For Christians, how should you interpret the bible?

Question

I'm curious. What is the right way according to their faith?

Literally? Figuratively? Turn a blind eye to the bad stuff and pretend it's good?

Because I've met too many people who say the bible is free for interpretation and only use the good stuff literally, but completely ignore the nasty stuff.

Tell me, what does the church say, and what do you as christians say?

If I may, I meant how are you supposed to interpret it- as in, according to the teachings of your religious leaders, how do you go about it?

Answer 1

For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand completely, as you have come to understand us partially, that we are your boast as you also are ours, on the day of (our) Lord Jesus. (2 Corinthians 13-14)

Paul's second letter to the Corinthians was written about 57 C.E. All of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation were written after Paul's letter and may or may not apply to this statement.

The verse from 2 Corinthians would only be applicable to the documents that Paul and the other Apostles had written up to that time.

The Jews had centuries of Holy Scripture interpretation by the priests and rabbis.

In Acts 8:27-39: Philip asks the Ethiopian reading the prophet Isaiah, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The Ethiopian replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?"

The original readers of the Epistles also knew Greek and all the slang and idioms used in their time. They knew (and lived) the culture, politics, and habits of everyday life of the first century C.E.

If I knew the original languages in which the Bible were written, namely Hebrew, Greek, and a little Aramaic, archeology, and theology then maybe I would not need the Church to help me.

The Catholic Church can also delve into the riches of almost 2,000 years of constant Bible study by the most intelligent and spiritual people of each generation. Why would I want to throw this treasure away?

Translations are also an issue. Something is always lost in translation, no matter how good, how new, or how beautiful a translation is.

On a practical note, being able to keep an eye on the big picture has kept the Catholic Church together for almost 2,000 years with currently over 1.1 billion living believers.

Non-Catholic Christian Churches that interpret the Bible any way they wish keep splintering off each other to the point that there are now well over 10,000 non-Catholic Christian denominations.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Well all of the Bible should be read and used, and believed. Most if not all pastors go through a course in seminary where they learn hermeneutics. That is just a big fancy word that means how we read and interpret the Bible. Most people now a days read the Bible with a reader response mentality. that is why they use some parts of the Bible and not others and what not. This leads to a lot of misinterpretations and what not. Good hermeneutics teaches that we should read the Bible with our minds on authorial intent. That is, when we read a verse chapter book, whatever, we need to be asking ourselves the question "what does the author mean here?" This mindset leads to better, clearer, and more accurate interpretations as well as more peoples' interpretations being the same. I can go on and on with this, but that is a basic to start on.

Answer 3

The Bible makes it patently clear when you should interpret things literally or figuratively.

If the passage is describing a parable, poem, or a prophecy, you have to look at it figuratively. If the passage is describing a historical event, you take it literally.

In terms of visions of heaven and the visions in Revelations, which are both prophetic and visionary, you have to look at the language of the passages. If the writer uses language such as "I saw ____ LIKE a ____." then you know you should take it figuratively because it's a metaphor, not an actual physical description.

As for individual passages that seem to go against what we know of God as a loving, caring deity or for passages such the infamous ones on women being silent in church and slaves being obedient to their masters, you have to look at the times in which they were written and recognize that they were written to describe very specific events in history. The reason that Paul commands women to stay silent in church is that back then men and women sat on separate sides of the aisle. At the time, most women couldn't read and were often kept out of the temple by the Jews. As Christians, they were allowed to sit in the same building, just on separate sides of the aisle. Well, there were cases where the woman wouldn't understand something that was said and she'd call over to her husband to see if he knew. This was causing such a disturbance that Paul had it shut down.

If you know stuff like that, it makes a LOT more sense.

As for the "God of the Old Testament" being all fire and brimstone, what you have to understand is that God was trying to preserve the nation of Israel at all costs. By allowing mankind free will, they had decided to destroy Israel and/or enslave them (just as they had done every other nation). Therefore, God had to protect them in order to bring about the Messiah. Also, God was hard on the Israelites when they failed because He had deliberately told them what they should do and they refused to do it. He warned them over and over that they would be destroyed if they kept doing stupid stuff, but they did it anyway...often for hundreds of years at a time before judgments would fall. If you ask me, that's a God of grace rather than destruction.

Anyway, you just need to keep reading and trying to understand what is written rather than just get offended by passages that seem...offensive!

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

I believe the bible is mostly literal, with some things illistrated as a story.

Answer 5

I believe that when and as I read the bible God will make things I need to know to my understanding.

Answer 6

i think its because they dont understand some of the books of the bible

Answer 7

the christians confused me so much when i was one ,that is why i left to become a follower of Jesus without religion

Answer 8

christians believe in a god that was once pleased with animal blood sacrifices and then needed the blood to Jesus to wash sins......their beliefs are bronze age...don't ask them to make sense!

Answer 9

ARTICLE 2
THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

74 God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth":29 that is, of Christ Jesus.30 Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth:


God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.31

I. THE APOSTOLIC TRADITION

75 "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline."32

In the apostolic preaching. . .

76 In keeping with the Lord's command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:

- orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";33

- in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing".34

. . . continued in apostolic succession

77 "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority."35 Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."36

78 This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes."37 "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer."38

79 The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit, remains present and active in the Church: "God, who spoke in the past, continues to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel rings out in the Church - and through her in the world - leads believers to the full truth, and makes the Word of Christ dwell in them in all its richness."39

II. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADITION AND SACRED SCRIPTURE

One common source. . .

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."40 Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".41

. . . two distinct modes of transmission

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."42

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."43

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."44

Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions

83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium.


III. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE HERITAGE OF FAITH

The heritage of faith entrusted to the whole of the Church

84 The apostles entrusted the "Sacred deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei),45 contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church. "By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practicing and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful."46

The Magisterium of the Church

85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ."47 This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."48

87 Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you, hears me",49 the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.

The dogmas of the faith

88 The Church's Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.

89 There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas. Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.50

90 The mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ.51 "In Catholic doctrine there exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith."52

The supernatural sense of faith

91 All the faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them53 and guides them into all truth.54

92 "The whole body of the faithful. . . cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole people, when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals."55

93 "By this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium),. . . receives. . . the faith, once for all delivered to the saints. . . The People unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life."56

Growth in understanding the faith

94 Thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities and the words of the heritage of faith is able to grow in the life of the Church:

- "through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts";57 it is in particular "theological research [which] deepens knowledge of revealed truth".58

- "from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which [believers] experience",59 the sacred Scriptures "grow with the one who reads them."60

- "from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth".61

95 "It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls."62