Edify Ministries®

Building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12)

The items listed in the side bar are slides from classroom presentations. They are placed here to help students who have taken the classes, and may not be totally understandable without the classroom discussion. 

Some of these presentations require free software to play the ActiveX animations. If you do not have it will be downloaded and installed for you. 

Some of them take a few minutes to load so practice patience.  For example Reading an Epistle is about 300KB long. It will take several minutes to open using 28.8 modem on a clean connection when the network is not congested.

After you click on "Click Here to Start" on the index page, wait for navigation buttons to appear before you do anything. Then click in about the middle of the screen to advance the animation.  Some times it takes two clicks (not a double click) to advance to the first element of the animation. (Do not click click where the cursor become a hand.) 

Continue to click to advance the animation. Sometime other navigation icons may appear on the screen. They will take you to Bible verses, definitions, etc. Use the return icon to get back to where you were. If you get lost in here just restart the presentation.

Not all of the animation features are available in the network version due to software limitations.

What is hermeneutics?

Definition:

The rules and procedures for determining the meaning of the biblical text.

Goal:

To understand the author's intended meaning as expressed in the words of the text.

Helpful Quotes

Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation. The word is usually applied to the explanation of written documents, and may therefore be more specifically defined as the science of interpreting an author's language. This science assumes that there are divers modes of thought and ambiguities of expression among men, and accordingly it aims to remove the supposable differences between a writer and his readers, so that the meaning of the one may be truly and accurately apprehended by the others.[ Milton S. Terry. Biblical Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan Publishing House, [n.d.], p. 17. ]

Hermeneutics, the science and art of biblical interpretation, is of primary concern to evangelicals because of their commitment to the inerrancy and authority of the Bible. The task of Bible interpreters is to seek to ascertain the meaning of Bible passages to their original hearers and readers and to determine how that meaning relates to readers today. Biblical scholars have wrestled and are wrestling with serious hermeneutical issues but comparatively little attention has been given to the Holy Spirit’s role in hermeneutics. [Roy B Zuck. The role of the Holy Spirit in hermeneutics. Bibliotheca Sacra: 1955–1995. Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary, 1997, [Online] Available: Logos Library System.]

Whereas in the more ancient and fuller understanding, hermeµneia involved exegesis or interpretation, in the standard biblical manuals hermeneutics is distinguished from exegesis, as the theoretical from the practical. Exegesis is looked upon as the practical application of the theoretical rules supplied by hermeneutics. [The Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall, 1968, [Online] Available: Logos Library System.]

Reason is also to be employed to interpret and illustrate the Scriptures. To do this, the whole range of man’s natural knowledge may be taxed. The interpretation is never to presume to make reason the measure of belief, but the mere handmaid of Scripture. And the mode of interpretation is to be by comparing Scripture with Scripture according to the legitimate laws of language. The Scripture must be its own canon of hermeneutics, and that, independent of all other supposed rival sciences. For otherwise, as has been shown above, it would cease to carry a practical authority over the human mind as a rule of faith. A Bible which must wait to hear what philosophy may be pleased to permit it to say, and which must change its dicta as often as philosophy chooses to change, would be no Bible for any sensible man.[ R. L. Dabney. Topical Lectures on Scripture. Simpsonville, SC: Christian Classics Foundation, 1997, [Online] Available: Logos Library System.]

Hermeneutics, or the scientific determination of the principles and rules of Biblical Interpretation, including (1) the logical and grammatical and rhetorical principles determining the interpretation of human language in general, (2) the modification of these principles appropriate to the interpretation of the specific forms of human discourse, e. g., history, poetry, prophecy parable, symbol. etc., and (3) those further modifications of these principles appropriate to the interpretation of writings supernaturally inspired.[ A.A. Hodge. Outlines of Bible Topics. Simpsonville, SC: Christian Classics Foundation, 1997, [Online] Available: Logos Library System.]

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Updated: December 10, 2003 00:50 -0500
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