Introduction
When you encounter different interpretations of the same Bible passage, does it ever make you wonder if Scripture can have one clear meaning? This question touches the heart of how we approach God’s Word. In this episode of Ask FGBC, Pastor Jim Butler explains what the 1689 London Baptist Confession teaches about biblical interpretation and how we can study Scripture faithfully without falling into the trap of eisegesis.
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Transcript
Summary Keywords: Bible interpretation, manifold meaning, Scripture itself, exegesis, eisegesis, true and full sense, Adam as type of Christ, Bible study, confession, infallible rule, surface level, deeper connections, creeds and confessions, church gifts, maturity in the church.
Speakers: Wim Kerkhoff, Pastor Jim Butler
How Many Meanings to a Passage?
Wim Kerkhoff (00:07): Okay, so how many meanings to a passage are there? There can be a lot of interpretations out there. Like you read some of the parables or the sermons, and there’s like 15 different ways it’s explained to who to believe. So some people just throw up their hands and like, it’s not worth getting into because there’s so many things. Yeah, people can be confused around it.
One Meaning, Full Sense
Pastor Jim Butler (00:27): Yeah, that’s another good question, a very good question. Perhaps the backdrop is chapter one in our confession. I don’t see that referenced in the question itself, but chapter one, paragraph nine, says the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. And therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture which is not manifold but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly.
So how many meanings to a passage are there? There’s one meaning that the spirit intended for us to get. Now, having said that, the idea of manifold means many and various. Manifold does not mean, or in this context, many or various. There’s not many or various meanings, but that particular meaning can be full, more complex. There might be things going on that you know, further study, further interpretation of Scripture, will help you to see. It’s not that there’s a new meaning in that passage, but there’s a fuller meaning that you perhaps didn’t see the first time.
And I think a good example might be, you know, the first time a Bible reader opens his Bible to Genesis, and he starts reading. And he reads, you know, that first day, he figures, I’m going to read for however many minutes, and he reads Genesis one to three. Now he’s going to learn a lot about God, about creation, about man, and it’s going to be a benefit to him.
Now, he continues on in his reading, and he gets eventually to Romans 5. And there, in Romans 5, he learns that Adam was a type of Christ. Now, Adam doesn’t become a type of Christ when that man reads Romans five. Adam didn’t become a type of Christ when Paul wrote Romans chapter five, but Adam in the garden is functioning as a type of Christ.
So there’s more going on than just a surface level survey of the text. It’s not a different meaning. It’s not an altogether unconnected meaning, but there might be more going on in a passage than initially meets the eye. And that’s the beauty of Bible study, right? That’s the glory of our God, as He has revealed Himself propositionally in the 66 books of the Bible.
I mean, I hope that none of us ever get to the point where we read Genesis to Revelation and say, “Well, I’m done.” No, you’ve only just begun. You start reading, you keep reading, and you’re not discovering new meaning that has never been discovered before. You’re not discovering new meaning that the Holy Spirit just inserted then, but you’re discovering the various connections that scripture has that you never saw before.
So there is one meaning, the meaning that the Holy Spirit intended, but the meaning that the Holy Spirit intended can be connected in a multitude of ways and shed light on a whole host of doctrines that you weren’t familiar with previously. So when our confession says which is not manifold but one, it’s absolutely correct. But that does not negate the fact that the full sense of any of those one texts can be connected and developed further or seen in other ways, to shine the light upon, you know, various truth or truths.
Exegesis vs. Eisegesis
Wim Kerkhoff (04:16): Yeah, the key is not bringing our interpretation, our meanings to it, but making sure it’s coming out of the text.
Pastor Jim Butler (04:21): That’s right. The difference between exegesis and eisegesis. Exegesis is we lead out of the text the meaning that the spirit intended for us. Eisegesis is when we bring the meaning to the text and we insert it.
And, you know, unfortunately, that happens a lot. It happens in preaching. It happens in personal Bible study. It happens in the kinds of Bible studies where you go around the table. “What does this text mean to me?” It doesn’t matter what the text means to me unless it’s right, and that’s what the Spirit intended for it.
So we need to be careful that we don’t bring preconceptions, we don’t bring our pet doctrines. We don’t bring, you know, what we’d like for the Bible to say to the Bible and then make it say that, put it on the torture rack and, you know, crank it up and, you know, make it yield the interpretation that we’re looking for. That’s not the way to do good Bible study.
Wim Kerkhoff (05:23): Yeah. I just, I’ve heard sermons where they can take a different text, but it’s really the same three point sermon attached at text, which can be… but yeah, there can be, mentally, we have a lot of layers in our mind over it, so it can take a while to strip those layers away and get back to what is God saying here?
Scripture Interprets Scripture
Pastor Jim Butler (05:42): That’s right. And, you know, we never should dismiss this principle of interpretation that’s given to us in the confession here: the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. And therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense, notice that language “full sense.”
Again, you get that Adam was made by God in Genesis one to three. You get in Romans 5 that God made Adam to function typically with reference to the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the confession itself, highlighting it’s not manifold but one, uses the terminology “true and full sense,” recognizing there’s more going on at times than just the surface level meaning of the text. And then it says it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. So the Scripture is its best interpreter.
Now, having said that, that does not mean that we can’t read the creeds and the confessions of the ancient church. That does not mean that we don’t read the books or listen to the sermons that have been given that are consistent with the Word of God. In accordance with Christ’s purpose for the church, He ascended on high. He led captivity captive. He gave gifts to men. He gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers. Why? To equip the saints, to bring maturity in the church.
So, you know, one nine does not exclude the study of outside the Bible resources. Christ gave gifts to educate people so that they might understand the Bible better, and if we don’t want those gifts, then we’ve got a problem, ultimately, with the one who gave the gifts. This idea that, you know, “me and my Bible alone,” you know that’s a noble venture. It’s a noble intention, but your Bible tells you that Jesus gave men to help you understand the Bible, so it seems a bit disingenuous at some point.
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