Supplementary Lesson: Analyzing a Bible Passage

INTERPRETATION OF A BIBLE PASSAGE

In this mini-lesson, we will summarize the steps recommended in this course for doing a more serious study of a Bible passage, and give some practical suggestions for implementing them. There are three main areas: 1) Preparation, 2) Investigation, and 3) Application

But before looking at these three steps, let's consider the goal.

GOAL

What is our goal in analyzing a Bible passage? It is to bring into our present context the message that God gave to His people in the original context. That is, we want to discover what He meant to say to the people who received the message originally, and then we want to explain it in a way that the people today will understand the same thing and respond in a similar way. This process has been called "contextualization" by some theologians.

Using the terminology explained in this course, the words of the message are the same, but the "meaning" is different in the present context. The "original meaning" of the message includes the changes that God desired to produce in the original audience: changes in concepts, behavior, and feelings. The present "meaning" includes similar changes in concepts, behavior and feelings, but in the present context.

Contextualization2

 

QUESTION: Which phrase best describes the goal of Bible interpretation?