Bible Lesson 4: Interpretation
The First Process is Understanding!
Summary of the Bible study on "Apply the Steps of Understanding to Ephesians 2."
The interpretation of the Bible is not always easy and can be dangerous.I
grew up in South Africa and the Bible was interpreted by many to
justify the system of apartheid. Many years later, the same Bible was
used by the same people to condemn it. It confused many people.
It is therefore very important to use caution in our Bible interpretation - because we can be wrong. Why is it easy to make a mistake? The reason is that the Bible was written in a totally different language, tradition, time, situation and history than ours. The meaning of words also change with time. Just take the word "gay." Thirty years ago it means happy but today it refers to a sexual orientation. If one word can change so drastic in thirty years, how much more careful we need to be with the "words" of the Bible? It is obvious that the sender (author) and original receivers of the Bible best understood the message. But how can the message to the original receivers speak to us in the twenty first century? This happens through three processes. They are: UNDERSTANDING, APPLICATION and COMMUNICATION Schematic representation of the Three Processes of Bible Interpretation 
Lesson 4 of Bible interpretation focuses on the first process.
The first process is UNDERSTANDING. (The theological term is Exegesis) The Purpose of this process is to understand the message as well as or almost as well as the original receivers did. In this process of Understanding we go through five steps. It is easy to remember because the acronym spells START. 
Let us have a closer look at the steps of Understanding (START).We will use Ephesians 2: 1-10 as our passage.
1. Situation If we are going to properly understand a passage, we need to understand its immediate situation (context). You can get some background information in the Bible as well as outside sources, like study Bibles. Click here for more information on Ephesians.
3. Analyze the passage (Ephesians 2: 1-10)In this step you spent more time than the other steps.
Bible Lesson 1: A Test Drive is an example of the step of Analyzing a passage. 3.1 Write out the passage in smaller units (if necessary) Some passages (e.g. explanation and instruction) are ‘loaded’. It is therefore helpful to write the passage in smaller units in order to make it easier to analyze. 3.2 Mark the significant meaning indicators Marking words/phrases with the same/related or opposite meanings help us to see how the author developed his/her thoughts. 3.3 Explain difficult words and phrases We want to find out how the original receiver understood the words and phrases of a paragraph. 3.4 Establish the meaning structure In the light of the findings of the previous three steps, we now attempt to see how the author arranged the main ideas. Verses 1-3 = What a mess (sin or guilt) Verses 4-9 = What a God (salvation or grace) Verse 10 = What a difference (service or gratitude) 3.5 Conclude and summarize the message to the original receiver Following on from the previous step, the message to the original receiver can now be summarized. It is done as the conclusion to the findings of all the steps of UNDERSTANDING. Message of Ephesians 2: 1-10 Sin (self-centeredness) messes everything but by God's grace and through Jesus we are able to make a difference. 4. Relate the message to the rest of the Bible In this step we determine whether the findings of the previous steps relate to the rest of the Bible. The message of Ephesians relates to the rest of the Bible 5. Test your findings In this step you test your own findings (Biblical interpretation) against those of others.(e.g. commentaries and study Bibles) The commentaries and study Bibles confirm that the message to the original receivers is: Sin (self-centeredness) messes everything but by God's grace and through Jesus we are able to make a difference. In Lesson 5 we will focus on the processes of Application and Communication. Return from Lesson 4 on Bible Interpretation to Free Bible Lessons: Module 1 |
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