Seven steps in reading the Bible
Quotes from C.H. Spurgeon
1. Do not just read the words, intentionally read the Bible to understand it.
“Do not be content to just read the words of Scripture. Seek to grasp the message they contain.”
2. Read the Scriptures in faith without critical human rationale.
“Believe what God reveals. Reason must bow to God’s revelation.”
3. Apply what you read to your life and live in obedience to the Lord.
“Apply what God says to yourself and obey His will in all things.”
4. Consistantly read the holy Scriptures every day.
“We quickly lose the nourishment and strength of yesterday’s bread. We must feed our souls daily upon the manna God has given us.”
5. Read the entire Bible in a systematic fashion more than once.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.’ I know of no better way to read the Bible than to start at the beginning and read straight through to the end, a portion every day , comparing Scripture with Scripture.”
6. Read Scripture and seek to understand it in its own context.
“As a general rule, any passage of Scripture means what it appears to mean. Interpret every passage in the simple manner, in its context.”
7. Always seek out what God is doing in every passage of Scripture.
“The whole book is about Him. Look for him on every page. He is there. If you fail to see Him there, you need to read that page again. ‘Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15 kjv).”
What’s your opinion about these quotes? Number 6, for example? “Context” can mean anything from a few verses to the entire Bible, which could give quite different interpretations. Also, what do you think about the role of tradition in interpretations, and allegoric interpretations (in addition to the literal, not instead)? (Just out of curiosity, so you don’t have to write a novel)
I think context is context, meaning I think it is black and white. The context is the circumstances or events that surround a particular word or passage that determines its meaning. If you are wanting to know the context of a word you would first need to know the context of the sentance the words exists in. If you want to know the context of the sentance you would first need to know the context of the paragraph that the sentance is in. In order to determine the context of the paragraph you would first need to know the context of the entire book or letter the paragraph is in. If this book or letter is in a series or part of another work as a whole then to fully understand the word, the sentance, the paragraph, and the letter you would have to understand the entire piece as a whole.
To look at just a sentance, or just a paragraph and make a determination of meaning in those cases without knowing, reading, or understanding the entire work as a whole is ignoring context and therefore in the case of the Bible we could be making a dangerous assumption about a particular passage that is completely wrong.
As far as interpretation goes, I don’t believe that literal interpretation is the end all to the interprative process. I believe it is dependant upon the type of literature it is and therefore allegorical interpretation in certain cases is more accurate than literal interpretation and so on. Even tradition in itself can be a helpful thing if it is not the dependant factor in interpretation.
Great, thanks for taking the time, it’s exactly what I wanted to know
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