Basic Hermeneutics: Mining God's Treasures

The title Basic Hermeneutics: Mining God's Treasures, reflects our conviction that the Word of God is a spiritual repository of precious metals and gems. God gave us his Word as a gift to reveal himself to us and to guide us through life in his world. However, although the Scriptures were written for us, they were not written to us. They were written as God's messages to his people in the past. If we are to mine those treasures without damaging them, we need to learn to ‘rightly handle the word of truth’ (2 Tim. 2:15). This course is all about how to do it.

We hope you will develop two things through this course:

1: The first is a skill—interpreting the Word of God soundly. You will understand the proper goal of interpretation. You will learn the three basic steps that you should follow every time you study a passage. You will learn seven golden rules for using various levels of context well. In short, you will acquire foundational knowledge for interpreting the Bible soundly.

2: The second is an attitude—seeing the value and importance of using sound principles of interpretation when studying or teaching God's Word. You should be concerned when you hear well-intentioned believers disregarding these principles and outraged when you see unscrupulous false teachers completely disregarding them. You should commit yourself before God to rightly handle the Word of truth for the rest of your life and ministry.

Learning Objectives

1: Apply sound principles of interpretation to handle the Word of God responsibly.

2: Appreciate the importance of using sound principles of Bible interpretation in your life and ministry.

Course Outline

1: The Basics of Hermeneutics

2: The Steps in Interpretation

3: The Seven Levels of Context