We live in such a political mess that it is difficult to learn anything from what happens in our nation’s capital. But today I ran across a clip that was very noteworthy as a learning tool. Get this. It can teach you how you should read your Bible.
The Historical Grammatical Method Of Interpretation
Don’t let the subtitle fool you. This is the commons sense method of reading anything. And, it’s something that you do every day.
Suppose you read a letter that was written by your Great Great Grandmother on the day of her wedding. What are the things that you would take into consideration as you interpreted the symbols that she wrote on the page?
You would consider the historical time period that she lived in. You might also take into account her education level and the different hardships that you know happened to her in her life. In other words, you would take into account the historical context of her life and her writing.
You would consider her syntax and grammar. The words she used meant something. So, when she used the word “love”, you would interpret that to mean “love” and not some other thing like “hate”. When she placed a period on paper, you would take that to mean it was the end of the sentence. When she used “and” you would take that to be a conjunction. And what you are doing is examining the words and their meaning at the time of writing. This is the grammatical part of interpretation.
This is how Amy Coney Barrett reads the Constitution and other laws. She explains that in this video clip.
As you can see this is very straight forward and very common sense. Another way of saying it is that the author supplied the meaning of the text when they wrote the document.
The Argument Against Common Sense
The argument against common sense is a simple one. This is the argument that Protestant Liberals make in their wonky Bible interpretations and also the one that Liberals make in their wonky interpretations of the Constitution. Here it is, “the document is from another time period and needs to be adjusted for our day.”
In the case of the Scriptures Protestant Liberals and others claim that a text that is 2,000 years old cannot be useful to us today. They think that humanity has outgrown the Bible and it needs to be updated. So, it is declared a living document and we moderns are to interpret it as we see fit.
In the case of the Constitution, liberals claim that a text that is 233 years old cannot govern our modern culture. We, as a culture have outgrown the constitution and it needs to be updated. So, it is declared a living document and we moderns are to interpret it as we see fit.
The Conservative Response
The conservative response to all of this is simply, “No, words have meaning and had a specific meaning when they were written.” It has a singular meaning that we have to apply to our time period. In the case of the Constitution there are methods of updating it because the Founders knew that times changed.
With respect to God’s Word, which I am infinitely more concerned about than the Constitution, it never changes. God Himself is all knowing and eternal and He gave us His Word.
Forever, O LORD, your word
Psalm 119:89 ESV
is firmly fixed in the heavens.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
Psalm 33:11 ESV
the plans of his heart to all generations.
Isaiah 40:8 ESV
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
An Important Aside
I don’t want to end this post without saying that it is of utmost importance that we pray and ask God to help us interpret the Bible and apply it to our lives. That is very much the case. I personally pray a version of Psalm 119:18 before I read my Bible because I know that without the aid of the Holy Spirit, I will not interpret and/or apply the text rightly to my own life or other situations.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
Psalm 119:18 ESV
wondrous things out of your law.
So, how do I reconcile the two ideas? On one side I say interpret the text in a common sense way and on the other I say that you must have divine aid.
Well, I pray for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit and read my Bible knowing that I need the work of the Spirit to understand and apply the text. And I read the text using the historical-grammatical method discussed above in dependence upon God.
R. Dwain Minor
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