Who Needs a Hermeneutic? Week 2

Read the Bible Better STUDY

Who needs a hermeneutic?

YOU DO.

And you already have one!! Everyone is doing some sort of interpretation when encountering the Word of God in the Bible. This is our opportunity to step back and see the principles that we already use and take time to ask the question… is this the best way to read the Bible?

Lets look at a few of the major actors on the grand stage of Hermeneutical interpretation:

READER

There is no neutral reading of anything. Every single person has something that they come to the text with. They can be anything from personal beliefs about the world to cultural understandings of truth and reality. Presuppositions can either be helpful to know or they can be a hinderance when left unexamined. Unnamed presuppositions will become your unknown prejudices and will unintentionally guide your practice for interpretation. So instead of ignoring our impact on the meaning of what we read, we should expose our own ideas and assumptions. When one steps in to the role of “reader,” he draws meaning from the Bible.