Church & Theology

We approach the Bible with a face-value interpretation of the text as it was originally written. In biblical interpretation, or hermeneutics, the reader should always ask, “What information did the first readers of this text take from it?” and “What was their reaction to what they read?” This enables us to get as close as possible to the information value of what the authors wanted to put across. We cannot get into the mind of the writer to find out what he intended, but we do have information about the first readers—whether during the Old Testament period or the first century.