Interpretation. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2.Peter 1:20) The Greek emphasizes, that every prophecy of Scripture does not originate from any private explanation held by any biblical writer, since prophecy did not come from the prophets own desires. As men were being carried along by the Spirit, men spoke words from God, originating from God as the ultimate source. The language of the Old Testament in speaking of interpretations holds a similar sense to the Greek, as in epilysis, which means interpretation or unraveling. This sense is also used when the Hebrew text speaks of the dreams sent from the Lord. As Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream and no one can interpret it… Joseph replied, I cannot personally interpret it either, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. (Gen. 41:15-16) When the prophets in the Bible had a revelation, when God suddenly appeared in a dream or in person, or in a vision, then the experience itself is bound to the prophet. As the prophet writes his experience down, he interprets it in a language which is familiar to himself and his culture. He will use images, numbers and the like, to describe what he experienced due to the complexity of what he sees. At the same time God by his presence in the experience as the one who originated and took the first step to reveal truth, sort of helps the prophet to approximate himself to the content of what God revealed to him by carrying him along, and by inspiring him as he writes down his experience. It becomes the inspired text, which is the prophet’s inspired experience, and “carried along” interpretation process inspired by God himself. The entire Bible is handed down to us as such, as a prophetic inspired text. As we read the text today, and try to approximate ourselves to what the text means, and to the prophets experiences, we engage and partake in the prophets revelations and thereby rediscover God’s word for us in our time and age. This demands, first and foremost, that we have to build a bridge between the prophet’s world and ours, in understanding his culture, history and life. We are trying to find the prophet’s original meaning as it would have been understood by his original audience. We will therefore, need to use a tool of rules that cannot be broken or compromised called hermeneutics. Hermeneutics both helps and directs us. It keeps us on the right track as to help us to the right conclusion of what the text means. A text cannot mean everything and anything, and the text needs to be protected from our preconceived ideas, which is done by a set of objective rules or guidelines outside of us. This is hermeneutics. It is to point us in the right direction to get as close as possible to the prophet’s original intended meaning as it would have been understood by his original audience. In reading reading the inspired text, the Holy Spirit sheds light on the text. He will help the reader to approximate the actual revelation the prophet got, guiding us to get closer to the prophets experiences to understand what God said and meant. It cannot be impressed enough, how important it is to find the “real meaning” of the text. The truth shall set you free. The real, intended meaning is of outmost importance. To carry truthfully out, demands a carried along. No one has ever died from reading too many books, so read. Attend good teaching, and have a range of interest which keeps u curious. Be careful with a satisfied mind, and above all, never come to the conclusion that you have arrived.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 19:44:27 +0000
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