



| The study of the science and/or method of literary interpretation. In other words, how the meaning of a writing is understood by the reader. This "mind action" presupposes the reader has an adequate level of education in the written language sufficient to enable total comprehension of the word selection and writing style. Ok, so that is a simple definition of what Hermeneutics is. Most people who read the Bible do not consider this process of understanding a writing. Seldom is this considered before a person is taught Bible contents, i.e. Bible stories and lessons. In fact most Bible readers are not really aware of why they process information they hear or read concerning the Bible, the way they do. A religious system presents the teaching as "Correct" and few really examine or analyse what is presented in detail. This is not the case when other writings are read however, instead a reader is encouraged to start the learning of the writing in an order which the author presents through the usual literary tools, i.e. Titles, Introduction, Preface, Table of Contents, Author Bio, Subject,. etc. All of these tools provide proper hermeneutics of the writing. Hermeneutics is an exploration of written content using ordered sensible thought, considering one element of the writing at a time in various orders, eventually arriving at the author's ordered system he used as he wrote. The problem here is this, the majority of Bible readers already have been taught how to understand it before they actually read it. They are indoctrinated by religions who take one verse from one book, and combine it with another verse from another book, , which then a religious tradition is used to explain the "grouping" of verses, and in the end, they learn a religious theology (a man made system to use when talking about the Bible and God) which is not clearly evident when reading the Bible. This happened for the last 2000 years because of the arrangement of Bible books, chapters, and verses, which was not a part of the writings when God caused them to be written by His selected human writers. God used people who were existing with one base truth as their stand in life, "God Exists and Created Me." The secondary truth was, "I will wait for a Proof, where I know God is providing revelation for me." The third truth was, "God used the person where He found them, in their world, they did not have anything to do with the content, only the context in which the content was received and written", this secures the revelation within a human position in history. So lets recap: Biblical writers had a philosophy = God is my Creator, I am His creation. Biblical writers had no theology = I don't know God, and wait for God to provide "Proofs" the revelation is His, so I can learn how to learn about Him and me. Biblical writers had a Hermeneutics = God directed me by teaching me what to write and say to the people of my day and all generations after me. He preserves it by using my contexts as a journalists of my people. Biblical writers have God's theology which alters their philosophy and provides for them an easy science of learning reasonably His revelation preserved in a writing. So today looking backwards, we start with hermeneutics to learn theology, in turn to have a philosophy in order to know God through a religious system invented, which provided this "Way" to know God. Now, if a person desires to have the revelation of God in the same order in which God provided (the correct natural system of learning which God created) is it possible for a Bible reader to do this? If so, then the Bible arrangement must be examined and each biblical book studied to see if it can be determined which one was first, second, etc. Then the manner in which each book is read should be without verses and chapters. The end results is, the Bible reader today is travelling the same road as the biblical writers did when God caused them to write what we are reading, which is exactly as God planned it. The good news is, this order is easy to see, if one will just pay attention to the literary context of each one of the biblical writers. So proper Hermeneutics is: 1. Read writing #1 with attention on Author identity, title, subject, main points. 2. Read writing #2 using the same format as above and adding to #1 as a reasoning. 3. Read all 66 books as close to the original order as possible, building one book on another using the Author's identity, title, subject, main points, all as previously done. 4. Areas in the writing which are not understood when you are completely done reading, are to be noted, but NOT guessed about. If the writer does not supply the information as determined within the literary context (I did not say, your subject context) use nothing else but the author's provided information. This system is the one which God provided apart from human consultation and contribution as to design. Man can be credited with writing from his place in his nation, education, language, culture, economy, government, religion and personality along with his knowledge of previous and future writers of God. Now in the case of the biblical writings, we have 66 books written by various people who lived in a totally foreign world from an American -- or any other nation -- with at least 1900 years separating the reader and writer. Religions are everywhere dominating societies all over the world. To shut out religious influences a person will have to work harder with this problem, than the problem of actually reading the Bible. Now also factor in the influences religions and governments have had on the actual writing since the biblical writers have penned the words, and you understand there is way more work in actually arriving at the place of the biblical writer's literary context alone, one on one, you and the writer's writing. So here I will relieve you from years of work and frustration attempting to shed off from your minds; influences God said you don't need in order to have a relationship with him through His Son, The Creator, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. |
| The work for today's Bible reader starts with identifying what is religious influences and what is from the Bible. How can you achieve this easily? It is actually easy to do if you will trust your ability to read and are willing to make notes to aid in your memory. Also you must learn the writer's literary context, meaning all areas of his life and times. Now assuming you are at this point, lets list the science terms and steps needed to comprehend a biblical writing. 1. Author identity 2. Title 3. Subject 4. Age of writing 5. Association with other biblical writers. 6. Association with the other subjects of the Bible books. 7. Note the difference between your world and the world of the writer's writing. There is a lot of work in those seven steps. However if you will work through them you will automatically know all there is to know in each biblical writing. Now one thing I should point out when working the seven steps. If you can't determine the answer to one of the steps, leave it blank and note it as such. Steps 5-7 might remain blank with some of the biblical books This doesn't mean you need them in order to fully understand. What it means is the writer and God did not think you needed that info in order to comprehend the PURPOSE of the writing. You must understand, that each biblical writer was moved by God to provide what God wanted all readers of all times to read and learn. If you have a question as you read, write it down for that book, and remember, there might not be an answer to it. But perhaps there will be an answer within another book or during the 8th time you re-read. God designed the Bible books to fit together in the order in which He caused people to write them. God's people lived while God was causing this collection of writings to be preserved and passed along, knowing that He would cause the complete written word to be completed. When each writing happened, the people read and learned. This step by step procedure EXCLUDED all man's religion, and systems of having a relationship with God, and instead, INCLUDED a theological system He designed using man's system of writing journals for that present day of writing. Hermeneutics as God designed it occurred naturally in the writing process. The process was the actual event of each writer operating within his people. It is a very interesting truth, that all the writers of the Bible penned from a place in time, which has many historical factual records available today for the entire world to have access for learning. It doesn't matter which part of the biblical writing context you are not familiar with, you can learn it with ease and arrive at a full understanding of any literary context a biblical writer used when writing God's revelation thousands of years ago. |