Biblical Hermeneutics

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN
As an example. Genesis2:1 reads: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished.” It can
also be read as: “Thus the heavens and the earth were destroyed.”
While Jewish and Christian Biblical hermeneutics have some overlap and dialogue, they have
distinctly separate interpretative traditions.
Old Testment Canon is based on the direct revelation of God to the children of Israel in the
Mount of Sinai. Later He spoke through Prophets and in action through the history of Israel.
Each later messages are to tally with the direct revelation witnessed by large witnesses.
But in the New Testament Jesus, the Incarnation of God himself, the Word which became
Flesh and dwelt among us has spoken to us in more clearer ways within the culture of the
Jewish tradition. For three years and more Jesus gave the message and often its
iterpretation to large witnesses in four circles. The crowd, the 72, the 12 and the 3 also
indicating various levels of revelation of himself. The close three Jesus revealed in full at the
time of Transfiguration and to the twleve in the course of his ministry explained all.
In the New Testament the final authority is the Jesus and the Apostolic tradition in
hermeneutics.
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