Chapter 13: How to Understand the Bible

The need for understanding

It is one thing to hold the Bible; it is another to understand it. When Philip met the Ethiopian official reading Isaiah, he asked, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” and the man replied, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:30-31). The Bible is clear on the things necessary for salvation. The Westminster Confession says that these are so plainly set forth in Scripture that “not only the learned, but the unlearned” may gain a sufficient understanding of them (Westminster Confession 1.7). Yet Peter admits that in Paul’s letters there are “some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest” (2 Peter 3:16). Right reading takes care.

Principle 1: Read with prayer and dependence on the Spirit

“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalm 119:18). Paul explains that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). After the resurrection, Jesus “opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45). The Spirit who inspired the Word gives light to those who read it. Prayer does not replace study, and study does not replace prayer. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psalm 119:130).

Principle 2: Read in context

Every verse sits in a paragraph, a book, a covenant, and a history. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Ask:

Who wrote, and to whom?

When, and in what circumstances?

What is the passage’s place in the argument of the book?

What kind of writing is it?

Examples. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13) is not a promise of success in every ambition. Paul has just said he has learned to be content in want and in plenty (Philippians 4:11-12), so the verse is about contentment and endurance in every circumstance. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you… thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11) was written to the exiles in Babylon, assuring them of God’s plan after seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10), and it applies to us through the character of God. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock” (Revelation 3:20) is spoken to a church, Laodicea, that had shut Christ out, and it is an invitation to renewed fellowship as well as to first faith.

Principle 3: Take the plain meaning, and recognise the genre

The natural meaning of the words in their context is the starting point. Yet the Bible contains many kinds of writing: narrative history, law, poetry, proverbs, prophecy, parables, letters, and apocalyptic. A proverb states a general truth, not a promise without exception (Proverbs 22:6). Poetry uses images: “The LORD is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1) does not mean that God has a staff and sheep. Apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel and Revelation, uses symbols that the text itself often explains. Jesus’ parables make one main point. A narrative may record what happened without approving it. The right question is always: what did the author intend, and what did the first readers understand?

Principle 4: Let Scripture interpret Scripture

God’s Word is consistent, because it has one Author. “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isaiah 28:10). The clear passages interpret the obscure ones. No teaching should rest on a single obscure verse. The Westminster Confession says that “the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself” (Westminster Confession 1.9). The Bereans are praised because they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11), testing even apostolic preaching by the written Word.

Principle 5: Read Christ into the whole

“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). “Search the scriptures… they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). The Old Testament sacrifices, priesthood, kingship, and prophecy find their meaning in Christ (Hebrews 1–10). The Bible is not a collection of moral lessons; it is the story of redemption centred on Jesus. The question to ask of any passage is: how does this lead to Christ, and what does it show me about him?

Principle 6: Understand the progress of revelation and the covenants

God did not reveal everything at once. The Old Testament laws for Israel in ceremony, sacrifice, and civil life were a “schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Galatians 3:24); Christ is “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:4); and he came “not to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). The moral law, which reflects God’s character, still stands; the ceremonial shadows have found their fulfilment in Christ (Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 10:1). The reader must ask where a passage falls in the history of redemption.

Principle 7: Apply the Word to life

The goal of understanding is obedience. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). After finding the meaning for the original hearers, ask what the passage teaches about God, what it shows about people and sin, and how it should change belief, attitude, and action today.

Common mistakes

Proof-texting: lifting a verse out of context to support a pre-formed view.

Allegorizing everything, so that the text means whatever the reader wishes.

Ignoring genre, and reading poetry as legal code or prophecy as plain history.

Reading one’s own culture back into the text.

Elevating experience above Scripture. Spirit-filled Christians in particular must remember that every experience, prophecy, and teaching is to be tested by the written Word (1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 John 4:1; Acts 17:11). The Spirit never contradicts the Word he inspired.

A short history of interpretation

The apostles read the Old Testament as fulfilled in Christ. In the early centuries, Alexandrian teachers such as Origen leaned toward allegory, while the school of Antioch emphasised the historical and grammatical sense. Augustine gave the church a rule of faith and love as the test of right interpretation (Augustine, Doctr. chr. 1.36). In the Middle Ages, the “fourfold sense” (literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical) was common. The Reformers, including Luther and Calvin, restored the primacy of the plain, grammatical-historical sense and the principle that Scripture interprets itself, and the Protestant tradition has followed them (Bruce 1984).