Cheryl

Don,

You said:

I used to think there was ONE RIGHT WAY to interpret each verse in the Bible, but more and more I see there are “clouds” of various ways to understand various verses and a believer is to give grace to another with both are in the cloud but not the same.

I believe each verse has been inspired to have the intention of the original author (the Holy Spirit).  I also believe that we may understand that meaning through the help of the Holy Spirit and a lot of work on our part to rightly divide the word of truth.  I also believe that we should have patience with each other as we are all on that journey to understand God’s word exactly as he inspired it.

What I don’t believe is that we have an option for a private interpretation.  I believe that the scripture was meant to be understood within its inspired context, within the boundaries of the inspired words and the inspired grammar and then within the complete context of the entire bible.  Any interpretation that contradicts in any way these parameters needs to be rethought in my opinion.

Today what is popular is people sitting around asking what a verse means to them and everyone shares something different.  My focus is first on working hard to understand why the verse was inspired in the place it was and within the context it belongs.  Once all the evidence is in and I can rule out what the verse cannot mean, it becomes much clearer what the passage actually was written to mean.  Then I can take the next step and apply it to myself and ask what it means to me.  If we start with the personal without first building the foundation of the meaning within the context, we may go way off base.

When I look at giving leeway for other options I always ask for evidence within the passage.  Someone could say that Eve was open to believe the serpent because she had a previous relationship with him and he was a trusted friend.  They could also say that the serpent had been right in the past about things that Adam had been wrong about so Adam did not feel free to contradict the serpent because he was sure his wife would believe the serpent over him.

These are all speculations and we could say that they are “possible”.  However true possibility must come with some kind of evidence.  What is the evidence in the passage that would seek to prove the speculation as a valid option?  If there is no evidence, then I would move on.

It isn’t that I am such a hard nut to crack but I want evidence so that I can verify the theory.  When I say that I believe the passage shows that God spoke to Eve about the prohibition, I provide as evidence:

1.  God spoke to Eve about what she could eat.  Genesis 1:29
2.  In the permission to eat, there is a blanket permission given that must make the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to have no seed bearing fruit.  This implies a prohibition of that tree.
3.  Eve said “God said…”

Now I think these three strains of reasoning and this evidence is more than enough to make my “theory” a viable one that is based on the text itself instead of mere speculation.

I am happy to admit that there are other options if I can see evidence from the passage.  I have yet to see any evidence that Eve was mistaken.  If there is evidence that I have missed, I am always open to reviewing the evidence.  I just am not very open to mere speculation.

An example of my openness is regarding “a woman” in 1 Timothy 2:12.  Here I can see that “a woman” can mean all women in general.  I do not believe this is what it means in the passage because of the specific wording and grammar of 1 Timothy 2:14, 15, however I can see why people can believe it is a prohibition regarding all women.  While I may push them to consider things that they have never thought of before that would disallow “a woman” to be all women in general, I cannot say that their interpretation has no evidence at all.

I will speak more about this in my next post as this will be the theme of my post.