This article is about the literal interpretation of Scripture. Does the text always justify a literal reading? Can all prophecy be read literally and still make sense? And what about Scripture's own focus on typology?

What is the literary approach to the study of the Old Testament? Longman examines potential pitfalls and promises.

How should a typological interpretation or exposition of Scripture function? This essay reflects on the validity and use of typology as a means of biblical interpretation. It notes the shift from typology to allegorism.

Justin Martyr has the honour of being the first comprehensive Christian interpreter of the Old Testament. What was Justin's exegetical method? Aune indicates the gap between the New Testament's use of the Old and the exegesis in early patristic literature. The further Justin departed from the New Testament exegetical tradition, the closer he got to allegory.

Do you know how to read the Bible (interpretation of Scripture)? This article discusses the connecting theme of the covenant throughout the Bible, and other hermeneutical rules that help us to interpret the Bible's message.

Do the words of Scripture have a definite meaning that can be read and discerned? While our sinful nature can hinder a proper understanding of the Bible, this article makes clear that we can achieve a right understanding. The author points to the Lord Jesus' use of Scripture to support his position.

Why are there many different Bible interpretations? This article shares fifteen reasons for the different interpretations of the Bible, or, the so-called pervasive interpretive pluralism.

What is the message of the Bible? This article looks at both how Jesus and the apostles understood Scripture. It explains that the message of Scripture is Jesus Christ.

This article considers some challenging areas of Scripture, to show how to think through difficult questions and also why the answers to these questions are beautiful. Areas considered are creation in Genesis 1, Old Testament law, and the conquest of Canaan.

This article discusses how to handle hard passages or doctrine in Scripture. It exposes the tendencies some have toward these texts, and explains that studying them takes time and effort.

This article discusses biblical narrative, particularly the parts of it and then the process of interpretation.

What do you think about Systematic Theology? While it seeks to answer the question, "What does the Bible say about any given topic?" this article discusses the strengths and dangers of systematic theology.

Spencer wants to clarify the nature of metaphor, simile, and analogy. It is further suggested that an aspect of metaphor, that is, the interconnection of an image, can help better explain the significance of God as Father.

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Holy Scripture? This is a topic that is related to the contextualization of the gospel in new situations and cultures. According to Pinnock the work of the Spirit in illuminating the Scriptures is underemphasized in theological literature. He sees it as part of a proper hermeneutical theory. He offers a number of ideas to further the consideration of the topic.

The practice of seeing and reading Scripture through the redemptive-historical approach is one that finds its root in the Bible. This article looks at how the apostles read through redemptive-historical eyes, and how the church fathers continued in this practice. It also discusses the place of typology and allegory in interpreting the Bible.

What is the relationship between exegesis and the analogy of faith? Does the analogy of faith determine or replace exegesis? Recognizable patterns are discussed by Johnson.

What is the canonical approach to the study of the Old Testament? The paper wants to apply this approach to the hermeneutical problem of prophecy and fulfillment, which Sailhamer sees as a question of the relationship between the Old and New Testament. The canonical approach takes the final shape of the Old Testament seriously.

Key to understanding the Bible is Jesus Christ. From Luke 24:27 this article argues that Christ is the master of Bible interpretation. Five basics truths are drawn from Christ's way of interpreting Scripture.

Is there a right way of interpreting the Bible? This article looks at the two views of Scripture and its interpretation that have emerged in church history: Scripture's meaning lies only in its primary, historical sense; and Scripture's ultimate meaning lies in its fuller, revelatory sense.

Why is biblical theology needed? Biblical theology is principally concerned with the overall theological message of the whole Bible. This article explains why you need to incorporate biblical theology into your personal study, your church ministry, your theological formulation, and your personal evangelism and disciple-making.

Is redaction criticism a legitimate exegetical tool in the interpretation of the New Testament? The focus of this paper is the concerns some evangelical scholars have with the use of redaction criticism.

How important is the science of language (linguistics) for the interpretation of Scripture? Linguistic theory is often ignored in biblical studies. This article wants to address this neglect.

Christians have the responsibility to personally read and interpret Scripture. This article offers five principles which will guard Christians from misinterpreting Scripture.

This article reviews Peter Enns's book, which articulates a view of biblical inspiration and hermeneutics that has not traditionally been held by evangelical scholarship. The article reflects on the writing of history by Old Testament authors, in the light of Enns's positive approach to myth.

Here the relationship between the nature of scripture and hermeneutics is explained. The article shows the impact that biblical authority and inerrancy have on hermeneutics, and how these should guard the church against over-simplification.

When it comes to counselling or ministering to others, a lot of harm can be inflicted when you proof-text instead of using proof texts. The author outlines the difference, and advocates a use of Scripture that is sensitive to someone's life circumstances.

This article looks at three basic biblical principles of hermeneutics, and discusses how we can safely interpret Scripture.

This article shows that Bible-believing Christians can make silly mistakes in reading their Bible through misapplication, misinterpretation, or misunderstanding.

Showing the close link between hermeneutics and the doctrine of scripture, this article shows that the new hermeneutic has not upheld the authority and sufficiency of scripture, but it has undermined the doctrine of scripture.

This article discusses the use of archaeology and historical background studies while keeping biblical text as the center of interpretation.

This article looks at the contribution of background studies to the text of the Bible and the impact they have on interpretation. Archaeology and historical studies can hinder or enrich the meaning of a text.

This article explains the various areas under biblical theology: covenant theology, literary theology, typology, and ritual theology.

Typology is an important hermeneutical tool. In this article the author surveys four different views of typology: the covenant view, the revised dispensational view, the progressive dispensational view, and the view of Richard M. Davidson. Specific focus is on how each view would (or would not) apply typology to explain the relationship between [[Israel and the church].

This article compares the biases of Eurocentric interpretations of the Bible with Africentric interpretations. Certainly, the most notorious Eurocentric interpretation of a biblical passage is the so-called curse of Ham.

This essay evaluates how the claims for the clarity of Scripture have been presented in Protestant hermeneutics. The author is interested in the various characterizations of perspicuity by Protestants and the means employed in its defence, and the value of an affirmation of claritas Scripturae.

How should the canonical criticism approach to the study of the Old Testament by Brevard Childs be evaluated? Childs deliberately wants to read the biblical text in its canonical shape and context. This article is an evaluation of the post-critical approach of Childs.

What is the role of the analogy of faith in exegesis? Is it possible to abuse this freedom in the way a specific passage is interpreted? This article looks at a number of such abuses that occur especially in eschatological passages and proposes a remedy. Examples include: Revelation 3:21, Revelation 7:4, 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

Osborne continues his positive reappraisal of redaction criticism as an exegetical tool. This essay reflects on thinking in evangelical circles about the legitimacy of this tool for exegesis of the New Testament, and also demonstrates the way it can function.

Macrae discusses principles of interpretation for Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.

To understand the Bible one must understand the story of the Bible. This article looks at creation, fall, redemption, and consummation as acts that will help you read and understand the Bible. The goal is to help you find yourself in this story.

How should you go about reading the Bible? This article explains that each testament has its own constitution around which all of the writings within it fit.

This article focuses on the hermeneutical function of salvation-history. It first explains its own understanding of what hermeneutics is and then surveys different views of salvation-history.

Is there a hermeneutical gap between the Bible and today? This article answers in the negative as it addresses the typical arguments made for the gap, namely, the arguments of time and culture.

This article reviews research and a number of writings on the book of Acts. Discontent is voiced in many of these writings with traditional exegetical methods. There is the promise that newer methods can lead to more fruitful results of reading the New Testament in general and Acts in particular.

This essay is a response to Mark Strauss’ detailed analysis of the Colorado Springs Guidelines for Translation of Gender-Related Language in Scripture.

The theory and practice of interpretation is called hermeneutics. Yarbrough describes the crisis in which hermeneutics finds itself, and considers the drawing of the battle lines that characterizes this crisis, in order to support a proper critical engagement. Finally, he wants to give a practical rationale for such critical engagement.

Thomas writes in the context of what he perceived to be a new movement toward change in understanding the exegetical and hermeneutical task. He notes a confusion and proposes to indicate a number of reasons for this confusion. He indicates new and conflicting definitions of what hermeneutics is and point out the roots of the new subjectivism and relativism.

The rise of postmodernism has helped to regain an appreciation for the corporate dimension of the self and the influence of one's group or interpretive community on the interpretive process. This is a reaction to modernism's radical individualism and lack of emphasis on group identities. This essay wants to apply some of the postmodern emphasis to the interpretation of Romans 7.

Is it legitimate to speak of evangelical redaction criticism? This paper wants to examine the hermeneutical principles functioning in an application of redaction criticism.

The Bible contains much historical material that seems to be repeated in different books. Throughout the history of interpretation, students of the Bible attempted to harmonize versions and build a synopsis of parallel passages. Youngblood reflects on the difference between "harmony" and "synopsis," gives a historical overview of both, and explains the principles and purposes of writing harmonies and compiling a synopsis.

This document is the sequel to the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical inerrancy. The focus is on the matter of biblical hermeneutics.

The author sees a crisis in exegesis. He laments the lack of distinction between meaning and significance in interpretation theory. He examines Paul’s use of the Mosaic civil law from Deuteronomy 25:4 in 1 Corinthians 9:8–10 to determine how Paul used the OT.

Beale interacts with the views of Peter Enns on biblical history writing and its bearing on New Testament hermeneutics.

Beale addresses the New Testament uses of the Old Testament that appear to have a meaning inconsistent with the original meaning of the original context. Examples are: John 19:36 claiming to be a fulfillment of Exodus 12:46, and Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15. Beale argues that Old Testament writers knew more about the topic of their speech act than only the explicit meaning expressed.

In seeking to apply the theory of perspectivism to Bible reading, this article shares principles that must govern such an application of perspectives. These principles are: aspects of the use of language, the relationship between systematic theology terms and biblical terms, the limitedness of knowledge we possess, the different perspectives of biblical writers, and the biblical motifs and their relationship to the biblical message.

Applying the theory of perspectivism to the reading of the Bible, the author of this article looks at the relationship between perspectives and meaning of words. The author shows that ordinary and biblical language can be used by individuals to say an indefininate number of things. This can make translating and interpreting the Bible difficult.

How can I hear what God wants to say to me through Scripture? How can I understand Bible passages? How do I interpret Scripture? These two articles discuss the interpretation of Scripture by focussing on three genres of Scripture: narrative texts, instruction texts, and prayer texts.

During the last few decades we have witnessed an increasing awareness of the importance of hermeneutical procedure in interpreting the gender passages in the New Testament. Robert Johnston attributes the differences in approach regarding the role of women in the church taken by Christians to "different hermeneutics," calling the study of women's roles a "test case" of evangelical interpretation.

How can I hear what God wants to say to me through Scripture? How can I understand Bible passages? How do I interpret Scripture? These two articles discuss the interpretation of Scripture by focussing on three genres of Scripture: narrative texts, instruction texts, and prayer texts.

This article is a response to John Goldingay's article in the same journal on the topic of canon and Old Testament theology. Seitz asks critical questions with regard to the form of the canon, the function of creeds and the rule of faith, and finally about referring to the danger of an appeal to narrativity, which can easily reduce the Old Testament to a past story.

How should the future of the scholarly study of the New Testament look like? In this study, Bird examines the problem of balancing the historical and theological components of New Testament theology. The article offers a critique of both Biblical Theology and the historical study of Christian Origins.

How do we move from the Bible to formulating theology? This article believes that a study of good examples may help to prevent the exercise from becoming purely theoretical. The author uses John Calvin to present an example of how one person made such a move. In particular he uses Calvin’s implicit approach to church leadership and in particular church government. This article wants to understand how Calvin moved from the Bible to practice and then compares it to contemporary models.

How does the order of the New Testament books in the canon function hermeneutically, that is, influence the way the books are interpreted? This article assumes that the location of a biblical book influences a reader’s view of the book. Readers presume that documents that are grouped together are related in some way in meaning.

How should indirect speech be interpreted? In the New Testament, several passages of this nature are found, where the intended meaning of a statement differs from its direct meaning. Biblical interpreters from cultures where the style of communication is mostly direct easily miss the indirect meaning and instead interpret the statement in a direct manner. Montgomery looks at John 1:35-41 as a case in point.

Yamauchi reflects on three contrasting attitudes toward and interpretations of Scripture. The first sees Scripture as a talisman, where Scripture is used almost as a magical tool. The reference to Scripture as a specimen points to the critical analysis of the texts, as objects of academic study. A third view sees Scripture as a dragoman.

This study wants to work out some of the implications of an author-oriented reading of the Bible. Its primary goal is to answer this question: “Is a modern reading of the Bible the same as the original readers who read and listened to the text? It answers the question by means of a case study in the Gospel of Mark.

Montgomery interacts with the view that biblical documents for the most part are not firsthand eyewitness accounts of the events they describe, but merely the product of faith reactions of editors and redactors of literature.

Linguistic philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein developed the concept of language games. Nicholson wants to give a careful examination and interpretation of Wittgenstein’s concept, and give an assessment of the value of Wittgenstein’s philosophy for evangelical theology and hermeneutics.

In this article, the author wrestles with concepts of meaning and the divine-human authorship of Scripture. The main argument of the essay is that there may be a development of the divine meaning of an individual text of Scripture as the canon grows. However, the original meaning is never lost. He argues that God can intend more in a passage of Scripture than the human author intends. He also summarizes the changes in E. D.

What are the various schools of interpretation from the twentieth century? The essay surveys the different schools of interpretation and puts forward its own approach of biblical interpretation: realgeschichte.

Can insights from the social sciences, especially sociology, help in the interpretation of Scripture? This article surveys and critically examines some of the results of recent studies.

The article wants to acknowledge the importance of the cultural context of the modern interpreter of the Bible. The study of the culture of the recipient of the biblical message is important. However, what are good guidelines for the use of cultural tools? How do we contextualize the message of the Bible?

The work of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Hans-Georg Gadamer introduced elements of subjectivity and relativism into the discussion of the theory of interpretation (hermeneutics). This essay wants to describe and comment on some of these issues of hermeneutics that need some honest confrontation.

How do cultural issues influence the interpretation of Scripture? Kraft selects four areas where understanding the influence of culture can help his readers understand how Scripture should be interpreted. He develops a method that he calls culturolinguistic. He depends strongly on the insights from Bible translation theorists like Eugene Nida and John Beekman.

Solutions to problems in society and literature are more often today sought in the structure of things. Origin is no longer the almost-exclusive focus of attention in biblical studies. Structuralism springs from social sciences. Poythress evaluates it for its value as an exegetical tool.

The relationship of structure to meaning is to be recognized as important in any theory of interpretation. This paper reflects on the use of structure in Genesis 1-Genesis 11 to determine the purpose of the passage.

In biblical exegesis an important question is, "What is the intention of the human author?" This paper argues that however important the human author's intention is for determining the meaning of any given text, it does not exhaust a text's meaning. A text must be read in its total context, literary and historical.

Is redaction criticism a valid hermeneutical approach to understanding the text of the Gospels and the intention of the evangelists? Lane reflects on how Redaktionsgeschichte asks and tries to answer the question: what was the life situation out of which a particular Gospel emerged? 

Is the biblical cosmology dated? Is the Bible by all the scientific discoveries now hopelessly outmoded and outdated so that its teaching is untrue and therefore irrelevant? Harris wants to give an honest perspective on how to interpret Scripture, given the questions about its cosmology.

Kaiser explores the crisis of hermeneutics in evangelicalism. He explains who he sees as the evangelicals. He reflects on significant Reformation principles affecting biblical interpretation—sola scriptura, single meaning of a text, and the analogy of faith.

In this part of a series of three articles, Nicole continues to answer the views of J.D.G. Dunn on the inspiration and authority of Scripture. The author provides a summary of the practical impact of Dunn’s view of inspiration on his theory of interpretation and his conception of authority.

North American egalitarianism has developed a distinct hermeneutic of its own with regard to its interpretation of gender-related passages in Scripture. It is the purpose of this article to provide a response to the hermeneutical issues raised in chapters by Roger Nicole and Gordon Fee in the book "Discovering Biblical Equality".