Everybody Interprets

LESSON TITLE

Everybody Interprets

ESTIMATED TEACHING TIME

15–20 minutes

CORE IDEA

Nobody simply “reads the Bible.”

Every reader interprets what they read.

The question is whether our interpretation is being governed by the biblical text or by assumptions we bring to it.

BIG IDEA

We do not come to Scripture empty-handed.

Every reader brings experiences, traditions, expectations, culture, theological assumptions, and personal questions to the text.

Hermeneutics helps us become aware of those influences so that we can submit them to Scripture rather than unknowingly making Scripture submit to us.

The goal is not to become a reader with no assumptions.

That is impossible.

The goal is to become a reader whose assumptions are continually being examined and corrected by the text, within the biblical story, under the lordship of Christ.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to

• Define hermeneutics in accessible language.

• Explain why every reader interprets Scripture.

• Distinguish between what the text says and what the reader assumes the text says.

• Identify several influences they bring to biblical interpretation.

• Explain why humility is essential to faithful interpretation.

6. Begin using the question

“Where did I get that understanding?”

• Recognize Christ as more than a conclusion we add to interpretation; He is central to the biblical story that gives Scripture coherence.

PRIMARY TEXT

Luke 24:25–27, KJV

“Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

WHY BEGIN HERE?

The disciples knew the Scriptures.

Their problem was not lack of biblical information.

Their problem was interpretation.

They had texts.

They had expectations.

They had a theological framework.

They had even walked with Jesus.

And yet they misunderstood what the Scriptures were pointing toward because their expectations about Messiah shaped what they could see.

Jesus does not give them a new Old Testament.

He gives them a corrected reading of the Old Testament.

That makes Luke 24 an ideal entrance into hermeneutics.

SCAFFOLDED SCRIPTURES

NEHEMIAH 8:8

“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”

Three movements appear

Read the text → Give the sense → Produce understanding.

Reading and understanding are related, but they are not identical.

2 TIMOTHY 2:15

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Scripture requires responsible handling.

The existence of the Word of truth does not guarantee that every use of it is truthful.

The workman matters.

2 PETER 3:15–16

Peter says some things in Paul's letters are “hard to be understood,” which the “unlearned and unstable wrest.”

The biblical writers themselves acknowledge that Scripture can be misunderstood and distorted.

Therefore

Sincerity does not automatically produce accuracy.

ACTS 8:30–31

Philip asks the Ethiopian

“Understandest thou what thou readest?”

He responds

“How can I, except some man should guide me?”

Again

Reading is not automatically understanding.

JOHN 5:39–40

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

Here is one of the most sobering possibilities in biblical interpretation

A person can study Scripture intensely and still miss the One to whom Scripture bears witness.

TEACHING MOVEMENT 1

TITLE

Everybody Has a Hermeneutic

Hermeneutics comes from the Greek hermēneuō / hermēneia word family.

It carries the idea of interpreting, explaining, translating, or making meaning understandable.

For this course

Hermeneutics is the process and principles by which we understand what Scripture means.

Everybody has a hermeneutic.

The person who says

“I don't interpret the Bible. I just read what it says.”

is still interpreting.

To understand a sentence, we automatically make decisions about

• words
• grammar
• context
• figures of speech
• speaker
• audience
• genre
• intention
• relevance

SIMPLE EXAMPLE

Jesus says

“I am the door.”

John 10:9

Nobody assumes Jesus is made of wood with hinges.

Why?

Because the reader interpreted the metaphor.

Interpretation is unavoidable.

The real question is

Are we interpreting well?

TEACHING MOVEMENT 2

TITLE

We Bring Something to the Text

No reader approaches Scripture from nowhere.

We bring

FAMILY

What did the people who raised me teach about God?

CHURCH TRADITION

What did my congregation or denomination emphasize?

PREACHERS AND TEACHERS

Which voices formed my theology?

CULTURE

What does my community assume about

• success
• authority
• gender
• race
• money
• power
• family
• freedom
• suffering

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

What happened to me that now affects how I hear certain passages?

POLITICS

Which political assumptions already feel morally obvious to me?

PAIN

Sometimes suffering becomes an interpretive lens.

DESIRE

Sometimes we want Scripture to say something.

We do not only misunderstand Scripture because we lack information.

Sometimes we misunderstand Scripture because the interpretation we prefer is more comfortable.

THE BACKPACK ILLUSTRATION

Imagine every person walking toward Scripture carrying an invisible backpack.

Inside are

Tradition Experience Culture Pain Preferences Politics Teachers Assumptions

The problem isn't that you have a backpack.

Everybody does.

The problem is when you forget you're carrying it.

Then you can pull something out of your own backpack, place it onto the biblical text, and sincerely say

“Look what the Bible says.”

That is one of the central dangers hermeneutics is designed to expose.

TEACHING MOVEMENT 3

TITLE

The Difference Between Meaning and Assumption

OBSERVATION

What does the text actually say?

INTERPRETATION

What does the text mean?

ASSUMPTION

What have I brought to the text before establishing its meaning?

APPLICATION

How should the truth of the text shape belief and life?

Problems arise when we jump from

Reading → Application

without doing the work of interpretation.

EXAMPLE

Philippians 4:13

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

A modern reader may immediately hear

“Christ empowers me to accomplish whatever goal I set.”

But Paul's context is about learning contentment in abundance and lack.

The text is not primarily promising limitless achievement.

It is testifying to Christ's sufficiency through changing circumstances.

Same verse.

Very different interpretation.

TEACHING MOVEMENT 4

TITLE

Familiarity Can Hide Interpretation

Some interpretations do not feel like interpretations because we have heard them our whole lives.

Consider

“Touch not mine anointed.”

“God won't put more on you than you can bear.”

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

“I can do all things through Christ.”

When statements become familiar, we can stop examining them.

A major hermeneutical question is

Do I believe this because the text teaches it — or because Christianity around me repeatedly taught me to hear the text this way?

TEACHING MOVEMENT 5

TITLE

Humility Is a Hermeneutical Virtue

Faithful interpretation requires more than intelligence.

It requires humility.

Why?

Because interpretation sometimes requires us to say

“I may have been wrong.”

That can be difficult when the belief

• came from someone we respect
• is part of our denomination
• is tied to our identity
• has helped us emotionally
• has been preached for decades
• has become part of our own ministry

The mature interpreter is not the person who never changes an interpretation.

The mature interpreter is the person willing to let Scripture correct one.

THE CHRISTOCENTRIC TURN

Return to Luke 24.

The disciples' assumptions caused them to misread both the Messiah and the Scriptures.

They expected Messiah to fit their expectations.

Jesus reverses the process.

He does not ask

“How can Scripture fit your expectations about Messiah?”

He shows

The Scriptures must reshape your expectations about Messiah.

Luke 24:27 says

“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Christ does not appear as an inspirational appendix at the end of Bible study.

Christ belongs to the redemptive logic of the biblical story itself.

COURSE PRINCIPLE

Christocentric interpretation is not forcing Jesus into every isolated verse.

It is learning to read each text faithfully within the redemptive story that reaches its fulfillment in Him.

CRUCIAL WARNING

There are two opposite mistakes.

ERROR 1

Christless Interpretation

We interpret biblical texts entirely around

• morality
• leadership
• success
• relationships
• principles
• personal purpose

without locating them in God's redemptive story.

ERROR 2

Forced Christocentrism

We ignore what a passage actually means and artificially attach Jesus to every detail.

Example

“David had five stones because five represents grace and Jesus is full of grace.”

That is not Christocentric interpretation.

That is creative association.

COURSE FRAMEWORK

Context → Story → Christ → Response

NOT

Verse → Imagination → Jesus

KEY TERMS

HERMENEUTICS

The principles and process used to understand Scripture.

EXEGESIS

Drawing meaning out of the text through careful examination.

EISEGESIS

Reading meaning into the text that is not supported by the text itself.

CONTEXT

The literary, historical, cultural, grammatical, and theological environment surrounding a passage.

PRESUPPOSITION

A belief or assumption brought to interpretation before examining the evidence.

CHRISTOCENTRIC

Interpreting Scripture with proper recognition of Christ as the center and fulfillment of God's redemptive story.

COMMON ERRORS TO AVOID

• “The Bible means whatever it means to me.”

Personal significance does not determine textual meaning.

• “If I've heard it preached, it must be biblical.”

Preaching itself must be tested by Scripture.

• “My experience proves my interpretation.”

Experience can illustrate truth but cannot determine it.

• “If an interpretation helps somebody, it must be valid.”

Usefulness and truth are not identical.

• “Christ-centered means finding Jesus hidden in every object.”

Christocentric interpretation honors context and the biblical storyline.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

• Who or what has most influenced the way you read the Bible?

• What biblical belief have you held for years without ever examining its context?

3. Which is harder for you to question

• your personal experience
• something your pastor taught
• your denomination
• your politics
• your family tradition
• your own previous interpretation

• What would make it difficult for you to admit that you had interpreted a familiar passage incorrectly?

• How can a person sincerely love Scripture and still misunderstand it?

PRACTICE EXERCISE

TITLE

Where Did I Get That?

Choose one statement you have heard regularly in Christian settings.

Examples

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“God helps those who help themselves.”

“Touch not mine anointed.”

“If you have enough faith, God will heal you.”

“God won't put more on you than you can bear.”

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Complete these five prompts

• THE BELIEF

What have I heard?

• THE SOURCE

Where did I learn it?

• THE TEXT

Which Scripture is normally used to support it?

• THE CONTEXT

Have I actually studied the passage surrounding that verse?

• THE QUESTION

What would I have to reconsider if the passage does not mean what I assumed?

Do not solve the entire issue yet.

The purpose of Lesson 1 is simply to become aware of interpretation.

LESSON TAKEAWAY

Everybody interprets.

Everybody brings assumptions to the text.

Faithful interpretation allows Scripture to challenge those assumptions and locates the text within the story fulfilled in Christ.

FINAL SCREEN

Before you ask

“What does this mean to me?”

Ask

What does the text say?

What did it mean?

Where does it fit in the biblical story?

How does that story lead us to Christ?

Then ask

What must change in me?