Viewing entries tagged
hermeneutics
Recently, I had a comment from a listener who said, “If you give the same Bible to two billion people and tell them to interpret it for themselves, won’t they come up with more than two billion interpretations?” They then explained that the Catholic solution to this problem is the Pope. I'd like to consider the problem the listener raises and the solution that he offers.
Jesus said that the Scriptures pointed to Him but for a long time, I wasn’t sure how. It seemed as if the Bible mostly told stories about people like Noah, Moses, and David. How could they also be speaking of Jesus? I came to learn that one of the ways that the Old Testament points to Jesus is by laying down patterns that foreshadow Him. Those parallels can be seen clearly in the account of Daniel in the lion’s den.
We love biographies of successful business people, great inventors, and glamorous celebrities. When we read stories about people in the Bible, we tend to read them in the same way. We assume that the central figure must be a hero, and we look for ways to imitate them. But that usually isn’t a great strategy.
