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[I'm Wrong]

How do you know that the Bible has a right way to be interpreted? How do you know you have a right interpretation of the Bible? How do you know, and how do you know what it is?

[jimwalton]

As with all writing, we know we are not free to read it as we wish. There are common and consensual understandings in culture and academia that make language work. We take words to mean what they mean in the culture of the era or how the author has identified to define them. We have to understand words in the context of their culture, historical era, and in the context of the sentence in which they are used. We understand sentences in the context of the paragraph, and paragraphs in the context of the sections. We can use these grammatical and literary tools to discern the viewpoint of the author and the thesis of his work. We understand words or phrases to be figures of speech when taking them literally doesn't make sense (as in if I were to call you a "clever fox").

The Bible is no different from a letter, a historical document, a science text, or a play by Shakespeare. It's how language works. For instance, if I can't assume that you are understanding even this post because you either intrinsically know how language works or are able to use these tools to figure it out (what I mean by what I'm saying), then all communication is worthless. But we know it's not. I can trust and assume you can understand my post, because you know these rules.

So it is with the Bible. Just as a science text has a way it was meant to be understood and uses words and sentences accordingly, we can both read that science text and understand what it is saying. So also any literature professor can walk you through Shakespeare's Macbeth and analyze his plot development, nuances, and character psychology. It is so with the Bible. The Bible also has a proper way to be interpreted. The problem with the Bible is that it has many detractors who willingly and intentionally distort it, and the multiplication of these distortions has created cultural confusion and even disdain. And yet in truth, despite what irresponsible people have foisted on the biblical text to deprecate it, the Bible has a proper way to be interpreted and can be understood.