SCIENCE of INTERPRETATION

        "The grass withers, the flower fades, 

         But the word of our God stands forever"

                             Isaiah 40:7-8

         Waves of new abstract and chaotic styles have 

swept the art world in the twentieth century, making it

a challenge for critics to determine the meaning of a 

painting or the message intended by a sculptor. In fact,

modern artists sometimes go so far as to deny that their

work has any objective meaning at all. By saying this, 

they assert that they had nothing in mind to guide the 

creation of their works. Critics who seek to interpret the

art are thus left in the darkness of subjectivism.

         Thankfully, biblical interpretation does not function

in this way. The testimony of scripture is that God inspired

the Bible to communicate His revelation to mankind. He

clearly had an objective meaning in mind for each and 

every passage of scripture. As interpreters of Bible, 

Christian have the task of finding and understanding

that meaning. The process of doing this is not an art but

a science, a subdivision of theology called hermeneutics .

like every science, it has methods and rules that are 

designed to help it carry out its appointed task. There are 

many school of hermeneutics, but the classical protestant

approach is known as the gramatico-historical school.

Its method is to study the historical situation in which

Bible passages were written. It asks question such as:

"Who was the author?" "Whom was the author writing?"

and "How were the author's words, grammar, and syntax

used at the time?" The goal is to find the original meaning

of the text. Because the Bible asserts that the Word of God

stands forever, no part of it can be dismissed as too primitive

for us, as some interpreter do. Neither can we assume that

Scripture will speak to us mystically apart from its historical

 context, as others assert. All of the Bible's history and 

background contribute to our understanding of it, and we

must discover its original meaning if we are to have any

hope of applying its message to our vastly different 

modern culture.

       Of course, before we can begin to discover the Bible's

original meaning we must famiiarize ourselves with its

Multiplicity of literary forms and devices. It is crucial that

we recognize the form of the passage we are studying,

for different literary form require different interpretive

techniques. Similarly, we must be able to recognize the

devices used in all the literary form in scripture. Our next

few studies will concentrate on these forms and devices

employed by scripture.

Isaiah 4:-6

Galatians 3