I seem like I'm a little out of it, I don't mean to be and I certainly won't.

I won't try not to let it affect. I'm just really been going hard the last couple of weeks and I'm a little tired, but I'm not gonna let that bring me, hopefully bring any negative into the class. So far, we've looked at the value of the process of observation.

And I believe this is honestly what makes Dr. Hendricks' work unique. So many other hermeneutical courses begin with interpretation. And instead, this course encourage you to begin with an investigation.

What's the motto of this method of Bible study? Anybody remember? Go back and look some more. That's the motto, is every time we observe, we go back and look some more. Remember what he said? He said that the guy, the teacher was mentioning the hundredth time I read this passage, it dawned on me and the idea was, yes, it took him a hundred times to click.

I told the story last night to our youth that this week is Reformation week. And I wrote, in fact, I'll do this for you all.

Let's see if you guys can get this. I said, there is a Bible verse and a date.

Now, most of you probably know what the date refers to, but what is the connection between this verse and this date? Does anybody know? You know what the, I hear you saying it. You know what the verse is.

What do you think it is, James? Well, that was the verse that Luther said was like God opened the gates of heaven and he, for the first time, understood the gospel. When he read that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

And it was Luther who added the idea, the just shall live by faith alone. And there we get the term sola fide. And so again, he had read that verse before, but it was that reading. It was that time where God made him understand what it meant and it was like a light bulb moment in the life of the great reformer.

And I only connect it to October 31st because we call it October 31st Reformation Day. Why do we call it that? That's the day that he published the 95 Theses. Now, when I say published, we talk about the fact that he nailed them to the door.

A lot of people see the nailing of the 95 Theses to the door as an act of rebellion, but it wasn't actually an act of rebellion. It was the way things were published. It was the way things were put on display for people to read.

So when he nailed it to the door, it was like putting it up for discussion. And if you go to that church today, which is the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, the door has been replaced with an actual door that has the 95 Theses written on it.

And so they're inscribed on the door. Yeah, it's very, very beautiful. You can look up pictures of it. I've never, obviously never been there, but I've seen pictures of it where they've printed it out, just in memory of that.

No, it's the Reformation. It was the church he preached it. I mean, again, remember the Reformation, when it was in the different areas, they used the churches depending on where they were. You know? All right, so tonight we're going to continue on with our study.

And I want you to write this next thing down. This is a thought. I actually did a podcast on this and would encourage you to go back and listen to it if you do happen to have an opportunity. But this is an important thought regarding observation.

Because tonight we're gonna look at interpretation. Interpretation is what does it mean? Well, here is a important standard. The text cannot mean what it doesn't say. That should be simple and go without saying, but it's not.

People will read a verse and they'll say, this means X, Y, and Z. And I say, no, wait, it can't mean that because it's not what it says. And so the basis of interpretation is observation. And if what you're saying the text says is not in the text, then that's not what the text says.

So if you're interested in what I mean when I say I did a podcast, I had a pastor friend of mine come on and he and I discussed eisegesis and exegesis. You guys remember the definition of eisegesis? What is it?

To read into the text something that's not there. And if this is true, the text can't mean what it doesn't say. How does eisegesis happen? You're putting something in it that wasn't there. You're reading into it something that isn't there.

For instance, we think about the people who teach the prosperity gospel. Now, are there passages that can be twisted to argue for a prosperity version of the gospel? Yes, I would say that there are. But when we look at the gospel, the text as a whole, and we see what it says, then what we have to understand is where one might say, well, this text says X, Y, Z.

Yes, but that doesn't go along with the whole. And even though it might, it might can mean that on its own. It can't mean that in regard to everything else. Eisegesis happens when we introduce something into the text that isn't there.

People often desperately want the Bible to say something. They want it to say that they're going to receive healing, or they want it to say that their marriage is gonna be solved, or they're going to have some solution to a problem.

Maybe they need to decide about an important life choice, and they don't know whether they should go work north in North Carolina, or whether they should go work in South Florida, and they open the Bible, and it says Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and therefore, that's where they need to go.

They need to go to South Carolina, because that's north of where they are. And if you think that that is an exaggeration, that is absolutely happening. People treat the Bible like a fortune cookie. They read the Bible, and they say, that's not what it's saying.

It's not what it says. How many of you ever heard of lucky dipping? What's lucky dipping, Ross? That's right. You just, you open a Bible, stick your finger down, and you just dip in and pull out whatever you find.

Now, I wanna say, I am not, what? I do that sometimes. Okay. I'm not gonna say it's never had any value, because if you've ever read the life of Augustine, um, Augustine, he heard some children. If I remember the story correctly, he heard some children singing, Toa Legei, which means take up and read.

And that just sort of resounded in his mind. And he took that as a sort of an omen to pick up the Bible. And when he picked up the Bible, it just happened to be at a passage that he read, and that passage changed his life.

So it does happen. It's just not the best method for Bible study. And it's certainly not the best method for answering our life's questions. You know, Lord, I don't know what to do. Open it up and point your finger.

And, you know, you end up, and Judas went and hung himself. And you say, oh, that's not it. So you close it, you go back and you do it again. You go and do likewise. Well, that can't, well, no. You close it, you open up again, you put your finger down.

What you do, do quickly. Oh my goodness. And now we're in a lot of trouble. So certainly, it can be very dangerous to try to lucky dip with the Bible. Go ahead. No, you're my butt man. You're my butt man.

But wait.

No, I agree. No, no, you said butt though. What was your, please.

I don't want to put God where he can't speak to you through scripture, right? I just think he's getting the wrong thing out of it. But what it's saying, maybe God is trying to show him something in that scripture of an answer he's been praying for.

I don't know if there's ever, is that a really good question, but am I wrong to think that? Well, like I said a minute ago,.

I'm not saying that it never happens. What I am saying is we're talking about Bible study methods. And lucky dipping is not a Bible study method. It doesn't happen. At best, at best, it's a fortunate act of providence that that particular verse is being used in his life.

Just like in Augustine's case, at best it's an act of God's shining providence. But if that was the way he was dealing with his life every day, and that's the thing, people do that. You know, they have the, what's it called? What I call the our daily bread mentality, where every day it's just a different verse and a story.

Rather than studying the Bible, they're using these little verses as like kickstarters for a devotion. And that's not exactly how we should approach the Bible.

That's what, yes.

Okay, well, I have a question. My question is, what I do, is this considered lucky dipping or whatever you call it when like you pray, you ask God, you know, just to open you up to where he wants you to be in the word.

Like today when I did it, he opened me up to the story about the powerful son, which somewhat is like on point to what I'm going through in my life. So is that considered lucky dipping also?

I have to be, I wanna be honest. I think you would probably do better if your daily study were not as random. That seems a little random. If what God did in your life today is good or whatever it took you to a passage.

It's good that you're looking at the Bible. When you do go to that passage though, are you looking at it to study the historical context and what that passage means? Or are you just looking at how it applies to your life today?

Because if you do that, then you are missing the first two steps of Bible study, which is observation and interpretation. You're going right to application. And what happens when you go right to application is you often apply it wrong.

So that's my, you asked, I have to be honest. If you jump right, if you jump to a verse and immediately say, what does this mean to me? Then you're probably going to at some point find yourself interpreting the Bible all about you.

It's not all about you. That's the thing, that would be my, so if you were to, if I were to give you any advice, I would say take a systematic study through a book of the Bible and every day pick up where you left off the day before.

That way you stay within the context of the book and then let God be the sovereign one to take you through the book, how he would lead you rather than the random opening up and wherever I land is where I'm at.

That would be my advice. So, if you're going to do what you're doing, I would focus on interpretation, or excuse me, observation and interpretation first. That's my recommendation. Yep. All right, so remember, here's where we are.

We're moving to interpretation. Observation is essentially excavation. We have mined deeply into the text. We have sought to uncover and get a look at all that is there. We've turned over every rock. We've tilled the ground and we've looked at the soil underneath.

We have observed the text. Now, interpretation, part two, we're going to begin constructing our understanding based on what we have learned. You see the two pictures. You have the excavator that breaks up the ground and then you have the construction worker that comes back and forms it into an understanding whole.

We begin to build an understanding of all that we have observed. So let's talk today about the value of interpretation. Everybody open up your Bible to Acts 8, verse 26. We're going to read verse 26 to 40, so we're going to read a few verses.

All right. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.

He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah, the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading?

And he said, how can I? Unless someone guides me. And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, quote, like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

And his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth, end quote. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here's water, what prevents me from being baptized?

And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more.

And he went on his way rejoicing, but Philip found himself at Azotos. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. All right, now, there's a lot of texts, so I know that there's a ton that we could do, but right away, did anybody pick up on any observations?

Your first time reading that. What's your first observation, Frank?

Wow, there's so many, but okay, I'll just throw one out there. Please, that's what I was hoping for. An angel, Philip was led by an angel.

Yep, so this was a divine appointment, okay. All right, what else?

Someone that was a high stature of Ethiopian, someone that intelligence wasn't even able to understand the word without guidance of the spirit or someone else explaining it to him.

Interesting observation, even somebody that's intelligent didn't really understand what it was saying. Okay, that's good.

Intelligent, he's reading the scripture.

He's reading scripture, and he's in charge of the finances of a queen. So, I mean, we can say this is somebody that's trusted. Yeah, okay. What else, Uncle Bobby?

Good point, okay. Good observation, okay.

Verse 37 in my translation is in reference.

Yep, and then you'll notice I didn't read verse 37 because in the ESV, it's not there. In the ESV, it goes from verse 36 to verse 38. There is no verse 37 in the ESV. That particular verse is not in many of the earlier manuscripts that we have uncovered, and therefore, it is a verse that is in question.

And depending on a verse's tenacity within the history of the text, some translations will include it in brackets. Some will include it without any notes at all, like the King James. Some will include it in the margin, which is at the bottom, and some won't include it at all.

But typically, if it's not included and there's a whole verse missing, it will at least say why. So if you have an ESV, it probably has a note at the bottom explaining what's missing. And what is the passage that's missing?

He says, if you believe, you can. I think it's, how does yours read, Frank?

Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. Yeah. And he replied, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Yeah, I think that's an important verse. I would like to think it was part of the original because it does go along with how we understand baptism to work. Baptism is always the product of a statement of faith.

We would not baptize an unbelieving person. But I don't want to get into the weeds on textual criticism and why or why not that text should be there. But that is a great observation. If you didn't notice, there's a verse that's in some translations that's not in others.

If you're not familiar with the history of textual transmission, no, ain't the time. There's a lot to deal with, but it is an important subject. But that was actually the one I was gonna mention how many noticed there was a missing verse.

So good job, Frank.

What else? Anything else I observed? Yes, James. First thing you read, it said when Philip opened his mouth as if he wasn't already in the middle of a narration, already speaking with the eunuch, if he wasn't already talking, but he said he opened his mouth and preached unto him Jesus at that point.

I mean, he was already deep into a narration there, a conversation, you know, with him. He said that at this point he opened his mouth. I mean, it really emphasizes what was to come.

Yeah, it changed from a dialogue to a proclamation about Christ. Yeah, I think that's a good point.

Yes, ma 'am. I noticed first that it was in the desert. Yeah. So where was the water in the middle of the desert? That's a good point, yeah. And then it was interesting that he was reading out loud. Yep.

From Isaiah. Yep, so Philip could hear him and know what he was reading, that's right. Yes, sir. Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of people use that verse to support the rapture because they believe Philip was raptured away.

That's an interesting observation. Well, he was taken away. We don't know how it happened, but he was taken away. And the idea of being taken away is what the word raptizo, and I think it's Latin, means to be taken away.

And that's where the word rapture comes from. Yes, sir. Oh, it makes me think of the pool of Bethesda because he's Makes you think of what now? The pool of Bethesda. Okay. He's just, he's, he's sinking after it.

Okay. He's looking at the scriptures. He's wanting some answers. Yeah. Yeah.

Put him right where he was at. Word. Yep. Okay. It's interpreted as the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say the Holy Spirit spoke to him. It says an angel of the Lord said. So I haven't seen that interpreted that way.

I do know that in the Old Testament scriptures, there are times when the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord is used as a, as a way to describe pre-incarnate Christ. And I could make that argument based on several passages, Genesis 16, Genesis 20, well, Genesis 16, Genesis 21, Exodus 12.

There's several passages where we see the angel of the Lord speaking as God. And we would say that's a potentially a pre-incarnate representation of Christ as Christ comes as the messenger of Yahweh in that moment.

Because word angel simply means messenger. And so if somebody might make that argument, because this does say, but this says an angel of the Lord rather than the angel of the Lord. And there is somewhat of a different distinction there that's often made, whether it's the definite article or the indefinite article, but that would be the, that would require a little bit more conversation about what we're seeing and what we're drawing out of that.

But certainly angel of the Lord is an important statement, important phrase. If I were circling things, that would be one of the ones I'd probably note. All right, now I have a question for y 'all. Good job, by the way.

That's exactly what I'm looking for. What does this passage tell us about interpretation? Okay, it tells they needed some help, but what else? There's something else. There's something a little more that I'm looking for.

Yes, Nails, James. Would you rather me call you James or Nails? It doesn't matter. James.

Some other names, so he's already kind of like observing it.

You are correct, sir, because what I have put here, interpretation often begins with a question. Interpretation often begins with the question, because that's what we're trying to determine. The who's, what's, where's, why's, and when's, and we're trying to make, we're trying to come up with some answers to questions.

He had a very important question. Who is the prophet talking about? Is he talking about himself or is he talking about someone else? And Philip says, I'm glad you asked. He's talking about Jesus. No, what's wonderful about this is this actually gives us an interpretive grid to understand that passage in Isaiah, because now when we go back to that passage in Isaiah, we have a Holy Spirit inspired commentary on that passage.

So we know Isaiah was writing about Jesus because Philip says Isaiah was writing about Jesus. So we have a Holy Spirit inspired commentary right there in the text. So interpretation often begins with the question.

That's why I say when I'm doing my observation, a lot of times what I'm writing is questions. What does this mean? Even if that's all I write, I don't understand this. What does this mean? I got to go back and figure this out.

Or who's talking to whom? So the reason why interpretation is necessary is because the text raises questions. Who is speaking? What is he or she saying? Why does this matter to the situation, to the narrative or to the argument?

You ever asked yourself a question? Let me ask and then I'll say what I want to say. How many of you ever been reading a passage of scripture, come to a verse and say, what does that have to do with it?

Because it's like, it doesn't seem like it fits. Like it seems like there's a verse that doesn't go with the rest. That's a time where you have to begin to interpret. What does this mean? Why is this here?

So again, questions cause the need for interpretation. So that's the key to all this is what are my questions? Like for instance, we can look at the most common verse in all the Bible, the one that everybody knows, they hold it up at sporting events.

Tim Tebow puts it under his eyeballs. You know, people, John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

I can think of five good questions right off the top of my head, right there. Just thinking, five good questions. Think for God so loved the world. Who is that talking about? Does the world mean everybody?

Does the world mean the elect? Does the world mean the Israelites? Is there were times in the Old Testament where it seems like God didn't show a lot of love for other nations, but he said to Israel, I love you different than I love the other nations, right?

So there's one question, right? That he sent his only begotten son. What does the word begotten mean? Does that mean Jesus was created? No, but isn't that an important question? What does the word begotten mean?

That whosoever believeth in him, what does it mean to believe? What does it mean to believe in him will not perish? What does perish mean? We're all gonna die. Does that mean people who believe in Jesus don't die?

No, they die too. I see them die all the time, but they'll have everlasting life. What in the world is that? See five questions out of one verse that everybody knows, but you think of how you could spend a week on those five questions, couldn't you?

Just thinking about what they mean and how to understand them. And that's interpretation starts with your questions, but that begins with observation, right? All right. Okay, go ahead.

Study, see what I'm saying?

So we're gonna go verse by verse.

When we get to next week, we're gonna talk about context. We have six Cs. Each C talks about something different that we do in interpretation. And one of them is context. And context does involve what comes before and what comes after.

But it also involves like the, you have immediate context and then you have relative context, which is what is outside of the immediate, which is what's going on in the whole book. And then you have the context of where is this book historically in relation to other books.

So context is actually has like spheres that move out. But yeah, I would say if you don't know what comes before or after a passage, there's a pretty good chance you're not understanding it correctly.

That's another reason why I encourage the verse by verse reading, because if we're just looking at a passage or a story, probably the one book that you could do that in with some relative success, maybe Proverbs, because there's a lot of Proverbs that sort of don't necessarily, well, it's not that they don't mesh, but they're independent statements of wisdom.

Therefore, if I were to look at just one proverb, I could probably draw something out of that without necessarily having to tie it to a context. But still even Proverbs is set up in a, there are certain, Brother Andy's talking about it right now on Wednesday night.

I forget how he said it last night, but it was really good. He said Proverbs, he says you got the, how do you say it, Ron? When we all were here, it was like, he was the wise, the diligent, and the something versus the foolish, the sluggard.

And it's like, that's the three, like on both sides, right? You get the wise and the foolish, the diligent and the sluggard. And I forget, but he said, but that's throughout the book. And then he started showing us through the book, you see that same principle fall through the whole book.

So even that context helps you interpret individual passages, because that gives sort of a rubric that the whole book sort of falls under, right? So that's helpful too. Okay. Was that good? Was that answer kind of what you were saying?

All right. Some people believe interpretation is unnecessary. You say, what are you talking about? I've heard people say, I don't interpret the Bible. I just read it. And if I ever wanted to just take and just smack somebody on the forehead, that would be the moment.

And I'm not a violent man. But if anybody ever says, I don't interpret the Bible, I just read it. I say, that's not true. Because as soon as you read something, you begin interpreting it. As soon as you read something, you start developing an idea of what it means.

So if you tell me, I just read the Bible, I don't interpret it. I say, that's just impossible. Reading is interpreting. In fact, we said we observe before we interpret, and that's true. But even in your observations, you're making conclusions.

You're already starting to do the process. I'm just saying, don't run headlong into the meaning before you get the whole picture. That's what observation is. But have you ever heard anybody say that? Maybe I'm the only one.

I hear a lot of crazy stuff. I've been around for a while, and I hear people just say, people stay, you know, people will say stuff, you know, so, yeah, but people get so fascinated with their intelligence.

And they often shouldn't be.

Lucky dipping, yeah. That's the thing, just people know ahead of time,.

A little bit of information can sometimes be like,.

You know, it can be dangerous because you know that the Bible is true. So you figure, well, okay, anything to pull out of it is gonna be true. It's gonna be true, right?

You know what, Frank? I'm gonna give you a gold star when the break comes. That's true. People will say, well, it's all true, therefore it's all, you know, it's all profitable. Now all of scripture is profitable, but just because the Bible is true doesn't mean your understanding is true.

And that's really serious. I'm gonna mention this later in the course, but I agree with MacArthur on this very specific thing. He said, the meaning of scripture is the scripture. Now you think about what he's saying.

The meaning of the text is the scripture. Because when the guy says, oh, I don't interpret it, I just read it. No, you come away with a meaning. And it's either right or wrong. And the most dangerous people in the world are the people who come away with a wrong interpretation and say, thus saith the Lord.

Think about Jim Jones. Jim Jones was a disciples of Christ pastor, which is interesting because this church was once a disciples of Christ church. Jim Jones was a minister in the disciples of Christ denomination.

And he led over 900 people to their deaths by drinking Kool-Aid mixed with cyanide. And remember, that's a man who convinced people to do that. He convinced them to do that because he had so twisted the word of God.

It is a dangerous thing to stand up and say, thus saith the Lord, when you don't know what you're talking about. And that's a lot of people do. Yes. No, no, that's no, I would, in fact, I had dinner with some pastors last Friday night.

It was nice. I had a chance to sit down and talk to some guys. They were different churches and they weren't all reform. I was the lone Calvinist. Actually, I wasn't the only Calvinist, but I was the most outspoken Calvinist.

But it was, there was several of us. They're all super nice guys, really great guys. And we were sort of talking about methodology. How do we study? How do we do these different things? That's how, you know, carpenters get together.

They talk about how they build houses. Pastors get together, talk about how they build sermons. I mean, it's just kind of what we do. So we had that conversation and we were talking about what we're reading versus what we're studying.

How are we doing that differently? And so, yeah, I mean, I think there's definitely a place for devotional reading. If you're trying to read the whole Bible in a year per se, there's no way you're gonna stop and study every passage.

If you're trying to read the whole Bible in a year, you're not gonna have the opportunity to do the observation interpretation application throughout the whole year. So I would say there should be a distinction between your devotional reading and your, and here's what devotional reading does do though.

Devotional reading is like an opportunity for your observation skills to get really, really honed because you're looking at a lot at one time and you're looking for the big picture. You know, how many, you guys remember the story about the pastor preaching through Ephesians?

Remember I told the story and he's like, I've been in Ephesians for three years. I'm only in chapter three. It's like, well, what's Ephesians about? We don't know. Because he hadn't looked at the big picture.

I worry about that with Genesis because I've been in Genesis so long. I don't wanna miss the big picture, you know? And so I think there is a value in that reading and getting the big picture for sure.

All right, so let's continue on. There are barriers to understanding the text which interpretation seeks to overcome. The barriers to understand, there are four of them mentioned in our book. One is language barriers.

Second is cultural barriers. Third is literary barriers. And fourth is communication barriers. And you know, language barriers would be just the fact that it wasn't written in English. I talked this morning to the Set Free guys.

We were talking about Bible interpretation. I talked about my favorite German phrase. Think I say it right, but I may be wrong. And if anybody's watching this via online and you find me saying it wrong, feel free to correct me.

Maybe some of you may know. But it's Morgenstude hop golden mute. And it means the morning hours have gold in their mouths. Gold, yeah, Morgenstude hop golden mute I think is how it's pronounced. The morning hours have gold in their mouths.

Now that doesn't mean a thing to most of us. The early bird catches the worm, that's what it means. In English, that's how we would understand it. And so there are language barriers in scripture because there are things that are said that we would not understand.

Go to the Song of Solomon and read what he says. I think I talked about this last week. Read what he says about the beauty of his wife, the giraffe neck when you mentioned the neck of the giraffe and all that.

If I went into my wife and I started saying the things that he said about his wife to my wife, she might get a little less than excited about the things that I was saying to her because there's that language barrier.