Interpretation

In inductive Bible study, the second step is interpretation. The goal is to discover the original meaning of the text. “What did the biblical author intend to communicate?” “Who was the original audience?” “What was their historical and cultural context?” “What specific situation was being addressed?” Answering these questions is not easy because of the distance in geography, time and language between the Bible student and the ancient world. The following steps are involved in the interpretative process:

Define Key Words and Phrases

1. Not every word in a given passage requires in-depth analysis. Certain words need interpretation because their meaning may seem somewhat confusing to the modern reader. For example, “phylacteries,” “millstone,” “denarius,” “justification,” etc.

2. A lexicon is a good place to search for a word’s potential definition.

3. Because words and phrases have the capacity to convey multiple meanings, ultimately the surrounding context determines the meaning of specific words. In other words, contextual meaning always has priority over lexical meaning.

4. A concordance will enable the Bible student to see how a Hebrew or Greek word is used in other parts of Scripture. Begin by seeing how a word is used in the particular book being studied, then how the same author uses the word in other books, and finally how that particular word is used throughout Scripture.

Identify the Literary Context

1. Determine the boundaries that comprise the unit of the text being studied. A unit is comprised of individual paragraphs, and is marked by boundary features and cohesion.

2. Summarize the unit by expressing the main idea.

3. Explain how the passage being interpreted relates to the unit in which it is located.

4. Understand how the surrounding unit relates to other units within the book being studied.

Understand the Historical Context

1. Three main areas of historical context need to be considered: (a) geopolitical (geographical and political setting), (b) cultural (customs of the Ancient Near East and Greco-Roman world), and (c) situational (circumstances that occasioned the writing of particular book or passage).

2. Historical context functions on two levels: (a) the context of the events recorded in the text and (b) the context surrounding the development of the text itself. This distinction is especially relevant in studying the Pentateuch, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and the Gospels (where distance exists between the events described and the writing of the text), but not so much in studying the epistles.   

3. Identify the historical situation of the book, narrative, letter, Psalm or prophecy being studied, including factors such as the time and culture of the author and audience, geographical, topographical and political factors that are relevant to the passage.

4. A Bible dictionary is a great resource to help discover the answers to these questions.