What interests you in interpreting the difficult passages in the Bible?

Answer 1

If you take The Bible literally and use the Bible to interpret the Bible, ask the standard "W" questions [the Who, What, Where, When, Why], and use common sense, most difficult passages are not that hard to work out.

The important thing is not to take it figuratively [yes, I know there are figures of speech in the Bible - use common sense!] because if interpreted figuratively different people can interpret it differently to make it mean whatever they want it to mean.

Different Bible translations can help, and perhaps one of the best for finding the meaning and intent is the "NET" Bible as it has copious footnotes by scholars and translators going right back to the original Greek and Hebrew to determine the meaning for every verse . This means there is no need for the average person to be a Greek scholar or to be frightened of reaching different conclusions than these various experts.

Answer 2

When I see a difficult passage in the Bible, I try to establish what the author meant, in the context of his own times. I do not try to add my own meaning to a passage, interpreting it beyond what the author or his sources originally meant or the context from which the passage is derived. But what really interests me is when some people interpret passages out of context and often place prophetic meanings on the passage.

Burton L. Mack (Who Wrote the New Testament) says that at first the study of a text may not seem to support the answer one hopes to find in the Bible, but with a little ingenuity one can set up the comparison again with other emphases and make the answer come out right. He says this is a trick that Mack sees happen all the time, in the classrooms of the School of Theology at Claremont.