Basic hermeneutical principles that must be employed
- Complete context
- The context rules when we interpret the text.
- The text must be interpreted in light of all Scripture.
- Scripture will never contradict itself.
- Scripture should be interpreted literally (or according to its genre).
- Do not develop a doctrine from obscure or difficult passages.
- Discover the author’s original intended meaning and honor that meaning.
- First mention, progressive mention, to full mention of a word, theme, or truth
- Look for key verbs
- Find the words you need to define
- Look for repeated words
- Look for divisions in the text
- Look for other Scripture that supports this text
- Investigate the word based on the time of translation and the original language
- Use a dictionary, thesaurus, and concordance
- Make sure to check verbs, are they imperatives?
- Get the outline of the Scripture
- Find parallel passages
- Harmony of all the Scripture
- Let Scripture interpret Scripture
- Learn to recognize different types of literature, figurative, literal, etc
- Is this to an individual or to a nation
- The Bible is to interpreted by the same rules and principles that we use with any literature
- No doctrine stands on one isolated verse
- Interpret the unclear by what is clear in the Bible
- Bridge the gap between the writer and his time and culture and the hearer and where he lives