Interpreting the Bible

It's called "hermeneutics", and it's the method by which we interpret the Bible. Any text, actually, but used most often in terms of the Bible. There are a variety of approaches applied to interpreting the Bible.

The Bible as folklore

This view approaches the Bible as a collection of tales told around the campfire. No, I'm exaggerating, but the idea is that over time people passed on stories to entertain, to explain, to instruct, and so on. These were largely oral stories. They obviously would change with the repeating, and in time it would become nearly impossible to tell which stories were somewhat accurate and which ones were fables made up to make a point. Eventually, however, people started writing these stories down to preserve them over time and now we have them in book form. There is no real way to tell what is accurate, inaccurate, fable, or myth. But they do make a nice set of stories.

The Bible as a teaching tool

This view is somewhat similar to the "folklore" approach, but with a little more ... reverence. This idea says that the Bible is a compilation of teachings for the instruction of the believer. The compilation includes legend and allegory and folklore and anecdotal pieces, but the purpose of the book is to teach. Therein lies the difference between this and "folklore". In folklore, that which is passed on is a gathering of fiction and fact (and, of course, modified fact) just to connect with the past. As a teaching tool, however, the Bible would be viewed as having a purpose -- to teach. Studying the Bible from this view would require the student to find the lessons. The actual stories and words are simply the medium. What you're really looking for is "What is it trying to teach me?" Whether or not there was a Creation or even a Jesus, you could on one hand dismiss the content as fabrication while, on the other hand, still finding it a valuable teaching tool for principles of living.

The Bible as a history book

Here is a somewhat "higher" approach. The assumption is that genuine history was trying to be passed along. As in folklore, it was likely history that has been ... modified with the telling, but it is, by and large, intended to be an adequate historical accounting. The view is to the history of Judeo-Christian religious thought over time.

In this view, the authors are simply humans with a goal to pass on the history of the religion. If they made mistakes, it was just to make a point. If they added information (such as "This is attributed to Paul") that wasn't accurate, it was simply to make the point. Some of the material is made up ... to make the point. Some is borrowed from other cultures ... to make the point. Some is entirely accurate. The goal, however, is simply to trace the history of the Judeo-Christian religion. As such, they may be historically inaccurate, but are spiritually significant.


The Bible as the Word of God

This approach takes the Bible literally. It is important to understand the term "literally". It doesn't mean "word for word at plain face value." That's unfair to any writing. It means "as written". The Bible contains poetry that should be read as poetry and historical narrative that should be read as historical narrative and proverbial texts that should be read as proverbs and doctrinal passages intended for doctrine and so on. The underlying approach of this view is that the Bible is "God-breathed". That would mean that humans wrote it (injecting their own personalities, word choices, etc.), but God superintended it making sure it said what He intended. In this view, then, the only possible errors would be copy errors as opposed to factual errors. The content is taken as written and assumed to be true as written.

What does this look like?

Examine, for a moment, how these approaches handle various events. How about Creation? In the Word of God approach, that story says that God created the known universe and all that is in it. (Various people differ over the meaning of words like "days", but in the literal approach, God created it all.) In the historical approach, God created all that is, but there's no reason He couldn't have done so by, say, evolution. The point is that God was part of the original history. As a teaching tool, it wouldn't matter at all if God actually created the known universe. What is important is that from the beginning of time (whatever that means) God has been active. The text is likely myth intended to teach us that. In the folklore view, it doesn't matter. It's the same as any other ancient culture's story of where things came from. The American Indians have their stories. The Bible has its story. It's just stories.

How about the parting of the Red Sea? The Word of God view would say, "God parted the Red Sea just like it says. A genuine miracle." The historical approach would say, "There wasn't likely a miracle involved. Maybe a wind blew the water off the Reed Sea or some other natural phenomenon. The point is that God watched over Israel in history." The teaching tool approach would say, "It doesn't really matter whether anything like it even remotely occurred. It just tells us that God is watching over us." And the folklore version would dismiss it as a very thrilling fairy tale, good for the movies, perhaps, but not much else.

Well, that's the (extremely) short version. There is obviously a whole lot more that goes into biblical interpretation, and it obviously makes a huge difference if you approach this book as a divine book or not. Perhaps, though, you can begin to see that your premise of interpretation will have a massive effect on your understanding of the Bible.