"Literal Interpretation"

. . . in which are some things hard to understand,

Which untaught  and unstable people twist to their

own destruction, as they do also the rest of the 

scriptures.                                           2 Peter 3:16b

In verse 14-18 read: As we seek the meaning of 

biblical texts, we should be looking for the literal 

meaning. The idea of literal interpretation has a 

bad name today; at least  in some circles, it is 

associated with uneducated, backwards, anti-

intellectual Christians. But literal interpretation

is simply the term for a process that comes out of 

the Reformation and is closely linked to the

 grammatico historical interpretation school.

     Martin Luther did not invent literal interpre-

tation but he spoke of seeking the sensus 
literalis, the literal sense of the text. By that he
meant that we should seek the plain meaning of
the passage. In other words, we should interpret
the Bible according to its liters (Latin for "letter"),
 paying closely attention to its letters and  words.
Simply put, we arrive at the plain meaning of the
text by interpreting it according to standard rules
of grammar and syntax. In this sense, interpreting 

the Bible is no different from interpreting any 

other book.

     Luther emphasized this approach for a reason. 

In the Middke ages, a mystical approach to 

scripture arose. It was thought that the Bible 

contained many hidden, esoteric meanings, and 

interpreters had to crack the mystical code to get 

to the meaning of the text. For instance, a
 passage  noting that Paul went up to Jerusalem
might have  been interpreted to mean something
about going to heaven. Obviously, such an
approach set interpreters free to find all sort of
"Insight" the Bible was not trying to convey.
Luther was calling for a return to sobriety in the
use of the  Bible.

      The need us no less urgent today. Like their 

medieval forebears, modern Christians sometimes

use the Bible as a magical book, opening it and 

taking the first verse that meets theirs eye for 

guidance. The verse they find may have nothing 

to do with their situation, but it is perilously easy

to read a meaning into the text. Of course, God

can and does use Scripture in unusual ways to 

dramatically affect lives a classic example is that 

of Saint Augustine. Hearing children chanting

"Take up and read ," he opened the New 

Testament at "random" and read
Romans 13:13-14. But in his case, God used the
plain meaning of the passage to address his
licentious  lifestyles and lead him to repentance.
    The text intentions applied to him. And so he
was able to take it correctly as message from God
 to him Scripture is given for our guidance, but
only in its a plain sense. We must guard against
reading into it a meaning it does not convey. The
fact that the Bible is not always easy to
understand makes it simple to twist its meaning,
Guard against fanciful interpretations and always
weight your conclusions about a passage against
all of scripture.