Principles of Biblical Interpretation

[vinc]

Principles of Biblical Interpretation
By Reuben Archer Torrey

from Dr. R. A. Torrey's
The Importance and Value of Proper Bible Study
(New York: George H. Doran Co., 1921), pp. 55-90.

1. Get absolutely right with God yourself by the absolute surrender of your will to Him.

2. Be determined to find out just what God intended to teach and not what you wish Him to teach.

3. Get the most accurate text.

4. Find the most exact and literal meaning of the text.

5. Note the exact force of each word used.

6. Interpret the words used in any verse according to Bible usage.

7. Interpret the words of each author in the Bible with a regard to the particular usage of that author.

8. Interpret individual verses with a regard to the context.

9. Interpret individual passages in the light of parallel or related passages.

10. Interpret obscure passages in the light of passages that are perfectly plain.

11. Interpret any passage in the Bible as those who were addressed would have understood it.

12. Interpret what belongs to the Christian as belonging to the Christian; what belongs to the Jew, as belonging to the Jew, and what belongs to the Gentiles, as belonging to the Gentiles.

13. Interpret each writer with a view to the opinions the writer opposed.

14. Interpret poetry as poetry and interpret prose as prose.

15. The Holy Spirit is the best interpreter of the Bible.

 

[AJ]

Great info! Thanks for sharing!

 

[malkin]

Which is the most accurate text?

 

[vinc]

I think its the King James Version (KJV) which is the original version translated from Hebrew and Greek Texts.

If you know Greek/Hebrew then you can get a Greek/Hebrew Bible. That would be better too.

 

[Rafael]

Literal translations are very accurate in the New King James and the New American Standard versions. NAS is at the top of the list for literal translation under the interlinears of Greek and Hebrew. Ampolified Bible is above the KJV and NKJ in literal word for word expression. This table from Zondervan my help:

http://www.zondervanbibles.com/translations.htm

What is important is that the ideas are accurately expressed in the language translations even if paraphrasing is required. Actually, in truth, all the English versions are paraphrases of the original languages and texts. Otherwise a direct translation would be unreadable by the English speaking person. an example would be to directly translate a German paragraph into English. Verbs, nouns, objects, and subjects would be jumbled about and not very readable. The same happens when literally translating Greek and Hebrew.

Here's an interesting comment on accuarcy:

http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~hr/bible/lit-trans.html

 

[malkin]

Thankyou both! I have some French as well as English, so I know a little about interpretation and meaning (and representation of meaning) but I wasn't sure which was the most accurate Bible. Now, I suppose the question I should have asked is: which is the most literally correct Bible?

 

[vinc]

No mention Malkin. I stick to the KJV as i found some differences here and there in NIV, NASB and LivingBible. I find KJV to be a far more accurately translated version than them. However, KJV version style of writing could be difficult to understand for some of us initially but we can get used to that slowly.

 

[Endure2]

15. The Holy Spirit is the best interpreter of the Bible.

amen!
i was hoping hed mention that, becuase the holyspirit is the only thing that made the bible any benefit to my life, im a not a very smart person, and even with those teqnuiques i needed help. but man the letter brings death, its the spirit that brings life. the holyghost comes and reveals all truth. thats why you have simply country folk with more revelation and power of God to change real lives, than most proffesors have. its not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit sayeth the Lord. those other things are good too, the holyspirit will reveal those things to you.

 

[Endure2]

hahaha... i misspelled techniques. see, i told ya. but man God is good, and i dont care.