 Okay, good morning everyone. Good to be back with you all in person. How has it been the last few weeks with online? Is it okay here? Yeah, okay. Good morning to all of you online as well. Let's just begin with a word of prayer. Would anyone be willing to open us in prayer please? Anyone in person, even online? As we have carried out the first study, help us to receive your words of Lord. Lord, you guide us through all that day so that we'll be able to receive all your words that you're going to reveal us through the mamlu. Absolutely, everyone into your hand. In Jesus they might pray. Amen. Thank you. So, last week we finished our book, God's Word, the Miracle Seed. So this week we go into your textbook notes and start talking about interpretation. So God's Word, the Miracle Seed, the main goal of us reading that book was to look at the importance of God's Word, first of all, but for us personally. So before we start to talk about why it's important to interpret Scripture for others, we first want to recognize the importance of Scripture and how we can personally grow by meditating on the Word of God. So from here we now move into interpreting Scripture. That is, how do we look at a scriptural text? How do we understand the meaning of that text correctly and accurately so that when we are teaching others, we are teaching what is right. We're not misinterpreting Scripture and we're not teaching others wrong meaning of what is in the Word of God. So before we begin, we'll just look at a few words that are used quite popularly in talking about Scripture, how people study Scripture, how Scripture is taught. These are just different ways in which, so this is like formal terminology. We will especially hear it in academic kind of settings. The first is hermeneutics, which is what we are doing here, interpreting Scripture. So we look at what are some of the principles of looking at a biblical text and understanding its meaning. So the science and art or looking at some basic rules for how do we understand the meaning of a text. That's hermeneutics. Exegesis is where we look at the original language especially. So exegesis is where we go into the Hebrew and Greek of the text. We also look at the context, the historical context as well, but mainly it's looking at the literary context. So understanding it in the original languages and then understanding the meaning of Scripture. So that would be a much more in-depth study of the Scriptures also requiring knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. Exposition is when we are explaining it to others, especially in the form of teaching or teaching, where we understand the meaning of a passage and then we are communicating it with others. So that is exposition. Then hermeneutics and preaching, so this is where we're doing the same thing. We're both understanding the meaning of the Scripture, but we're also then putting it in a way that is relevant to the hearers. So for example, if we are taking Matthew 633, seek first the kingdom of God. So I can preach a sermon on it, but based on my audience, I can talk about the meaning of the text. I can say, what does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of God? How can we seek the kingdom of God? All of these things is what I'm preaching in my sermon. But then I also look at the audience that I'm preaching to. So if I'm preaching here to all of you, what are the contexts that you are in? What are the ways in which you can be seeking the kingdom? How can you put God's kingdom first in your studies, in how you're living your daily lives here while you're in Bible college? But if I'm talking to maybe someone who's working, how can they take this passage and stop thinking about all of the financial constraints that they have? So where work has become their means of supporting their family, whether if that's taken over their way of living and they've given a second seat to God, to the things of God. Then preaching about, okay, how do we make sure that we first seek God before we put our jobs and all of these financial things that burdens that you're carrying? So depending on their marital status, depending on their work status, depending on whether it's a rural or an urban setting, so if they're in a city or a town or a village, we preach based on the context. So relevance to the people who are hearing. So that's the difference between preaching and exposition. Exposition is just explaining the meaning of the text to somebody. But in a preaching situation, we'll also make it relevant for the specific hearers that we are preaching to. And then teaching is the same thing where we are explaining it. But when we're teaching, we follow this kind of format. It's different from a sermon where there's much more talking from the pulpit and everyone's listening. But here we want to hear from the students. We want it to be a discussion and we want to be learning together. So are all of those terms clear? Any questions? Any of the terms? The last, the teaching? Okay, so teaching is just, we're doing the same thing, the communicating the same content. But like how in a preaching setting, if you're preaching to an audience, it's one way, right? The preacher is in front of you and the preacher speaks throughout. And they're preaching more, say it's more like a speech. But in a teaching setting, it's where we are explaining we're going more in-depth into the topic. We may have like a class discussion, all of those things. So there's opportunity for discussion between those who are hearing and the person who is teaching. In preaching, it's a one-way communication where someone is standing in front and doing all the talking and the other people are listening. And it's much more focused on your ability to communicate in a way that is easy. I think you have to have some skills where people can listen to what you're saying. And it's presented in a way that is skillful. It's presented in a way that is logical, all of those things. So a sermon is different from a class, right? When we're sitting in class, how is a Sunday sermon different from us sitting in class here at Bible College? It's more interactive. So it's much more like we're both listening to each other, we're both talking to each other. Whereas preaching is just the person who is giving us a sermon, who's talking and everyone else is listening. Is that clear? So let's go on. Any other questions from those online? Okay, we can go on. This is also in your textbook, so you all can read it there as well. So we look at why do we need to interpret scripture? We look at a few examples from the Bible itself. Let's open to these passages, Acts 8, 27 to 35. Someone can read that for us, please. Can I read, Sister? Yes, sure. Go ahead. Acts 8, 27 to 35. So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a unit of great authority under Candles, the queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all the treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and sitting in a chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I, unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before his skewerer in silent. So he opened not his mouth in his humiliation. He just was taken away and who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. So the unit answered Philip and said, I ask you of whom does the prophet say this of himself or some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture, pray Jesus to him. Thank you. So we see in scripture itself that there was this process of interpreting scripture. It's not something that we've invented now, right? So here in this passage, the key question is in verse 31. How can I understand unless someone explains it to me? So of course we have the Holy Spirit and we can read passages of scripture and receive revelation from scripture by ourselves. But somebody who has studied scripture for longer than us, who knows the whole of scripture, will always be able to contribute more to our understanding of scripture. So that is where the role of interpretation comes in. Where we study it and then we explain that to others. Or somebody else is studying it and they are explaining that to us. It's just an additional way of studying the scriptures. This doesn't mean that we stop studying it for ourselves. So we look more at how do we follow the example of the Berian Christians, right? When Paul was teaching them, they went back and looked at the scriptures for themselves. So having somebody who is teaching us, who is interpreting, who is helping us understand things deeper than we understand, but also doing our own examination of scripture and studying it for ourselves as well, to check whatever is being taught, making sure that it's in line with the word. Let's also look at Nehemiah 8 verses 1-8, please. Nehemiah 8 verse 1, now all the people gather together as one man. In the open square that was in front of the water gate, and they told Ezra of the sky to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of man and woman and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month, then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the water gate from morning until midday before the man and woman and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose. And beside him at his right hand stood Matthew, Shema, Anaya, Ujriah, Hikia and Messiah. And his left hand, Pedia, Messiah, Malkaja, Fushum, Ashbadanah, Zakaria and Mesulam. Verse 5, and Ezra opened the book in the side of all the people for he was standing above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up. Verse 6, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, then all people answered, Amen, Amen. While lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Verse 7, also Jeshua, Bani, Sherabia, Zamin, Aqab, Shabetha, Bodhija, Messiah, Kelita, Azreo, Josbath, Hanan, Pelia and the Levites helped the people to understand the law and the people stood in their place. Verse 8, so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. Thank you. So we see here in verse 8 that the Levites are making clear the meaning of what is being read from the book of the law. So Ezra is the scribe, he's reading the law and then there's another group of people who are explaining, helping the people understand the meaning of what is being read. So the Hebrew word here is paras, it means to make distinct or to interpret. So to make clear the meaning of what is being read. So we see both in the Old Testament and the New Testament is practice of interpretation that was taking place with the scriptures so that people could understand what was being taught. So why is interpretation important? Any thoughts on why we need to interpret scripture? So something is not like a passage of scripture is not misunderstood or misinterpreted. And what is the danger of misinterpretation? So having wrong beliefs or wrong understanding of whatever it is, whether it is who God is or what God wants from us. So we look here at interpretation to application. So when we're interpreting scripture, we're reading it and then we understand the meaning and based on what we understand, we live a certain way. So we move from understanding to applying it to our lives. So if we don't understand the scripture correctly, then how we apply it to our lives will also be incorrect. So we want to make sure that we rightly understand, we rightly apply it, but we also rightly communicate it to others so that we're not leading a whole other group of people astray. So we're looking at interpreting scripture mainly from the perspective of when we are teaching others. Whatever, if we understand it incorrectly, then what we teach others will be incorrect. And then there's a whole other group of people who has a wrong understanding of what the Bible has said. So let's take an example from scripture itself of something that can be misinterpreted. There is the example in the book of Ruth where when somebody came into agreement with another person, there was a practice of taking a person's shoe off. So we can see that in Ruth chapter 4. So we read Ruth chapter 4 verse 7. Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel. So we can see here in scripture that they are talking about how an agreement was made and the agreement was in those times in Israel. This is how it was done. Now if we take this scripture and we say we have to also follow this and every time we are agreeing with someone on something, one of us has to take off our shoe and give it to the other person. And we all start to follow that. What is going to happen? We will all be walking around with only one shoe. You won't have any pair of shoes. So understanding here when we are looking at Ruth chapter 7, we look at this is for this time in that culture. All of that is part of interpretation. Recognizing this is not something that we have to follow today. We understand the concept of coming into agreement with someone of being true to the agreement of making sure that we do our side of whatever we have agreed to all of those things. But we don't have to take that practice and follow it exactly. So that's where interpretation comes in. And being able to separate what is important, what is still to be followed today, what is a cultural practice, what is a principle that we can learn from the scripture and how can we apply that principle in our lives today. So let's continue. What are some challenges as we interpret the Bible? So we look at this, but what are some challenges you all have faced when you are interpreting scripture, when you are reading the Bible? What are some things you found difficult in understanding a passage personally as you personally read the Bible? I think for me, one of the main things is the context. Because when we read, I mean, you can read verses, you get so many things on, say, someone talking about a topic and giving us a word of scripture, but then sometimes it can be totally taken out of context. And when you read it yourself, unless you read the whole chapter, it can be challenging. Because when you read the whole chapter and you do a bit of study on it, then it gives you a completely different meaning. Thank you. So being able to take a passage within the context of the larger book that it's in or taking a verse within the context of a chapter. So if you just take a verse by itself, you may not understand the meaning of it until you read the verses before it. The verses after it and understand why is this particular command given or why is this teaching given any other challenges that you'll have faced as you read scripture in understanding what it's talking about. Okay, so the relevance to so being able to take that and understand what is the principle in it and how can I apply this to my life. So that is a challenge, because sometimes it may seem that it's just some information that has no, no relevance, no connection to your daily life, what your spiritual life. Okay. Matthew, you have a lot of genealogy. So initial days, it was like, you know, you're just getting just like, okay, part of scripture you try to read through. But there is a significance attached to that. So we over read that and, you know, we tend to ignore so many names and what's the point of reading who we got home, who we got home. But later on the years you understand each name had a meaning, had a purpose, had a significance. And the order of that thing also forms meaning in itself. Yeah. So understanding the more we grow in our understanding of scripture, there are certain things, especially when we're reading it initially. So I'll give the example of the genealogy. We're reading the genealogy, and it's just a list of names. And you think, what is the point of this? I'm just going to skip this and go to where the story actually begins. So understanding that even in those things, there was so much purpose with which those names were listed. There's intention behind how it's listed, who is listed, all of those things. So without having the tools to look at why have they named certain people here, why have they excluded certain people or how have they chosen to list this genealogy. All of those things can contribute to a better and richer and fuller understanding of the Bible. Okay, thank you. So here we have a list of a few challenges as we interpret scripture. I'm sure we've all experienced this at one point or another. One is a spiritual gap. So when we look at the Bible, we see over time that truth was revealed over time. Job is the earliest book in the Bible. There is no dating for the book of Job, but it is believed to be the earliest book. And then the latest book that's written is the book of Revelation, which is in the 90s AD. So we have these books of the Bible and from Job to Revelation, there is so much about God that we learn along the way. So if Job is the first book and Job talks about suffering and sickness, we won't base our understanding of suffering and sickness on the book of Job. Because we have from Job to the covenant with the Israelites, to the coming of Jesus, to Jesus' ministry, Jesus' death and resurrection, Jesus' victory over sin, over death, over sickness. And then we come to the book of Revelation, which is the hope of eternity with God in His presence, without sickness, without death. So we have all of this Revelation and so when we understand sickness, we should be looking at that final understanding. Not look at the book of Job and base our understanding on that first initial revelation because there's so much that is still to be revealed about God. So when we look at any topic like that, we need to look at when was this taught in the timeline of the Bible, right? So if we're looking at the prophets, we know in the prophets that they're talking about the Messiah coming. They are foreseeing that Israel will be restored, but they still don't know about who is the Messiah, when is He going to come? They don't know full details, they know whatever the Holy Spirit had inspired them to write at that time. But we know from the New Testament, Jesus came, we know. So when we are studying any passage, understand where it is in the timeline of the Bible, what was their understanding of that topic and what do we know beyond that time? And so we interpret everything in taking into account the whole of Scripture, not only what that passage is talking about. Okay, does that make sense? Yeah. So let's just look at Luke 1248 and Mark 425. Luke 1248, but he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with few for everyone to whom much is given from him much will be required and to whom much has been committed of him they will ask more. Thank you. And Mark 425 please. Yeah, Mark 425 for whoever has to him more will be given, but whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. So both these passages are talking about how people, the amount of revelation that people have, right? So Luke 1248 based on how much you know is how much you will be judged. And Mark 425 is saying based on your willingness to learn to receive revelation more will be given or even the little that you have will be taken away if you're not willing to learn more to understand more of who God is. So we have this gift of having this whole revelation of scripture. And so our responsibility is then to fully take that revelation. We can't operate as people who who were in the Old Testament times. Okay, because we have the New Testament. So we are responsible to have a full understanding or to seek a greater understanding from the whole of scripture and to live in accordance with all of scripture's teaching. Another challenge in biblical interpretation is the time gap. So here we have listed a few dates, right? The Pentateuch. So if Job came before the Pentateuch, the Pentateuch was written in 1400 BC. So 1400 years before Jesus came. And now we are 2,024 years or 2020 years past Jesus's birth. So about 3,400 years ago was when Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Job was even before that. Then the book of Revelation is written in 90 AD. So about 1900 years from 2024. And we have the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures in 200 BC. So all of these things were done like centuries, millenniums ago, right? There's a huge gap in their way of communicating in the culture in so many things. And even within the Bible from 3,400 years ago to 1900 years ago. That is the span of the scriptures writing from Genesis to Revelation. So to understand that time has also progressed in the Bible. And we need to understand what we are reading, the book that we are reading in the time that it was written. We can't interpret the book of Mark the same way we would interpret Isaiah. Because Isaiah was written at a completely different time and Mark was written at a completely different time. We'll also look at the cultural gap, right? So time, culture, all of those things play a role. Let's look at the geographical gap. So the Bible is written in so many different places like the people of God moved from one place to another. Starting with the Garden of Eden and then Abraham being led out to go to the Promised Land. Geography is important in the Bible, right? Why do you all think it's important? Do you think it's important at all? Yes? Why do you think it's important? So one reason that I can think of is that God promised a specific piece of land to the people of Israel. Okay, God himself chose a specific geography for where he would reveal himself, where he would place his people. And it was a strategic kind of place because of where Israel is located. It's right in the center and there were so many people coming in from so many different places. Which is why that piece of land is such a central land to even conflict, right? There's so much fighting over that land because it's right in the middle of so many big nations. And so when we look at geography, we look at God himself placing an importance on a specific location. So the Garden of Eden when we read in Genesis, there's a description of the geography there where exactly the Garden of Eden was. And then when God leads Abraham out, he takes him to this land. He says, this is the land I'm going to give to your descendants. And the focus is always on the people going back to that land. So even when they go into exile, God's promise of them returning. The place where the temple is established is important being in Jerusalem. So there is an understanding of those geographies that helps us to better understand what was happening in the Bible. So if we read about Jesus traveling in Galilee, where was Galilee? What was that place like? There was a sea there. So that's why he was able to access so many fishermen. That's why he was able to have so many disciples who were fishermen. So understanding the places he was in, the places he was ministering in, what was the culture in that place? It's important, right? So when we are in Bangalore, the culture here is completely different from, say, another part of India. Being in India is so different from being in another part of the world. Geography helps us understand a lot of why we do the things we do, the way we do certain things. All of those things will impact our understanding of Scripture. And so that's why we look at maps when we are looking at the Scripture passage and it mentions a place. It's helpful to look at a map and find where it was on the map. And who were the people there who were living in that place? What were they like? What was the culture there? All of those things. Also one additional point with the time gap. Why it's important to understand the time is also based on the time there was something happening in history, in larger history. There was something happening historically for the people of God and there was something happening historically for the world at large as well. But when we say if we look at the book of Corinthians, Paul is writing to his audience at a specific time. And that time depends on what situation were they facing, what was going on in the church at that time. And why did he write the things he wrote? If we don't look at the time, then we don't understand why is he saying women can do certain things, women shouldn't do certain things. Or if he is giving instructions on marriage and singleness, why is he saying that? If we understand that there was something going on in the church at this time, this was a question that the church had about marriage. So Paul's teaching is a response to their question on marriage. That's where time also comes in. So there's the timeline of scripture and then there's the specific time in which that book was written relevant to what was happening with the group of people that it was written to. Okay, so cultural gap. Like we looked at that example in Ruth. So understanding that this is a cultural practice. This is not something for us to follow exactly as it's written in the Bible. But we'll take what the principle is from this passage and we'll apply it in a way that is relevant to our culture today. Okay, so we understand the principle and make applications culturally. So any thoughts on why this is important? Why is cultural translation important? What's that? It's adaptable to a particular section of people. It's better adaptable, yes. So one of the challenges we face in India is that people view Christianity as a Western religion. Why do you all think that is? Because it was brought to India by the Western civilization like the Portuguese and the British. Yes, so it was brought by people who were outside of India and a lot of people from the West. But we know that Christianity came to India right from Jesus' disciples, right? But a lot of what we are doing in the church today is so influenced by the Western church. And it's so foreign to Indian culture, right? So when a lot of people look at what we're doing, they don't understand what we're doing. And they look at it as something that is foreign. Whereas if we are able to take the principles of worship, the principles of how do we as a community gather and honour Jesus in our midst and then take that and put it in a way that is culturally relevant. So how do people worship in the setting? We want to take it to say we're going to a village. We can't go and sing English songs. We can't take an electric guitar and have a drum kit. It just won't make any sense to them what we're doing. So we understand how do they worship there. And then we take the truth of Jesus and we sing it in a way that they understand worship. So that's just one example, but so many things like that. So we'll be talking also about translation of the Bible a little later. But this is one thing that I was reading about is where in scripture it says, Behold the Lamb of God. Missionaries have actually translated that in cultures where they have no exposure to sheep. They don't understand what that means to be a lamb. What it meant something in the Jewish culture, right? There were shepherds and they looked after sheep and there was relevance to their culture. They understood what it meant to be a shepherd. How do you take care of sheep? What does sheep do? Why are sheep important? They were using sheep in their sacrifices at the temple, all of these things. They were using lambs at their sacrifice in the temple. So when John is talking about Jesus the Lamb of God, it immediately connects with the people there. But when missionaries were taking it to, I can read more and tell you where exactly it was, but as they were taking it to another culture where sheep were not something that they had in their country, but the same things were being done with pigs. So they had to, they replaced it to say the pig. To help them understand that what the pig meant in their culture is what the lamb meant to the Jews. So that is where cultural translation is important. Where we understand what did this mean to the Jews and what does it mean to the people we are ministering to? And how can we rightly communicate what is in Scripture to them so that they understand the significance of it? Okay, we have a few more minutes. We'll finish this. So language gap. We know that the Bible is written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Aramaic is just a few parts of the Bible are written in Aramaic. Majority is Hebrew and Greek. But translation, like I was just giving this example, translation is a problem. There are challenges to translation because language is related to culture. So the words we use, the way we communicate is not just, there's just not literal translations for every word into another language. So we have to take into context the culture. We have to take into context saying so every culture has its own idioms. So understanding what did this mean? So sometimes in the Bible, there'll be translations that it's not very clear what the meaning of this saying is. They've given their best translation, but they are also explaining that there is some challenge in this translation because it was a Hebrew saying or it was something that is not fully understood by us today. So we have those kinds of challenges where there may not be an exact word. There may be a saying that is there that we'll have to figure out how to communicate the same kind of saying in our setting, in English or in Hindi or in whichever language we're translating to. And then also there's the challenge of is it communicating the same meaning, the same word that is used. There are so many sermons on how Greek has so many words on love. English has one word for love and Greek has multiple words that all have different meanings. So when we're translating from that Greek version to English, they're only using the word love, love, love, love, love. But what is used in the original language is different. And so there's that challenge also of trying to grasp the full meaning of the word when we're translating to a different language. Okay, so we'll stop here. We'll continue when we come back after our break.