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Is The Bible Open To Interpretation?

Overitall said:
Four basic ones.
1. Right in the verse when it's meaning is clear.
2. The verse and/or verses must be understood in its/their context
3. The word(s) must be understood according to its previous usage or in the way by which they were understood when written.
4. To whom the passages, or books were addressed to. Not everything is addressed to everyone. They are addressed to the Jews, Gentiles, or Church of God. If you read something that isn't addressed to you then the interpretation will be wrong.

This is just the basics but without adhering to them an interpretation is opened to misinterpretation.
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I'll agree with you . . . to a point.

For example, the bible says God created the earth in 6 days. This was written to the nomads wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, as they prepared themselves to take the Promised Land.

They were a primitive people. They had no concept of time passage other than the sun came up, the sun went down and came up again. That was a day. They could also measure time as the seasons passed. They did not have a word for nanosecond or eon or epoch. As Moses tried to explain the creation to these nomads, he was limited by what they could understand and what was relevant at the time. Consequently, if you are a hardcore believer today that the universe and everything in it came to be in a six day period, you are being delusional.
 
Stealers Wheel said:
I'll agree with you . . . to a point.

For example, the bible says God created the earth in 6 days. This was written to the nomads wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, as they prepared themselves to take the Promised Land.

They were a primitive people. They had no concept of time passage other than the sun came up, the sun went down and came up again. That was a day. They could also measure time as the seasons passed. They did not have a word for nanosecond or eon or epoch. As Moses tried to explain the creation to these nomads, he was limited by what they could understand and what was relevant at the time. Consequently, if you are a hardcore believer today that the universe and everything in it came to be in a six day period, you are being delusional.
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Well, I don't know about that. You're trying here to confine the Creator to your own sense of time. ;)
 
Stealers Wheel said:
I'll agree with you . . . to a point.
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That's a good starting point. :)
Stealers Wheel said:
For example, the bible says God created the earth in 6 days. This was written to the nomads wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, as they prepared themselves to take the Promised Land.
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Applying my "keys" to the interpretation I'm not sure the "creation" subject of Genesis can be interpreted to mean literal 24 hour periods. For instance 2 Peter 3:8 says:

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

I think it makes more sense not to take it literally but I don't see the harm in doing so. The focus isn't on the time but the action. There is a figure of speech (actually several which I don't recall -- this one might be the figure "repetio") involved in the "creation story". One of them is the repetition of the words "And God said . . . ." The emphasis isn't on what God said but rather that whatever He says is true and happens. This fundamental principle is established in the first chapter of the Bible laying the foundation on the "fact" that whatever God says is to be trusted because we seen it in just the creation alone.
Stealers Wheel said:
They were a primitive people. They had no concept of time passage other than the sun came up, the sun went down and came up again. That was a day. They could also measure time as the seasons passed. They did not have a word for nanosecond or eon or epoch. As Moses tried to explain the creation to these nomads, he was limited by what they could understand and what was relevant at the time. Consequently, if you are a hardcore believer today that the universe and everything in it came to be in a six day period, you are being delusional.
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That's an interesting viewpoint. Although I don't recall the way nomads kept time I think they had some system that worked close enough to ours. Of course the sundial and stars was a good way of keeping time.

Good points.
 
nota bene said:
You don't speak for the Holy Spirit, and your explanation here doesn't manage to explain "charismatic Catholics."
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It’s not my job to explain charismatic Catholics. What I do know, and share is my personal experience.
 
I see the answer hasn't changed in 34 pages.
 
it's just me said:
I'll bet you were carried away the ways I was, blabbering away in what you thought was a real language, which is what "tongues" actually are - a real language, not incoherent babbling. At the same time, someone probably claimed they had an "interpretation", and you didn't know the difference because you didn't know what you were saying.

Been there, done that, bought the T shirt. If I've seen that once I've seen it a hundred times.

Until you called the RCC "heretical" I was ready to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I am so sick of lay Protestants talking about how much better they are than the other guys because they have superior gifts and superior knowledge. If that's the way you want it I'll treat you the same way you treat everybody else.

A pox on all your houses.
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I have never babbled and heretical is your word. I said that when a person is truly born of the Spirit, that self same Spirit will lead the away from idolatry and false doctrine. The virgin Mary is an example. The RCC has made her co-redemptive with Christ. Nowhere in the Bible do you read that. It is both idolatry and false doctrine.
 
ASHES said:
Maybe someday the theists will agree. If they do, then I might think they're onto something.
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What family do you know that can agree on everything? ;)
 
Overitall said:
What family do you know that can agree on everything? ;)
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There are certain things everyone in a family can agree on.

Religion is so fractured it would be like each family member arguing with themselves over which of 10 things to have for supper.
 
Crunchtime said:
I have never babbled and heretical is your word. I said that when a person is truly born of the Spirit, that self same Spirit will lead the away from idolatry and false doctrine. The virgin Mary is an example. The RCC has made her co-redemptive with Christ. Nowhere in the Bible do you read that. It is both idolatry and false doctrine.
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Calling the RCC idolatrous and false is heretical.You sound like a Jack Chick publication.
 
ASHES said:
There are certain things everyone in a family can agree on.

Religion is so fractured it would be like each family member arguing with themselves over which of 10 things to have for supper.
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Good point. Hopefully no one starves before deciding.
 
Crunchtime said:
It’s not my job to explain charismatic Catholics. What I do know, and share is my personal experience.
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I was responding to the post in which you stated, "You are exactly right. Once a 'Catholic' is born again they are compelled by the Holy Spirit to leave the idolatry and false doctrine behind." And I'd say that if it's not your job to explain charismatic Catholics, you should avoid pronouncements such as this because you don't know/are uninformed/are relying on your personal observation.
 
nota bene said:
Well, I don't know about that. You're trying here to confine the Creator to your own sense of time. ;)
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Not at all. As far as I know God created the universe at whatever time span he wanted, whether it was in a blink of an eye or a billion melinnia.

My point is the original audience was extremely limited in their understanding of time measurements.

Here is an analogy: suppose an oncologist has to explain to a young child he has cancer and will undergo extensive treatment. The child's father is a general surgeon. The oncologist is going to discuss this with the child in different terms than he will with the father, all the while telling them both the same truth, simply because the child is far more limited in his understanding.

That is how I see the story of creation. Simply explaining the truth in terms the children of Israel could understand at the time.

It very well may have taken precisely 6 rotations of the earth to complete the work, but to ignore all other possibilities is foolish.
 
nota bene said:
I was responding to the post in which you stated, "You are exactly right. Once a 'Catholic' is born again they are compelled by the Holy Spirit to leave the idolatry and false doctrine behind." And I'd say that if it's not your job to explain charismatic Catholics, you should avoid pronouncements such as this because you don't know/are uninformed/are relying on your personal observation.
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Isn’t it obvious that the Holy Spirit would lead the born again believer away from idolatry and false doctrine?
 
Crunchtime said:
So then in your mind is the Virgin Mary co-redemptive with Christ?
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Second Vatican Council: “Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix and Mediatrix. This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from, nor adds anything to, the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator.” (Lumen Gentium, n. 62.)
 
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Crunchtime said:
Isn’t it obvious that the Holy Spirit would lead the born again believer away from idolatry and false doctrine?
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What you consider to be "idolatry" and false doctrine is not and has not been perceived to be either by millions of people, however much you fervently believe this yourself.

And while we are fellow travelers on the road, I believe that the Holy Spirit speaks to each of us individually and and directs our routes if only we will listen.
 
Paul said to the Corinthian Christian congregation...Jesus’ followers are to be unified in action, belief, and teaching...

"Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you should all speak in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you may be completely united in the same mind and in the same line of thought." 1 Corinthians 1:10
 
Crunchtime said:
Isn’t it obvious that the Holy Spirit would lead the born again believer away from idolatry and false doctrine?
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If it's obvious then why would you have to speak of it?
 
Elora said:
Paul said to the Corinthian Christian congregation...Jesus’ followers are to be unified in action, belief, and teaching...

"Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you should all speak in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you may be completely united in the same mind and in the same line of thought." 1 Corinthians 1:10
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Paul wrote this to Christians of the 1st century, showing that from the very beginning disagreement among them was developing.
 
Overitall said:
Paul wrote this to Christians of the 1st century, showing that from the very beginning disagreement among them was developing.
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And it only got worse as time went on...
 
Dragonfly said:
Is the Bible open to interpretation?
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Come on. You know damned well that the bible has been reworked so many times throughout history to serve political or religious objectives that no one knows what it originally said.

On top of that, we all know it's a retelling of folklore. Some things lightly originated from history, other things just completely made up and handed down.

No one can believe teh Bible is some guide of guide book from God who is reasoned or rational.
 
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