Are religious text (the OT,the NT,the Qur'an,the Bhagavad Gita,the Vinaya texts,etc.) open to interpretation?

Question

(There isn't space to list all the texts, sorry.)

Are they subject to interpretation even when certain scriptures are claimed to be divinely inspired?

How do we know that the one who teaches us about those texts has the correct understanding?

How can any one be sure that they correctly understand the word of a human, much less the Word of God?

Answer 1

I am not sure that these are open to interpretation per se...... But individuals seem to take different things from the texts based on past experiences, circumstances in childhood, exposure to different cultures and openness to new ideas.

You always have to be wary of false prophets and people who will "tell" you about what to believe. You should always have first hand knowledge of these ideas and texts. It is unwise to follow teachers strictly. You have to have first hand knowledge of the information-- you may not just be told it and blindly follow-- for that is not enlightment at all.

Answer 2

I can only speak to the bible. Unfortunately I have not had a chance to study the other religious texts.

With the bible, yes it is open to interpretation, but there is only one correct interpretation. Who's that is only God knows for sure. However the most important thing to keep in mind when interpreting the bible is CONTEXT.

An example is, just because the bible might say it's wrong to eat shell fish, doesn't mean it is currently wrong to eat shell fish for Christians. You must examine the context, many laws and rules like this are in the bible for historical record of what occurred for a specific culture during a specific time. Not an end all be all law for everyone forever.

There are several levels of context to consider.

1. With in the passage- make sure you understand the topic being discussed. In any conversation or document you can pull lines out that sound totally different then they were intended to mean if you do not keep the entire topic with in context.

2. The book - Know why the book was written, who it was written to, and when was it written. Often this information is the main aspect of correctly interpreting biblical scripture.

3. The original language - Unless you are reading Greek or Hebrew, remember the bible has been translated so if you're in doubt use a resource like Strong’s numbers to find out the original Greek or Hebrew word and what it meant.

4. The rest of the bible - If something on place in the bible seems inconsistent with the general message of the bible, read other passages related to topic, if they seem to contradict each other read commentaries and make sure you have a complete understanding of the 3 other areas of context I listed above.

Answer 3

I can't vouch for the Qur'an,the Bhagavad Gita or the Vinaya, but I used to know one of the men on the panel that helped to re-translate all 24, 633 pieces of the New Testement still existing. Every part of the New Testement was recreated from those pieces. Professors of Anchient Hebrew and Greek were on that panel as well.

From that panel of professors, theologians and historians came the New International Version of the Bible. After they were finished, they compared the NIV to the King James Version and found them to be incredibly accurate. There were only 3 verses that hadchanges in all of the translating. The onl;y differences found in all of those texts was whether Jesus was called Christ, The Christ or The Lord Jesus Christ.

The Old Testement has been proven to be 100% accurate since it's original writing. This was proven by the oldest known copies: The Codex Vaticanus, The Codex Alexadricus and the writings found in Qum Ran.

Beyond that, there is very little open to interpretation by pastors.

Answer 4

The standpoint that we can get from our ordinary lives may come from anywhere and everywhere, but that may mislead and misguide us. So we have to be particular about getting the proper direction.That direction is given in Bhagavat gita: tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya. The Lord Himself has given us this general guidance of where we should try to get the standpoint or measure through which we are to understand.
The standered by which we come to measure truth, untruth, or anything must come from a real plane. It must come from that place wich has two qualifications: jnani and tattva darsi.
The conception and the also the practical benifit.
Sri Krsna tells Uddhavaji in Srimad Bhagavatam: arcaryam mam vijaniyan navamanyeta karhicit na maryta-buddhyasuyeta sarva deva mayo guru.
" Oh Uddhava! The spiritual master is known to be My very form. At no time should one neglect or disrespect the guru as ordinary by envy, nor should he be viewed a having any faults. For this reason the Guru is the sum total of the demigods"
There are so many quotes from sastra that, even when we read on our own, we will see again and again that we must approach a living sadhu.
But it is said as well that it this knowledge should be found through the bonafide sampradaya. The meaning of sampradaya is defined as knowledge decending in the chain of of consecutive spiritual masters . This means that although the Spiritual Master will come in so many different forms, still coming from this disciplic sucession, the knowledge and wisdom handed down has not changed. This sampradaya in a link forming a chain from our hearts to the Lord.
If you are intrested in finding out more then contact me and we can talk, as this is getting long.......

Answer 5

Anything that is in writing has to be interpreted. It is called "reading". And anything written can also be easily mis-interpreted. Take a couple lines from here or there, skip sections, twist words. But thanksfully when you get something as long and involved as the Bible, and you carefully read it, there is enough material to make the meaning of the vast majority of it very clear.

I like Mark Twain's comment about the Bible, "Its not the parts I don't understand that worry me, it's the parts I do."

How do you know the person teaching you has the correct understanding? Read it for yourself. Most of it is pretty straight forward.

And don't forget, with the Bible, you can always ask the original Author it explain it to you. He is good at that.

Answer 6

yes they are open to interpitation. Just look at the NT. You have some Christians who claim God and Jesus are one being because of phrases. Then you have tohers that claim they are 2 seperate beings because of other phrases.

You have Muslims that believe that Jihad is worng and of course other who practice it.

So how do you know. Well if you believe and pray I think you do get the answer from God. But do you listen because it means you could be wrong? Most won't and still insist their views are the right ones. The fact is the these books were written by man but that they were writing down the word of God as they were his Prophets and this is what he told them. So it is the word of God in the Bible and I believe that the Quoran is the word of Mohammad (SIC) who was a prophet but since his words were not written down for centuries, I beleive they have been distorted and even mistquoted.

Now if you don't believe in God, you would not believe in his Prophets, and so you would not believe any of these religious texts. So as many Christians say. It is by faith that you know.

Answer 7

I took the Bhagavad Gita as more of a novel containing philosophy. I also consider many of the texts of Eastern philosophy to be open for interpretation. Religious texts such as the Bible, Qu'ran and Torah are less open to interpretation as they supposedly have some sort of divine inspiration. Philosophy is just a subjective explaination of objective reality.

Answer 8

All these were written at the time when people were literate. Ex. the Hindu's or Brahmans had known to write since 4000 years back. In Israel and Arab region, they did interpret stuff by drawing.

Only the Bible and Koran claim that it contains god's word - direct.

The Bagawath Geethawalie was written by man from knowledge that was passed on through generations. They had to by heart everything - and it was not a single person who by hearted it - thousands did - so the chance of forgetting is less. Where as the bible scripts were written by single disciples. Hence the chance of forgetting is more.

Answer 9

A great text - be it religious or otherwise - has the power to be relevant, at all times. Great religions books dont state laws, great religions books opens your mind, so that you see the law, that is most relevant to your situation, and your time.

So, interpretation of the books is a MUST, if you want to understand the deeper meaning behind the words written in them.

Alas, too many of us today seek to literally follow each and every word in these books. However, there's a catch here. Assuming that religious books were actually given by god - unfortunately, the person who finally wrote them was not the person to whom the words were given. That is, Mohammad never wrote the Quran - it was written 300 years after him. Jesus never wrote the bible, and Krishna or Arjuna never wrote the Geeta.

Lesser mortals who wrote it, based it on hearsay, and their own interpretations, understanding, intelligence, prejudices, and norms of their times.

We, therefore have to sift through all these layers of obfuscation, to get to the real meaning behind the words written in the books.

Answer 10

Absolutely anything we read, from holy texts to the adverts on the back of cereal boxes, are open to interpretation. The questions to ask are:

what did the author really mean to say?
how has it been understood by others in history?
how do you understand it?

The Word of God will dramatically change your life for the better.