We Christians don't interpret the Bible the same way, right?

Question

The Bible is a lengthy, in-dept look at God and his attempt to explain to us the laws of the universe. The basic power of God is love. The most important commandment is to love God. However, Jesus said if we love our neighbor then we love Him and His Father.
But try to understand that all people are different; and we'll all see and comprehend things differently. That's why we all see God differently.
But one thing is for sure. If you read the Bible, You'll find it to be truthfull. At least I did. And that's why I'm a believer.
I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Answer 1

Yes, the bible is not an easy book to read and understand. For believers, help in understanding comes from the Holy Spirit, the second person of the Trinitarian Godhead. Nevertheless, it takes many years of careful study and prayer to understand all of the messages contained in the bible. That is not to say the bible is out of reach to the everyday reader. Many bibles today include helpful study notes to aid the reader’s understanding. Readers of bibles with study notes should take care to understand that some of these study notes are written with a particular bias, such as dispensationalism, or pre-millennialism. See: http://www.christianarmoryfl.com/biblecomp.htm
Christ spoke using parables almost exclusively in the New Testament:

Mat 13:34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.

Jesus spoke the first four parables to the multitude. Parables are stories with deeper meanings. The use of this teaching method by the Lord fulfilled Asaph's prophecy in Psa_78:2 that the Messiah would speak in parables, uttering things kept secret from the foundation of the world. These features of the kingdom of heaven in its interim form, hidden until this time, were now being made known.

Some portions of the bible use ancient instruments of rhetorical comparison while other objectively report historical events. There is also beautiful poetry in the bible that uses many forms.

Parallelisms- The Bible poetry's greatest technique is not to rhyme sounds, as in much English poetry, but to "rhyme" ideas—that is, to put two or more lines together that somehow match each other:

Synonymous Parallelism
Antithetic Parallelism
Formal Parallelism
Synthetic Parallelism
Emblematic Parallelism

Literary Figures- We use these every day without realizing it. Such expressions as "She's a real angel" or "He eats like a pig" are figures of speech:

Simile
Metaphor
Alliteration
Anthropomorphism
Zoomorphism
Personification
Acrostic

In other words, one cannot take a few verses here and there and form an entire theology around them without understanding the systematic messages in the entire bible. Unfortunately, some believers and non-believers will pick and choose their biblical verses to try to make a point, yet fail to synthesize the verse(s) with an overall thematic theological message.

So, to properly understand the bible you must first have a solid grounding in what is referred to as biblical hermeneutics. The term hermeneutics was derived from two words--the Greek verb hermeneuein, meaning to interpret, and the noun hermeneia, meaning interpretation.

Hermeneutics is described as the development and study of theories and interpretation of the understanding of sacred texts.
Some hermeneutical principles to keep in mind as you interpret the bible:

- Understanding the subject according to its social and historical context
- Assessing the historical social construction between the researcher and the subject
- Relating ideographic details to general theoretical concepts through abstraction and generalization
- Being sensitive to potential pre-conceptual theoretical contradictions between research design and actual findings
- Being aware of possible multiple interpretations among participants for a given sequence of events
- Being conscious of potential biases or systematic distortions in the subject’s narratives

For those who have studied hermeneutics formally or informally, it becomes easier to determine when metaphors or ancient instruments of rhetorical comparisons are being made in the scriptures. Hence when I train future clerics, church teachers, etc., they are equipped with the right tools to then expound to others.

Despite the difficulties in reading such a profound book, careful investigation will also reveal that there exists NO SINGLE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY that has been shown to prove error, factually or doctrinally, in the Bible. Yes, there is plenty of speculation and hypotheses about errors in the bible, but not a single verifiable fact.

A good text to start with: "Principles of Biblical Interpretation", by Louis Berkhof

Start here:
http://www.bible-interpretation.com/
http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Hermeneutics/

Answer 2

I would think that they interpret it in a different way. Every person interprets a reading differently based on their experience with the subject, experience with God, other people, etc. It is impossible to interpret a passage, be it in the Bible or the newspaper, in the exact same manner as another individual. Because we don't have the same life experiences, we can never be certain about how a person perceives anything. For example: When you read the phrase "Man eating duck" you might think of an enormous vampire like drake, or you might think of a man sitting down at a table dipping some tasty meat in duck sauce.

Answer 3

Good for you.
You are right-people tend to interpret the Bible the way they want it to be. Its a lot like modern science, some scientist deliberately discard good data because it does not support their preconceived ideas. The same with the Bible-some people ignore what they do not want to believe and somehow fabricate what they do.

BUT---there is only one correct interpretation of the Bible, like there is just one correct interpretation of scientific data. If everyone would just look at the facts-we would all be better off.

Yes I am a Christian. I believe the Bible is the inerrant WORD of GOD. I believe we all have a responsibility to get it right-and everything else.

Answer 4

As far as interpretation goes, you are correct. But the basic, salvation, is interpretd the same way. But here too, what we are taught regarding this and other basic doctrines can play a major role in how we interprete the bible. Everyone will not agree on the interpretation of prophetic books due to various reasons. The Bible is our only recognized creed or should be.

Answer 5

Your "one thing" that is sure is NOT sure.
I've read the bible (dozens of times), and I do NOT find it to be truthful. I find it to be self-contradictory in dozens of places, I find it contradicts fact, actual history, and scientific evidence, I find it full of superstition and myth, and I find many parts (OT especially) to be full of violent, sexist, ignorant nonsense.

You believe jesus is the son of god -- on what evidence? Because a musty old book tells you so? If you believe everything you read in old books...do you believe the earth is the center of the universe and everything else orbits around it (from Ptolemy's Almagest, written many centuries before the bible); do you believe Ra is the sun god, and Osiris was dismembered then came back to life to rule humanity (from the Egyptian book of the dead); do you believe the story of Jason and the Argonauts (from the Homer's Odyssey, many centuries older than the bible)? If not, why not? There's just as much evidence that those things are true as your bible -- none. You choose one unsupportable myth over all the other unsupportable myths...simply because that's how you were raised.

Think! Use the brain evolution gave you.
You'll live a much better life.

Peace.

Answer 6

I dont rely on mankind to interpret the bible for me. The Holy Spirit interprets the bible.

Answer 7

Praise God! A lot of people I know say they won't read the Bible because it is boring. But it is the book of life!!!!!Everytime I read it it's new to me. That is why it is called the "Living Word!" God bless!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 8

Every christian on earth interprets it differently. As long as you follow what you believe to be God's will, you will get to heaven.

Answer 9

I believe that God is your interpreter.He lets you see it the way he wants you to see it.Everyone is different in that they all need something else from this life.And he will let you see what you need from him.I also believe that nobody can read his words and not come away changed in some way.No matter who you are or what you believe.His wisdom is too awesome!

Answer 10

Correct.