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Disclosure: This represents an Eastern Christian perspective (yet its applicability is not confined solely to Eastern Christians). I've met many very intellectually gifted Protestants who share their hermeneutical approach to scripture and yet come up with widely varying positions on the interpretation of various passages. Hence 23,000+ Protestant ...

The bridge that connects Jesus the Nazarene as "Yahweh" is Isaiah 8:13-14, which both Paul (in Romans 9:33) and Peter (in 1 Peter 2:6-8) use to make the nexus between "calling on Jesus" and "calling on Yahweh" to be saved. First, in Psalm 118:22 we find an unqualified mention of a stone "which the builders rejected" that in turn "became the chief ...

From a modern hermeneutics perspective: First, the distinction needs to be made as to whether or not you're asking when or how. When indicates a circumstantial acknowledgement of the purview of Scripture on one's life whereas how indicates constant purview of Scripture. There are also three words that seem to be used interchangeably but that are actually ...

How do I find out when a Bible passage applies to me? Speaking from a Christian perspective, and assuming: The whole Bible is written under God's direction Each text was directed at an original person or audience, but... God had in mind that later generations would be 'listening in' All scripture is intended to be useful to us The question then ...

My answer might not be in line with the question if you only mean technical methods. However there is the obvious notion of prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to what He has written to us. After all if the Spirit is the true author and men only the medium, we have more advantage in understanding the words by the Spirit than we would if ...

I was taught in seminary 2 foundational rules to remember before all others. Pay attention to the text. Pay attention to the context. While you won't see these rules stated verbatim in Scripture, you will certainly see them applied. Notice throughout the NT how the phrase, "It is written" and similar phrases appear. These are always used with quotes of ...

This question is broad; here are a number of basic principles to apply: Avoid "me first" exegesis. Do Christological, that is, "Christ first" exegesis; Jesus and the apostles did. Many passages in their direct and most specific application apply only to the people at that time. However, insofar as they fit into redemptive history, they bear some relation ...

Jews of the time understood God to have different roles (and different names), and one of these views of God was as father. For example, in Pirkei Avot, an early mishnaic writing from somewhere between 200 BCE and 200 CE, one rabbi writes: 20 Judah the son of Teima would say: Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, fleeting as a deer and mighty as a ...

My understanding of Childs' canonical criticism is that it allows one to circumvent difficulties brought about by historical criticism. With Childs a lack of historicity is not a problem. The canonical form of the Bible is that what God wanted to communicate to us. Canonical criticism views the final canon, the way the scriptures ended up being as being ...

Yes, I would suggest pay a lot of attention to the context, start basically when Jesus started, the exegetical rules of His time. One of the major hermeneutic approach of His time descends from the principles that Rab. Hillel recorded. The Seven Rules of Hillel: They are as follows: Ḳal (ḳol) wa-ḥomer: "Argumentum a minori ad majus" or "a majori ...

I find this to be a little bit of a loaded question; it makes a broad assumption that I don't fully agree with. But let me illustrate: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may ...

Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. An orthodox Christian site says: "A Biblical Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, on every page of Scripture, finds everywhere Christ." The fundamental rule is that all the scriptures speak of Christ, and until you see him in ...

The pattern of misunderstanding is charachterized by the following elements: (1) Jesus makes a statement, (2) it is misunderstood and (3) he or the narrator in turn must decipher the meaning of what has been said. The pattern itself suggests its function. In his book the Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel, R. Alan Culpepper notes that the misunderstandings ...

Two scriptures immediately come to mind. I'm not striving for best answer, so excuse the brevity. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and you do not ...

I'm currently reading Edmund P. Clowney's Preaching Christ in All of Scripture. In it he quotes C. H. Dodd: Wherever the term Kyrios, Lord, is applied to Jehovah in the OT, Paul seems to hold that it points forward to the coming revelation of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.—The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, 169. Note that Kyrios is a Greek word, ...

When we seem to face contradiction, it sometimes comes from different meanings of words. (I also appreciated sarah's pointing out the grammar in the Y that came to precede the Hoshea which became in transliteration Iesous (Septuagint Greek for Joshua and Greek for Yehoshua, that is Jesus)). An important aspect to consider may be this one, in addition: ...

Establishing the most foundational rule of hermeneutics is a bit like choosing your favorite child. The reality is that exegesis is a combination of methods to arrive at the best exposition of the true meaning of a passage. These methods include a variety of principles or rules, some of which are justified by the internal claims of the Bible itself, and some ...