47 Quotes About Bible-interpretation

In the deepest sense, the Bible is not meant to be interpreted, but rather revealed!

Jesus and Paul knew the Old Testament completely. Their comments about divorce were meant to add to, not replace or change, what was already written in the Old Testament about marriage and divorce.

The truth is, it doesn't matter what a verse means to me, to you, or to anyone else. All that matters is what the verse means!

Proponents of canonical hermeneutics are either unintentionally or willfully naive here-in most cases the naivete is willful. Canonical readings simply act as if the evolution of the text is irrelevant to its meaning; usually this is because it is deemed to be more expedient for the purpose of exhorting a faith community if such considerations are put aside.

The broader problem is that a great deal of popular preaching and teaching uses the bible as a pegboard on which to hang a fair bit of Christianized pop psychology or moralizing encouragement, with very little effort to teach the faithful, from the Bible, the massive doctrines of historic confessional Christianity.

The worst extremes usually start with slight deviations.

Lilith: 'Your daughter is special. Her gifts need to be developed and nourished.'Mary: 'I take care of my own.'Lilith: 'You're feeding her body - I'll feed her spirit.'Mary: 'The Lord feeds her spirit, through the Good Book.'Lilith: 'That book wasn't written for her, Mary, nor you. It was written for people of another time... and they're long gone. It has nothing to do with you. If you had any idea how little you people matter to God...

Most books of the Bible address the people of God, whether in the Old Testament or the New, and we should read them in that context to fully understand the prophetic words of 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

[I]t is helpful to remind ourselves that the church - and its writings - did not come into existence until forty years after Jesus' resurrection. Things got lost. Things got whispered down the lane. Original meaning could have been abandoned completely in favor of a less egalitarian faith. What else did we lose in the interim between Jesus and the recordings? And will we ever get it back?