- with a litmus test example -
What do I mean by this distinctive phrase, interpretation is king? In the discovery of understanding the Word of God, the process of uncovering the truth is paramount. The truth of God is grounded in two realms. The first and greatest is the realm of God’s Spirit, the source of our understanding and empowering. The second one concerns the title of this note. It is the realm of written documents, specifically, the documents that are contained in the Bible and documents relative to the Bible. Great advance can be made in the second area without personal knowledge in the first because the second consists of historical, man-written documents. However, full knowledge is reached when you are personally and fully involved in both realms. God is fully magnified in the expression of both realms.
Now, in focusing on the second, there is an obvious hierarchy of discovery in determining the truth. Over the years people have put different emphasis on the various spheres of this area. Sometimes some spheres are over-emphasized, de-emphasized, or even neglected.
What are these spheres determinative in uncovering God’s truth? By listing these, I will build from the most foundational to the pinnacle. I believe there are three spheres of concern.
First is the near approximation to the texts of the Bible. By this I mean determining what are the closest texts reproducing the original languages texts of the Old Covenant and New Covenant Scriptures.
Second are the best (being the closest) translations of these original language texts.
Before discussing the third and final sphere, which is interpretation, some things need to be said about the first two. Since they are inseparable for uncovering the truth, they will be discussed together. If all we had to be concerned with were these areas of discipline, we would be by and large greatly unified in arriving at the goal of objective truth. That is because many language sphere experts have robustly and successfully given themselves to mastery of these areas with the different off-shoot disciplines involved. They have made their findings known. The raw factual knowledge is there from the fruitful labors of these successful masters for all who will obtain it. It is just here, though, that we land upon the problem of discovery of truth. This fact is counter intuitive. One would expect that when such great and successful tasks have been accomplished through experts in their very fields, that such knowledge would be laid bare and properly interpreted. This has not happened and does not happen per se. These facts reveal that the first two spheres of discipline are tools, indispensable tools, but mere tools nonetheless. The tools do not guarantee success. They do make it highly attainable. The success is realized in the appropriate use of the tools, and that is the function of interpretation. For certain reasons, the experts themselves arrive at conclusions contrary to their tools and often do so in opposition to one another, which itself underscores the preeminence of interpretation. One way to see this is through this analogy; the tools are the tree, interpretation is the fruit of the tree. What is an olive tree that does not bear olives or bears substandard ones?
Consider this litmus test of conclusions arrived at by a sample group of tool wielders, and consider it in the light of God’s will that there is one Lord and one faith and one body of Christ, and that we are, accordingly, commanded to speak the same things and think the same things in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
This list of the positions of the experts is the last one that I’m aware of. When using the phrase conclusions arrived at by the tool wielders, I am listing how they decided to live their lives to fulfill God’s will as they interpreted it.
In the list below, while the people named have many accomplishments across various fields of learning, I have listed only two of those disciplines for which they are best known in the first column and then I list how they interpreted the Bible and worshiped in the second column.
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In Alphabetical Order |
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| A. T. Robertson – Greek scholar/Synoptic Studies | Baptist |
| B. F. Westcott – Greek scholar/Biblical Manuscripts | Anglican |
| Bruce Metzger – Greek scholar/Biblical Manuscripts | Presbyterian |
| F. F. Bruce – Greek scholar/Biblical Histories | The Brethren Movement |
| J.N.D. Kelly – Biblical scholar/Biblical Histories | Anglican |
| Joseph Rotherham – Biblical scholar/Bible Translation | Methodist → Church of Christ |
| Kirk and Barbara Aland – Greek scholars/Biblical Manuscripts | Lutheran → The Confessing Church (B. Aland?) |
| Reuben Swanson – Greek scholar/Biblical Manuscripts | Lutheran |
| William Farmer – Greek scholar/Synoptic Studies | Methodist → Roman Catholic |
What are we to make of this? What does it tell us? Expertise is no guarantee to proper interpretation and understanding. A right and seeking heart is. Believers in Jesus all have the Holy Spirit of the Living God. One of the many functions of God’s Spirit is to enlighten and teach all believers. The effort that God expects and rewards is the diligently seeking person. Effort and honesty are part and parcel attributes of such people.
All of this proves that interpretation is king when it comes to understanding how to fulfill God’s will. For God’s will is that all of His people both live and worship aright. It is in living and worshiping properly (that is, in believing) that God is glorified in Jesus Christ.