Chapter 6: Then Opened He Their Understanding
Luke 24:45 reads, “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.” The Lord Jesus Christ gives us the ability to ultimately open the Scriptures. Before we proceed with any discussion on Bible interpretation, we need to remember this very simple fact. Trusting God that He can teach us all things is imperative before we decide to read from the Holy Scriptures.
Nonetheless, there are very well-meaning people who fall into certain pitfalls. Let us explore some basics of Bible interpretation.
Context, Context, Context
Some say that the three most important rules of Bible interpretation are context, context, and context. Let us look at some passages.
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:15-20)
The final verse here is Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” This verse is commonly associated with prayer. If two of three people get together and pray, God will hear them. However, when you read the larger passage, you can clearly see this has to do with church discipline. If somebody in church is in denial about their sin, then with you, along with two or three witnesses, the Lord Himself is there, pronouncing judgment on the non-repentant sinner.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)
This is a famous passage often quoted by non-Christians or carnal Christians. The only problem is they only quote the first two words: “Judge not.” The motivation of such people is to justify their own wicked behavior, and obligate God and other people to tolerate it. But if you read past those first two words, we see that Jesus is speaking to people who are judging other people, but secretly do the same thing. Jesus then tells them to “cast out the beam out of thine own eye,” meaning clean up your own sin before you try to help someone out of the same sin. You can tell the idea is, if you finally have victory over a sin in your life, you will be able to help someone else out of it too. Your attitude will then be of gentleness and of a passion to help someone rather than being self-righteous and critical.
And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. (Mark 10:17-18)
In this case, some religious cults use this scripture to show that Jesus was not really God the Son. Many Christians cannot figure this scripture out either, because they stop at this verse. Let us keep reading:
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:19-22)
Jesus was trying to show this man his sinfulness and how not “good” he was. Instead, the man thought he had kept all of those commandments! So Jesus told him that everything that gave his life meaning, his wealth and his status in society, needed to be abandoned. Now the man could not justify himself; so he left Jesus there. Instead, this rich man should have seen that he was not good, and that he needed the good Savior, the good Shepherd, to save him from his sins.
Is Jesus good? He must be good, because He could not be the Savior without being good. Therefore, if and only if God is good, and Jesus is good, then Jesus must be God also. Jesus asked this question, just as God does throughout the Bible, to elicit a response from the man (cf. Genesis 3:9, 11, 13). If Jesus is not God, He is not good. If Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sins, He is good, and must be God.
Narrator Versus Quotations of Others
We can possibly quote the Bible, and possibly quote something that is not true. Now wait a second, that should you wake you up! Did I really just say that? Now give me a second, and it will make sense in a moment.
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. (Matthew 4:8-9)
Is this true? If Jesus bowed before Satan, would Jesus receive the kingdoms of the world? No! Satan was lying. So what do we conclude? The Bible accurately quotes other people, but the quote itself may not necessarily be true.
Another example would be quoting Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar in the book of Job. These men were not accurately speaking about God, so we cannot really quote these men and say, “Thus saith the Lord.” So we must conclude another thing: If God or the narrator in a passage says something in the Bible, it is always true. Otherwise, if someone else says something, it may or may not be true. Let us see another example:
And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. (Genesis 20:12)
Abraham said this to Abimelech king of Gerar when trying to recover from his lie. Sarah was his wife, but was she also his half-sister? We do not know. Abraham could have lied to save face. One last important thing we must conclude is the following: Just because the Bible records an event, it does not mean that the Bible condones the event.
Real Secondary Sources
Let us return to Mark 10 for a moment:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:25)
I have a problem when we quote something as fact when we have no idea if it is really true. It has spread around many pulpits and theological books that the “eye of a needle” is some special small gate at Jerusalem, and that it was difficult, but not impossible for a camel to get through it. There is no internal evidence or any secondary source that says this. On the contrary, we read two verses later concerning who can be saved and enter God’s kingdom: “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27). This attempt to explain away the “eye of a needle” actually is a false gospel. Jesus plainly told us here that it is impossible for us to save ourselves, but God can save us.
In most (if not all) cases, the needed cultural information for us to understand the Bible is given to us. For example, in John 4:9, there is a parenthetical statement that Jews and Samaritans had animosity one with the other. Again, in Acts 23:7-8, we see the differences between the beliefs of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. If this “eye of a needle” was something different than what it plainly means, God would have included such a parenthetical.
Allegory
Sometimes, I have heard Bible teachers emphatically say that something in the Bible represents something else, often in the form of forced typology that is not warranted. Take for example, this verse:
And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass. (1 Kings 13:28)
If you recall, a man of God who disobeyed God was judged by being killed by a lion, and this is what happened to him. I have heard it said that the lion represents Christ, the ass represents something else, and so forth. This is not warranted. It simply says here that the lion did not devour the carcass or harm the ass. It was simply a demonstration that this was ordained by God to punish the sin of the prophet.
Another one I had heard was concerning Genesis 27, where Jacob deceived his ailing father into thinking he was Esau. Jacob allegedly represented Christ, and Isaac as God the father, and the goat skins Jacob wore represented a sacrifice. This kind of forcing is not warranted, especially since Jesus definitely never deceived God the Father. It is an allegorical interpretation that dangerously sets aside the real meaning of the text for some contrived application.
Things Not Found in the Bible
Another danger in Bible interpretation is thinking something is in the Bible, and it is not! Here are some examples:
- Repent of your sins. The phrase is never found in the Bible, though there are similar phrases (Acts 8:22). People much more often than not assume that the word “repent” always means “repent of sins.” The difficulty with this is that God repents more than anybody else in the Bible, with the word being used more than 30 times in regard to Him.
- Speaking in tongues. Also not in the Bible, but “speaking with tongues” is (1 Corinthians 14:6). Speaking in another tongue simply means speaking or preaching in another language, not the entire doctrine and practice that was built up over the past few decades.
- School of the prophets. Simply not in there.
- Ask Jesus into your heart. Does not exist in the Bible. It is a false gospel invitation in western culture that does not make sense.
- The Lord works in mysterious ways. This is rather a paraphrase of a verse from a hymn.
- God helps those who helps themselves. From Benjamin Franklin, or an English politician, but whoever it was, it is not in the Bible.
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