"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).
When Jesus explained Scripture to the two disciples, He was interpreting the Scriptures. In fact, the Greek word Luke used in this passage is the word from which we get the word hermeneutics, the science of biblical interpretation. As we saw yesterday, there is only one meaning to the text of Scripture, though there are multitudes of implications and applications. The science of hermeneutics helps us to understand the objective messages of Scripture.
There are three major methods of interpretation used today. The classical method, used by Bible-believing scholars, is the grammatical-historical method. This method strives to discover the original meaning of the texts by studying the historical situation in which the events took place and were written. Thus, the grammatical-historical method seeks to bridge the gap between the time Scripture was written and when it is being interpreted.
The second approach, which developed among eighteenth- and nineteenth-century evolutionary scholars, is the “religious-historical” or "historical-critical" method. It assumes religion, along with everything else, is evolving from the simple to the complex. This school brings the evolutionary presupposition to Scripture and denies the Bible means what it says. For instance, when the Bible says Abraham worshiped one God, they contend that cannot be true. Monotheism, they say, cannot have evolved so early in history. The religious-historical method sets aside the statements of the text in favor of an overarching theory that the text is forced to fit.
The third approach, which developed in the twentieth century under the impact of existential philosophy, is the “existential” method. This method says that God speaks through the Bible to each person directly, regardless of what the text actually says and meant when it was written. This completely relativistic approach denies all absolutes and abiding principles.
Proper interpretation of Scripture demands that we have an understanding of the historical and cultural setting of the Bible. If you have not already done so, undertake a careful study of biblical history and culture in order to aid your interpretation of Scripture.
