Principles for Interpreting the Bible

Principle 1: God is Perfect.

After Abraham seeks to carry out God’s command to offer Isaac, God intervenes:

“Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” (Gen. 22:12).

God obviously did not test Abraham so that He could learn how Abraham would react. However, the text describes God as learning something about Abraham’s character. So this text should not be read literally, since God is perfect, all-knowing in this case.

Principle 2: Two Authors

The Holy Spirit worked with humans who wrote the Bible. So in the text we see what the human author intended to say, which is the literal meaning. But a more spiritual reading of the text allows us to see what God said, and this is the actual meaning of the text. Thus a literal reading of the Scripture does not always allow us to see God’s word.

For example, Isaiah wrote: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” (Isa. 7:14).

Isaiah says that God will provide a sign, that King Ahaz will destroy his enemies in virtue of a young woman conceiving and bearing a son. This is the literal meaning.

But the actual meaning is that Mary shall conceive and give birth to God incarnate.

God spoke to Hosea:

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son,” (Hos. 11:1).

The literal meaning is that God called Israel out of Egypt. But the actual meaning is that God called Jesus out of Egypt as the New Israel, (Matt. 2:15).

The Psalmist said:

“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth,” (Ps. 33:6).

A description of creation is the literal meaning. But a metaphorical reading of the text allows us to see how God the Father created through His Son (the Word) and the Spirit (the Breath).

Principle 3: Jesus

Jesus is the final revelation of God. He is the one in whom the fullness of God dwells (Col. 2:9). He is the wisdom of God, (1 Cor. 1:24). By seeing Him, we see the Father, (Jn. 14:9). Jesus is the guide for understanding Scripture:

“He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures”, (Lk. 24:45).

The life and teachings of Jesus is the instruction manual for all interpretation. Our interpretation of Scripture must align with the revelation of God seen in Christ. And if our interpretation does not align with Christ, then all our Bible-knowledge won’t do us any good. Then we have not “heard His voice…nor seen His form,” and God’s Word does not abide in us, (John 5:37-38).

Principle 4: God is Love

The proper reading of Scripture should always bring us into conformity with God, revealed through Jesus Christ, as Love. If our reading of the Bible does not cause us to grow in love for God and neighbor, we are reading the Bible wrong. The Bible should lead us to Christ, and in turn teach us Christ-likeness; this is how the Bible is inspired, (2 TIm. 3:14-17).

Principle 5: Symbolic

We must search for a spiritual meaning of the Scripture that is consistent with the life and teaching of Jesus.

St. Gregory of Nyssa explains how we can read the Bible allegorically. He asked how a concept worthy of God could be preserved in the description of what happened in Egypt, and said the following:

“The Egyptian acts unjustly, and in his place is punished his newborn child, who in his infancy cannot discern what is good and what is not...If such a one now pays the penalty of his father’s wickedness, where is justice? Where is piety? Where is holiness? Where is Ezekiel, who cries: The man who has sinned is the man who must die and a son is not to suffer for the sins of his father? How can history so contradict reason?”

Gregory could not see Jesus killing the newborn in Egypt, and therefore God must not have done the killing; because if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. This, then, led him to find the deeper spiritual meaning:

“When through virtue one comes to grips with any evil, he must completely destroy the first beginnings of evil.”

Thus for Gregory, the Israelite is symbolic of virtuous character, whereas the Egyptian is symbolic of a destructive character.

Gregory learned from Origen who was a master at reading the Bible allegorically. When Origen read the story of the Battle of Jericho for example, he saw Jericho as a picture of the present age encompassing all that is opposed to God’s kingdom. And this story foreshadowed Christ’s defeat of sin and evil, how Jesus overthrew the "walls of Jericho." And the trumpet that heralded the collapse of the walls was a picture of the gospel.