XXIV. Hermeneutics

You can know Greek and Hebrew (chapters XXII–XXIII) and still mishandle Scripture. The opposite is also true — millions of readers without a word of Greek read the Bible faithfully and well. The difference is hermeneutics: the discipline of how to read. Get the rules right and the languages amplify your reading. Get them wrong and the languages just give you sharper tools for the same mistakes.

This chapter is the short version — the rules that, if you actually follow them, will keep you from ever saying anything from a pulpit that a careful reader has to wince at.

Read that twice.

This rule is the floor under every other one. The Bible was written by specific authors, in specific languages, to specific audiences, in specific situations, addressing specific questions. The meaning of a passage is what the original author was doing with it for the original readers, in their world. Your job is to recover that meaning first, and only then ask what it implies for you.