The Goal of Biblical Interpretation: The need to Interpret the Bible

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)

In this series we have started to discuss as to the need to interpret the bible. The word Interpretation comes from the Greek bible- (hermeneuō), which is translated as ‘to interpret’, or ‘to explain’. To put it simply, hermeneutics deals with interpreting and explaining texts. This is the word that was used of Jesus when he explained the text to the two men on the road to Emmaus:

Luke 24:27 ―And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained/interpreted (dihermeneuō) to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. We are covering these topics:

GENERAL TOPICS:

Evangelical understanding of Scripture as the Word of God.
Barriers to correct biblical interpretation
Who determines the meaning of a biblical text? The Author, the Text or the Reader?
Authorial Intent and reader response
Important vocabularies for correct interpretation. knowing
Three contexts for discovering the meaning of a text.