Has anybody ever told you that to understand the Bible you need to use the principals of "hermeneutics" ??? Beware!

Hermeneutics is a word derived from "Hermes" the Greek god of lying, cunning, theft, commerce, roads - and was the messenger of the gods (Romans called him Mercury).

Background:

Etymology

The word hermeneutics is a term derived from 'Ερμηνεύς, the Greek word for interpreter. This is related to the name of the Greek god Hermes in his role as the interpreter of the messages of the gods. Hermes was believed to play tricks on those he was supposed to give messages to, often changing the messages and influencing the interpretation thereof. The Greek word thus has the basic meaning of one who makes the meaning clear.
Hermeneutics

Crystal Reference Encyclopedia

(philosophy) [hermenyootiks] The theory of the interpretation and understanding of texts. Though its origins lie in ancient Greek philosophy, hermeneutics received fresh impetus in 18th-c discussions of the problems of biblical interpretation posed by the development of historical-critical method. Schleiermacher shifted attention from the formulation of rules of interpretation to the question of how it is possible to understand the written discourse of different cultures and ages. The discussion was carried further by Dilthey and, in the 20th-c, by Heidegger and especially Gadamer. During this time the discussion expanded to embrace all aspects of the understanding of texts and entered many fields, including literary theory, the social sciences, social philosophy, and aesthetics.

http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Hermeneutics

To understand the Bible properly JUST BELIEVE IT! Don't worry about scholarly tricks.

Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" - see also Proverbs 9:10, 15:33, Psalm 111:10, and Job 28:28.

The danger of "hermeneutics" is to basically think that the Bible is just like any other book. It is not. If we subject the text of the Bible to outside notions in order to limit it and compartmentalize it, then we are not "rightly dividing" the word - we are trashing it.

1 Timothy 6:20 "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:"

Those that promote "Hermeneutics" set forth Rules that they say should govern the proper understanding of the Bible. At the very begining that is wrong, because nobody is allowed to establish rules that will govern God. The whole attitude at the start is tainted away from humility because of this.

See here for varieties of schools within Hermeneutics:
http://www.thinkbible.net/bible/newtest95.htm
and
http://members.tripod.com/ApocryphalText/coursemat.Hermeneutics.htm

Some of the "rules" are merely common sense. Others come from the presumption that everything the Bible says must be interpreted in harmony with their meaning in the time, culture, and history of "the author".

That means ignoring the Bible as a "supernatural book" and limiting it to it's human authors' time and place.

For example, Nahum 2:4 says, "The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings."

That is clearly a prophesy about modern automobiles. But Hermenuetics would say, "the author of this passage was living in a time when the chariot represented invention and movement, and he was describing his insecurity at the pace of progress in the towns and cities." [ha!]

Or here,  Isaiah 14:12  "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"

That is about the Devil's fall. But Hermenuetics would say, "the author of the passage is not talking about the classical Christian understanding of Lucifer, he is describing an earthly king of Tyrus using hyperbole and an extended metopher"

And here, John 5:4 "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."

Obviously some sort of miracle was known to happen here when witnesses saw an angel come down into the pool. But Hermenuetics would say, "the description of the angel coming down was just the author trying to relate to the superstitions of his first century audience."

(This type of reasoning shows up a lot with the modern theologians: Jesus didn't really mean what he said to his disciples (about heaven, hell, being one with the father, etc.), he was just using words that he knew they would be able to understand with their limited minds (i.e., Jesus lied? No way, they're the liars).

Beware the tone of these types hermeneutical "helpful notes" are found in many of the study bibles on the market today.

Here's a site where an author lists 7 Bible-based principals for understanding the Bible (unlocking the seven seals to the Bible)
http://www.avpublications.com/6_qa/qa1-6b.htm



- MM