All Bible Readers Are Interpreters

Why is it that Christians around the world have basically the same Bibles, but come up with so many different understandings of what it says? Obviously, it is because they "read" the Bible differently. Why do Christians read the Bible differently? Well, that is a very involved subject, but I would like to try in the next pages to give a few helpful insights and answers. Let me say first that the issue of this paper is not the inspiration of Scripture. That is a given. Nor is the issue the importance of the Bible as our sole authority. That is a given also. We should not question what the Bible says. We should question how we read it. The issue is: "How do we read the Bible?" What is the interpretive grid that we bring to Scripture, that shapes our conclusions about what it says? This is the question.

As one studies the various denominations, one can better understand a denomination’s theology by recognizing the way it "reads" or interprets the Bible. Many assume they use a purely literal reading of Scripture.¹ They don’t believe they "interpret" the Bible so much as they take it at face value. They mean by literal that the meaning of every verse of Scripture is apparent to all reasonable literate people. But when at least two Christians, who claim to use the literal approach, come up with different understandings of the same passage, it shows that not everyone interprets the Bible the same way even by taking a "literal" approach. Logically, two opposite interpretations cannot be right (though it is possible one of them is). Various groups, movements and denominations multiply the method of "naive literalism" through their different interpretations. All the differences in interpretation prove that all Christians do not read the Bible the same way. That is not to say that the real or true interpretation of Scripture does not exist. It does. It is to say that people who think they are taking Scripture "literally" can and do make many wrong interpretations. And we need to know how to identify these interpretations.

We must establish one important truth at the beginning: All readers interpret. Again, it is not to say that a true reading of Scripture does not exist. God forbid! What it does mean is that we can misunderstand the true reading because of the assumptions we bring to the Bible. Just claiming a literal reading of Scripture does not make it so. One of the greatest hindrances to understanding a passage is the assumption that one already knows what it says. Often an air of infallibility creeps into the thinking of those who claim unflinchingly to have the final word on a part of Scripture. None can assume they read Scripture with infallible eyes. That would be arrogant and dangerously naive:

The first reason one needs to learn how to interpret is that, whether one likes it or not, every reader is at the same time an interpreter. That is, most of us assume as we read that we also understand what we read. We also tend to think that our understanding is the same thing as the Holy Spirit’s intent. However, we invariably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally to be sure, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text.²

When we read the Bible and come to understand the original intent we call it exegesis. This word simply means that the message or meaning comes out from the text, as opposed to coming out of us into the text. Many Charismatic-Pentecostals can miss this, because they usually conceive of the Holy Spirit’s work as that which takes place only within them. Therefore, they view the inspiration of Scripture as taking place within them, rather than through the literal words of Scripture itself. This leads many to mistakenly believe the meaning comes from the Holy Spirit within them, rather than by the Holy Spirit, through the words of the Bible outside of them. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the words and through the meaning of the original author’s intent. Many Pentecostals do not fully appreciate what the Reformers really meant when they said the Bible is the Word of God. They were not only standing against the extra-biblical writings of the councils and the Pope, but they were also standing against the mystics and those of the "inner light." They meant that the words on the pages of the Bible were objectively the Word of God. They did not simply reject the idea that the Bible became the Word of God when outside authorities recognized it, but also when mystics claimed to receive a "word" by the inner unfolding of the Spirit. It was because they believed the words of the Bible are the Word of God!

In laymen’s terms, exegesis means to allow the Bible to speak for itself on its own terms. When we read our ideas or assumptions into the text, it is call eisegesis. This occurs when the reader "sees" his or her ideas in the text because they are filtering the text through their personal paradigm or culture. Often this "reading in" of the meaning occurs unconsciously influenced by that which the readers brings to Scripture:

Reading involves using both the information that is present on the written page, as well as the information we already have in our minds. The reader does not come as a blank slate.³

All readers come to the Bible with a worldview. It is a way of seeing the world shaped by the person’s previous thinking and learning. This worldview forms a paradigm for reading. I mean it forms a structured map or a way of seeing the information through which we process our world. The map isn’t reality itself. It is a way of perceiving or of explaining reality. For example, a road map is not the real road, but it symbolizes the real road in a way that enables us to navigate foreign territory.

Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we’re usually even unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act.⁴

The problem comes when you use the map for Minneapolis to drive in Pittsburgh. Then you’re lost. This is what happens when we use the wrong map or set of assumptions for interpreting the Bible. You get lost. What is worst is if you try to deny the problem and continue to believe that Pittsburgh is Minneapolis even when the map doesn’t work. This is the deadliest form of eisegesis. You’re lost, you don’t know it, and you are constantly fighting with reality, trying to force it to fit your flawed belief system.

The first goal of any reader of Scripture is to recognize how one’s prejudices and assumptions may influence one’s reading of Scripture. Then one needs to realize how those assumptions may control or direct one’s interpretations. In essence, eisegesis is a distortion of the original meaning to fit it to the reader’s (or his group’s) preconceived ideas. Eisegesis is a serious problem and all of us are vulnerable to it. The best way to protect against it is to first recognize it, and then deal with one’s own prejudices through the help of others. Many wise teachers of the church have attempted to safeguard us against this by sharing sound principles of interpretation based on the objective authority of Scripture itself. (Cp. http://207.115.43.158/GenRuleBible.htm)

1. I do not intend to express that it is wrong to look for the literal meaning of Scripture. Nor do I mean that Scripture is generally too difficult for the average reader to understand it. What I refer to is the idea that one does not need to exercise their mind in the work of interpretation, but rather simply takes the surface meaning that comes to their mind, assuming that is all a particular passage means. Included in this is the mistake of taking the style and form of all Scripture as literal where it is figurative. For example, making the Antichrist a literal beast with literal seven horns. My overall point is that it is naive to think one can obtain the meaning of Scripture without the process of wise and skilled interpretation.

2. Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart, How To Read the Bible For All Its Worth, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), p. 16.

3. Kenneth J. Archer, "Pentecostal Story as the Hermeneutical Filter," Collected Papers: Teaching to Make Disciples: Education for Pentecostal-Charismatic Spirituality and Life, at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, March 8-10, 2001, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK, p. 79.

4. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 24.