Some friends had a discussion last night about biblical hermeneutics. Biblical hermeneutics is basically the science of interpreting biblical text. It’s the process of going from reading what is written to understanding what is meant. Subconsciously, we do this any time we read anything. It requires a bit more intention when we’re reading a text that’s 1900 years old.

I’m not going to detail on the hermeneutic process that I use. If you want to study that, I’d encourage you to do so. There’s lots good resources available.

What I wanted to mention was one critical part of anyone’s biblical hermeneutic. It’s the piece that ensures we are not the Gnostics from the second and third centuries. I’m speaking of the Single Meaning point of any good biblical hermeneutic. It’s also sometimes called The Single Sense.

The idea is that when the author was writing, he had a single meaning, or sense, in mind. Hermeneutics seeks to discover that meaning. If the author was discussing money, then the meaning has to do with money. If the author was talking about faith, then the meaning has to do with faith. We can’t derive meaning beyond what the author intended.

Of course this varies slightly based on what type of text is being read (i.e., poetry, history, prophecy, etc).

Here’s another explanation:

"The basic meaning of a passage is the single sense evident to any reader who allows the words their ordinary meanings and who expects the grammar and syntax to shape and combine these meanings in a normal fashion. We need not await a mystical revelation of a truer sense dependent on allusions hidden to ordinary readers, the numerical values of letters, esoteric definitions, or other mumbo jumbo. No spiritual application, typological analysis, or theology derived from the text is legitimate unless it is faithful to this single sense. In other words, no larger meaning may be construed which distorts what the words actually say." (a)

Make sense? A lot of people will have problems with this. Bear with me.

A lot of people stop there. Their pursuit of understanding the Word of God stops with the author’s intended meaning. But it shouldn’t. Because while all scripture has a single meaning, it has many applications.

What I mean is this: The implications of the authors meaning will apply to you or your community in many different ways.

The author may be talking about money, but with the guiding of the Holy Spirit, you might find there is an important application about faith there. Or perhaps the author is talking about faith, you may find an important application about your use of money there. These are legitimate applications, although not necessarily the meaning of the verse.

The important thing to remember is that the personal application we receive from scripture will never be entirely different from it’s meaning and absolutely never in contradiction to the whole of scripture. The single meaning becomes the defense against heretical applications.

Christians should be faithful in seeking the single meaning of scripture, and patient and prayerful in waiting for the personal application of it. Both are absolutely essential, but seeking the meaning should always come first.

References:
a. http://www.themoorings.org/doctrine/issues/hermeneutics/intent.html