Biblical Hermeneutics

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN
that it cannot be understood apart from complex academic analysis as is typical in the
historical-critical method of interpretation.
Biblical literalists believe that, unless a passage is clearly intended as allegory, poetry, or
some other genre, the Bible should be interpreted as literal statements by the author. Who
may appropriately decide when a passage is allegorical or literal, however, is not defined.
Fundamentalists typically treat as simple history, according to its plain sense, such passages
as the Genesis account of creation, the deluge and Noah's ark, and the unnaturally long lifespans
of the patriarchs given in genealogies of Genesis, as well as the strict historicity of the
narrative accounts of Ancient Israel, the supernatural interventions of God in history, and
Jesus' miracles. Literalism does not question that parables, metaphors and allegory exist in
the Bible, but rather relies on contextual interpretations based on the author's intention.
As a part of Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, conservative Christian scholarship
affirms the following:
"WE AFFIRM the necessity of interpreting the Bible according to its literal, or normal, sense.
The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer
expressed. Interpretation according to the literal sense will take account of all figures of
speech and literary forms found in the text. WE DENY the legitimacy of any approach to
Scripture that attributes to it meaning which the literal sense does not support."
Noted inerrantist Norman Geisler in his commentary on the Chicago Statement on Biblical
Hermeneutics states:
"The literal sense of Scripture is strongly affirmed here. To be sure the English word literal
carries some problematic connotations with it. Hence the words normal and grammaticalhistorical
are used to explain what is meant. The literal sense is also designated by the more
descriptive title grammatical-historical sense. This means the correct interpretation is the one
which discovers the meaning of the text in its grammatical forms and in the historical,
cultural context in which the text is expressed."
The Westminster Confession of Faith, written in 1647, offers what may be taken as a
"doctrinal statement" concerning the perspicuity of Scripture:
"All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those
things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly
propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but
the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient
understanding of them."
Steve Falkenberg, professor of religious psychology at Eastern Kentucky University,
observes:
"I've never met anyone who actually believes the Bible is literally true. I know a bunch of
people who say they believe the Bible is literally true but nobody is actually a literalist. Taken
literally, the Bible says the earth is flat and sitting on pillars and cannot move (Ps 93:1, Ps
96:10, 1 Sam 2:8, Job 9:6). It says that great sea monsters are set to guard the edge of the
sea (Job 41, Ps 104:26)."
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