Well, they're having me open in Produce tomorrow morning. That means my alarm is set for 4 hours from now. My body is still tired from closing, but I'm not sleepy. Tomorrow will be an eventful day. After work I head over to the church to help out with moving furniture for VBS and whatever else they might need for a little bit. Then I head over to pick up my car... or at least pay for it. After that, I'm off to studying! I decided to take some money out of savings to buy some study resources for class that I will likely need. After buying them though, I realized I could have chosen somewhat more wisely for the purposes I have. I need to write a paper on the historical background and "Observation" of the book of James for class. I chose the book because it's my favorite.
With the money I've bought 1. a half tank of gas 2. soon.. dinner for my mom's birthday 3. Basic Bible Interpretation By Roy Zuck 4. NT Commentary on James By John MacArthur 5. Nelson's Bible Maps and Charts (outlines and brief historical info) 6. Vine's Complete Expository Bible Dictionary
Hopefully those will help in this assignment and many more to come. So I don't think I've answered this question with more than a basic definition of the idea of Hermeneutics...
Hermenutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation. It's a science because there is a systematic way of doing the job and an art because there is much growth in the process as well. It's not merely a boring task with huge words and overexhaustive reading... it's digging into the Word of God! It's not subjective as art usually tends to be, either.
The basic process for Hermeneutics is 1. Observation (Look at everything there is to know about the text... time period, date, author, audience, geography, culture, history, context, etc.) 2. Interpretation (What is the ONE meaning to the text?) 3. Application (What are the primary, secondary and so on ways we can apply the truth to our lives?) The first step will color/influence the rest and is the most important.
The word "Hermeneutics" comes from the Greek god Hermes, who was the "speaker of the House" (if you will) for the Greek gods. This god was the messenger.
Someone of importance once put it to me this way... we are to be "engineers of the scriptures." They told a story of a man who was an architect. He was commissioned to build a bridge for a city and was in the room with the decision makers, state department chairs, and city officials. They were wondering what to build the bridge out of. They all gave their opinions and presented their cases before the architect... Steel? Stone? Plastic? (There are some strong sturdy plastics these days) ...Meanwhile the engineer is looking at his fingernails with little concern for the opinions of those around him. Why? Because he is the engineer. He went through the school to be a professional at what he is doing. He doesn't have to be concerned with opinions of others because he knows exactly the way in which to proceed. This is similar to how educated and proficient we should desire to be.
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