Hermeneutics of Scripture

[UnworthyApostle]

I just wanted to start a post where people can post how they like to read the Word of God.

I myself use a 4 point rule

-Literal Words of a given passage-First I look at what the words say and draw a conclusion on this level of intepretation.

-Cultural and Historical Conext-Secondly, I look at the book as a historical document and draw information on the historical context, grammar/language etc.

-Metaphorical and symbolic meaning- Third, I look for the deeper and more spiritual meaning of a text due tot e divine Word speaking to beleivers of all generations in various ways."…the NT writers’ exegesis of OT passages largely follows contemporary Jewish methods. Since these methods go beyond strictly grammatical-historical exegesis."BiblicalStudies.org.uk: Can We Reproduce The Exegesis Of The New Testament? Why Are We Still Asking? by Scott A. Swanson

-The traditional intepretation of the church-Lastly, I find traditonal commentary by the fathers of the church and use their teachings to refine my own.

I believe this way of reading the bible provides a complete and all encompassing view of the Word. Now, I know it is not the only way, and I would love to hear other people’s ideas! God Bless

 

[Crumpy]

The following link is a small book that was published by the Pontifical Biblical Commission back in 1993 or so.

ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PBCINTER.HTM

As long as it is, it doesn’t go into the actual science of bible study as presented by the Church.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the discussion starts around paragraph 115, which starts off this way:

The senses of Scripture
115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.

From the earlier reference, the Pontifical Biblical Commission says that no single approach to analyzing scripture has yet proven to be sufficient, as helpful as the different methods are: historical critical, patristic, literary, feminist, psychological, etc. They all have potential for helping to understand scripture but all have limitations.

For the average person, it recommends reading a bible alongside a commentary, to help understand what’s going on – and of course, there’s lot of translations of the bible and lots of commentaries. This website is loaded with lots of discussion of that.

The OP seems to have an academic perspective and is rather organized. That’s good.

Last year and this, I have been reading Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures.

I can’t close without recommending another important document

ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PBCJWSCR.HTM

Again from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, it is a discussion of the Jewish People and their Scriptures in the Christian Bible. This provides a discussion of the themes in each part of the Bible and how the Catholic Church views these. It is just an introduction to the subject, but an interesting and important one.