Interpretation Is The Process
That Renders The Actions
Of An Inspired Text
Into Meaning
Those who believe the Bible will often justify their belief by pointing out the fact that the text of the Bible is inspired. The argument is you can’t or shouldn’t easily dismiss an inspired text, and I would agree entirely.
Because it’s an inspired text, we should take every passage of scripture seriously but we also must be cautious. Accepting it as inspired and applying it literally, at face value, are two very different things.
For the purposes of this post, Inspiration is understood to mean the text is God breathed or arranged. In other words, the text reads the way God intended. It says what He wanted it to say.
And we have statements in the Bible that reinforce that idea.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction is righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:16 & 17)
Another passage lending force to the idea is 2 Peter 1:21.
The prophecy (Old Testament scriptures) came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
The Timothy passage refers more to the outcome of inspiration, the benefits that can be derived from studying it carefully, while the Peter passage focuses on the process, how it actually came to be.
But what does that really mean? How far do we take the idea of inspiration? I don’t question inspiration but I do question how people use the idea when attempting to apply the Bible to life.
If you want to get the right perspective on inspiration, there are several implications to consider.
An Inspired Test Is Accurate
At the very least, to say the text is inspired is to say it is accurate. What the text says happened, really happened. The information is trustworthy. It’s true.
If the text is inspired, we can believe Moses said what the text indicates he said and he did what the text describes.
That’s important for several reasons.
If you analyze a faulty text, you’ll end up with a wrong answer. Investigators can only determine what happened if the crime scene is intact.
When we study the Bible, we are looking for analysis. We are attempting to draw conclusions and we can only draw useful conclusions if we have an accurate text.
An Inspired Text Does Not Constitute A Guide To Life
Being accurate is not the same thing as being appropriate. Moses did some things we shouldn’t do. He was human and, therefore, faulty.
He killed an Egyptian guard for reasons that most people would feel are acceptable. But he also did it in anger and was not acting in concert with God’s direction in his life.
The Bible recorded it accurately (inspiration) but we are not expected to do likewise.
We are expected to learn from Moses faulty words and actions, not repeat them.
In fact, what we learn from Moses’ example is that mistakes are the norm. We all make them and, like Moses, we can survive our mistakes.
Inspiration Also Doesn’t Imply Relevance
The meaning behind an inspired passage is always useful while the actions recorded in the text may not be relevant.
Abraham is a good example.
He was told to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on Mt. Moriah. He went through the motions of obeying that command and was stopped just before plunging the knife into Isaac’s chest. The meaning of this event is clear. We now know that it foreshadowed the coming of Christ and His eventual sacrifice, offered by God for the sins of the world.
Most people find this passage appalling. Why would God instruct any parent to execute one of his children. We prosecute abusive parents for doing far less.
But this is an inspired passage and very instructive to students of the Bible. We gain from this extreme case a measure of God’s love. There’s nothing He wouldn’t stop at to save us from our sins.
But attempting to repeat the actions of that inspired event misses the point entirely.
The meaning is relevant. The actions are not.
Inspiration Doesn’t Eliminate The Need For Interpretation
Everything in the Bible is inspired, it’s accurate and true, but the bottom line is inspiration doesn’t allow you to take a text and apply it directly to life without first applying interpretive principles.
- What do the words mean?
- To whom were they spoken?
- What problem was being addressed?
- Can we ascertain the reason for any commands that may be involved?
These are reasonable questions to ask about any text, even an inspired text, to determine what application can be made to life. What we learn from this exercise is that what the Bible says is not what the Bible teaches. What the Bible says is inspired, and therefore important, but the interpretive process is how we determine what it is teaching.
To read more about the interpretive process, you can go here.
Every word in the Bible is inspired and studying those words carefully, asking all the appropriate questions, is important but you can take inspiration only so far. An inspired text still needs to be exposed to the interpretive process.
THINK!AboutIt
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