NOTE This material is heavily based on ideas I learned from Dr. Gary Tuck in his hermeneutics class at Western Seminary. It has been one of my goals to communicate what I learned from Dr. Tuck with the aim of giving people tools to accurately interpret the Bible.
I add this note not so much out of obligation but rather in gratitude to Dr. Tuck for the opportunity to learn this and other concepts that have helped me become a better Bible interpreter.
Traditional Bible interpretation viewed the process of interpretation as starting with words, then grammatical relationships, then context and then perhaps culture or “historical context.” (See The Nelson Study Bible, Ed. ED Radmacher, Thomas Nelson, 1997, p. xiii.) With all due respect, we refer to this as “old-school” hermeneutics. (One writer even equates hermeneutics with word studies, saying, “It isn’t even sufficient to do endless word studies. That’s what we refer to as Hermeneutics.”)
The simple fact is that this view of interpretation fails to take into account the way meaning works.
Think of the word run. This word has, according to one dictionary, 114 different meanings including phrases such as “dog run” and so on. Another way to put it is that the word “run” in isolation has no definite meaning. Only by seeing the word in context are we able to pick out the difference between the meaning in “She has a run in her stocking” and “The Warriors finished the season with a great run of 14 straight wins.”
A “theorem” of biblical interpretation says the following:
Synthesis logically precedes analysis in the process of interpretation. The basic unit of meaning is the not the smallest part (sentence or word) but the largest whole, the whole piece of literature. That is, the starting point for interpretation is the big picture or synthesis. This gives us the context that determines meaning of particulars.
In other words, the proper way to do interpretation is to start with the big picture and work in to the details — those details gaining their meaning from one’s understanding of the big picture. We refer to “big picture” interpretation as Macro-interpretation and interpretation of details as Micro-interpretation. Note that both kinds of interpretation are necessary; however, Macro-interpretation logically precedes Micro-interpretation.
Another way of talking about this idea is to talk about the fundamental nature of context for establishing meaning. The problem is that everyone knows that you have to read the Bible “in context.” But this becomes a kind of catchphrase and is often done in a perfunctory manner.
In fact, context is not just a helpful added technique. One author said, “… context does not merely help us understand meaning—it virtually makes meaning.”
Examples abound, even in non-literary arenas. For example, a famous picture shows George Washington kneeling in the snow, his horse standing over him. Many have noted the detail with which the horse was painted, the artist even rendering the “steam” coming from the horse’s nostrils in the cold. Without the kneeling general, the painting would be about a horse. But the addition of Washington completely changes the meaning of the painting and even of the horse. The painting becomes about the faithfulness and perseverance of Washington in the midst of difficult conditions. The painting is not about the horse, even though the horse takes up more space in the painting than Washington.
In chess, one speaks of a “pawn structure” that would comprise a winning advantage in the “end game” but, as one writer said, “Before the end game the gods have placed the middle game.” The advantage of a pawn structure that would be winning with most of the pieces gone may be negated by tactical considerations with many pieces on the board. Thus the advantage of a particular pawn structure is determined by the context formed by the position as a whole.
A famous incident in WW II involved context. The message “Where is task force 34” had the words “the world wonders” appended because of a decoding error. This turned a simple request for information into what appeared to be a sarcastic rebuke, causing anger and indecision in its recipient. (The phrase “the world wonders” was a padding phrase added to make all messages the same length to make it harder for the Japanese to decode them. The communication operator erroneously failed to remove the phrase.)
These examples show how it is necessary, when understanding a text, to understand it in context.
An example of the way Macro-before-Micro interpretation can shed light on interpretation can be found in the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. The common view is that this is a story about … uh … David and Goliath. But in fact the story is actually about David and … Saul!
We recall that Saul was the ostensible king, but David had just been secretly anointed as God’s choice when he rejected Saul.
When Goliath came and challenged the Israelite army, the story says that “when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”
When David heard Goliath, by contrast, he said “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
We recall from 1 Samuel 8 that when the people asked for a king, one of the things they wanted was someone who would “go out before us and fight our battles.” While God said that he was that king, nevertheless he gave the people what they wanted by choosing a human king. But Saul, this first king, did not go and fight; instead he cowered in fear. David, the real king, went out and slew the giant.
Thus the story shows who the real king is. But beyond that the story has significance for us. Messiah, the true king, will slay our giants — sin and death. Christ, the real king, will fight the battles we cannot fight.
The moral of the story is that Bible understanding is cumulative. The more you know the Bible as a whole, the better you will understand the parts.
This should not lead us to despair, but to diligence. The Bible will continue to reward our attention. Even parts we have read many times will reveal a richness of meaning as we see them in fuller context.
But in order to do this you have to start somewhere. So read! Fall in love with the Bible — or rather, with the one who speaks through it. Because in the Bible are treasures God has destined us to receive. Its inexhaustible wealth is able to “make you wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”