Basic hermeneutical approaches to the Holy Bible

1. Understanding the Bible
Session 3: Exegesis and Hermeneutics
Mark E. Hardgrove, PhD, DMin, MDiv
2019
Grace Baptist Church

2. The Basics of Biblical Study
1. Pray
Get in a right place spiritually.
We are going to apply solid
hermeneutical principles, but
we believe that the Holy Spirit
can illuminate the Word of God
to the heart of the believer in a
way that is unique to the Bible.

3. The Basics of Biblical Study
John 16:13-15, NKJV
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will
guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own
authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will
tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will
take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that
the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take
of Mine and declare it to you.

4. The Basics of Biblical Study
2. Read the Entire Bible Through
We need to understand the big picture, the story of
Creation, the Fall, the work of God to bring man back into
relationship with Himself, and centrality of the cross of
Christ in the Bible. [It’s not about dinosaurs.]
All the sacrifices of the OT anticipate the cross, and
everything in the NT flows from the cross.

5. The Basics of Biblical Study
3. Know the Book in the Bible You Are Reading
If you’re using a Study Bible, read the introduction or the
overview of the book in the Bible you are reading. Who
wrote it? Who were they writing too? What are the
recurring themes? What is the purpose of the book?
It helps to read books as collections from a common
author: Luke-Acts, Paul’s Epistles, Peter’s Epistles, the
Johannine literature, etc.

6. The Basics of Biblical Study
4. Identify the location of your text in the book
Is your passage at the beginning, setting up the book in
general? Is your passage in the conclusion? Does it
contain a central theme in the book? (Study Bibles with an
outlines is helpful.)
For example, an epistle is a letter and generally has an
opening greeting, the main body, and the salutation.

7. The Basics of Biblical Study
5. Consider the Historical Context of your passage.
Get some background on the historical/cultural context of
the book or passage you’re reading. For example, what is
the significance of the City of Corinth? What would the
surrounding culture have been like for believers in the first
century? Or why would the people in Lystra call Barnabas
Zeus and Paul Hermes and try to offer sacrifices to them in
Acts 14?

8. The Basics of Biblical Study
6. Consider the grammatical context of your text.
The complete unit of thought is a paragraph, so a
translation that puts the biblical text in paragraphs rather
than dividing into individual verses is helpful.
The smallest unit of meaning is the sentence. Individual
words find their meaning in the sentence.

9. The Basics of Biblical Study
Sentences for meaning
To illustrate the importance of grammatical context,
consider the following word – bear. What does it mean?
You know the possible definitions, but without context, you
still don’t know that the author means.
Consider the phrase, “bear arms.” What does that mean?

10. The Basics of Biblical Study
Sentences for meaning
Bear arms are really their fore legs,
and not true arms. Though some
say it’s just arbitray names for the
same appendages, whether we call
them arms or legs.
In this case we need the sentence
for context.

11. The Basics of Biblical Study
He said what?
A Greek lexicon or concordance like “Strong’s Concordance”
can be a very valuable tool in your Bible study toolkit; however,
like English words, Greek words can have various meanings, but
the author probably had one intended meaning in mind when
he wrote.
This is known as “authorial intent.” What did the author intend
to say, because that is what we are trying to discover.

12. The Basics of Biblical Study
The Great Debate
Some will argue that authorial intent is not important,
because it is impossible to know what the
author“intended” to say.
Really? God gave us His Word so we can know Him and His
will, so would He gave it to us in a way that we cannot
know what He intended to say? That sounds self-
defeating.

13. The Basics of Biblical Study
Interpretation to Application
Our solid assumption is that what the Holy Spirit inspired
the author to write, is what the Holy Spirit and the author
intended to say.
Once we understand what the author intended to say
(hermeneutics) to the original audience, we discover the
beauty of the Word is God’s ability to make timeless truths
relevant to all generations (exegesis).

14. The Basics of Biblical Study
Hermeneutical approaches:
1. Reader centered –can be subjective
2. Socio-rhetorical – has several layers - Robbins
3. Grammatico-historical – tried and true
4. Devotional – lectio divina – reading, meditating,
praying, and contemplation.
5. Inductive approach – small group friendly

15. The Basics of Biblical Study
Principles of the Inductive Approach – Kay Arthur
1. Remember that context rules
2. Seek the full counsel of the Word
3. Remember – Scripture will never contradict itself
4. Don’t base doctrine on an obscure passage
5. Interpret literally unless it is clearly symbolic
6. Look for the author’s intended meaning
7. Check your conclusions with reliable commentaries.

16. The Basics of Biblical Study
Principles of the Inductive Approach
8. Look for words or phrases that are repeated in a book
or chapter.
9. What word is prominent in Hebrews 11?
10. What word is prominent in 1 Corinthians 13?
11. Why is it important and how does it affect how we
understand a passage of Scripture?

17. Study Helps: Parallel Bible
A parallel Bible has several translations side-by-side.
The benefit is that it gives you nuances of meanings, and
when you see significant differences it tells you the
translators were struggling with a difficult text or with
variations in the Greek, or were trying to interpret a hapax
legomena – a word only used once and the context does
not give any solid hints to the meaning.

18. Study Helps Tools
1. A concordance for the Version you are using, or a good
computer program or app that makes word searches easy.
2. A lexicon (Bible dictionary)
3. A Parallel Bible to compare various versions.
4. A Study Bible that gives introductions and outlines for
each book of the Bible.
5. Old Testament and New Testament Introductions
6. A good one/two-volume commentary

19. Concordances and Dictionaries

20. Parallel Bible: Numbers 12:12
KJV NIV NASB NKJV
12 And they shall take
all the instruments of
ministry, wherewith
they minister in the
sanctuary, and put
them in a cloth of
blue, and cover them
with a covering of
badgers' skins, and
shall put them on a
bar:
12 “They are to take
all the articles used
for ministering in the
sanctuary, wrap them
in a blue cloth, cover
that with the [NIV
originally had “sea
cows”] durable
leather and put them
on a carrying frame.
12 and they shall take
all the utensils of
service, with which
they serve in the
sanctuary, and put
them in a blue cloth
and cover them with a
covering of porpoise
skin, and put them on
the carrying bars.
12 Then they shall
take all the utensils
of service with which
they minister in the
sanctuary, put them
in a blue cloth, cover
them with a covering
of badger skins, and
put them on a
carrying beam.

21. Study Bibles

22. Old and New Testament Introductions

23. One/Two Volume Bible Commentaries