Bible Interpretation, Student Workbook, SW05

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B I B L E I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

II. Step Two: Finding General Principles

A. Focus of the step: finding the central message, truth, command, or principle that teaches God’s truth and purpose for all people

1. Summarize what you believe the author is trying to say.

2. Generalizing is a biblical practice:

The legitimacy of such generalizing practices is affirmed repeatedly in the biblical text itself. Not only did God summarize His whole law in ten commandments (Exod. 20.1-17; Deut. 5.6-21), but He also gave seven other summaries of the law as well. Psalm 15 preserves God’s law in eleven principles, Isa. 33.15 sets it forth in six commands; Mic. 6.8 encapsulates it in three commands, Isa. 56.1 further reduces it to two commands; and Amos 5.4; Hab. 2.4, and Lev. 19.2 each summarize the whole law in one general statement. Jesus Himself continued this same tradition by summarizing the whole law in two principles: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your mind. . . .And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

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~ Walter C. Kaiser. An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics . p. 276.

B. Definition of a biblical principle

1. Simple declarative sentence statement (or proverbial saying) ( The moral of the story in a fable is the principle .)

2. That expresses a clear truth found within a Bible passage

3. Supported throughout the entire Bible