Biblical Hermeneutics

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN
The First Mention Principle:
PRINCIPLE #6:
MENTION PRINCIPLES:
"God indicates in the first mention of a subject the truth with which that subject stands
connected in the mind of God."
The Law of First Mention may be said to be the principle that requires one to go to that portion of the
Scriptures where a doctrine is mentioned for the first time and to study the first occurrence of the same
in order to get the fundamental inherent meaning of that doctrine. From then on the doctrine may have
developed in more complex form to the present in historical development.
This principle goes with the next one:
The Progressive Mention Principle:
"God makes the revelation of any given truth increasingly clear as the word proceeds to its
consummation."
Example
To study the doctrine concerning "sacrifices".
When man first disobeyed God and tried to cover his nakedness with fig leaves the Lord gave
him a covering made from the skins of animals.
Why the skins of animals?
Why couldn't He have used another material?
No answer is given in Genesis.
Next we see the sacrifices of Cain and Abel in Gen 4. This concept is then progressively
mentioned till the supreme sacrifice of Jesus in Calvary. Paul picks this teaching in Hebrews
11 refers to this and proposes that animal sacrifices in the beginning of the history of man
were typical of the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree.
The Book of Genesis is the seed plot of every doctrine found in the Scriptures for every
doctrine is found there in simple form.
The Double Reference Principle
In this attempt is made to apply a given passage which was applied primarily to a historical
person near at hand to apply to another person at a different later time.
Example
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